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jp0010583

2018/12/25

Sixth case of swine fever infection found at central Japan farm

GIFU - Japan’s swine fever epidemic is spreading further with a sixth case identified Tuesday in the central part of the country, leading to the first dispatch of Ground Self-Defense Force troops and the launch of a crisis control unit by the central government. After tests confirmed the latest case of the contagious disease at a pig farm in Seki, Gifu Prefecture, the local government began culling 7,547 pigs. About 1,600 GSDF troops dispatched at the request of Gifu Gov. Hajime Furuta will bury the culled animals. Swine fever, which has a high fatality rate, was detected at a farm in the city of Gifu in September for the first time since 1992, and has been found in wild boars in both Gifu and Aichi prefectures. It does not affect humans even if an infected animal is consumed. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the central and local governments “have been making all-out efforts to prevent the infections from spreading.” Three farms with a total of 1,800 pigs located within 10 kilometers of the affected farm in Seki were banned from shipping their pigs. Meat processing facilities in the city also halted operations. At the farm hit by the latest outbreak, Gifu government officials in white protective gear were seen digging holes to bury carcasses, and disinfecting themselves around pigpens. A pig showing signs of infection was found in a test prior to shipment Sunday at the farm, and together with a second tested positive on Tuesday, according to the Gifu government. In Gifu, which kept around 106,000 pigs at 40 farms and research institutions as of Feb. 1 this year, a series of swine fever infections have been reported including at public facilities. “We don’t know what to do until the cause of the outbreak is identified,” a member of a local pig farmers’ association said. The Gifu Prefectural Assembly has adopted a statement calling on the central government to study vaccinating pigs against the disease. But the farm ministry remains reluctant because it would affect the country’s pork exports. The association member urged the ministry to change its stance, saying local pig farmers are “strongly demanding” vaccination. As wild boars are suspected to be the source of infection, Masuo Sueyoshi, head of the University of Miyazaki’s Division of Prevention and Control for Animal Diseases, said control of such animals should be tightened. “In addition to trapping, steps should be taken such as placing food containing vaccines along trails” frequented by wild boars, he said. Prior to this year’s outbreak, Japan had only seen swine fever in 1992 when five pigs were infected. The government had declared the virus eradicated in 2007.

health;animals;diseases

jp0010584

2018/12/25

Japanese study suggests genetic screening can help reduce miscarriages

Clinical studies on pre-implantation genetic screening, or PGS, of eggs fertilized in vitro has suggested that the screening can reduce the miscarriage rate, the Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology said. But the rate of childbirth may remain unchanged after PGS, according to the society. The findings were unveiled in an interim report on the clinical research by Akira Kuwahara, associate professor of Tokushima University, at a symposium in Tokyo last week. The research was conducted on 85 women aged between 35 and 42 who have experienced unsuccessful in vitro fertilization three times or more or miscarriages twice or more. After in vitro fertilization, their fertilized eggs were checked for chromosomal abnormalities. Kuwahara reported on 77 women for whom research data had been compiled. Of 38 women who had fertilized eggs with no abnormalities transplanted into the womb, 70 percent became pregnant while 10 percent experienced a miscarriage. Kuwahara reported that PGS can reduce miscarriages, with the miscarriage rate for conventional in vitro fertilization estimated at 20 to 30 percent. On the other hand, half of the 77 women were unable to receive a transplant due to the lack of healthy fertilized eggs. The pregnancy rate of all 77 women stood at 35 percent, little changed from that for conventional in vitro fertilization, according to Kuwahara. None has given birth to a baby and the birthrate may not be higher than for conventional in vitro fertilization, he said. The society plans to compile a final report after collecting data on women who undergo in vitro fertilization without PGS under the same conditions. Testing of fertilized eggs has been criticized for the way it selectively sorts them into viable and nonviable categories. The society, therefore, has banned broad-based PGS, while allowing testing only for severe genetic illnesses. The society, which announced the start of clinical research on PGS in February 2017, is planning to continue the study.

pregnancy;prenatal screening;miscarriages

jp0010585

2018/12/25

80% of state bodies fail to meet disabled employee target

The number of disabled employees at 35 of the 43 state institutions stood below the level required by law as of June 1 this year, the welfare ministry said Tuesday. The actual hiring rate for people with disabilities stood at 1.22 percent, falling short of the statutory target of 2.5 percent. Of the total, 28 of 34 central government ministries and agencies failed to reach the statutory hiring rate. State institutions were found to have a shortage of nearly 4,300 employees with disabilities in total. The National Tax Agency alone was more than 1,000 workers short of the required level. Among municipalities, the number of disabled workers was insufficient in 40 percent of all prefectures and 30 percent of cities, towns and villages. The actual hiring rate stood at 2.44 percent for prefectures and 2.38 percent for cities, towns and villages. The employment situation for disabled people at private companies, which is usually released at the same time as that of state institutions, will be announced in March due to a delay in conducting the tally, the ministry said. In August it came to light that central government ministries and agencies had substantially padded the number of disabled people reported as among their staff. The central government will hold its first-ever unified exam for disabled people in February, to boost hiring. Ministries and agencies also plan to move forward individually with recruiting activities, aiming to hire more than 4,000 people with disabilities by the end of next year.

jobs;disability;local government;bureaucracy

jp0010586

2018/12/25

Government approves measures it says will make life easier for foreign workers under new blue-collar visas

As it looks to bring a massive number of foreign blue-collar workers into the country from April, the Cabinet on Tuesday adopted a package of policy measures that it says will provide greater support for those hoping to benefit from the new visa categories. The 126 measures, backed by a collective budget of ¥22.4 billion for the next fiscal year, are supplementary to the immigration control law that was revised earlier this month. The measures include the establishment of about 100 consultation centers nationwide offering support in 11 languages: Japanese, English, Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Spanish, Portuguese, Nepalese, Indonesian, Thai and Tagalog. The central government also pledged to introduce stricter screening processes to crack down on rogue brokers that exploit migrant foreign workers through debt-bondage. The government is also allocating ¥600 million for a Japanese-language education program for non-Japanese that will include a standardized curriculum and textbooks. Under the revised immigration law, Japan will provide working visas for blue-collar foreign workers with certain skills and expertise for the first time in the country’s postwar history, as it deals with an acute labor shortage caused by the graying of its population. Over the first five years, about 345,000 foreign workers will be allowed to work across 14 industrial sectors, including nursing care, janitorial work, manufacturing, the hotel industry, agriculture and fishing, as well as food processing and food services. Workers are set to include those from China, Indonesia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam. Also on Tuesday, the government adopted policy guidelines for the new visa categories. Under those guidelines, the government is obliged to take “necessary measures” so that foreign workers will not “excessively concentrate in major urban areas.” Many ruling politicians fear foreign workers may shun rural areas and flock to Tokyo once they are granted working visas under the new system. Unlike the existing technical trainee program, often criticized for exploitation of foreign workers, newcomers on the new visas will be directly hired by their employers. They will also be allowed to change jobs if certain conditions are met. Many trainees, who are not allowed to change their job or employer once they arrive, are reported to have been forced to work under harsh conditions for little pay. The Justice Ministry also envisages greater support for job-seeking foreign students through simplified employment procedures at small businesses. The 126 policy measures include the goal of boosting the student-teacher ratio for Japanese-language education at public schools by fiscal 2026. Under the new guidelines, language schools will also need to publish the level of competence their students achieve in Japanese. The government plans to spend ¥3.4 billion on Japanese language education overseas. As part of the program, it will introduce a computer-based testing system, giving foreign nationals a chance to test their abilities. The government is planning to improve multilingual services at hospitals and other existing public facilities, such as job-placement offices, and increase the number of languages with which it makes emergency advisories about natural disasters through the country’s official warning system. Foreign workers will be encouraged to enroll in the national health insurance program, which covers a portion of medical expenses, but the government noted that it will also take steps to prevent abuse of the program. The new visa categories allow foreign workers age 18 or older to apply for two new residency statuses. The first type is for people who will engage in work that requires a certain level of knowledge and experience, while the second type is for work that requires higher skill levels. Those with the first status, which is valid for up to five years, will not be allowed to bring family members to Japan. But entrants granted the second status will be allowed to do so and will also be permitted to repeatedly renew their visas. Foreign workers seeking to apply for the first visa status will be required to have an understanding of basic Japanese and to pass a language test. By creating the new visa statuses, Japan will formally open its doors to foreign blue-collar workers for the first time. In the past, the country has granted working visas only to people with professional knowledge and high levels of skill.

shinzo abe;immigration;foreign workers

jp0010588

2016/03/05

Bleak outlook for hotels; Rural districts encouraged to use radio; Seoul to free fishing crew; Embassy helped Americans in Kuwait

100 YEARS AGO Wednesday, March 8 1916 Outlook bleak for hotel keepers this spring The spring months are usually the busiest of the whole year for hotel keepers in the country, the number of foreigners visiting Japan in April and May for the cherry blossom season being considerable. The war, however, is affecting this as it is almost every other branch of business. Since war broke out, says a member of the Imperial Hotel staff, there has been practically no foreigners visiting this country purely for pleasure, and few inquiries have been received regarding hotel accommodation as was the case before the war. There are some 40 guests at the Imperial, but they have come over for business purposes only. Nor are prospects of improvement very bright, our informant being of the opinion that this state of affairs will unfortunately continue for the duration of the war. 75 YEARS AGO Thursday, March 6, 1941 Rural districts, women prodded to use radio Approximately 400,000 pamphlets of two different kinds will be distributed throughout the country by the Broadcasting Corporation of Japan (forerunner of NHK) on March 20 with the object of encouraging people in agrarian and fishing districts and women to make more use of the radio. While 97 percent of the population in Germany have radio sets, only 30 percent of the people in Japan possess means of hearing radio broadcasts, placing Japan in the 18th rank among the nations of the world. Contrasted with 97 percent of German women listening in to the radio, only 40 percent of the Japanese women resort to this cultural means. In view of the above situation, resulting in a great cultural loss to the nation, the Broadcasting Corporation of Japan will issue the following pamphlets, “Why the people must listen to the radio” and “Women in wartime should first of all hear the radio.” The pamphlets, which contain from 24 to 28 pages, tell the reason why it is necessary for the people to make use of the radio, that the radio is not a mere amusement, and other items regarding the necessity of propagating the use of the radio in wartime. 50 YEARS AGO Wednesday, March 30, 1966 South Korea to release detained fishing crew The Government of the Republic of Korea informed the Foreign Office Tuesday night that the fishing boat No. 53 Kaiyo Maru and its full crew, captured March 14 allegedly in Korean waters, will be handed over at a point 38 kilometers south of Komun Island at 11 a.m. today. The Maritime Safety Agency will dispatch a patrol boat to receive the ship and its crew. The Foreign Office plans to begin negotiations with South Korea on ways to prevent a recurrence of territorial disputes in the Korea Strait immediately after the release of the No. 53 Kaiyo Maru and its crew. Meanwhile, Kinya Niizeki, director of the Public Information and Cultural Affairs Bureau in the Foreign Office said the South Korean decision to free the fishing boat was “a matter of great joy.” He added it was most important for Japan and South Korea to work out ways to prevent any incident that might impair their relations from happening again. Informed sources said the Foreign Office hopes to begin talks with South Korea as soon as possible on such measures as equipping Japanese and South Korean patrol boats with better navigation instruments and exchanging inspectors who will board each other’s patrol vessels. 25 YEARS AGO Thursday, March 7, 1991 Embassy assisted Americans in Kuwait The Foreign Ministry confirmed Wednesday that the Japanese Embassy in Kuwait gave refuge to 16 U.S. nationals during the first days of the Gulf crisis last August. The ministry had earlier remained silent about the matter, despite receiving a letter from U.S. Secretary of State James Baker in late August formally thanking Foreign Minister Taro Nakayama for the embassy’s “humanitarian assistance.” Officials explained there was concern that making the matter public, even after the Americans had left their hiding place, might lead to Iraqi reprisals against Japanese citizens. According to the ministry, shortly after Iraq’s Aug. 3 invasion of Kuwait, the U.S. Embassy there requested the Japanese Embassy to provide refuge for 16 of its personnel, as well as women and children living in the vicinity. Since foreign residents in Kuwait feared being taken into custody by Iraqi forces if seen in public, the Japanese Embassy, which is some distance from the U.S. Embassy, provided a safe haven for the Americans Aug. 4-13. On Aug. 13, the group was smuggled past Iraqi personnel and taken back to the U.S. Embassy. While Japanese were venturing out during the day to shop for food and goods, the Iraqi government had issued orders that Americans were to be forcibly detained as “guests” in a Kuwait hotel. Japanese staying at the embassy feared reprisals from the Iraqi government if it was discovered that the embassy was hiding the group, but agreed among themselves to say nothing that might lead to their discovery. A Japanese woman who was holed up in the embassy at the same time said, “We were told that when we looked at the Americans, we should only see the wall, and were forced to remain silent.” “We stayed in a basement room with the Americans and shared the same cooking facilities, but were separated by a glass partition ,” she said. “One night I could hear them singing the U.S. national anthem, and the next day they were gone.”

kuwait;south korea;iraq;hotels;nhk;hospitality;radios

jp0010589

2016/03/02

Manga artist and ex-Fukushima No. 1 worker portrays life, progress at troubled plant

A manga artist who has been involved in decommissioning work at the disaster-hit Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant has highlighted the need for effective deployment of skilled workers in parts of the premises that still have high radiation levels. Kazuto Tatsuta, 51, also said in a recent interview that he feels progress has been made since the Tokyo Electric Power Co. complex suffered triple meltdowns after the March 11, 2011 quake and tsunami disaster in an operation that will take decades. “It is not hard to collect a large number of ordinary workers, but lower wages resulting from multilayered (subcontractors) is a problem that could, in severely bad cases, have an impact on their motivation,” Tatsuta said, noting that about 7,000 people work at the plant every day. Tatsuta, who uses a pen name for fear of being prevented from working at the plant again, commuted to the complex intermittently between June 2012 and November 2014 to engage in such work as managing rest stations for other workers, plumbing within the reactor 3 building and taking care of robots operating within the units. His manga stories “Ichiefu” (“1F”), published by Kodansha Ltd., portray the ordinary lives and attitudes of workers at the complex. For example, they were irritated by itchy noses as a result of wearing full face masks and were more afraid of the heat in summer than of radiation. Ichiefu is an abbreviation for the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant commonly used among local people and those related to the industry. Tatsuta, who has frequently changed jobs since graduating from university, said work at the Fukushima plant is by no means lucrative. “Initially, I didn’t aim to work in 1F. After seeking a job in disaster-hit areas including Miyagi or Iwate, I just found one at the nuclear plant.” But he said, “The construction company I worked for was a sixth subcontractor (of Tepco) and the salary was no different from that for ordinary work. My dream of making a lot of money in a short period was (dashed).” His pay started at ¥8,000 (about $70) a day working in the rest houses, and rose to ¥20,000 per day for work within the reactor buildings. His three-volume book series depicts workers from all across Japan having to bear their own living costs in uncomfortable lodgings before work is officially allocated, or not receiving any pay when accidents or other problems cause operations at the plant to be abruptly suspended. Tatsuta also noted the need for experts, in addition to ordinary workers. “In order to get experts who have experience and skills relating to nuclear plants to work as long as possible, the management of radiation is crucial,” he said. “The longer these workers are exposed to radiation, the shorter they are able to stay in higher dose places.” Measures against radiation, including decontamination of such areas and the setting up of protective barriers around them, are essential, he said. Ahead of the fifth anniversary of the nuclear crisis, many media outlets were allowed to enter the premises to report on the current situation at the plant. “A big development is that workers are able to move around (wide ares of the) premises without full face masks,” said Tatsuta, having seen photos in a newspaper. Currently, people can work with masks that cover only half their face in about 90 percent of the premises, except for areas around the stricken reactors. The media tend to report that reconstruction of the disaster-hit area is still only halfway done. But Tatsuta called on readers to focus on the things that are progressing, albeit little by little. Within the Fukushima complex, the completion of a frozen underground wall to prevent radioactive water from accumulating further and the piling up of around 1,000 tanks to store processed contaminated water are indications of the significant progress made since Tatsuta left 1F, he said, though admitting there was still considerable work to be done. “Ichiefu” features ordinary middle-aged men who take naps while waiting for their colleagues to finish their jobs, chat cheerfully with their co-workers or play pachinko in their free time. “Some people viewed us as heroes, saying ‘Thank you very much on behalf of Japan and the world.’ Others felt very sorry for us, saying ‘You were treated like slaves in dangerous working conditions.’ But I want to say that neither of these views is correct. I’d like readers to understand that to some extent. “As one of those workers, I wanted to describe the gap between what the public thought and what I saw inside. ‘Ichiefu’ is . . . like my diary, but I am pleased if it has resulted in showing the workers’ real lives.” Tatsuta, who describes himself as a cartoonist who doesn’t sell well, was careful not to indicate his own political views on the government’s nuclear policies for fear that this would make his work seem biased. “I neither agree nor disagree with the restart of nuclear plants, although I am frequently asked that question,” he said. Having made its debut in a weekly magazine in October 2013, some 350,000 copies of “Ichiefu” have now been printed in Japan. It has also hit the shelves in Taiwan, with French, Spanish, German and Italian versions being published soon. Tatsuta now calls Fukushima his “second hometown” as a result of the connections he made while living and working there, and said, “I hope to work there for the rest of my life, if possible.” But he has had no chance to work at the complex since December 2014, and sometimes suspects that because Tepco or one of its subcontractors has discovered his identity as the author of the manga series, he is unable to return there. “It can’t be helped. I have been prepared for that from the beginning,” he said. “But once I became involved (in 1F), I began looking forward and I am closely observing how it will be cleaned up. It can’t turn any worse from now.” Tatsuta is currently working on a manga story for an upcoming book on the decommissioning of the Fukushima plant co-authored by Hiroshi Kainuma, a Fukushima-born sociologist.

radiation;manga;tokyo electric power co .;fukushima no . 1 nuclear power plant;ichiefu

jp0010590

2016/03/18

Meaty vending machine lets Parisians buy sausages, steaks 24/7

PARIS - With their beloved baguette already available 24 hours a day, it seems only logical that Parisians can now get the Bayonne ham and Basque pate that goes so well with the bread from the first meat vending machine installed in the French capital. In a city filled with small shops where long lunches remain a crucial part of the French “art de vivre,” the gleaming red machine set up on the lively Rue de Charonne in eastern Paris seems a bit incongruous. The area has at least two dozen butcher’s shops and no shortage of meat, but that didn’t deter the owners of one of those shops, Florence and Michel Pouzol of L’ami Txulette, from investing €40,000 ($45,000) to set up their project, selling vacuum-packed meat from the refrigerated machine. “We’re closed two days: Sundays and Mondays,” Florence Pouzol said. “So this is to cater for customers over the weekend. . . . The idea was also to serve people after the shop’s closing hours. We close at 8 p.m. but some people leave work very late and find the shop closed when they walk past it.” L’ami Txulette specializes in products from the Basque Country. From their machine, which takes cash or credit cards, customers can also get a large choice of traditional delicatessen, including duck confit and beef carpaccio. There are also faux-filet steaks on display, priced at €34 per kilogram. On average, the products are 20 cents more expensive than those sold inside the shop. A majority of shops remain closed on Sundays in France, but the Pouzols are confident that France is changing fast and so are their customers’ habits. “Our customers are young. There are also quite a few bars and restaurants along the boulevard,” Florence Pouzol said. “When we see them during the day, they tell us: “Last night, I bought this, or that, and it was really helpful.” We also have those who work in the cafes and restaurants and who come off work at 2 a.m. They tell us they were happy to buy an entrecote or something else to eat.” But not all residents, especially the older ones, seem ready to stop running errands at their favorite shop and switch to the meat dispenser. “I’m so happy that I can actually go to the butcher’s shop now that I’m retired and go there in person,” said local resident Lydie Aparacio. “I think that it can be useful for people who are busier than a retiree. I don’t use it because I have time.” While baguette dispensers have been enjoying a large success across France over the past five years, the meat vending machines business remains in the embryonic stage in France. The first machine of this type was installed three years ago in the small western town of Garat by a butcher who set it up outside a bar. According to the bar owner, it adds extra comfort in an area lacking services. “We don’t have a butcher’s shop in town, the first one is located 3 km (2 miles) away,” Jo Ferreira said in a phone interview. “When you finish work at 7 p.m., it’s very convenient to have this machine available. I love their minced burger steaks.” In the central medieval town of Mennetou-sur-Cher, popular with tourists, Pascal Bidron has installed a machine to sell his locally made andouillette, a sausage prepared with pig’s intestines. He bought a second-hand machine and put it next to his shop, which is closed for more than three hours during the daytime. “I have customers coming from afar to buy my andouillettes and I wanted to serve them even when the shop is closed” Bidron said. “I recently went away for two weeks and managed to sell 250 andouillettes during my vacation thanks to that machine. It’s more than I expected.”

france;meat;vending machines

jp0010592

2016/03/27

Ikata restart ruling prompts Kepco to raise threat of countersuits

OSAKA - Kansai Electric Power Co., angered by the decision earlier this month by the Otsu District Court in Shiga Prefecture to slap a provisional injunction on restarting two reactors at the Takahama nuclear power plant on safety grounds, is lashing out at its critics and threatening to sue them for lost revenue. “As a general rule, seeking damages against such people is a possible target for discussion, although we’ve not decided anything,” Kepco President Makoto Yagi said at a new conference on March 18. Kepco said it was desperate to have Takahama reactors 3 and 4, which are in neighboring Fukui Prefecture, back online before April 1 so it can offer more competitive rates when full deregulation of the electricity market takes place. The utility loses about ¥10 billion a month when the reactors are offline. The plaintiffs in the Shiga case, however, fired back at Yagi last week. “Such comments are a threat to others who don’t want to see another nuclear accident and want to go to court to seek provisional injunctions against other possible restarts throughout Japan,” two groups involved in the Shiga case said in a formal letter of protest to Kepco. With anti-nuclear citizens and their lawyers energized by the court ruling, Kepco and other nuclear advocates in Japan fear a flood of new lawsuits will emerge from residents near any reactor that gets the green light to restart. Just a couple of days after the Otsu ruling, 67 plaintiffs including atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki announced they had filed a lawsuit at the Hiroshima District Court to prevent the restart of three reactors at Shikoku Electric Co.’s Ikata nuclear power plant in Ehime Prefecture. Some of them also filed a separate suit seeking a provisional injunction to effectively block Shikoku Electric from restarting the Ikata plant’s reactor 3, which has already cleared new safety inspections and received local political approval, paving the way for its restart as early as this summer.

kansai electric power co .;fukui;takahama nuclear power plant

jp0010593

2016/03/29

China gets tough on foreign-sounding street and development names

BEIJING - China will clamp down on foreign-sounding and bizarre names after too many streets and developments called “Manhattan” or “Venice” have popped up amid decades of frenzied building, a government official says. Civil Affairs minister Li Liguo said in a recently televised speech that the government will change over-the-top or imported names and encourage real estate developers and city planners to seek inspiration instead from China’s rich cultural heritage. “Some cities have multiple ‘Manhattan’ or ‘Venice’ roads,” Li said. “It’s not only an inconvenience to travelers but also erodes a sense of home.” The naming push comes at a time when China’s government has sought to limit Western influence from mainstream culture and education. In recent months state media outlets have warned about “hostile foreign forces” broadly undermining Chinese society and hampering China’s rise as a self-sufficient and proud nation. A report by the official Xinhua News Agency framed Li’s remarks on place names as a matter of national sovereignty and ethnic dignity. Li, a member of China’s Cabinet, called on greater cultural preservation and suggested that developers look toward Chinese icons for inspiration, such as Mount Tai or the Yellow River. In recent years, though, it’s common for property developers to evoke a French region or include words like “elite” or “chateau” in the names of shopping malls or housing compounds. In Beijing’s business district, there’s a “Central Park” condominium compound while another upscale project is literally named “Yuppie International Condos.” A few kilometers away, a three-bedroom pad at the “Chateau Edinburgh” apartments is listed for about $3,500 a month.

china;offbeat

jp0010594

2016/03/28

Cat survives eight-day ordeal after being sealed in box of DVDs sent by mail

LONDON - A tough Siamese cat named Cupcake has survived eight days cooped up in a box after accidentally being sent through the mail by her British owners. Cupcake was in a box with an order of DVDs that was sent from Cornwall, in southwestern England, to West Sussex, in south-central England. The recipient found a badly dehydrated Cupcake in the box along with the DVDs and contacted the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals for help. The RSPCA traced the owners through the cat’s microchip. “We looked everywhere for her,” owner Julie Baggott said Sunday, adding that she felt terrible about Cupcake’s ordeal. Vets said Cupcake needs treatment but should recover fully.

animals;u.k .;offbeat

jp0010595

2016/03/28

Mirrorless cars a reflection of auto industry's future

From fuel cell vehicles to self-driving cars, new technologies for next-generation autos are gaining traction. In a move likely to accelerate this, the United Nations World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations, which consists of major car-producing nations and sets international safety and environmental standards on vehicles, said in November it will allow carmakers worldwide to replace side and rear mirrors with camera monitor systems. Following the U.N. panel’s decision, the transport ministry will from June allow mirrorless cars on to the nation’s roads. Following are questions and answers about the mirrorless system, which could be the new standard for vehicles in the near future: What is a mirrorless car? A mirrorless car does not have rear-view and side-view mirrors. Instead, the car is equipped with a sophisticated camera monitor system that shows drivers surrounding views on small screens positioned in front of them. Although the concept itself isn’t necessarily new, because some automakers already equip vehicles with cameras and monitors to show what is around a car, mirrors are still required under current regulations. What are the advantages of mirrorless cars? Replacing mirrors with vehicle proximity cameras is said to enhance safety because unlike current rearview mirrors, they eliminate blind spots, transport ministry official Masaru Miyashita said. The mirrorless system also allows drivers to use advanced imaging technology, including night vision and wide angle cameras. Miyashita said it is hoped that mirrorless cars will be a step toward practical use of next-generation auto technologies, including self-driving cars. “If the camera and monitor system becomes fully developed, things like operating a self-driving long-distance truck remotely from home could be possible,” he said. Moving to mirrorless systems will also allow automakers to become more creative with car designs. Unlike mirrors that have to be strategically positioned for drivers, cameras can be located anywhere on a vehicle, said Yuri Iwata, a spokeswoman for auto parts maker Denso Corp., which develops camera monitor systems for vehicles. “Mirrorless cars may allow automobile manufacturers to produce a vehicle with futuristic, unconventional designs that now are only concept cars shown at motor shows,” Iwata said. Design flexibility would allow carmakers to improve vehicle aerodynamics, thus producing better fuel efficiency at high speeds and leading to more streamlined buses and large trucks, she said. Will changes come suddenly with deregulation? No. Drivers will need time to adjust their habits to accommodate the mirrorless system, Miyashita of the transport ministry said. At first, monitors and the cameras must be positioned in the same place as current rear-view and side-view mirrors and offer the same views, he said. “Getting used to (monitors instead of mirrors) is the main factor to ensure drivers’ safety,” he said. How are things progressing? The technology behind the camera monitor system is already established and ready to enter the market, Denso’s Iwata said. “In terms of safety, (the camera monitor system) is already good enough to detect such objects as cars, bicycles and pedestrians; drivers can comprehend surrounding circumstances without problems,” she said. Some automobile companies have already shown off mirrorless technologies as concept cars at international exhibitions. German automaker BMW, for one, demonstrated its next-generation BMW i8 Mirrorless at the Consumer Electronic Show 2016 held at Las Vegas in January. Instead of mirrors, the BMW i8 Mirrorless boasts two slim, wing-like side cameras on each side of the car as well as a third camera placed inside the rear window. The surrounding views are displayed on monitors attached on the windshield, where the rear-view mirror is usually located. “The display technology is the most challenging component. The development gets more complex to provide sophisticated features,” a spokesman for BMW said via email. What hurdles remain for widespread use of mirrorless cars? Unlike mirror images, the mirrorless system has yet to accurately reproduce colors on the monitor, Denso’s Iwata said. “Although (color accuracy) does not affect safety . . . we believe it will affect the commercial value of products,” she said. Another challenge is maintaining the basic functionality of conventional cars while pursuing unconventional designs, she said, pointing out that side mirrors have been used by drivers to gauge the width of their cars. Another concern is how to ensure safety if a monitor malfunctions, Miyashita of the transport ministry said. “When the system is completely broken, drivers may be able to tell because nothing would be shown on the monitors. But the challenge is how to warn drivers when there is a slight delay in images — like when a monitor doesn’t immediately show what is present,” he said.

transportation;carmakers;autos;bmw;mirrorless cars

jp0010596

2016/03/19

Do chimp rituals reveal roots of religion?

How did gods evolve? I can’t promise to answer a question of such gravity this week, but I can perhaps raise some interesting ideas. Note that I’m not specifically referring to the Christian, Islamic or Judean deity — I’m speaking more broadly about the roots of our belief in a higher power. Some scientists believe religion has evolved over time. It’s similar, they say, to the way in which giraffes acquired long necks or mammals produced milk for their offspring — it’s a trait that has helped humanity to survive. If that’s the case with religion, then it probably evolved in stages over time. Ancestors of modern giraffes, for example, had shorter necks, while primitive mammals produced a liquid far less nutritious than milk. A wide variety of religious beliefs can be found in all human cultures. And yet, for a long time scientists didn’t have a clear idea of how such beliefs might have evolved in our distant ancestors. Recently, however, biologists working in Guinea appear to have found evidence of an odd ritual performed by chimpanzees. This isn’t to suggest the scientists might have found a chimpanzee god or anything, but they have detected a behavior that could form the basis for belief, superstition and even faith. Laura Kehoe, a Ph.D. student at the Humboldt University of Berlin, has been studying the influence of agriculture on biodiversity. She had noticed that some of the trees in the area she was covering had some unusual scratches and markings. She set up some cameras around the trees and waited. Upon reviewing the video footage, she was astounded to see chimpanzees coming to the trees and, er, worshipping them. Well … that’s perhaps going a bit too far. Nevertheless, the chimpanzees did bring stones to the trees and place them in hollow sections in the trunk. They also bashed the trees with rocks. “Maybe we found the first evidence of chimpanzees creating a kind of shrine that could indicate sacred trees,” Kehoe wrote in the journal Scientific Reports. We have long had a natural and completely understandable fascination with our fellow apes, especially chimpanzees and bonobos, our closest relatives. When primatologist Jane Goodall discovered in the 1960s that chimpanzees use tools, it caused a worldwide sensation. Ever since, discoveries about the behavior and intelligence of orangutans, chimpanzees, bonobos and gorillas have gradually chipped away at the traits we once considered to be uniquely human. It could even be argued that there’s nothing uniquely human about us anymore, only that we are able to perform tasks better. Sure, chimpanzees can use rocks to break nuts but I’d like to see them build a car. Chimpanzees have also exhibited ritual behavior that is difficult to explain. Some actions are horrific. I remember a case in which biologists witnessed the killing of an adult male chimpanzee. The dead male had been horribly mutilated: the chimpanzee’s face had been battered, its throat gouged and it had been disembowled. If that wasn’t violent enough in human terms, biologists also found that the chimpanzees sexual organs had been ripped off and discarded 30 meters away from the body. The biologists speculated that the victim had been deliberately emasculated as part of some ritual. Other less disturbing examples of ritual behaviors include chimpanzees performing strange dances in the middle of a rainstorm or as a bushfire approaches (when all other animals are fleeing for their lives). What does all this really mean? Well, it’s hard to tell. I asked Kehoe whether scientists could devise a test to understand such ritual behaviors better. “We could develop an experimental set-up that might be able to test the hypothesis,” she says, “but it would be premature.” Indeed, Kehoe believes that it’s better to protect endangered animals before trying to understand their behavior. “We first need to secure these chimps’ survival in the wild,” she says. “It’s a fascinating behavior that we have no chance of figuring out unless we make drastic changes and prioritize nature.” OK, I was chastened — we can’t allow the population of these animals, our closest relatives, to be killed off. Poaching, disease and habitat destruction has already taken a terrible toll on chimpanzee populations worldwide. While scientists believe about 2 million chimpanzees once roamed the planet, current estimates put their number somewhere between 150,000 and 300,000. I’m hopeful the Humboldt team’s discovery will, in some way, help to ensure that chimpanzees will be protected.

evolution;behavior;chimpanzees;ritual behavior

jp0010598

2016/03/26

In Japan, all other fruits bow to the top banana

The government’s scheme to reignite inflation has not been very successful so far. Though consumer prices did rise a bit, the increase was based on things like high oil prices, the strong dollar and a boost in the consumption tax, and lately deflation seems to have kicked in again. When oil prices were high, wheat and corn prices rose too, thus raising the price of related products. But even those products are now slightly cheaper than they were a year ago. It’s just that the media, in deference to Abenomics, isn’t really reporting it. There is one food item that has shown a steady rise in price: bananas. According to the Japan Banana Importers Association (JBIA), the wholesale price of imported bananas has gone up by 30-40 percent since 2014, mainly due to the lower value of the yen. Add to that the 3 percent hike in the consumption tax and bananas, the most ubiquitous fruit in Japan, would seem to be much more expensive than they were five years ago. However, many people may not have noticed, since banana prices have always been lower than those of other fruits in Japan. And they still are. As a matter of fact, when the JBIA surveyed consumers in 2014, 65 percent of respondents said they ate bananas regularly specifically because of the low price, which, at the time, was about ¥350 per kilogram wholesale (with one banana weighing about 150 grams). Relatively speaking, however, that’s pretty expensive, since the per-kilogram price between 1975 and about 2010 remained stable within the ¥180-250 range. In 2012 it was around ¥190. Obviously that makes for a fairly significant increase, but people still think of bananas as being cheap. The reason is context. Whenever foreigners are surveyed about prices in Japan, fruit is always cited as being overpriced, but basically, they are comparing Japanese fruit prices to those in their home countries. Japanese people tend to think of fruit as a species of dessert, and they prefer very sweet fruit, which local growers provide, but at a premium. Citrus fruits are considered too sour by most Japanese — except for mandarin oranges ( mikan ), which are prized for their sweetness and are very easy to peel. The agriculture ministry says that per-capita consumption of fruit in Japan is about half that of the European Union. In the 1960s, even bananas were thought of as a special treat. They were a delicacy at the time, grown sparingly in Okinawa and parts of Kyushu. Back then, you would buy one banana at a time. When trade was liberalized in the ’70s, bananas were one of the first agricultural products to be imported in large amounts, initially from Taiwan and Ecuador. Now bananas account for 60 percent of all fruit imports, and 90 percent of the bananas sold in Japan are grown in the Philippines. According to the financial magazine Toyo Keizai, households of at least two people buy an average of 18 kg of bananas a year, well ahead of the No. 2 fruit, mandarins, at 13 kg a year. The main reason is that bananas have developed negorokan , or “the perception of being reasonably priced,” though this could change due to demographics. In 2014 the Japan Business Press reported that fruit consumption in general was dropping in Japan because young people didn’t eat fruit — or, at least, not in their raw form. There has been an increase in processed fruits sold as confections and beverages, which appeal to younger people more than they do to their elders, who still see fresh fruit as a treat. Japanese in their 70s consume on average 152 grams of fresh fruit a day; Japanese in their 30s, only 61 grams. This specialized image of fruit also explains why Japanese growers can get away with charging so much for their wares. Though the notorious ¥100,000 melon is an extreme exception, it does represent a model that is fairly widespread. Fruit is often characterized in Japan as the most appropriate gift, and people tend to pay more for gifts. At present, fruit growers are protected from much cheaper imports by high tariffs that will be removed if and when the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) goes into effect. In preparation for that day, local growers are positioning their produce as luxury items for export to well-to-do Asians. If bananas are an exception to this rule, too, it’s because they are overwhelmingly imported from the Philippines, which did not participate in TPP negotiations. The country already has an Economic Partnership Agreement with Japan. Starting in the 1960s, Japanese trading companies invested in Philippine banana plantations, and in the 1980s growers started moving plantations to higher elevations, since the resulting fruit tends to be sweeter and that’s what Japanese consumers want. Though China and India produce the most bananas in the world, they don’t export many. The Philippines is the third-biggest banana exporter in the world, and the fastest-growing, and Japan no longer has a monopoly on what they ship. The Japanese market’s reliance on bananas from the Philippines caused some problems a few years back when soil bacteria spread by one of the typhoons that ripped through the Philippines affected banana trees and decreased production by 4 percent between 2010 and 2013, thus driving up prices in Japan. In 2012, however, China — a banana importer as well as a grower — informally embargoed bananas from the Philippines due to the two countries’ disagreement over control of the Spratly Islands, so there were more bananas to send to other countries, including Japan, thus explaining the sharp drop in prices in the latter months of 2012. Nevertheless, the banana’s status in Japan seems guaranteed by economics and convenience, even among young people who, in the aforementioned agricultural ministry survey, said that one of the reasons they don’t eat fresh fruit is because it’s “messy.” Japanese people don’t think of an apple as a ready-to-eat snack the way Americans do. They have to peel and slice it first. Bananas, on the other hand, are perfectly packaged.

food;philippines;bananas;fruit

jp0010599

2016/03/21

Death toll rises after crash of Indonesia chopper during terror raid

JAKARTA - The death toll from an Indonesian military helicopter crash rose to 13 on Monday, the military said, with the discovery of the body of a missing soldier. The helicopter was on a mission Sunday to capture the country’s most wanted militant when it crashed and burst into flames. Twelve bodies were found Sunday, and military spokesman Maj. Gen. Tatang Sulaiman said the 13th victim, a first lieutenant, was found in the wreckage. The Bell 412-EP helicopter was carrying 13 soldiers and crew when it went down about 35 minutes after taking off from Poso district’s Watutau village, said Maj. Gen. Agus Surya Bakti, the regional military chief overseeing South and Central Sulawesi provinces. It was not yet known what caused the 3-year-old helicopter to crash, though thunderstorms were thought to have played a part, Agus said. More than 2,500 security forces, including elite army troops, have intensified their operations this year in Poso, a mountainous district of Central Sulawesi province considered an extremist hotbed, to try to capture Indonesia’s most wanted militant, Abu Wardah Santoso. He leads the East Indonesia Mujahidin network, which has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group. At least five members of the network were killed by security forces this past week. Members of the group are thought to be hiding in Poso, where more than 1,000 people died in 2001 and 2002 in violence between Christians and Muslims. Indonesia, a sprawling archipelago nation of about 250 million people, has been plagued by transportation accidents in recent years, including plane and train crashes and ferry sinkings.

accidents;indonesia;insurgencies

jp0010600

2016/03/21

Two British ships arrive in Japan to transport plutonium for storage in U.S.

Two British ships arrived in eastern Japan on Monday to transport a shipment of plutonium — enough to make dozens of atomic bombs — to the U.S. for storage under a bilateral agreement. The ships docked at the coastal village of Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, which is home to the nation’s main nuclear research facility, the Japan Atomic and Energy Agency, according to Kyodo News and citizens’ groups. Loading the plutonium-filled casks onto the ships, both fitted with naval guns and other protective devices, was expected to take several hours. The Pacific Egret and Pacific Heron, both operated by Pacific Nuclear Transport Ltd., will take the 331 kg (730 pounds) of plutonium to the Savannah River Site, a U.S. government facility in South Carolina, under a pledge made by Japan in 2014. The plutonium, mostly from the U.S. and some from France originally, had been used for research purposes. Japanese officials refused to confirm details, citing security reasons. Japan’s stockpile and its fuel-reprocessing ambitions to use plutonium as fuel for power generation have been a source of international security concerns. Japan has accumulated a massive stockpile of plutonium — 11 tons in the country and another 36 tons that have been reprocessed in Britain and France and are waiting to be returned — enough to make nearly 6,000 atomic bombs. The latest shipment comes just ahead of a nuclear security summit in Washington later this month, and is seen as a step to showcase both countries’ nuclear nonproliferation efforts. Washington has increasingly voiced concerns about the nuclear spent-fuel-reprocessing plans by Japan and China to produce plutonium for energy generation, a technology South Korea also wants to acquire, saying they pose security and proliferation risks. Japan began building a major reprocessing plant with French state-owned company Areva in the early 1990s. The trouble-plagued project has been delayed ever since, and in November its opening was postponed until 2018 to allow for more safety upgrades and inspections. Experts say launching the Rokkasho reprocessing plant in Aomori Prefecture will not ease the situation, because Japan has little hope of achieving a spent-fuel recycling program. Japan’s Monju plutonium-burning fast breeder reactor, suspended for more than 20 years, is now on the verge of being closed due to poor safety records and technical problems, while optional plans to burn uranium-plutonium mixtures of MOX fuel in conventional reactors have been delayed since the Fukushima disaster. Only two of the country’s 43 workable reactors are currently online.

u.s .;u.k .;nuclear weapons;nuclear energy;plutonium

jp0010602

2016/03/07

Philippine rebel says Islamic State group may gain from autonomy delay

KUALA LUMPUR - The head of a Philippine Muslim rebel group warned Monday that the Islamic State group could gain from frustrations in the country’s south following the failure of the Philippine Congress to pass an autonomy bill as part of a peace agreement. Murad Ebrahim, chair of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, said the militant Islamic State group has attempted over the past year to recruit supporters in Mindanao but his group has worked to convince them that the peace pact signed with the government in 2014 was the best solution. But he said the delay in enactment of the bill that aims to establish a more powerful and better-funded autonomous region for minority Muslims has led to frustrations that could be capitalized by the Islamic State group and other small hard-line rebel bodies. Malaysia is a facilitator in the peace talks, and Murad spoke while passing through Kuala Lumpur. “There have been some efforts of penetration but they have not succeeded in establishing a stronghold in Mindanao,” he said during a news conference. “But now after the non-passage of the (bill), we are quite concerned that they can capitalize on this because the (frustration) of the people in the area is now very strong.” The 11,000-strong Moro Islamic Liberalization Front dropped its secessionist bid and settled for broader autonomy for minority Muslims in the south of the largely Roman Catholic nation in a Malaysia-brokered pact it signed with Manila in 2014. The conflict has left 150,000 people dead and stunted development in the country’s poorest region. Under the deal, a bill was submitted to Congress to create the autonomous region to be called Bangsamoro. The bill’s early passage was stalled by anger over the killing last year of 44 police commandos in fighting that involved some fighters from the Moro group. Lawmakers ended the last regular session of their term last month without passing the bill. Murad said his group will not abandon its arm struggle but will not revert to violence as long as the peace process has a chance to move forward. He said he is hopeful that the new president, to be elected later this year, will support and continue the efforts for peace.

philippines;islamic state;insurgencies

jp0010603

2016/03/07

Japan lists medical facilities suitable for foreign tourists

With tourism hitting all-time highs, the Japan Tourism Agency has compiled a list of medical institutions that are particularly suited for non-Japanese patients. In all, 326 facilities made the list, with every prefecture represented except Aomori. Criteria include a 24-hour admissions policy and communication in English in certain departments, including internal medicine, surgery and pediatrics. The agency hopes the list will encourage non-Japanese to seek help when needed, an official told The Japan Times on Monday. Travelers can find the list on the Japan National Tourism Organization’s website , where they can search by area, language and medical department. Apart from English, languages offered include Chinese, Korean, Portuguese and Spanish, while available medical departments include dermatology, urology, orthopedic surgery, obstetrics and gynecology. The list is based on a government action plan compiled in June for turning Japan into a tourism-oriented country. One of the items was providing better information for foreign travelers who fall ill in Japan. Along with the list of medical institutions, the tourism agency has also created a general guide on how to use medical services. Available in English, Chinese, Korean and Thai, the guide is published on the JNTO’s website and is also intended to be distributed at tourist information centers, hotels and medical facilities. It offers information about diagnosis and where suitable treatment can be obtained, and gives advice about dealing with hospital red tape and payment. It also serves as an emergency medical phrase book, giving Japanese translations for symptoms. To help municipalities deal with tourists who fall sick within their jurisdiction, the agency has also set up consultation centers for local officials that they can contact for advice on handling non-Japanese. Meanwhile, the agency has launched a drive to encourage visitors to obtain international travel medical insurance. A 2013 survey by the agency showed some 30 percent of travelers to Japan had not bought trip insurance, the official said. The government aims to secure annual visitor numbers of 20 million people by the 2020 Olympics. A record number of 19.73 million tourists visited Japan in 2015, marking a 47.1 percent increase from 2014, according to the JNTO.

tourism;medical;jnto;clinics

jp0010604

2016/03/07

Angry blog post sparks movement for improved day care

What started out as a mother’s online rant about Japan’s notorious day care center shortage has evolved into a national movement, galvanizing angry mothers into staging a demonstration and online campaign blasting the government. Titled “ Hoikuen Ochita. Nihon Shine!!! (Didn’t Get a Slot in Day Care. Drop Dead, Japan!!!), ” the blog post penned by an anonymous mother shed light on the continuing struggle with the day care shortage that has served as a disincentive for mothers to return to work. The blogger asserted that the failure to address the problem belies Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s vow to “promote dynamic engagement of all citizens,” including women. The Feb. 15 entry has since proved so popular that it has even made its way into Diet debates, with Abe forced to respond to the groundswell of public outrage. Several dozen people inspired by the blog — mostly women — held a rally in front of the Diet on Saturday to call for an increase in the number of day care centers, media reports said. Others who had noted the blog began an online campaign on the petition site Change.org demanding a systemic overhaul. They said Japan will “die” without improvements to child-rearing assistance. Change.org announced that campaigners would submit the signatures — which topped 25,000 as of Monday evening — to Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker Shiori Yamao on Wednesday. The vociferous reactions were a “total surprise,” the blogger told The Japan Times via email Monday. “But the way things turned out also confirmed my views that not being able to enter day care is a huge problem for many child-rearing households,” said the blogger, who claims to be a Tokyo mother in her 30s. “I guess lots of people are frustrated with the status quo despite (Abe’s) slogan to create a society where all 100 million people can play an active role.” Abe has brushed off the blog’s criticisms, calling it apocryphal and citing its anonymous nature during a Lower House Budget Committee meeting on Feb. 29. Abe instead stressed that the government has already set in place a batch of policies intended to boost capacity in day care centers and draw more nursery workers into the perennially short-staffed industry. Indeed, welfare ministry statistics point to a steep rise in the annual number of newly established slots at day care centers over the past few years — 72,430 in fiscal 2013 and 146,257 in fiscal 2014 — in a result that surpassed even the Abe government’s initial goal to accommodate an additional 200,000 children in two years. The fiscal 2016 budget draft, which passed the Lower House last week, also highlighted the government’s moves to address the situation. The draft proposes an investment of a combined ¥119.1 billion in, among other things, efforts to open another 200,000 slots over two years. Despite these improved efforts, the number of children on waiting lists shows no signs of thinning. Those figures remain flat over the past five years, totaling 23,167 nationwide as of April 2015, up 1,796 from the previous year — meaning applications are outpacing the number of slots. Behind this is the fact that, despite the spike in slots made available, many day care centers have not been able to accept as many children as they have room for due to the staff shortage, said Hideki Sato, vice chairman of Zenkoku Hoiku Kyogikai (National Child-Rearing Association). According to Sato, a “negative” image has long dogged the profession, with many nursery workers facing unstable forms of employment — including part- and fixed-time positions — as well as low wages that are hardly on par with the physically and mentally taxing responsibilities of the job. As a result, many qualified teachers opt not to work in the sector from the beginning, he said. “It is imperative their treatment and working style be improved,” Sato said.

shinzo abe;child-rearing;day-care centers;female empowerment

jp0010605

2016/03/07

Overworked teachers in Japan call for change as extracurricular supervision takes toll

As this year’s elementary school graduates enter junior high school in April, one of their biggest concerns will be which extracurricular club to join. Known as bukatsu , the clubs are so central to the Japanese junior high and high school experience that they not only determine students’ friendships but also affect their later development. But this long-held tradition is now coming under fire, and from an unexpected quarter: The teachers forced to supervise them say the expectations placed on them are inhumane and driving them to exhaustion. We look at the emerging controversy over extracurricular clubs: What is bukatsu? First-year pupils are typically instructed immediately after enrollment to join a bukatsu outside their classroom hours, with their choices ranging from athletic activities, such as soccer, baseball, basketball and swimming, to nonathletic pursuits, including art, calligraphy, tea ceremony and brass band. Students practice their chosen activities almost daily, mostly after school, over the weekend and sometimes even before school. In what resembles a military culture, strong vertical relationships permeate their activities, with younger students often expected to show unquestioning subordination to their senpai masters a year or two older. Since each activity usually takes place within the premises of schools, teachers are tasked with supervising whatever club they are assigned to and coaching the members — although some teachers are no expert in what they are supposed to teach. Bukatsu is technically regarded as a “volunteer” activity under the education ministry’s current guidelines. But many junior high schools and, to a lesser extent, high schools pressure students to join one. What is the history of bukatsu? Originally incorporated into the school curriculum around 1970, the precursor of bukatsu — kurabu katsudo (club activity) — remained an official subject until 1998. But even before that, many schools had reduced bukatsu to the after-school activity that it is today in order to cut the amount of class time under the yutori (relaxed) education policy of the early 1980s through the mid-2000s that was designed to ease student stress, according to Hiroshi Nishijima, an associate professor of education studies at Tokyo Metropolitan University. Its 1998 withdrawal from the school curriculum, however, didn’t put an end to the culture of bukatsu, because many teachers back then regarded it as an effective way to teach unruly students discipline, Nishijima said. What are the pros and cons of bukatsu? Bukatsu is often credited with improving students’ sociability, perseverance and the spirit of teamwork. It also gives them easy, low-cost access to whatever athletic or artistic activities they find interesting, at times even influencing their choice of a future career path. At the same time, the clubs take a heavy toll on teachers. Complaints are rife that teachers who supervise the clubs are overworked to such an extent that they barely have time for their private life, causing some to have mental breakdowns or marital problems. In 2011, then-26-year-old Hirohito Maeda, an Osaka teacher, reportedly died of heart failure after toiling over his duties both as a class teacher and bukatsu coach for months on end. Indeed, the OECD Teaching and Learning International Survey in 2013 found that junior high school teachers in Japan spend 7.7 hours a week supervising extracurricular activities, more than triple the OECD average of 2.1 hours. An education ministry 2006 survey showed 76.2 percent of junior high school teachers nationwide were charged with overseeing bukatsu activities. How tough do teachers have it? Ryusuke, an English teacher in his 30s in central Japan, had until a few years ago been a devoted coach of a tennis team he was assigned to. His dedication, however, didn’t last after he realized his private life was falling apart. Aside from spending a minimum of two hours supervising the team after school, Ryusuke found himself inundated with coaching duties every weekend — sometimes up to 12 hours a day — particularly when he accompanied his team on out-of-town tournaments. On his busiest days, Ryusuke, who asked that his surname be withheld, said he did 100 hours of overtime a month or worked for 90 days straight. He barely had time to interact with his own children at home and prepare for his English class. And most of his extra work went unpaid. In general, teachers don’t get paid for the overtime they do supervising clubs on weekdays. Their weekend coaching duties are supposed to be paid. But the daily allowance typically amounts to a few thousand yen (a maximum of ¥4,000 in Ryusuke’s prefecture), far from enough to offset the expenses they incur, including purchasing training equipment and paying for transportation. “It’s almost like you’re paying to overwork,” Ryusuke said. “The way I see it, bukatsu is a serious labor issue that borders on illegal.” What steps are being taken to counter the situation? Ryusuke and five other like-minded teachers recently launched an online petition demanding a revision to the education ministry’s current guidelines so teachers can decline to supervise club activities. Today’s guidelines stipulate bukatsu is an option for students but says nothing about the obligation for teachers. This ambiguity has customarily given school principals leeway to assign rank-and-file teachers to a club activity at the beginning of each school year. Ryusuke tried to defy the tradition last year by requesting he be spared bukatsu duties, to no avail. On Thursday, the campaigners submitted 23,522 signatures to education minister Hiroshi Hase. What needs to change? The education ministry is aware of the problem surrounding overworked teachers. In proposals last summer, an advisory panel to the education minister called for outsourcing bukatsu activities. Nishijima of Tokyo Metropolitan University agrees. Even today, mothers and fathers volunteer to coach students, but the biggest challenge ahead is “how to systematically support such individuals and evaluate their coaching skills,” he said.

teachers;education;sports;schools;arts;extracurricular activities

jp0010606

2016/03/31

Man arrested after doing yoga, meditating on airplane: FBI

HONOLULU - A Japan-bound airplane returned to Hawaii because of a violent South Korean passenger who wanted to do yoga instead of sit in his seat, the FBI said. The pilot of the March 26 United Airlines flight from Honolulu International Airport to Narita International Airport turned the plane around after hearing that Hyongtae Pae was yelling at crew members and shoving his wife, the FBI said in a criminal complaint. Pae told the FBI he didn’t want to sit in his seat during the meal service, so he went to the back of the plane to do yoga and meditate. He became angry when his wife and flight attendants told him to return to his seat. “Pae pushed his wife because she was trying to make him stop,” the complaint said. “He felt that she was siding with the flight crew.” He tried to head-butt and bite Marines who were passengers on the flight who tried to force him back to his seat, Assistant U.S. Attorney Darren Ching said at Pae’s detention hearing Wednesday. According to the complaint, he threatened to kill passengers and was yelling that there is no God. Pae went into a rage because he felt the flight crew was ordering him around, Ching said. Ching said Pae shouldn’t be released because he’s a danger to his wife, himself and others. Pae urinated on himself and was on suicide watch at the Honolulu Federal Detention Center, Ching said. U.S. Magistrate Judge Kevin Chang ordered that Pae be released on $25,000 bond, but with certain conditions including not leaving the island of Oahu and undergoing a mental health evaluation. Since the arrest, Pae’s wife has been staying at the Waikiki Gateway Hotel, defense attorney Jin Tae “J.T.” Kim told the judge, who asked whether Pae had financial resources to continue staying there after his release. Kim said he’s working with the consulate to transfer more money to Pae’s wife and find alternate, temporary housing. Chang denied Kim’s request to allow Pae to return home to Korea, because that would involve getting on a plane again. Outside of court, Kim said his client is a 72-year-old retired farmer who traveled from South Korea to celebrate his 40th wedding anniversary with a Hawaii vacation. It was the couple’s first trip to Hawaii. Pae only recently took up yoga to help with anxiety, Kim said, adding that he was sleep-deprived during the vacation. Pae told the FBI he hadn’t been able to sleep in 11 days.

airlines;south korea;psychology;offbeat

jp0010607

2016/03/31

Japan's electricity shake-up gives power to the people

Japan’s electricity market receives a fundamental shake-up on Friday, with the introduction of greater competition for households and small businesses. Until now, regional utilities have monopolized supply. There will be some unfamiliar names among the new entrants, bringing with them a wide range of choices and benefits. Following are questions and answers about deregulation in the household electricity market: What does it mean for me? Consumers can now choose their electricity provider. Previously, the 10 regional utilities, including Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Kansai Electric Power Co., were the sole providers for their areas. But with deregulation, a wide range of companies can sell power. As of March 25, 266 firms had registered to become electricity providers. Consumers should benefit as providers compete on price and incentives. Users can also choose providers by the way they generate electricity, such as picking those that avoid nuclear or use renewables. How will rate plans differ? Many new players claim their rates will be lower than those charged by the regional utilities. Tokyo Gas Co., a major gas supplier in the Kanto region and one of the new electricity providers, says a household that uses 4,700 kilowatt-hours a year can save ¥8,500 a year by switching to its plan from the one offered by Tepco. There may be conditions attached. Tokyo Gas clients need to get their gas from the company to qualify for a ¥270 monthly discount. Cellphone carrier KDDI Corp. is entering the market. It will return up to 5 percent of monthly power rates in the form of electronic cash credits, but only to its cellphone subscribers . Will switching provider entail rewiring my home? No. The new suppliers will use a household’s existing power cables. However, electricity meters will be replaced, at no charge, with so-called smart meters. Is there a risk of brownouts with small providers? Basically, no. Electricity quality will not change, and if a new provider comes up short for some reason, other companies will supply power to make up for the shortage. Why are so many firms getting involved? Some operators say electricity supply is not that profitable. But it is a good chance for energy-related firms to expand their businesses, while companies in other fields see electricity provision as a way to draw customers to their core pursuits. “As an energy business operator, we always wanted to be a one-stop provider of gas and electricity,” said Kawori Koya of the Residential Sales Strategy Department at Tokyo Gas. Tokyo Gas dominates the household gas market in Kanto and is widely expected to become a strong player in the electricity market. It also provides electricity for large-scale business users, whose market is already liberalized, so it is only natural for it to enter the household market, Koya said. As consumers focus on prices and companies’ reputation in choosing their provider, she said Tokyo Gas has an edge because its rates are some of the lowest and the firm has established a name as a reliable gas provider. Tokyo Gas said that as of Feb. 24, it had about 54,000 contracts from customers waiting to jump ship from Tepco. It aims to have a 10 percent market share in Kanto by 2020. Firms whose main businesses are unrelated to power supply include KDDI and rival cellphone carrier SoftBank, railway operator Tokyu Corp. and travel agency H.I.S. Shinichiro Takiguchi, senior manager at Japan Research Institute, said these firms will use their electricity supply to promote their main businesses. “Electricity is something that everybody uses, so they can approach a wide range of customers,” Takiguchi said. Will regional utilities be able to retain their market share? Possibly. Tepco spokesman Kiyomitsu Kawamoto says while it is true the market environment has changed, Tepco sees the liberalization of the household market as an opportunity, since regional utilities will be able to sell electricity outside their boundaries. Kawamoto admits that when it comes to price, the newcomers are ahead. Utilities were required to get government approval for their rates and therefore could not set a high profit margin. They have already been lowering their prices, leaving little room for further cuts, he said. He said Tepco, which has about 20 million household customers, needs a strategy that does not focus on rates alone. Tepco has partnered with more than 15 firms to provide benefits. For example, SoftBank subscribers can receive discounts on their phone bills. As well as promoting such deals with partners, Tepco believes its customer service know-how, which the firm has built up over decades, is a strong selling point. In some countries, shaking up the market resulted in higher prices. Will this happen in Japan? Takiguchi said rates may rise: Market liberalization has started with way too many players, so prices will fall in the short term due to competition, but a lot of players will not survive and will drop out. “The competition will become weaker, and the competition to lower . . . rates will also weaken,” he said. He also said Japan’s push to boost costly renewable energy, such as solar and wind power, could lead to higher rates.

tokyo electric power co .;electricity;tokyo gas co .;market liberalization

jp0010608

2016/03/30

The onsen odyssey of the Japanese snow monkey

What would lure a monkey away from his kingdom in the snowcapped mountains and into the concrete jungle of Tokyo? A good soak, of course. That’s the premise of new cinematic commercial from Mitsubishi Estate in which we see a monkey protagonist leaving the natural hot springs of the country with only his wash bucket in hand. He catches a ride on a train to eventually emerge in Japan’s capital and reach his final destination: Tokyo Station. After asking for directions, our hot spring hero finally arrives at Otemachi Onsen. This wild macaque (called nihonzaru in Japanese) is one of the world-famous monkeys that are known to take dips in natural hot springs in Nagano Prefecture during the winter. The Jigokudani Monkey Park, located in Yamanouchi valley, has become a popular tourist spot where visitors can watch these snow monkeys bathe in peace and warmth. If the new Tokyo onsen can drive this little guy in all the way from Nagano, then it must be good. The Otemachi Onsen isn’t any regular urban bathhouse — Mitsubishi Estate was actually able to tap into natural hot spring water right in the middle of the city on a plot of land meant to be a hotel and office complex. The commercial’s scenario is very reminiscent of the classic 1980s Sony Walkman spot in which a monkey enjoys the sonic possibilities of the then “high-tech” cassette player. It seems that a monkey’s opinion is as good as anyone else’s. Seeing as 2016 is, according to the Chinese zodiac, the Year of the Monkey, the timing couldn’t be better.

youtube;monkeys;onsen;mitsubishi estate;commercials;japan pulse;hot springs

jp0010609

2016/03/30

Japan doubles overseas tourist target for 2020

With the goal of drawing 20 million inbound tourists annually by 2020 within reach four years ahead of schedule, the government announced Wednesday it will double the target to 40 million. The ambitious move came after the Japan National Tourism Organization announced in January that a record 19.73 million foreign tourists visited the country in 2015, up 47.3 percent from the previous year. Also under the new goal, which was set at a meeting of a special panel chaired by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the government said it will target ¥8 trillion in spending by overseas visitors by 2020 — more than double last year’s record ¥3.48 trillion. After the Olympics, the government’s aim is to attract 60 million foreign visitors a year by 2030 with the hope they will spend ¥15 trillion annually by that year. “Tourism is an important pillar of our country’s growth strategy, and a trump card for regional revitalization. It is also an engine to boost growth to achieve the ¥600 trillion GDP goal,” Abe said as he closed the panel meeting. “To establish a tourism-based country, I’m determined to take any political measures in advance to be fully prepared.” The new goal is “highly feasible” with the right political will and a continuous effort, tourism minister Keiichi Ishii said. To that end, the government established 10 objectives designed to revamp the country’s tourism industry. Those include opening state guest houses in Kyoto and Akasaka to the public, remodeling national parks by 2020 to provide a more “interactive” experience and strategically enhancing the landscape of major sightseeing spots. The plans also include increasing promotional efforts to attract more tourists from Europe, the United States and Australia, as well as wealthy tourists from other nations. Another key is to ease regulations such as the ban on minpaku private accommodations and to revamp the immigration process at airports through the introduction of advanced technology, according to the panel. “I believe we could successfully establish a new vision of tourism that matches the new era,” Ishii told reporters after the meeting. “I’m determined to make every effort to implement these plans.” In addition, the new goal aims to attract 24 million “repeat” overseas visitors by 2020 — about double the figure in 2015 — and 36 million by 2030. The hope is to attract 70 million foreign guests a year to stay in regional areas by 2020 as well — about 3 times more than in 2015 — and 130 million by 2030. The panel’s plan will also try to boost spending by domestic Japanese tourists to ¥21 trillion by 2020, a 5 percent increase above the average over the past five years, and to ¥22 trillion by 2030. The panel hopes to reach that goal by establishing a system that makes it easier for families to take vacations, thus creating a more constant demand for tourist-linked businesses. After the record number of visitors in 2015, the upward trend shows no signs of slowing. According to JNTO’s data, about 3.74 million people have already visited Japan during the first two month of this year, up 43.7 percent from the same period last year. The surge in the number of foreign tourists and the phenomenon known as bakugai, “explosive” shopping sprees by Chinese tourists, is a positive sign for the slumping economy. Of the record spending seen by overseas tourists in 2015, 40.8 percent was credited to Chinese visitors, according to JNTO.

tourism;foreign tourists;jnto

jp0010610

2016/03/01

Tokyo Tower, an enduring tourist landmark

Tokyo Tower may no longer be the tallest structure in Japan, nor a full-fledged broadcasting tower, as Tokyo Skytree now holds that joint title. But it is still one of the most popular places for tourists to visit and an icon of the capital, attracting about 2 million visitors annually. From the observation deck, tourists can see myriad skyscrapers below them, all neatly packed in the busy city. In the distance, when the sky is clear, Mount Fuji can be seen. The 333-meter-tall Tokyo Tower ranks 22nd in the world’s tallest towers, according to the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat. Tokyo Skytree ranks first at 634 meters. Not many know that it costs about ¥21,000 per day to light up the tower, while repainting it, a task carried out every five years, requires 34,000 liters of paint, or a stack of 18-liter paint cans piled twice the height of the red and white tower. It has also helped raise awareness of social issues. In the past, the tower was lit up in purple light in support of a campaign to eradicate violence against women, pink to raise awareness for breast cancer and blue for diabetes. Opened in 1958, Tokyo Tower will be standing for a second Olympics when the capital again hosts the games in 2020. Almost all locations expected to be used by athletes for competition during the Olympics can be observed from Tokyo Tower. A view from Tokyo Tower’s observation deck shows the taillights of cars at Akabanebashi crossing in a scene some say mirrors the tower. | SATOKO KAWASAKI A man takes a photo with his smartphone from the observation deck of Tokyo Tower in Minato Ward last Thursday. | SATOKO KAWASAKI Tourists take in the view from the observation deck of Tokyo Tower last Thursday. | SATOKO KAWASAKI Tokyo Tower is seen last Thursday from Tokyo City View, an observation deck at the Roppongi Hills complex, in Minato Ward. | SATOKO KAWASAKI

tourism;tokyo tower;2020 tokyo olympics

jp0010611

2016/03/06

Bad driver, bad!: Dog found alone in crashed semi remains mum over who was driving

MANKATO, MINNESOTA - One dog apparently has learned a new trick: how to drive a semitruck. Customers at a Minnesota gas station saw a golden Labrador retriever appear to drive the semi across a road Friday. Mankato police say the idling truck apparently was put into gear, then went through a parking lot, across the street and over a curb. The Free Press of Mankato reports a passer-by discovered the dog sitting in the driver’s seat when he jumped into the truck to stop it. David Stegora was at the store when he heard the truck smash into a tree and a parked car. He could not see the driver, but saw the dog climb up near the driver’s side. Police say the truck was taken off the road. The driver had left the unoccupied truck running in a nearby parking lot.

accidents;animals

jp0010612

2016/03/24

Author, disabilities champion Hirotada Ototake admits to adulterous affairs

In a blow that could further humiliate the scandal-tainted ruling party, disabled celebrity author and educator Hirotada Ototake, rumored to be tapped for an election run with the Liberal Democratic Party, apologized Thursday for committing adultery following a report by a tabloid magazine. “My action reported by the magazine amounts to a betrayal against my devoted wife and my supporters, and it’s absolutely unforgivable,” he said in a statement after the tabloid reported his infidelities. Ototake, with no arms and legs due to a congenital disease, had come to symbolize those with disabilities in Japan. Also in his statement, he admitted to what he described as “a sin so serious I can never fully atone for it while alive.” In the article published in Thursday’s issue of Shukan Shincho, the magazine detailed a week-long intimate trip Ototake took with a “woman in her late 20s” to Paris and Tunis from the end of last year. When confronted by the tabloid, Ototake acknowledged the woman was his mistress and that they were in a sexual relationship, explaining he initiated the affair to “seek comfort” after his marriage slipped into a rut. Ototake also revealed to the magazine that he has had inappropriate relationships with five different women in total, including the mistress in question, since his eldest son was born eight years ago. The 39-year-old shot to stardom with his 1998 memoir “Gotai Fumanzoku (No One’s Perfect)” while still an undergraduate, before carving out a diverse career as a sports journalist, elementary school teacher, actor and Tokyo education board member. Reports emerged earlier this month that he would run as a LDP-backed candidate in the summer Upper House election. His well-known pronouncement that “disabilities don’t limit one’s potential” was hailed as being in harmony with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s goal to promote “dynamic engagement of all citizens.” The revelations, however, will likely hurt his well-crafted image and undermine his chances of entering politics. Ototake’s sex scandal comes on the heels of LDP lawmaker and “paternity leave pioneer” Kensuke Miyazaki’s shock resignation in February after he admitted to engaging in an extramarital affair with a bikini model. “It’s hard to rebuild trust, but I would like to take this opportunity to do soul-searching and deal with my family matters,” Ototake said in his statement. His apology was followed by a statement by his wife saying she “shares responsibility” for her husband’s infidelity and “feels deeply sorry” for it.

ldp;scandals;upper house election;hirotada ototake

jp0010614

2016/03/24

'Black widow' likely to plead not guilty to cyanide murders

KYOTO - A woman dubbed the “black widow,” who is accused of murdering her husband and other partners with cyanide, is expected to plead not guilty to all charges in her upcoming trial, sources close to the matter said. Documents submitted by lawyers for 69-year-old defendant Chisako Kakehi indicate she will likely deny the charges of murder and attempted murder-robbery involving four men, the sources said Wednesday. The papers were presented during pretrial talks at the Kyoto District Court. A lay judge trial for the four cases will be held at the court, but the date of the first hearing has yet to be set. Kakehi has been indicted over the killings of her 75-year-old husband Isao, and common-law husbands Masanori Honda, 71, and Minoru Hioki, 75, as well as the attempted murder-robbery of 79-year-old acquaintance Toshiaki Suehiro. During questioning after her arrests, Kahehi admitted involvement in all four cases, saying she had the men take cyanide in capsule form. But her defense counsel will insist on her innocence in the trial, countering the prosecution argument on her criminal responsibility and the cause of the victims’ deaths, according to the sources. Kakehi was first arrested and then indicted in late 2014 over the murder of her husband Isao, who died at their home in Kyoto Prefecture in December 2013. They had married the previous month. She was indicted in February last year on a charge of killing Honda in March 2012 by poisoning him with a lethal dose of cyanide at a coffee shop in Osaka. According to the indictment, she also tried to kill Suehiro by having him ingest cyanide in December 2007 to avoid paying debts owed to him. He died of gastric malignant lymphoma around 18 months afterward. Last September, Kakehi was charged with murdering Hioki in September 2013 by having him take a lethal dose of cyanide at a restaurant in Hyogo Prefecture. Of more than 10 men romantically involved with or associated with Kakehi, eight are known to have died, enabling her to inherit some ¥1 billion ($8.9 million) in total, according to investigative sources.

murder;serial killer;cyanide;black widow

jp0010615

2016/03/23

Tree climber disrupts Seattle traffic

SEATTLE - Police were trying to coax a man out of a sequoia tree in downtown Seattle after he climbed nearly to the top on Tuesday, disrupting traffic. Police say someone called 911 after 11 a.m. to report a man in the conifer next to Macy’s department store. When authorities arrived, he refused to speak with them and threw an apple at medics. “Issue appears to be between the man and the tree,” Seattle police tweeted. By Tuesday afternoon, traffic was being tied up as officials closed nearby roads as a precaution. “It is quite a spectacle, honestly,” police spokesman Patrick Michaud told The Seattle Times. Michaud said police wanted to make sure the man could get down without hurting himself or someone else and added that rushing it could create a dangerous situation. Police said the man appeared to be suffering from a crisis and had been yelling intermittently. The incident attracted onlookers, and a local TV station showed the incident live all day. It also grew in popularity on social media, with new Twitter accounts dedicated to it and the hashtag #manintree trending. Negotiators on a fire truck’s ladder were still trying to talk the man down from the tree at 6 p.m. The unidentified man, appearing disheveled with a large beard, long hair and a red knit hat he dropped during the day, also ripped branches from the tree and tossed them at the ground and at negotiators, who caught many of them. Seattle Department of Transportation officials will review the health of the tree, believed to have been there since the 1970s, once the incident is resolved, police said.

u.s .;police;social media;offbeat

jp0010616

2016/03/15

Nintendo levels up smartphones with wallpapers and cases

As gamers anxiously await for the release of Nintendo’s new Miitomo app on March 17, smartphone users can level up their devices now with new wallpapers and cases from the Big N. Nintendo’s Line account Last September, Nintendo jumped into the brave new social media world by releasing its Line account . The profile features a sassy green Toad named Kinopio that will chat with you using pre-programmed messages, but that’s not its main selling point. About twice a month, the Line account will send you free wallpapers for your phone. Usually they are related to recently released games, such as “ Fire Emblem ” or “ The Legend of Zelda ,” but they have been sending out calendars as well. At the end of every month, Nintendo will send users a new calendar that features Nintendo characters celebrating upcoming holidays. They had Kinopio riding a Rudolph-inspired Yoshi in December and him throwing beans at Boos for Setsubun in February. “Super Mario Maker” wallpaper If you’re not happy with Nintendo’s wallpapers, why not create your own using “Super Mario Maker”? Inspired by Nintendo’s Wii U game, users can open up a special website and build their own “Super Mario” level in the browser . After choosing which graphics style they want (anything from 8-bit to polygons), users can download the screenshot for their computer or phone. All of the instructions are in Japanese, but the intuitive interface makes it clear what to do. Just pick computer or phone, the resolution size, and then start decorating your level with as many Goombas as you want. Phone covers Nintendo has been letting third-party companies produce phone cases for a while now, but it’s kicking it up a notch with Kirby covers. A recent line featuring the big pink puffball has a retro feel as it features him from his 8-bit days as he bounces through clouds and rides stars . If that’s not cute enough for you, gamers can also buy a variety of Pikachu and Pokémon smartphone cases and IC card holders . So whether you want to dress up your smartphone on the inside or the outside, Nintendo has you — and your phone — covered.

nintendo;apps;line;super mario;miitomo;japan pulse

jp0010617

2016/03/15

Blogger's viral tirade on day care puts Abe on back foot

An anonymous Japanese blogger’s tirade about failing to secure a day care place for her child has spurred Prime Minister Shinzo Abe into action. In a Feb. 15 blog post titled “ I couldn’t get day care — die Japan!!! ” a person claiming to be a mother said she was preparing to quit her job as she had nowhere to leave her child. “So what am I supposed to do now?” she wrote, using unusually coarse language in the post shared about 50,000 times on social media. “Give me a damn break Japan.” After initially brushing off the post, Abe has promised remedies. On Friday, he pledged to add detailed measures in legislation this spring to reduce waiting lists for day care — the figure climbed to 23,167 last April. The same day, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, which he heads, set up a task force to propose fixes, and the head of Komeito, his coalition partner, suggested using extra budget to this end. “Applications for nursery schools have increased at a pace faster than we can provide places for,” Abe said during a session of the Diet on Monday in response to one of a raft of questions throughout the day on the issue. “We will do our utmost to cut waiting lists to zero so that people can both work and raise children.” Grappling with an aging and shrinking population, Abe has made boosting women’s participation in the workforce a pillar of his economic policies. He may have decided to take action to stem a sagging support rate among women — 37 percent compared with 47 percent for men in a Mainichi newspaper poll this month — ahead of the Upper House election this summer, said Mari Miura, a professor of gender and politics at Sophia University in Tokyo. “It’s clear that Abe has little understanding of the hardships faced by working women,” Miura said. “The LDP is scrambling to ensure that this issue doesn’t blow up before the elections.” Long waiting lists at publicly run day care centers have forced many mothers to stay at home, and made women hesitant about switching jobs due to concerns they may lose places for their children. Baby-sitters aren’t widely available — and are very expensive. “While the number of day care facilities has increased, there are also more working women,” said Toshihiro Nagahama, chief economist at Dai-Ichi Life Research Institute in Tokyo. “Given how quickly the working population is projected to decrease, we need to ensure that people who want to work, but currently can’t due to child care issues, can actually work.” Unleashing the labor of that population would mean big gains for the workforce. Last year, 950,000 women cited childbirth and child care as reasons why they weren’t searching for a job, even though they had a desire to work. When first questioned about the blog post in the Diet on Feb. 29 by opposition lawmaker and working mother Shiori Yamao, Abe refused to address the issue, saying the anonymous nature of the post meant he “couldn’t verify the content.” That struck a nerve with working parents on Twitter, where people who sympathized with the blogger used a hashtag saying: “It was me who was rejected from day care.” The response to the blog spurred a protest outside the Diet on March 5. Nearly 30,000 people have signed a petition on change.org for the government to reduce waiting lists by improving working conditions for day care workers — a separate blog highlighting the sector’s meager pay was also picked up by the mainstream media. A day care worker makes about ¥214,200 ($1,880) per month, compared with the average across sectors of ¥325,600. Legislation to raise salary subsidies may help attract more workers to the industry or at least stop people from quitting. A survey of 31,550 child-care workers conducted by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government between 2008 and 2013 showed 1 in 5 workers was considering quitting, citing low pay as the top reason.

shinzo abe;women;day care;workforce

jp0010620

2016/03/14

How a U.N. committee riled Japan with its criticism of women's rights

Recent recommendations issued to Japan by the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women sparked a sharp response from Tokyo. The U.N. body touched on several politically sensitive issues, including that of the so-called “comfort women” forced to serve troops during World War II. Below, we look at what the committee does and the accusations it leveled at Japan. What is the committee? The committee monitors implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which was adopted at the 34th United Nations General Assembly in 1979. In total 189 countries have signed the convention. Japan joined in 1985. The committee consists of 23 independent experts on women’s issues who convene about three times a year to track progress by member states in meeting the convention’s requirements. The committee is chaired by Japanese women’s rights lawyer Yoko Hayashi, who was elected to the post in February last year. What is the reviews process? About six or seven states party to the convention are reviewed every time the committee meets. At the session that took place between Feb. 15 to March 4, the committee examined eight countries, including Japan. Party states are obliged to submit a report every four years. The country under review must answer preliminary questions in writing before it attends the committee meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. A task force within the committee is set up to review each country, and the committee produces a final report based on the discussion. What was said about Japan? The committee did recognize Japan’s efforts toward better working conditions for women, but it urged the nation to make changes in several areas, especially those related to parenthood. For one, the committee pointed out that the now-defunct Eugenic Protection Act forced persons with disabilities into sterilization. It said approximately 16,500 cases of sterilization were conducted without consent, noting that Japan made no efforts to compensate victims — and nor did it apologize. The report recommended that Japan conduct a study on the forced sterilizations and prosecute and punish those who conducted them. The U.N. Commission on Human Rights also pointed to this issue back in 1998, but Tokyo has taken no action to remedy it, as the program was allowed under the law of the time. Tomoko Yonezu, a member of DPI Women’s Network Japan, which advocates for the rights of women with disabilities, said the recommendation represents pressure on the Japanese government and is a big step forward. “Some women with disabilities are still asked if they really want to have babies and are even advised to have abortions,” said Yonezu, 67, who suffered from polio. “Some Japanese people still harbor a bias against disabled people, and think they should not have children.” The U.N. body also expressed concerns that Japan prohibits women from remarrying immediately after divorce, but not men. The Supreme Court last December ruled that the six-month ban is unconstitutional. In the wake of that decision, women still must wait 100 days to remarry. The U.N. also urged Japan to amend the Maternal Protection Act to “ensure the legality of abortion.” Under the current law, abortion can only be conducted with spousal consent, even if the pregnancy is a result of rape, or if the economic or physical conditions would gravely endanger the mother’s health. The U.N. urged Japan to remove the requirement of spousal consent and ensure that abortion can be allowed in case of serious fetal impairment. How did the government react? The recommendation this year touched on several politically sensitive areas. Especially controversial were the commission’s comments on the agreement reached between Tokyo and Seoul last December over comfort women: It criticized the deal for not fully adopting a “victim-centered approach.” The report went on to say that some of the victims died “without obtaining an official unequivocal recognition of responsibility” from Japan for the “serious human rights violations that they suffered,” and urged Japan to “provide full and effective redress and reparation, including compensation, satisfaction, official apologies and rehabilitative services.” Under the bilateral accord, Seoul is to set up a foundation to which Tokyo will provide ¥1 billion in a fund for surviving victims. Additionally, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed his “most sincere apologies and remorse” to all the women. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that the U.N. criticism is “deplorable and unacceptable.” He also holds that the concluding observations are far from the perception of the international community, and said the criticism missed the point. A high-ranking government official said Japan had worked hard to build consensus around the issue. He added, he suspects that the mention of the comfort women was politically motivated, as the task force that reviewed Japan was headed by Xiaoqaio Zou, a Chinese committee member. Tokyo was also unnerved by the committee’s initial intention to criticize the 1947 Imperial Household Law, which only allows a male to succeed the Chrysanthemum throne. The government lodged a protest with the committee, which later removed the criticism. Abe on Monday restated criticism of the matter, saying the Imperial household system, rooted in the county’s history and traditions, has long been supported by the public. “It is obvious that (the law) does not intent to discriminate against women,” Abe said at a meeting of an Upper House committee. He said the move by the U.N. committee was “totally inappropriate.”

women;discrimination;un;q & a

jp0010621

2016/03/14

The centuries-old charm of Japan's cherry blossoms

The time of year much awaited by many people across the country is finally near: the blooming period of the nation’s beloved sakura (cherry blossoms). Numerous people plan hanami (cherry-blossom viewing) under the trees, one of the biggest spring events on the Japanese calendar. But when did people first start cherishing sakura? And when and how did they start gathering for viewing parties under the trees? Following are questions and answers about sakura and hanami: What does hanami mean? Hana literally means “flowers” in Japanese, and mi means “viewing.” But when the two terms are combined, it usually means cherry-blossom viewing, indicating cherry blossoms have been adored for centuries. Until the Nara Period (710-794), the nation’s most favorite flower was ume (Japanese apricot), most likely because of a strong cultural influence at that time from China, where ume originated. But in the Heian Period (794-1185), sakura became more popular among Japanese aristocrats. Many experts link this transition to the 894 abolition of Kentoshi, Japan’s official delegations to China. The abolition cut off Japan from Chinese influence and helped people cultivate their own culture based on the local climate and nature, they say. After the mid-Heian Period, “the flower” mentioned in poems usually referred to sakura, even if it wasn’t stated explicitly, according to Yozaburo Shirahata, professor of comparative culture studies at Chubu University who published the book “Hanami to Sakura” (“Hanami and Cherry Blossoms”) in 2000. Did the Heian Period have hanami parties similar to now? No. During the Heian Period, hanami was an elegant custom among the well-educated aristocracy only and did not involve crowds eating and drinking under cherry trees. In 1598, the warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi held an extravagant hamani party at Daigoji Temple in Kyoto for feudal lords and their followers, but the practice had yet to spread to the common people. According to Shirahata, today’s hanami parties are characterized by three elements: crowds, food and drinks, and a large number of sakura trees. Today’s hanami parties trace their roots to after the mid-1600s in Edo, today’s Tokyo. One of the earliest hanami venues was Ueno of today’s Taito Ward, which is still a very popular place with numerous sakura trees. How did hanami become popular with nonaristocrats? During the Edo Period (1603-1868), Japan enjoyed freedom from warfare at home and abroad for more than two centuries. This allowed common people, in particular those living in Edo, to nurture a rich culture of their own. Edo was the capital of the Tokugawa shogunate. Tokugawa Yoshimune (1684-1751), the eighth shogun, planted numerous sakura trees and created several hanami venues in Edo for common people to enjoy. This, too, greatly helped spread the hanami practice among the public, Shirahata wrote in his book. Among the Edo hanami sites Yoshimune created were those in Asukayama, Mukojima, Gotenyama and Koganei. Some of those places are still among the most popular hanami spots in Tokyo today. Are we seeing descendants of the Edo Period cherry trees? Probably not. Until the end of the Edo Period, people viewed various cherry blossom varieties, including yamazakura , edohigan and kanhizakura . But after the someiyoshino hybrid was artificially created, probably in the late Edo Period or early Meiji Era (1868-1912), the variety has become extremely popular in Japan thanks to its beautiful, slightly-pinkish blossoms. Someiyoshino now probably accounts for 70 to 80 percent of all sakura trees in Japan, according to Toshiki Sato, professor at the University of Tokyo who published the book “Sakura ga Tsukutta Nippon” (“A Japan Created by Cherry Blossoms”) in 2005. All someiyoshino trees are planted using a technique called tsugiki (grafting). This means all existing someiyoshino trees have identical DNA, the exact reason most sakura in Japan blossom, then subsequently fall, almost simultaneously. This synchronization makes the scenery of cherry blossoms even more stunning, probably another reason someiyoshino are dominant in Japan. When can we see sakura in Tokyo and elsewhere this year? According to the “cherry-blossom front” forecast released by the Japan Weather Association on March 9, someiyoshino start blooming in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward on March 21, and will be in full bloom about a week later. Elsewhere, the cities of Fukuoka and Nagoya will see the first blooms on March 22, Yokohama on March 23, and Osaka, Kyoto, Nara and Kobe on March 25. Hirosaki of Aomori Prefecture, known for beautiful cherry trees in Hirosaki Park, will see this year’s first bloom of someiyoshino on April 20, with blooms in Sapporo expected on May 2.

sakura;cherry blossoms;hanami

jp0010622

2016/03/22

New York state funeral home under investigation after wrong woman is cremated

NEW YORK - New York state officials are investigating after a funeral home put the wrong body in the casket for an 81-year-old woman’s viewing and subsequent cremation. The family of Val-Jean McDonald noticed something was different with her appearance during her open-casket viewing in December but thought it might have to do with her long bout with cancer. “Why did they cut off all her hair?” son Errol McDonald remembers thinking. “Maybe it’s the cancer.” “We all did a double-take,” said Richard McDonald, another son. “We thought something happened, and this is the best they could do.” But some of McDonald’s grandchildren were not convinced. “My 10-year-old son said, ‘Daddy, that’s not Grandma,’ ” Errol said. Another son, Darryl, said McCall’s Bronxwood Funeral Home did not realize its mistake until it came time to find the other woman, The New York Times reported. The owner of the funeral home declined to comment on the case but said they have had a stellar record over 50 years in business.

u.s .;death;offbeat

jp0010623

2016/03/25

North Carolina man arrested over rented VHS tape 14 years overdue

CHICAGO - A wanted North Carolina man was arrested this week on charges he failed to return a VHS tape to a video store 14 years ago, police said on Thursday. James Meyers, 37, of Concord, was driving his daughter to school when he was pulled over by police for a broken brake light, according to a video Meyers posted on YouTube on Tuesday. Meyers said officers ran his driver’s license and told him he had an outstanding arrest warrant for not returning a movie to J&J Video in Salisbury, North Carolina. “The guy brings me to the back of the car and he goes: ‘Sir, I don’t know how to tell you this, but there’s a warrant out for your arrest from 2002. Apparently you rented a movie, “Freddy Got Fingered” and you never returned it,’ ” Meyers said in the video, appearing dumbfounded. The Concord Police Department confirmed the arrest in a statement on Thursday, saying the warrant was issued on Feb. 28, 2002, by the now closed video store and signed by a magistrate. Police said instead of arresting Meyers at the scene, they allowed him to go to the police department later in the day to be served the warrant. Police then took Meyers in handcuffs to the Cabarrus County Magistrates Office. He is required to appear in court on a misdemeanor charge of failure to return hired property, police said. Meyers is scheduled to appear in court on April 27, local media reported. Meyers could not be reached for comment on Thursday. Comedian Tom Green, star of the 2001 film “Freddy Got Fingered,” tweeted on Wednesday night: “I just saw this and I am struggling to believe it is real.”

film;police;theft;offbeat

jp0010624

2016/03/25

Seattle tree-sitter booked into jail

SEATTLE - A man who transfixed Seattle and the Internet by perching near the top of an 80-foot (24-meter) tree in the city for more than a day has been booked into jail for investigation of malicious mischief. Seattle police on Thursday identified the man as 28-year-old Cody Lee Miller. He climbed near the top of the tree on Tuesday and stayed for about 25 hours, ignoring police efforts to coax him down. He finally clambered down around midday Wednesday. Officials say he was taken to a hospital and received physical and mental evaluations. He stripped branches off the tree and at times threw aples and branches toward officers.

u.s .;police;social media;psychology;seattle;offbeat

jp0010626

2016/04/04

Wild-card topics may trump main agenda in coming Mie G-7 summit

On May 26 and 27, the leaders of Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Canada, along with the presidents of the European Council and European Commission, will attend the annual Group of Seven leaders’ summit in the Ise-Shima district of Mie Prefecture. Prior to that, a number of G-7 ministerial-level summits, including foreign, energy, and finance ministers’ meetings, will be held in other cities around Japan. The talks, especially the leaders’ summit, are expected to focus on broad long-term international political, social, and economic issues, as well as specific political and economic issues of more immediate concern to the G-7 members. What are the key agenda items for the Ise-Shima summit? Expected to be discussed are general issues such as the state of the world economy, climate change and energy, as well as sustainable development in developing countries. These issues have formed the basis of many G-7 meetings over the past decade or so. The discussions on energy, and especially climate change, will be of importance as the timing will be six months after a major climate change conference in Paris laid out a new international strategy for dealing with rising greenhouse gases. It will also be the first G-7 summit since the adoption last year by the United Nations of a 2030 agenda for sustainable development. Empowering women through education will also be a focus of talks. What might be added to the general agenda? Responding to international terrorist threats, especially in the wake of the recent attacks in Brussels and Paris, dealing with the Syrian refugee crisis and the situation in North Korea are expected to be discussed in the meetings. A specific political or economic crisis somewhere else in the world just prior to the summit could also prompt some sort of statement or discussion. Are there particular issues that Japan, as G-7 host, wants to emphasize? The issue of universal health care, especially in developing countries, is something Japan has been promoting, and is expected to draw attention to. The issue is based on the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in September last year. On another health-related issue, pandemics, particularly concerns over the spread of the Zika virus in Brazil, may be discussed. What kinds of issues will NGOs involved with the summit be emphasizing? From human rights to climate change to universal health care, NGOs have compiled a variety of wish lists they hope the leaders will address. At last year’s summit, G-7 leaders addressed the issue of business and human rights by supporting the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. The leaders also stressed the need to identify and prevent human rights risks, especially for women, and strengthen worker grievance mechanisms, urging the private sector to implement due diligence. However, although Japan helped make these commitments last year, they have not been included, so far, in Tokyo’s proposed agenda for the Ise-Shima summit, creating concern among domestic and international human rights groups. This has led to calls for the G-7 to create legal requirements for companies to implement human rights due diligence in accordance with the highest international human rights and environmental standards. On health care, NGOs are calling for governments and administrative institutions to take steps to assure the right of access to health care for everyone, and that the G-7 commit to funding universal health care. It’s also possible the World Bank, with G-7 financing, will launch the Pandemic Emergency Financing Facility at the summit. This would be used in the event of a global health crisis. While many details are still lacking, NGOs are calling on political leaders to ensure that, when setting up the funds, civil society groups in different countries and regions are involved. Finally, there are calls on the G-7 nations to help empower women by ensuring fair pay and equal treatment for male and female domestic workers. In particular, the NGOs note, Japan needs to make such assurances in light of its discussions to bring in foreign domestic workers from other parts of Asia. What other issues might arise before, during, or right after the summit? Much attention over the coming days and weeks in Japan will be on whether U.S. President Barack Obama might visit Hiroshima right before or after the summit, and if he does go what, if anything, he would say. As the Ise-Shima summit is Obama’s last major G-7 event, there will no doubt be great interest, if not concern, expressed behind the scenes by the world leaders about Republican Party front-runner candidate Donald Trump winning the November presidential election, and questions for Obama about what direction the U.S. would take if Democratic Party front-runner Hillary Clinton wins the nomination, and then the presidency. For Abe, a successful summit, where he is seen at home as a statesman who has the full support of other G-7 leaders, especially on his economic policies, is of paramount importance as he and the ruling coalition head into July’s Upper House, and possibly Lower House, elections. On a practical level, how will the summit affect people who live in Japan? Security in and around the main airports such as Narita, Chubu and Kansai is likely to tighten over coming weeks. On the days just before the summit, be prepared, especially if you look foreign to Japanese police, to be stopped and asked for identification after you pass through customs and immigration. If you are planning a trip to Mie Prefecture, security could be extra tight and it may be impossible to book hotel rooms for most of May.

shinzo abe;barack obama;mie;ise-shima summit

jp0010627

2016/04/05

Tokyo temple's beckoning cats keep visitors purring in

A five-minute walk from Miyanosaka Station on the Tokyu Setagaya Line, Gotokuji Temple in Tokyo’s Setagaya Ward offers a fun sight for visitors. By a path leading to the main temple sit a huge number of bright white cat figures placed around a statue of Kannon, the goddess of mercy. Many tourists visit just to take photos. These are maneki neko , beckoning cats, figures that are believed to bring good luck and are said to have originated at the temple. Legend has it that during the Edo Period, a chief priest at the temple, had a cat he cared for very much. One day, feudal lord Ii Naotaka passed by with his servants and saw the cat, which appeared to be waving at him to come inside. Curious, they entered and were greeted by the priest. As the priest served them tea and offered a sermon, a thunderstorm broke outside. Grateful to the cat and the priest, Ii later donated rice crops and land to the then-poor temple, elevating it to prosperity. The temple became a designated cemetery for the Ii family, whose members served in central roles in the Tokugawa shogunate. Today, the cats are a symbol of the area. Many maneki neko goods are available in local shops, and feline figures dotted around the neighborhood make it a lovely place to walk. Maneki neko cat ornaments are arranged at Gotokuji Temple in Tokyo’s Setagaya Ward on March 12. | YOSHIAKI MIURA French tourist Camille Peiret, 19, visits Gotokuji Temple in Tokyo’s Setagaya Ward on March 12 to see the maneki neko (beckoning cat) figures. | YOSHIAKI MIURA ‘Arigato’ (‘thank you’) is written in the eyes of a maneki neko (beckoning cat) figure displayed at Gotokuji Temple in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo, on March 12. | YOSHIAKI MIURA Wooden prayer tablets decorated with images of a beckoning cat and a monkey, this year’s Chinese zodiac symbol, are displayed at Gotokuji Temple in Tokyo’s Setagaya Ward on March 12. | YOSHIAKI MIURA Cookies and Japanese confectionery shaped like maneki neko (beckoning cat) figures are sold at a shop on March 12 in Setagaya Ward, Tokyo. | YOSHIAKI MIURA A maneki neko (beckoning cat) figure is displayed in the window of a store near Gotokuji Temple in Tokyo’s Setagaya Ward on March 12. | YOSHIAKI MIURA

tourism;maneki neko;gotokuji temple

jp0010628

2016/04/02

The drug problem that keeps getting older

Former pro baseball player Kazuhiro Kiyohara was released from police custody on ¥5 million bail last month following his arrest and subsequent indictment for alleged possession and use of stimulant drugs. It’s a sad fall from grace but Kiyohara’s been in freefall for sometime. The media frenzy surrounding his release was astonishing, with more than 100 photographers and up to five helicopters trying to capture an image of the former Seibu Lions and Yomiuri Giants slugger leaving the Metropolitan Police Department in Tokyo by car. In many ways, Kiyohara’s arrest wasn’t a complete surprise. Shukan Bunshun, the country’s leading weekly magazine, had reported on his alleged addiction as early as March 2014. Some believe this initial report even sparked the police investigation. As usual, there was plenty of hand-wringing over the affair. Most of the conversation was predictable, but a commentator called “Toshi” posted some poignant remarks on the ironna.jp news blog. “Why did he get involved in drugs?” Toshi asked. “Because he’s stupid. Because he spent his whole life immersed in baseball with education being a secondary thing. Because he never received proper education as a person. People from the Showa Era, like me, all remember a time when players from high schools famous for baseball once walked through the town like they owned it. They were a bunch of low-level gangsters.” Toshi’s concluding remark carries a certain amount of truth, because Kiyohara allegedly purchased his drugs from a gang member (although he has yet to name anyone). Gangs are the primary dealers and users of stimulant drugs in Japan. According to statistics compiled by the National Police Agency, members of organized crime groups accounted for 55 percent of the 10,958 people who were arrested for offenses related to stimulant drugs in 2014. The slang term for stimulant drugs is shabu . The term comes from the verb “ shaburu ,” or “to suck upon,” which refers to the thirstiness that meth users often describe and is also a play on a Japanese phrase that means “being sucked to the bone” — basically stripped of everything you have. The drug is highly addictive, with users building up a tolerance to it before they eventually experience extreme delusions, paranoia and hallucinations. However, stimulant drugs weren’t always illegal. According to a 2005 Mainichi Shimbun article, they were sold over the counter at pharmacies during and after World War II. Government-sanctioned production of stimulant drugs began in 1943 and continued until 1950; they were sold both in capsules and in liquid form (for injection). During the war, soldiers allegedly used the drugs to overcome their fear of death and deal with fatigue. Some veterans say they were distributed as part of their military rations. On a side note, the brand name on the officially sanctioned stimulant drug, Hiropon, was allegedly derived from a play on the words “ hirō ,” or fatigue, and “ pon ,” a mimetic word for something flying away. In other words, “Your fatigue will fly away with Hiropon.” Even today, the brand name lives on in slang used by addicts who refer to their addiction as “ pon-chū ” — a combination of chūdoku (addiction) and Hiropon. It became clear a few years after the war that Hiropon had terrible side-effects, and the government effectively banned usage and possession in 1951. Gangs immediately took up the slack and began selling stimulant drugs on the black market, a service that is believed to have continued to this day. Thankfully, it’s not all bad news. Nikkan Spa recently reported that stimulant drug use is declining in Japan, especially among youth. In 2014, 56 percent of the number of people arrested for stimulant drugs were older than 40, while those in their 20s accounted for just 13 percent. A retired detective from the Metropolitan Police Department who spent most of his career investigating gang members or drug addicts notes that young people these days appear to be learning from the mistakes of older generations. “Kiyohara exhibited weird behavior long before his arrest and eventually almost all addicts reach a point where they can’t function normally,” the detective says, insisting on anonymity. “Kids have realized that stimulant drugs just aren’t cool — they’re dangerous. What’s more, no sane person wants to catch hepatitis by sharing needles with other users.” Yes, Japan may be aging but at least the county’s youth appear to be getting smarter and, for that, we can almost thank alleged high-profile drug users such as Kiyohara for setting an example few want to follow.

yakuza;organized crime;addiction;kazuhiro kiyohara;stimulant drugs

jp0010629

2016/04/02

Munitions orders grow; Japan, Soviet Union sign neutrality treaty; Metric system enforced; Public asked to accept gulf mission

100 YEARS AGO Tuesday, April 25, 1916 Munitions orders from Allied nations grow Orders for munitions continue to come in from the Allied countries engaged in combatting Germany, and factories in Japan are now busily engaged in the manufacture of supplies. The total value of munitions to be manufactured in the military arsenals during the year is estimated at 80 million yen, and that in the naval arsenals at 20 million yen. If the orders taken up by private concerns are added to the above figure, it makes a grand total of 120 million yen. Besides these, there are the latest orders received from Russia for 30 million yen worth of woollen cloth and 20 million yen worth of shoes and boots to be delivered by March next year. The total proceeds for this year from the sale and manufacturer of arms and ammunition, together with those from the sale of warships, will thus come up to as much as 175 million yen. 75 YEARS AGO Monday, April 14, 1941 Japan, Soviet Union sign neutrality treaty An event of the highest significance for the future peace of East Asia and the world took place yesterday afternoon at Moscow with the signing of a Neutrality Pact between Japan and the Soviet Union. By the treaty, the two nations mutually agreed to observe strict neutrality in case either is subject to attack by one or more third powers. The treaty is to be continued for five years and on expiration of the period, it will automatically be extended 5 more years in case neither of the parties signify their intention of abrogating the agreement one year beforehand. Another important highlight was the fact that immediately after the signing, the two nations issued a joint declaration whereby Japan agreed to respect the territorial integrity of Outer Mongolia, while the Soviet Union on their part agreed to respect the inviolability of the Manchoukuo Empire. It should be noted that this commitment is a virtual recognition of the state by the Soviets. Representing Japan at the signing was Foreign Minister Yosuke Matsuoka, while the People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Viacheslav Molotov represented the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union eventually declared war on Japan on Aug. 8, 1945 and invaded Manchoukuo, arguably in violation of the 1941 pact, which required the giving of one year’s notice for withdrawal. 50 YEARS AGO Friday, April 1, 1966 Metric system goes into effect nationwide Today the metric system will be enforced in all aspects of Japanese life. The metric system was put into effect on Jan. 1, 1959, but a period of grace was provided for its enforcement in the areas of real estate and house building up to March 31 this year. From 1959 on, the Japanese have been using the metric system for almost all other things. A housewife today buys rice by the kilogram and soy sauce by the liter. Japan was first exposed to the metric system in 1891 when she acceded to the International Convention on the Metric System of 1875. As of that time, however, the metric system was made legal alongside the traditional weights and measures known as the shakkan system ( shaku for length and kan for weight). With the introduction in 1909 of the British yard-pound system, weights and measures came to be expressed in three different systems in Japan, much to the complication of national life. The coexistence of these systems had no serious consequence until World War I, when the Army found some shells made to British specifications did not fit their cannons, whose calibers were measured by the centimeter. In 1921, the weights and measures law was revised to make the metric system the only official one. But implementation of the new system was postponed due to lack of adequate preparation in 1924 and 1934. In 1938 it was postponed again because it was seen as being “foreign and, therefore, to be rejected.” Eventually, a 1951 law provided for implementation in 1959, with a period of grace till March 1966 for land and buildings because of Japan’s unique modular system of building. Here, every house is planned according to the modules of shaku, ken and tsubo. A ken, the very basis of all other modules, is the length of the Japanese tatami and all the sliding doors. When building a house, a carpenter buys lumber which is also measured to these standard sizes to minimize waste. In spite of the law that goes into full force today, it seems unlikely that tatami makers will alter their ways. Without shaku as units, they feel, it would be impossible to make tatami. 25 YEARS AGO Thursday, April 25, 1991 Public asked to accept ships’ gulf mission Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu sought public support Wednesday for the government’s decision to send minesweepers to the Persian Gulf, saying they are going for “peaceful and humanitarian” purposes. Kaifu said in a news conference that helping secure safe passage for ships in the gulf will contribute to postwar reconstruction efforts in nations hit by the gulf crisis. At the same time, he said, Japan depends heavily on the gulf for its crude oil needs, and cooperation in the minesweeping operation will be “vital” to maintain the present livelihood of its citizens. Four minesweepers, the Yurishima, the Hikoshima, the Awashima and the Sakushima, will sail for the gulf on Friday. In the news conference, Kaifu defended the deployment, saying the mission was possible under Article 99 of the SDF Law. He also stressed that the step is aimed at helping secure safe passage for Japanese and other nations’ ships in the gulf and will not violate Article 9 of the Constitution, which bans the use or threat of force as a means of resolving conflicts.

germany;iraq;soviet union;wwi;toshiki kaifu;gulf war;metric system

jp0010630

2016/04/20

Comic-style poster warns Chinese of foreign spies with more than love on their agendas

BEIJING - China is marking National Security Education Day with a poster warning young female government workers about dating handsome foreigners, who could turn out to have secret agendas. Titled “Dangerous Love,” the 16-panel, comic book-like poster tells the story of an attractive young Chinese civil servant nicknamed Xiao Li, or Little Li, who meets a red-headed foreign man at a dinner party and starts a relationship. The man, David, claims to be a visiting scholar, but he actually is a foreign spy who butters Xiao Li up with compliments on her beauty, bouquets of roses, fancy dinners and romantic walks in the park. After Xiao Li provides David with secret internal documents from her job at a government propaganda office, the two are arrested. In one of the poster’s final panels, Xiao Li is shown sitting handcuffed before two policemen, who tell her that she has a “shallow understanding of secrecy for a state employee.” The poster has appeared on local government public bulletin boards, targeting mainly rank-and-file state employees. A Beijing district government said in a statement that it will display the poster to educate its employees about keeping classified information confidential and reporting to state security agencies if they spot any spying activity. It said it will familiarize employees with ways to counter espionage. The central government’s inaugural National Security Education Day, last Friday, was meant to make people aware about security problems in China, and was marked by speeches and the distribution of materials.

china;espionage;offbeat

jp0010631

2016/04/18

U.S. big biz invested in South increasingly slamming states' anti-LGBT initiatives

ATLANTA - Major corporations invested in Southern states have become some of the staunchest opponents of bills they consider discriminatory, facing off against Republican lawmakers eager to portray their states as the best home for global brands. The NFL, Apple and other behemoths have cajoled Republicans into rejecting or softening bills in recent years that supporters say protect people who oppose same-sex marriage on religious grounds. Companies are speaking up loudly again this year in states where such bills have been proposed as part of a backlash to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that effectively legalized gay marriage. “As a company that is committed to the principle that everyone deserves to live without fear of discrimination simply for being who they are, becoming an employer in North Carolina, where members of our teams will not have equal rights under the law, is simply untenable,” California-based PayPal CEO Dan Schulman said in a statement last week ending plans to hire 400 people for a new operations center in Charlotte. The decision is among the largest tangible effects of a new North Carolina law overruling LGBT anti-discrimination measures passed by local governments. Watchers of corporate America’s approach to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues said such public statements are only one way companies have been supportive, pointing to several years of efforts to win over LGBT employees and customers. CEOs sometimes take the lead, as in 2013 when Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz told a shareholder who believed the company’s pro-gay marriage position hurt profits: “Not every decision is an economic decision.” Some companies have gone beyond what’s required by state or federal law for equal employment policies and benefits. The Corporate Equality Index survey conducted by the Human Rights Campaign, which has graded companies’ environment for LGBT employees since 2002, gave 13 companies a perfect score that first year. This year’s survey reported 407 companies hit that mark. When Cindy Armine-Klein joined the payment technology company First Data in 2014, the firm had recently scored below 50 on the survey. CEO Frank Bisignano told Armine-Klein when she was hired as chief control officer that year to prioritize creation of LGBT programs. Since then, the company has added coverage of domestic partners to employee benefits, included gender identity in its anti-discrimination policies and created a group to connect LGBT employees around the country. When a bill shielding opponents of same-sex marriage cleared the Georgia legislature this year, concerns quickly reached executives through that network. The firm, headquartered in Atlanta, joined about 500 others opposing the bill. Bisignano made a personal call to thank Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal following his veto of the measure. “When you have the opportunity to bring your whole self to work, that creates happy, active, creative employees,” said Armine-Klein, who married her wife in 2011. “That is good for the employee; that is good for us as a company; that is good for our clients.” But firms also want to be on equal footing with competitors. Nearly 400 companies last March signed on to a court document filed with the U.S. Supreme Court during its review of several states’ gay marriage bans, three months before the justices effectively legalized the unions. Attorneys representing the broad coalition of companies, from online retailer Amazon to video game developer Zynga, wrote the “fractured legal landscape” of differing state policies on marriage harmed the companies’ ability to operate across state lines. M.V. Lee Badgett, an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst with a focus on LGBT issues, said companies have made the same argument about proposals moving through state legislatures this year. “The patchwork of laws on marriage wasn’t working for them,” Badgett said. “Now we’re looking at a new patchwork developing. That’s not going to work for them, either.” Prospective employees or current workers offered promotions may turn them down if they have to relocate to a state where laws aren’t considered LGBT-friendly, said Steve Bucherati, who retired in 2015 after more than a decade as Coca-Cola’s chief diversity officer. “Bluntly, companies exist to make money for share-owners,” he said. “And you can make more money for your share-owners if you can attract, develop and retain the best employees.” The pushback to bills proposed in several Southern states retreads ground from a 2014 Arizona clash. That state’s legislature approved a bill allowing business owners with strongly held religious beliefs to deny service to gays and lesbians. American Airlines and Apple joined with state business groups to oppose the measure, while the NFL said it would reconsider selecting Arizona to host the next Super Bowl. Days later, then-Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, said the bill “could divide Arizona in ways we cannot even imagine” and vetoed it. The pressure can run both ways. Conservative organizations including the American Family Association have urged people to cancel their PayPal accounts because of its opposition to the North Carolina law. And the Faith and Freedom Coalition, a conservative Christian organization, is asking supporters to write letters to companies opposing the law. In Georgia, a state senator said he won’t buy tickets to or watch any Atlanta Braves baseball games this year because the team “opposed modest religious freedom laws.” The Braves joined around 500 other companies, including the NFL, Walt Disney Co. and Marvel Studios, in opposing the Georgia bill. In 2012, Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy drew rebukes from gay rights advocates when he said he supports a “biblical definition of family.” But the result was an outpouring of support for the Georgia-based company from conservatives, who helped set a single-day sales record by visiting the chain’s locations on a “Chick-fil-A day” organized by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, an outspoken evangelical. Since then, though, the company has steered clear of such debates and has not commented on LGBT-related legislation in Georgia or elsewhere. “In a perfect world, a company would want its stance to be the same as its customers,” said Brandon Smith, a consultant on workplace environment and a professor at Emory University. “But if you’re a Coca-Cola, that’s impossible. They instead try to be very sensitive to anything that might be alienating. Their general play is always going to be toward acceptance.”

u.s .;apple;lgbt;republicans;amazon;coca-cola;south

jp0010632

2016/04/18

Child welfare centers overworked but efforts afoot to ease the strain

Whenever a fatal child abuse case makes headlines, child consultation centers often come under fire for failing to take steps to prevent the death. The centers, however, are having increasing difficulty handling the surging number of calls by people alerting them to suspected child abuse. And when they are told in advance, a shortage of staff means child welfare officials are sometimes unable to focus on serious cases that need immediate help, experts say. Here are questions and answers on the expanding role of child consultation centers and recent moves by the government to address growing caseloads: What are child consultation centers? They are governmental institutions that assist in dealing with issues faced by families with children aged under 18. Initially set up in 1948 during the postwar turmoil to protect war orphans, today the centers deal with a variety of child welfare issues, including abuse, health problems, physical and intellectual disabilities, and truancy. When deemed necessary, center staff carry out investigations and can take children into temporary protective custody. The centers can obtain court permission to break in if parents refuse them entry into a home. Under the child welfare law, each prefecture and ordinance-designated major city must have at least one child consultation center. As of April 1 last year, there were 208 centers nationwide. How many child abuse cases have the centers handled? The number has increased every year since the welfare ministry started counting in fiscal 1990. In fiscal 2014, there were a record 88,931 cases, up 20.5 percent from 73,802 in fiscal 2013, according to the ministry. Compared to the 11,631 cases in 1999, the number surged by more than sevenfold in 15 years. Meanwhile, the number of child welfare caseworkers increased only 2.3-fold over 15 years, from 1,230 in 1999 to 2,829 in 2014. In fiscal 2013, 69 children died at the hands of abusive parents, including 33 cases where parents killed their children before killing themselves, ministry data showed. Among the victims, 16, or 44.4 percent, were aged under 1. Welfare center officials who handled the fatal cases each took on an average of 109 cases in fiscal 2013, including 65 cases of child abuse. What is behind the sharp increase in cases? The surge is attributed to various factors, including an expanding definition of child abuse and greater awareness by people who suspect abuse is occurring and notify officials after seeing news reports of fatal abuse cases, experts say. Also, with the enactment of the child abuse prevention law in 2000, people are obliged to alert authorities when they suspect children are being abused. Following a series of revisions to the law and ministry guidelines, the definition of child abuse that consultation centers must deal with include physical and sexual abuse, neglect as well as psychological abuse, including the effect on children of witnessing domestic violence or siblings being abused. Cases may rise after the welfare ministry set up a new 24-hour phone line last July to take calls from victims as well as alerts to suspected abuse cases. What actions do the centers take if they are alerted to suspected child abuse? Welfare officials are required to call families within 48 hours after receiving a report. This may mean officials have to give up holidays until they are able to meet a family face to face. After the meeting, they assess what level of support a family needs. If deemed necessary, children will be separated from parents and placed in the centers’ temporary shelters. During that time, officials counsel the parents to help them prepare to reunite with their children and rebuild relations. While some children eventually return home, others enter child welfare facilities or live with foster families. What measures are being taken to improve the situation? The government plans to beef up the authority and function of the child consultation centers as well as increase their numbers by amending the child welfare law and the child abuse prevention law. Under the bill, submitted to the current Diet session last month, the procedures for inspecting households where children are allegedly being abused will be simplified. The amendments will also allow the 23 wards in Tokyo to set up their own child consultation centers. Under the current law, only prefectural governments and major cities can set up the centers. Also, centers will be able to focus more on urgent cases, and ask local governments to handle less serious situations. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration hopes to get the bill passed by the June 1 end of the current Diet session, aiming for the law to take effect in fiscal 2017.

children;abuse;child abuse;welfare centers

jp0010633

2016/04/18

Questions and answers: The Kumamoto earthquakes

The series of huge earthquakes and aftershocks that have been rattling wide parts of Kumamoto and Oita prefectures since Thursday have raised fears that other regions in the nation might be struck by similar jolts in the near future. Here are some questions and answers on seismic activity in Japan: What type of earthquakes struck Kumamoto? The 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake is actually a series of quakes that are being caused by two plates slipping against each other along an active inland fault. The events take place at a relatively shallow depth and cause the destruction of bedrock. It is the same type as the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995 that hit Kobe and surrounding cities, killing over 6,000 people. In contrast, the Great East Japan Earthquake that hit the Tohoku region in 2011, was caused by accumulated stress resulting from one tectonic plate being forced underneath another, resulting in what is called a “megathrust quake.” What is unique about the 2016 Kumamoto Earthquake? Whereas often a huge temblor hits first, followed by smaller aftershocks, a number of strong quakes have occurred following the first magnitude-6.5 quake on Thursday. The shaking has affected much wider areas than other quakes in the past, experts said. The magnitude-7.3 quake that according to the Meteorological Agency was the main tremor struck the region 1½ days after the first one. Why did we see such big quakes in relatively rapid succession? Experts say the reason is not entirely known. Of the 2,000 active faults around Japan, some 100 are designated by the government as key active faults. The Futagawa and Hinagu faults, along which the recent quakes occurred, are among the 100 most active and dangerous faults in the country. The central government has conducted research on these 100 active faults over the past decade or so but was not able to predict the quakes that took place in Kumamoto, said Hiroyuki Fujiwara, a seismologist at National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention. Are the focal points of quakes moving or expanding? Fujiwara said the magnitude-7.3 quake on Saturday caught seismologists by surprise as they thought the initial quake — which turned out to be a precursor for Saturday’s — was an isolated tremor in a small section of the Futagawa fault. Other quakes then took place further east. Some researchers say quakes may take place in succession along the lines of long faults, but no solid theory to explain such a scenario has been found, Fujiwara said. Are these quakes precursors for others, especially along the Median Tectonic Line — the largest fault running from central Honshu to Kyushu? Experts are not sure. “We can explain what has happened, but it’s really hard to say what will happen,” Fujiwara said. Takeshi Sagiya, a professor at Nagoya University’s Disaster Mitigation Research Center and an expert on crustal movement, said it is too early to worry about such a scenario. Sagiya said he is more concerned about the southwestern side of the Hinagu fault in Kumamoto, where seismic activities appear to have been spreading in recent days. A level-6 quake on the Japanese intensity scale of 7 may hit the fault in the near future, Sagiya said. Is the small eruption of Mount Aso on Saturday related to the quake? The view of volcanologists, as well as the Meteorological Agency, has been that the eruption was not triggered by the Kumamoto quakes, as its characteristics are no different from small-scale eruptions that have taken place before. “There is probably no causal connection” between the earthquakes and the eruption, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference Saturday. “But we will keep monitoring (the volcano).” Are the quakes in Kyushu and the magnitude-7.8 quake that hit Ecuador over the weekend — the largest since 1979 — related? Fujiwara said they are not. “The two locations are so far away from each other it’s impossible to suspect a link,” he said. Are nuclear power plants in Kyushu safe? Many citizens and anti-nuclear activists have expressed concern over the nuclear power facilities in Kyushu, in particular the two reactors running at the Sendai power plant in Kagoshima Prefecture, the only commercial nuclear plant now in operation in Japan. The Nuclear Regulation Authority, however, has maintained that the Sendai plant does not need to be shut down because the strongest temblor registered at the plant since Thursday night was 8.6 gal (a unit used in seismology to express the acceleration of an earthquake), far lower than the safety level that would trigger an automatic reactor shutdown. The criteria was set between 80 to 260 gal, depending on the direction of a shake and the strength of key components in the Sendai reactors. All other reactors have been stopped in the wake of the 2011 Fukushima meltdown crisis, while power companies have applied for the NRA’s safety checks to restart many other reactors under the new safety standards drawn up after the Fukushima crisis. At the Genkai nuclear power plant in Saga Prefecture, the strongest of the recent shakes was 20.3 gal. The reactors at the plant have long been shut down, but had they been active, they would be automatically shut down with a temblor of between 70 and 170 gal. The Ikata nuclear power plant in Ehime Prefecture, which is also undergoing safety checks, is right by the Median Tectonic Line. The three reactors there have not shown abnormal activity since the quakes, according to Shikoku Electric Power Co. and the Ehime Prefectural Government. Kumamoto quake info: where to go, how to help

earthquakes;faults;2016 kumamoto earthquake

jp0010634

2016/04/18

Osaka broadcaster apologizes after crew jumps to front of gas station line in Kumamoto

OSAKA - A regional broadcaster apologized Monday after one of its news vans cut into a long line of cars in Kumamoto at a gas station in the quake-hit prefecture. The apology was prompted by a protest message that went viral Sunday on Twitter. The message, posted with a photo of a Kansai Telecasting Corp. van at a gas station, accused the driver of cutting in line and ignoring a woman who asked it to back off. The Osaka-based broadcaster issued a statement admitting that the van, carrying five journalists covering the quakes, drove to the head of the long line of cars and refueled at around 7:45 a.m. Sunday in an “impermissible” act amid the widespread suffering in the disaster area. It also promised to enhance training for news staff in charge of the coverage. Two large earthquakes and hundreds of aftershocks since Thursday have caused serious shortages of necessities, forcing residents to line up for hours to get water, food, gasoline and other daily necessities. Kansai Telecasting serves Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, Hyogo, Shiga and Wakayama prefectures. Kumamoto quake info: where to go, how to help

gas;2016 kumamoto earthquake;kansai telecasting corp .

jp0010635

2016/04/18

Despite assurances, quakes prompt calls to switch off Japan's nuclear reactors

OSAKA - Despite official assurances of no abnormalities at nuclear power plants in Kyushu and nearby areas after a series of earthquakes rocked the region, calls in and outside of Japan are growing to shut down the nation’s only two operating reactors at the Sendai plant in Kagoshima Prefecture. Since Thursday, the Meteorological Agency has recorded nearly 530 quakes at level 1 or above on the Japanese intensity scale in Kumamoto and Oita Prefectures. This includes more than 80 registering a 4 or higher on the scale. The agency has warned that seismic activity in the region may continue over the next week, possibly prompting more deadly landslides. But despite the frequency of the quakes, the Sendai plant, just over the border from Kumamoto in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture, has continued to generate electricity since the initial magnitude-6.5 quake rocked Kumamoto on Thursday, followed by a magnitude-7.3 temblor early Saturday. The Nuclear Regulation Authority said Monday morning it had confirmed there were no abnormalities at the Sendai plant or at the nation’s other nuclear facilities. It said the seismic intensity measured by the earthquakes was well below the level at which reactors should be switched off. In addition, the NRA said, no problems were reported with the spent fuel pools at the Genkai plant in Saga Prefecture, the Ikata plant in Ehime Prefecture and the Shimane plant in Shimane Prefecture. But with continued quakes and aftershocks, fears are growing about what the constant shaking could mean in terms of cumulative damage that could result in a nuclear crisis. An online Japanese- and English-language petition by a former Kumamoto resident to shut down the Sendai plant had drawn over 42,000 signatures worldwide as of Monday morning, while anti-nuclear activists in Fukui Prefecture have also criticized Kyushu Electric Power Co. and the NRA for continuing to operate the plant. In Saga Prefecture on Sunday, about 100 mayors and town heads belonging to the Mayors for a Nuclear Power Free Japan added their voices, calling for the central government and the NRA to re-evaluate the way earthquake safety standards for nuclear power plants are calculated. They also want the government to grant localities within 30 km of a nuclear power plant the legal authority to approve or reject reactor restarts. The decision to keep the Sendai reactors running is also drawing criticism overseas. “Given the general situation on Kyushu — including the ongoing seismic and volcanic activity, the large number of evacuees, and the damage to the transportation infrastructure — I believe it would be prudent for the reactors to be shut down until conditions have stabilized,” Edwin Lyman, a senior scientist at the Washington-based Union of Concerned Scientists and an expert on nuclear materials and atomic power safety policy, said in an email to The Japan Times. In Ikata, Ehime Prefecture, Shikoku Electric hopes to restart the Ikata No. 3 reactor by this summer. But the revelation that the plant lies near the same fault line running through Kumamoto, the Japan Median Tectonic Line, the possibility of a disaster caused by a quake has locals concerned, especially about damage to infrastructure damage that would make it difficult to evacuate residents by either land or sea. In light of the continued quakes and concerns by locals, political leaders in the area who OK’d the restart are likely to face intense pressure to rethink their stance. Kumamoto quake info: where to go, how to help

nuclear power plant;sendai;2016 kumamoto earthquake

jp0010636

2016/04/18

Tohoku, Kobe and other areas hit by past quakes quick to send aid to Kumamoto

Communities that have experienced strong earthquakes or floods in recent years, ranging from the Tohoku region to Niigata to Kobe, are taking quick action to support Kumamoto Prefecture and its surrounding areas hit by devastating temblors since Thursday night. The communities want to lend a helping hand not only with supplies but also know-how based on their own quake experiences. Sendai, which was hit by the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, on Saturday night sent trucks loaded with rice, disposable diapers and other vital supplies to the city of Kumamoto. It also dispatched two officials. “After the quake, we received help from Kumamoto. I hope we can repay them for their kindness,” said Satoru Hirabuki, a 36-year-old official in charge of Sendai’s crisis management. Japanese Red Cross Ishinomaki Hospital in Miyagi Prefecture acted on its own to send a team of 15 doctors and nurses to the city of Kumamoto on Saturday, based on its experience of supporting disaster-hit areas in the 2011 earthquake. “Local medical experts are also victims of the quakes. But we have to race against time, and we want to support them from an early stage,” one of the Ishinomaki doctors said. The city of Nagaoka, Niigata Prefecture, which was hit by the Niigata Chuetsu Earthquake in 2004, sent a team of six officials Saturday to help prefectural governments in Kyushu. The team will instruct officials how to send out information to residents to lessen their worries and advise the prefectural governments about managing evacuation shelters. The team brought along four cardboard cubicles in which women to change clothes and breast-feed babies. “I’m happy if the rooms improve the environment at the evacuation shelters,” said Machio Adashi, president of the company that produced the cubicles. About 20 students from Kobe Gakuin University solicited donations on Kobe streets Sunday. “We received support from across the country at the time of the Great Hanshin Earthquake (in 1995), some of which must have come from people in Kumamoto. This time, it is our turn to take action,” said Shota Ishibashi, 20, a third-year student at Kobe Gakuin University. The Union of Kansai Governments, which consists of seven prefectures in the Kansai region, sent 20 officials to set up a support office at the Kumamoto Prefectural Government. The union will send portable toilets and blankets that have been stored by its member prefectures. Joso, Ibaraki Prefecture, which suffered heavy rain and floods last September, on Friday sent 1,500 2-liter plastic bottles of water and 2,000 water bags to the city of Kumamoto and 600 bottles of water to Mashiki, Kumamoto Prefecture, where the first quake hit on Thursday night. Kumamoto quake info: where to go, how to help

kyushu;earthquakes;kumamoto;2016 kumamoto earthquake

jp0010637

2016/04/27

Medical facilities to launch ovarian tissue bank for female cancer patients

A Tokyo fertility clinic said Wednesday it will open the nation’s first ovary bank next month to help cancer patients conceive by removing and freezing their ovarian tissues before treatment. Ladies Clinic Kyono said it has enlisted a range of medical facilities that treat cancer patients to set up an ovarian tissue preservation network. Radiation treatment and chemotherapy often results in infertility, and removal and replacement of a young woman’s ovaries is often the only hope for her to conceive. Tissue removal will be conducted at facilities where cancer patients are treated. The fertility clinic is one of four facilities that will receive the ovaries and freeze them until the patients are ready to receive them back as transplants, clinic director Koichi Kyono said. Kyono told a news conference the aim is to offer patients a choice by “preserving their fertility” for the future. The success rate of such procedures is not high. Data released in 2015 from four fertility facilities in Europe showed only one in four cases of transplanted frozen ovarian tissue resulted in conception and birth. As of Wednesday, the project had 13 medical facilities on board, including St. Luke’s International Hospital in Tokyo and Hyogo College of Medicine Hospital. The program will be only available for cancer patients who are aged 37 or less at the time of removal, and given the increasing risks of conceiving later in life, the ovaries should be reinserted before the woman turns 45, Kyono said. He underscored that women will not be able to ask for preserved ovarian tissue from another donor other than themselves. The cost of freezing and preserving ovarian tissue for the first year will probably be around ¥100,000, he said. Regulators have already given the project tentative approval, according to Kyono. The clinic has secured the assent of the Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology’s ethical committee and will file an application to the JSOG for formal approval to open the tissue bank by the end of May. The JSOG allows the freezing of ovarian tissue for cancer patients. Nationwide, 15 medical facilities have registered as venues for the freezing of ovarian tissue, according to the Japan Society for Fertility Preservation. But so far, only five or six of the 15 facilities have actually done so, Kyono said.

pregnancy;women;genetics;fertility;eggs

jp0010638

2016/04/27

NHK chairman's order to follow government line on Kyushu nuclear reactors sparks outcry

Outspoken NHK Chairman Katsuto Momii has found himself once again mired in controversy after news leaked he gave instructions that the public broadcaster should stick to the official government line when reporting on the nuclear reactor situation in quake-hit Kyushu. Momii later tried to defend the policy, saying it was aimed at preventing confusion among survivors of the quake who are being bombarded with a wide range of views and commentary. Still, for Yasuhiko Tajima, a professor of media studies at Sophia University, Momii’s latest assertion carries very grave implications on many different levels and makes the broadcaster look like a mouthpiece for the government. “No authority or company wants to make available information that may work to their disadvantage, no matter how important it is to citizens,” Tajima said. That is why all citizens, including disaster survivors, he said, are entitled to the right to scrutinize various aspects of the information they are being presented and decide what they choose to believe. Denying citizens such a choice smacks of “dictatorship” and is even “criminal,” he said. The policy, Tajima added, risks leaving quake survivors in the dark, particularly if the government tries to hide critical information, and amounts to a denial on the part of NHK of the media’s role of being critical of the powers that be. Reports emerged last week that Momii had instructed NHK executives during an internal meeting on April 20 to ensure their reports on the nuclear reactors near the disaster-hit area are “based on official announcements.” He also reportedly said that presenting viewers with a flurry of different expert opinions would only confuse local people and spark anxiety. Speaking to a Lower House Diet committee Tuesday, Momii acknowledged the policy. “If, for example, the Nuclear Regulation Authority said reactors are safe or can operate as normal, we will report that announcement,” he said. In a back-and-forth discussion with Democratic Party lawmaker Soichiro Okuno, Momii said NHK will report on such things as radiation monitoring “based on facts … without adding various commentary.” “Keeping our coverage fact-based is what gives locals a sense of reassurance,” Momii said, adding his comment does not equate to Japan’s wartime propaganda, under which citizens were kept in the dark about the conflict’s progress. When asked to clarify what constitutes official information, Momii cited state-affiliated sources such as the NRA, the nation’s nuclear watchdog, and the Meteorological Agency, as well as Kyushu Electric Power Co., which operates the Sendai plant in Kagoshima Prefecture and the Genkai plant in Saga. The only two commercial reactors currently operating in the country are at the Sendai complex. Momii’s comments and policy mirror controversial remarks he made at his inaugural news conference in January 2014 where he insisted that NHK’s international broadcasting content should stick to the government’s position. “When the government says to go right, you can’t go left,” he said at the news conference. Momii’s latest controversy follows an annual report released by Paris-based Reporters Without Borders on April 20 that saw press freedom in Japan drop to No. 72 globally from No. 61 the previous year, exacerbating concerns over free speech.

nuclear energy;nhk;gaffe;katsuto momii;2016 kumamoto earthquake

jp0010639

2016/04/11

U.S. deploys B-52 bombers in fight against Islamic State forces

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Air Force on Saturday deployed Cold War-era B-52 bombers to bolster the fight against the Islamic State (IS)group in Syria and Iraq, stepping up efforts to defeat the extremists. The B-52 Stratofortress aircraft, which arrived in Qatar, were based in Saudi Arabia and last flown operationally in May 2006 as part of the war in Afghanistan, air force officials said. “The B-52 will provide the coalition continued precision and deliver desired air power effects,” said Lt. Gen. Charles Brown, commander of the U.S. Air Force’s Central Command. The long-range planes will provide “flexibility and endurance” in the U.S.-led coalition campaign against the jihadis, he added. “The B-52 demonstrates our continued resolve to apply persistent pressure on (the IS group) and defend the region in any future contingency,” Brown said. The B-52, the first U.S. long-range heavy bomber, was developed to carry nuclear weapons and has been adapted over the years. It has been used in missions in the Vietnam War, the 1991 Gulf War and in Afghanistan. It was not immediately clear how many of the bombers have been deployed.

u.s .;qatar;islamic state;insurgencies

jp0010640

2016/04/16

Small eruption seen on Mount Aso after latest quakes

A small eruption occurred at Mount Aso in Kumamoto Prefecture on Saturday around 8:30 a.m. local time following a strong earthquake in the area, with smoke rising about 100 meters (300 feet) high, public broadcaster NHK reported. The Japanese Meteorological Agency kept its alert level at 2 on a scale of 5 for Aso, which has had eruptions in the past. It was unclear if the eruption was related to Saturday’s quake, but officials at the meteorological agency were looking into any links.

earthquakes;volcanoes;mount aso;2016 kumamoto earthquake

jp0010641

2016/04/16

Eyewitnesses to Kumamoto quakes on social media

The strongest quake in Japan since March 2011, registering 7 on the Japanese seismic scale, shook Kumamoto Prefecture on the evening of April 14 with another major quake striking in the early hours of April 16. Here is a selection of reactions and reports on social media. [ View the story “Eyewitnesses to Kumamoto quakes on social media” on Storify ] Kumamoto quake info: where to go, how to help

social media;earthquakes;twitter;kumamoto;2016 kumamoto earthquake

jp0010642

2016/04/16

Matsui far from alone in pushing nuclear debate

Out from the murky, quivering flames/ Of burning, festering Hiroshima/ You look so monstrous, but could not know/ How far removed you are now from mankind — Excerpted from Toge Sankichi’s “Hibakusha” (“A-Bomb Survivor”), translated by N. Palchikoff All eyes are now on whether U.S. President Barack Obama will visit Hiroshima after next month’s G-7 Ise-Shima summit of leading industrial nations. If he does, one hopes it would be a journey that would close old wounds in both Japan and the U.S. To help convince the president to come, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida emphasized to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at last week’s G-7 Foreign Ministers’ meeting that Japan was serious about getting rid of nuclear weapons. The message from ordinary Japanese, meanwhile, was that no apology was needed. They simply want Obama to come to Hiroshima to see what happened so as to reinforce his belief, which is also Japan’s belief, that nuclear weapons should be eliminated. A most worthy goal. But Kerry’s visit came just a couple of weeks after Osaka Gov. and Osaka Ishin head Ichiro Matsui, made some of the most tactless, ill-timed comments he has ever uttered when he said he supported having a debate on whether Japan should possess nuclear weapons. It would be tempting to dismiss Matsui as just another Osaka yokel who can’t be taken seriously. No doubt Japanese officials did just that following his remarks. However, it must be remembered that Matsui is an ideological soulmate (or pretends to be) of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga. Matsui’s the guy who — precisely because very serious people in Tokyo don’t take him seriously — has the freedom to utter what some of Japan’s most influential politicians are privately thinking. Abe, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Taro Aso, and powerful Liberal Democratic Party policy chief Tomomi Inada have all made statements of support in the past for at least having a debate on possessing nuclear weapons. However, being astute and ambitious, they can also read the larger political winds extremely well. With a possible Obama visit to Hiroshima, those winds are clearly blowing in favor of statements about the elimination, not accumulation, of nuclear weapons. All three are quick to recite Japan’s three non-nuclear principles of not manufacturing, possessing or introducing nukes, and there is no sign that Japan will abandon those principles anytime soon. Yet their past remarks show Matsui is anything but a lone voice. Of course, public support for maintaining the three principles remains strong. While the usual clucking claque of right-wing ideologues publishes on the “need for a debate” on possessing nukes (rather, the need to publicly convince more people they are needed), most, especially the A-bomb survivors who grow fewer in number with each passing year, are angered by anyone who would support having nukes. Obviously, charges of hypocrisy on the part of Kerry and the United States over calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons and yet continuing to insist America needs them can be heard from many quarters. The critics have a point. But if Japan, at least, is truly serious about eliminating nuclear weapons worldwide, it will publicly and strongly disavow Matsui’s comments, and other similar comments made by political figures. If the No. 1 political priority now becomes Japan’s international image and striking the proper tone during a possible Obama visit rather than condemning those who, publicly or privately, advocate their use (as Kerry did when he attacked Donald Trump for suggesting Japan have nukes), it will demonstrate a failure of moral leadership that raises troubling questions about Japan’s own sincerity toward nuclear disarmament and demonstrates just how far removed from the rest of mankind Japan’s leaders have become.

nuclear weapons;ichiro matsui

jp0010643

2016/04/16

Saluting Shakespeare's scientific legacy

On April 23, the literary world marks the 400th anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare. It’s a good excuse for a lot of fuss: Britain’s Royal Mint has produced a new £2 coin, the postal service has prepared a set of commemorative stamps depicting portraits of the Bard and thousands of theaters worldwide are expected to celebrate the anniversary. Japan is no exception. Shakespeare might have been born in Britain but he is truly a global citizen, loved in Japan as much as he is in Russia or Germany or the United States. In 2014, there were 180 theatrical performances inspired by Shakespeare in Tokyo alone. What’s more, Japan boasts not one but two reconstructions of the Globe — the 16th-century open-air theater where Shakespeare himself acted in many of his plays. I hardly need to champion Shakespeare’s qualities or his global appeal. What I do need to do, however, is explain why I’m talking about them in a science column. The reason is simple: Recent work has shown that Shakespeare may have been influenced by science. When Shakespeare was born in 1564, our view of the world was changing faster than at any point in history. Twenty years earlier, Copernicus had published his work showing that the Earth, far from being the center of the universe, revolved around the sun. Scholars have examined Shakespeare’s work, looking for signs that he might have incorporated this new understanding into his plays. In “Cymbeline,” for example, there are hints that he’d heard of Galileo’s evidence of the discovery of the moons of Jupiter. In “Hamlet,” which is set in Denmark, a star appears in the west before the ghost of Hamlet’s father appears. Astronomers looked into what would have been visible at the time and found it was more than likely a supernova that had been observed by Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. The discovery was profound because, at least until then, the heavens were considered to be immutable and unchanging. In the play, Hamlet says he is a “king of infinite space,” which may also be a reference to the understanding of the universe at the time. Hamlet has also been diagnosed as having bipolar disorder. He has incredible mood swings, and can be melancholic or violent one moment and elated the next. I won’t go as far as to claim that Shakespeare was a proto-scientist — of course he wasn’t. He was curious, however, and understood human behavior a lot better than most. I asked Erin Sullivan of the University of Birmingham’s Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon, England, about the Bard’s understanding of how the brain works. Sullivan says it’s unlikely that Shakespeare intended his characters to represent actual descriptions of particular mental illnesses. “But that doesn’t mean that we can’t still recognize in these characters elements of mental experience and disorder that still resonate with us today,” she says. Back then, people who had diseases were said to have an imbalance of the four fluids that comprised the body: black bile, yellow bile, phlegm and blood. What we now say is depression was characterized in Shakespeare’s time as an excess of black bile. “Even if Shakespeare understood a mood disorder like melancholia to be the consequence of too much black bile, that doesn’t mean that actors working now can’t choose to understand it and portray it as depression,” Sullivan says. “We can definitely see in Shakespeare the idea that what happens to us in our unconscious life affects our conscious existence.” In some ways, Shakespeare’s views on health remain influential. “Mind, body and soul were highly linked in Shakespeare’s time,” says Sullivan. “It was a very holistic view of health, and people certainly believed that pain and disorder in the body led to trouble in the mind, and vice versa.” Although scientists don’t believe that human bodies possess a soul anymore, we do know that the mind can influence the health of the body, as well as the other way round. I’m planning to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death in two ways. First, I’m going to see the restored version of Akira Kurosawa’s epic film, “Ran.” When “Ran” was released in 1985, it was the most expensive Japanese movie ever made. Kurosawa based “Ran” on a fusion of old samurai tales and “King Lear,” but set the action in feudal Japan. Kurosawa replaced King Lear with Lord Hidetora (played by Tatsuya Nakadai), who played an elderly warlord with a history of violence. I’ll be interested to see how Kurosawa shows Lord Hidetora descending into madness. By the same token, many believe King Lear’s decline is one of the first descriptions of what we now know as the dementia sometimes associated with Parkinson’s disease. The other way I’m celebrating the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s death will be to go to a church built in 1792 in East London. There, at the Church of St. John-at-Hackney, singer-songwriter Rufus Wainwright will be performing his new album, “Take All My Loves,” on April 26. On the album, Wainwright has taken nine of Shakespeare’s sonnets and set them to music. I love Kurosawa but I think the sonnets will be a more fitting way to celebrate the enduring appeal of the world’s greatest creative talent.

william shakespeare;copernicus

jp0010644

2016/04/16

Japanese defense chief orders ministry to consider U.S. offer of help amid ongoing disaster

WASHINGTON - Japanese Defense Minister Gen Nakatani ordered the Defense Ministry on Saturday to consider U.S. forces’ offer of help amid the ongoing disaster in the Kyushu region. The United States said it is prepared to extend support to Japan following a series of powerful earthquakes in Kumamoto Prefecture and other areas in the country’s southwest, State Department spokesman John Kirby said Friday. “We stand ready” to provide any and all assistance that the Japanese government may require, though Washington has yet to receive such a request from Tokyo, Kirby told reporters. A series of strong earthquakes since late Thursday, including one with a preliminary magnitude of 7.3 — an equivalent to the 1995 quake that devastated Kobe and claimed over 6,000 lives — continued to jolt a wide area of the Kyushu region, centering on Kumamoto Prefecture, preventing Japanese authorities from grasping the scale of damage yet such as the number of victims and building collapses. The U.S. government is monitoring the situation surrounding the devastation caused by the quakes and is “in touch with authorities in Japan,” Kirby said. The U.S. government and military mounted large-scale disaster relief “Operation Tomodachi” after the Tohoku region was hit by mega-earthquake and tsunami in March 2011. Kumamoto quake info: where to go, how to help

u.s .;military;earthquakes;2016 kumamoto earthquake

jp0010645

2016/04/16

Kumamoto international center offering shelter, translation services for foreigners

Kumamoto City International Center in the city of Kumamoto is offering shelter for non-Japanese residents affected by the current series of earthquakes, with multilingual translators available there to help. The center, located in Chuo Ward, has made English-, Korean- and Chinese-language interpreters available, and visitors can make use of translation services in other languages via telephone, Etsushi Ito, a worker at the international exchange center, told The Japan Times over the phone on Saturday. According to Ito, about 100 local residents have evacuated to the center, and about half of them are non-Japanese, mainly from other Asian countries. Although the center is only open until 10 p.m., evacuees will be allowed to stay overnight at nearby elementary and junior high schools, Ito said. The center has yet to receive any relief goods, but has distributed bottles of water or tea to each evacuee so far, Ito said. “Some evacuees here want to leave Kumamoto and travel to Fukuoka. But all taxis and rental cars have been reserved and it’s difficult to move,” Ito said. As of early Saturday afternoon, all local bus and train services had been suspended due to the repeated quakes, Ito added. The address of the center is 4-18, Hanabatacho, in Kumamoto city, and the direct telephone number is 096-359-2121. Additional information can be accessed at the center’s website . Kumamoto quake info: where to go, how to help

kyushu;earthquakes;kumamoto;2016 kumamoto earthquake

jp0010646

2016/04/16

Understanding Heian nobles’ snobbishness

Once upon a time — the fairy tale opening is apt, though it’s history we’re dealing with — peace lay so thick upon the land that war was inconceivable. The capital was a city named “Peace and Tranquility” — Hei-An (modern-day Kyoto). There was a ministry of war, but the war minister was no fighter; nor was anyone else who mattered. A war minister has a major role in the classic 11th-century novel “The Tale of Genji” — his name is Kaoru (fragrance). He is described as being as beautiful as a woman and in a state of unabashed terror on journeys along deserted paths to a remote village. Imagine him on the field of battle! But there was no field of battle to imagine him on. The Heian Period (794-1185) was not totally demilitarized. In contemporary literature soldiers are objects of pity and derision. “The more elegantly he tried to arrange things,” we read of one in “Genji,” “the more blatantly was his vulgar, boorish, countrified nature exposed. … He knew nothing of music and the other pleasant sides of life, but he was an excellent shot with the bow.” It’s a skill that demeans rather than dignifies. Four centuries of almost unbroken peace are an odd prelude to a martial tradition as fierce and courageous as any in the world. But so it was. The Heian aristocrat was not bred for war. He was — none more so than the fictional Genji, the “shining prince” — soft, refined, indolent, elegant, artistic, exquisitely sensitive; a poet, a calligrapher, a perfume-blender, a musician. He knew the beauty of things and he knew the sadness of things — knew, in short, that beauty, however beautiful, fades; that life, however fleetingly satisfying, is doomed. Why fight? What was there to fight for, in a world that was a mere “dream of a dream”? Heian nobles were embarrassed by power. They despised crudity, and power is crude. They wanted to rule and they wanted the perks of office — insisted on them, indeed. But naked power was not their chosen means to their chosen end. They had other tricks up their wide and flowing sleeves. Not everything about them or their time is appealing. Those who deplore today’s widening gap between rich and poor should consider Heian, whose nobility — the only people who counted — numbered perhaps 1,000 in a city of 100,000 and a country of 5 million. To the nobles, the common folk were scarcely human. The literary court lady Sei Shonagon (966 to circa 1017), in her “Pillow Book” of random jottings, mentions some carpenters at work on palace repairs. She happened upon them at lunchtime: “The way carpenters eat is really odd. … The moment the food was brought, they fell on the soup bowls and gulped down the contents. Then they pushed the bowls aside and polished off the vegetables. … I suppose this must be the nature of carpenters. I should not call a very charming one.” Later, more egalitarian ages found Heian snobbishness insufferable. They found its erotic laxity repellent. They were not amused, for example, by Genji’s cuckolding of his own father, a reigning emperor; the resulting child, assumed to be imperial offspring, ascends in due course to the throne, the awful secret known only to Genji. Disapprove by all means of what invites disapproval, but let’s give credit where it’s due. History is a wretched business — brutally violent, sadistically cruel. The proud boasts of ancient warriors (“And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox and sheep and ass,” we read in the biblical Book of Joshua) finds its amplified echoes in our own time — in the 20th-century hells of world war, concentration camps and gulags, merging into the present century of random terrorism and heightened militarization with no end in sight. Perhaps it’s despair of the present that turns some of us back to Heian. For Heian has none of this. Its power politics are unsavory enough, but no insatiable cruelty darkens its memory. Power politics. A classic example dates to the close of the ninth century, roughly a century before Genji’s and Sei Shonagon’s time. “Even now in the 1970s,” wrote historian Ivan Morris, “every schoolchild in Japan is familiar with the name of Sugawara no Michizane.” So much the better, for he is the hero of our story — and what society in world history other than Heian would have made a hero of such a wan, cringing pawn as this scholarly court poet who wrote of his pathetic self as defeat closed in: “I have become mere scum that floats upon the water’s face”? Power at the time, and throughout Heian, was wielded by a branch of the great Fujiwara family. Emperors, mere children, were almost always Fujiwara grandsons or sons-in-law; their abdication before coming of age was a matter of course; a Fujiwara “regent” ruled behind the scenes. The system was rocked by Emperor Uda, a rare adult and non-Fujiwara claimant to the throne who, determined to rule as well as reign, appointed Sugawara, the leading scholar of the day, a poet prodigiously learned in the Chinese classics, as his chief counselor. The Fujiwaras were undone! Well, not quite. They could have murdered Sugawara; a vicious civil war could have erupted — but this is Heian, and nothing of the sort even threatened. Sugawara instead was falsely charged with treason and, tears his only resistance, packed off to exile in remote Kyushu, where he died of “a broken heart.” The end? No. A series of disasters in the capital terrorized the Fujiwara into striving to placate the supposedly furious spirit of this docile, feckless man who in life had been putty in their hands. Promoted above mortality itself, Sugawara was made a deity — the god of literature and calligraphy, worshiped, Morris tells us, by more devotees down the ages than any other Japanese god except Hachiman — the god of war.

kyoto;the tale of genji

jp0010647

2016/04/17

Boaty McBoatface tops poll to name British polar research vessel

LONDON - Boaty McBoatface has topped an online poll to name the U.K.’s newest polar research vessel, beating entries that honored scientists and explorers. Britain’s Natural Environment Research Council had asked for help finding a name that would reflect the £200 million ($284 million) ship’s mission and celebrate British naval history. The council asked for inspirational entries about environmental and polar science. But in the contest ending Saturday, Boaty McBoatface won with 124,109 votes — more than three times its closest contender. The vote was advisory and the name will be decided by the council. Former BBC radio host James Hand, who proposed the winning entry, has apologized for the controversy, though he still thinks it’s a “brilliant name.” He voted to name the ship after naturalist and broadcaster David Attenborough.

britain;boat;boaty mcboatface;exploration

jp0010648

2016/04/17

With this rigatoni, I thee wed: New Zealanders hold world's first Pastafarian wedding

AKAROA, NEW ZEALAND - The wedding rings were made of pasta, the ceremony was held on a pirate boat, and when it came time for the kiss, the bride and groom slurped up either end of a noodle until their lips met. New Zealand on Saturday hosted the world’s first Pastafarian wedding, conducted by the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. The group, which began in the U.S. as a protest against religion encroaching into public schools, has gained legitimacy in New Zealand, where authorities recently decided it can officiate weddings. Saturday’s ceremony was all about having fun. The guests came dressed as pirates and shouted plenty of hearty “Aaarrrhs.” The groom, Toby Ricketts, vowed to always add salt before boiling his pasta, while bride Marianna Fenn donned a colander on her head. The church claims that global warming is caused by pirates vanishing from the high seas, and that there is a beer volcano in heaven. “The Flying Spaghetti Monster created the world. We know that,” said marriage celebrant Karen Martyn, aka the Ministeroni. “We weren’t around then and we didn’t see it, but no other religion was around to see it either, and our deity is as plausible as any other.” The church has been battling to gain legal recognition around the world, with mixed success. It was formed in 2005 as a way to poke fun at efforts in Kansas public schools to teach not only evolution, but also “intelligent design” — the idea that the universe must have had a creator. Church founder Bobby Henderson said in an email that he thought it was odd that most weddings still have such an entanglement between religion and government. “It’s sad that so many people feel pressured to do the traditional Christian wedding even when they don’t relate to much of the religion,” he said. “If people can find some happiness in having Pastafarian weddings, that’s great, and I hope no one gives them any flack about it.” Ricketts, 35, a voiceover artist, and Fenn, 33, a lawyer and photographer, said they’ve been a couple for four years but decided just three weeks ago to get married, after another Pastafarian couple’s plans to be first to wed fell through. Ricketts said he found out about the church because he’s been making a documentary about why religions don’t pay taxes. Fenn said she grew up on a small New Zealand island where people had alternative ideas about how to lead their lives. “I would never have agreed to a conventional marriage, but the idea of this was too good to pass up,” Fenn said. “And it’s a wonderful opportunity to celebrate my relationship with Toby, but in a way that I felt comfortable with.” The wedding feast was an all-pasta affair, while the wedding cake was topped with an image of his noodliness, the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Martyn said she hoped people could find happiness in eating, drinking, being with friends and being kindhearted. “That be what we’re all about,” she said.

religion;new zealand;marriage

jp0010649

2016/04/17

Desperate race on to find Kyushu earthquake survivors; death toll at 42

Search and rescue operations intensified in Kyushu on Sunday and a 61-year-old woman was found dead, which brought the death toll from the twin earthquakes that hit last week to 42. According to police, about 11 people are still missing, and thousands of rescuers continued their searches for them and other people possibly buried alive in collapsed structures. The woman was found near her collapsed house in Minamiaso, Kumamoto Prefecture. She was identified as Rieko Katashima, according to the Kumamoto Prefectural Government. Meanwhile, the number of evacuees, which hit 196,000 at the peak Sunday, fell to about 110,000 as many people went back to their homes later in the day. However, because of still-continuing aftershocks, there is no immediate prospect of many other evacuees being able to return home, and this means that their stay in the evacuation shelters may be prolonged, government officials said. According to the Meteorological Agency, 478 tremors of Level 1 or stronger on Japan’s quake intensity scale of seven were recorded between Thursday and 9 p.m. Sunday. As of Sunday morning, about 196,000 people had been evacuated. This includes about 183,900 in Kumamoto Prefecture and 12,400 in neighboring Oita. Later the same day, the total number of evacuees in the two prefectures fell to about 110,000. About 250,000 households were without water and 100,000 without gas in Kumamoto Prefecture as of Sunday evening. As of 9 p.m., some 39,000 households were without power. Saturday’s 7.3-magnitude temblor killed at least 33 people and injured about 1,000 more, while causing widespread damage to houses, roads and bridges. It was the second major quake to hit the prefecture in 48 hours. The first, on Thursday evening, left nine people dead. On Sunday, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tokyo has welcomed a U.S. offer of assistance in which military forces and resources will help transport personnel and relief supplies to the disaster-hit areas. Earlier, Abe had said Japan did not immediately need such assistance. “We’d like to carry out (joint operations) as soon as we finish coordination for transportation needs,” Abe told reporters at the Prime Minister’s Office. Later in the day, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft may be used to facilitate relief efforts. Many anti-U.S. military activists, in particular those in Okinawa, oppose the Osprey, claiming it is dangerous given the number of fatal accidents that occurred during its development. Tokyo and Washington deny these accusations, noting accident rates are not particularly high now and are comparable with other aircraft used by U.S. forces On Sunday Abe said the central government will also make every effort to help transport food supplies to disaster-hit areas by the end of the day, including about 700,000 meals. “We have been carrying out search and rescue missions day and night, but still some people are missing,” Abe said. As heavy rains fueled worries of more landslides, thousands spent the night in evacuation centers. Firefighters handed out tarpaulins so homeowners could cover damaged roofs, but many have simply been abandoned. The indiscriminate nature of the destruction saw some houses reduced to piles of rubble and smashed roof tiles while neighboring homes were left standing. “I felt strong shaking at first, then I was thrown about like I was in a washing machine,” said a Tokai University student who remains trapped in the village of Minamiaso. NHK showed footage of people being rescued by helicopters after they were stranded by a collapsed bridge. Self-Defense Forces troops set up tents for evacuees as water trucks were sent to the area. The government said about 190 of those injured in Saturday’s quake were in serious condition. Japan, which sits on the seismically active “ring of fire” that circles the Pacific Ocean, has strict building codes aimed at helping structures withstand earthquakes. Saturday’s quake was centered near the city of Kumamoto at a shallow depth of 10 km, the United States Geological Survey (USGS) said. The shallower a quake, the more likely it is to cause damage. However, no irregularities were reported at three nuclear power plants in the area, a senior government official said. The city’s 400-year-old Kumamoto Castle was badly damaged, its walls breached after having withstood bombardment and fire during its four centuries of existence. Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda, speaking at a G-20 event in Washington, said it was too early to assess the economic impact, but bank operations in Kumamoto were proceeding as normal. The USGS estimated there is a 72 percent likelihood that economic damage will exceed $10 billion, adding that it was too early to be specific. Major insurers have yet to release estimates. Electronics giant Sony Corp. said a plant producing image sensors for smartphone makers would remain closed while it assessed the damage from the quakes. One of its major customers is Apple, who uses the sensors in its iPhones. Operations at Toyota Motor Corp. and Nissan Motor Co. Ltd were also disrupted. The region’s transport network suffered considerable damage with one tunnel caved in, a highway bridge damaged, roads cut or blocked by landslides and train services halted, the media reported. Kumamoto airport was also closed. There have been 378 aftershocks of at least a level 1 on the Japanese scale since Thursday’s quake, NHK reported. Kumamoto quake info: where to go, how to help

earthquakes;2016 kumamoto earthquake

jp0010652

2016/04/17

Cars offer dry respite as rain menaces evacuees of two-punch Kumamoto quakes

OZU, KUMAMOTO PREF. - The wooden home barely withstood the first earthquake. An even stronger one the next night dealt what might have been the final blow — if not to the house, then to the Tanaka family’s peace of mind. The Tanakas joined about 50 other residents of the town of Ozu, Kumamoto Prefecture, who were planning to sleep in their cars at a public park Saturday after two nights of increasingly terrifying earthquakes that have killed 41 people and injured about 1,500, flattened houses and triggered major landslides. “I don’t think we can go back there. Our life is in limbo,” said 62-year-old Yoshiaki Tanaka, as other evacuees served rice balls for dinner. He, his wife and his 85-year-old mother fled their home after a magnitude-7.3 earthquake struck Saturday at 1:25 a.m., just 28 hours after a magnitude-6.5 quake hit the same area. Army troops and other rescuers, using military helicopters to reach some stranded at a mountain resort, rushed Saturday to try to reach scores of trapped residents in hard-hit communities near Kumamoto, a city of 740,000. Heavy rain started falling Saturday night, threatening to complicate the relief operation and set off more mudslides. “Daytime today is the big test” for rescue efforts, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said early Saturday. Landslides had already cut off roads and destroyed bridges, slowing down rescuers. Nearly 200,000 homes were without electricity, Japanese media reported, and an estimated 400,000 households were without running water. Kumamoto prefectural official Riho Tajima said that more than 200 houses and other buildings had been either destroyed or damaged, and that 91,000 people had evacuated from their homes. Hundreds of people lined up for rations at distribution points before nightfall, bracing for the rain and strong winds that were expected. Local stores quickly ran out of stock and shuttered their doors, and people said they were worried about running out of food. Police in Kumamoto Prefecture said that at least 32 people had died from Saturday morning’s earthquake. Nine died in the quake on Thursday night. More than half the deaths were in Mashiki, a town on the eastern border of the city of Kumamoto that was hit hardest by the first quake. Kyodo news agency reported that four people were missing in Minamiaso, a more rural area farther east of Kumamoto where the landslides were triggered by the second quake. One landslide tore open a mountainside in Minamiaso from the top to a highway below. Another gnawed at a highway, above a smashed house that had fallen down a ravine. In another part of the village, houses were hanging precariously at the edge of a huge hole cut open in the earth. About 1,500 people were injured in the two earthquakes, said Yoshihide Suga, the Japanese government’s top spokesman. He said the number of troops in the area was being raised to 20,000, while additional police and firefighters were also on the way. In Mashiki, where people were trapped beneath the rubble for hours, an unconscious 93-year-old woman, Yumiko Yamauchi, was dragged out from the debris of her home Saturday and taken by ambulance to a hospital. Her son-in-law, Tatsuhiko Sakata, said she had refused to move to shelter with him after the first quake Thursday. “When I came to see her last night, I was asking her: ‘Mother? I’m here! Do you remember me? Do you remember my face?’ She replied with a huge smile filled with joy. A kind of smile that I would never forget. And that was the last I saw of her,” Sakata said. Japanese TV showed a collapsed student dormitory at Aso city’s Tokai University that was originally two floors, but now looked like a single-story building. A witness said he heard a cry for help from the rubble. Two students were reported to have died there. The area has been rocked by aftershocks. The Meteorological Agency said the magnitude-7.3 quake early Saturday may have been the main one, with the one from Thursday night a precursor. Tanaka, the man spending the night in his car with others in Ozu, had spent Friday starting to clean up the mess from the first earthquake, hoping the aftershocks would gradually subside. “Then came the big one, which was so powerful I couldn’t even stand on my feet. It was horrifying,” he said, adding that when he left, his house was tilted at an angle. David Rothery, professor of planetary geosciences at The Open University in Britain, said Saturday’s quake was 30 times more powerful than the one Thursday. “It is unusual but not unprecedented for a larger and more damaging earthquake to follow what was taken to be the main event,” he said. Rothery noted that in March 2011, a magnitude-7.2 earthquake in northern Japan was followed two days later by the magnitude-9.0 quake that caused devastating tsunami that killed more than 18,000 people. Mount Aso, near the village of Minamiaso, erupted Saturday for the first time in a month, sending smoke rising about 100 meters (328 feet) into the air, but no damage was reported. It was not clear whether there was a link between the quakes and the eruption. The 1,592-meter (5,223-foot) -high mountain is about a 90-miniute drive from the epicenter. The second earthquake seriously damaged historic Aso Shrine, a picturesque complex near the volcano. A number of buildings with curved tiled roofs were flattened on the ground like lopsided fans. A towering gate, known as the “cherry blossom gate,” collapsed. Kumamoto quake info: where to go, how to help

earthquakes;evacuees;2016 kumamoto earthquake

jp0010653

2016/04/17

In pictures: After the Kumamoto quakes

What was thought to be the strongest quake in Kyushu, registering the maximum intensity on the Japanese shindo seismic scale, turned out to be a preshock of the earthquake that rocked Kumamoto on Saturday morning. The magnitude-7.3 quake and continuous series of aftershocks triggered a number of landslides as well as the collapse and cracking of major roadways in the mountainous region of Minamiaso. The death toll from both quakes currently stands at 41 people, with at least 11 missing. Saturday morning Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said, due to the approach of heavy rain, there would be “not a moment spare,” in the rescue efforts to save people trapped in collapsed buildings and to move the survivors to evacuation centers. Here is a selection of photos documenting the extensive damage, the rescue efforts and the difficult situation facing thousands of local residents who have had to leave their homes. Water dislodged by a landslide pours onto a road in Kitakyushu City on April 16. The tracks of the JR Hohi Line, which runs beside the road, were also washed away. | KYODO Photographs of the village of Minamiaso, Kumamoto Prefecture, taken before and after the April 16 earthquake show the damage caused by landslides. | KYODO Members of rescue team and their dogs patrol the homes around Mashiki, Kumamoto Prefecture on Sataurday, following a series of strong earthquakes that began on April 14. | AFP-JIJI A man clears the debris of a broken wall in Mashiki, Kumamoto Prefecture on Saturday. | AFP-JIJI A member of a rescue team runs on a cracked street in Mashiki, Kumamoto Prefecture on Saturday. | AFP-JIJI Students from Tokai University receive instructions from a Self Defense Force member before being evacuated by helicopter from the village of Minamiaso, where one of their dormitories reportedly collapsed in the quake, on April 16. | KYODO ‘SOS’ written on a sportsground within the Miyaji Elementary School in Aso City, Kumamoto Prefecture, on April 16. | KYODO Evacuees receive riceballs from Self Defense Force members in the town of Mashiki, Kumamoto Prefecture, on Saturday. | KYODO Women direct evacuees to queues for handouts of drinks, sweets and other foods in the town of Mashiki, Kumamoto Prefecture, on April 16. | KYODO A doctor tends to an elderly woman at an evacuation center in the town of Mashiki, Kumamoto Prefecture, on April 16. | KYODO Evacuees queue for food supplies at an entrance of the Kumamoto City Hall on Saturday. | AFP-JIJI Local residents wait in line for food and goods at a distribution center in Mashiki, Kumamoto Prefecture as storm clouds gather on Saturday. | AP As blackouts continue, a family prepares for another night at an evacuation center in Takamori Town, Kumamoto Prefecture, on April 16. | KYODO Kumamoto quake info: where to go, how to help

earthquakes;kumamoto;2016 kumamoto earthquake

jp0010654

2016/04/17

Rescued residents recount horror of being buried alive

KUMAMOTO - People rescued from collapsed houses and other buildings Saturday described the terror they felt after barely escaping Kumamoto’s second deadly quake in less than 48 hours. “The house started to shake, so I grabbed my cell phone and was about to run when it came down,” said Fumio Iwamoto, 54, who managed to survive in a small pocket of rubble that used to be his two-story home in Minami Ward. Iwamoto was sleeping on the ground floor when the magnitude-7.3 quake hit but was extracted by rescue workers roughly 30 minutes later. “It (the rescue) felt so long. I’m so thankful that at least I’m alive,” Iwamoto said. In the village of Minamiaso, Koki Shibata, a 21-year-old student at Tokai University, got buried when his two-story apartment building collapsed but was rescued about an hour later when his neighbors and the owner located him by calling his name and broke through the debris with hammers and crowbars. Shibata said the ceiling of his first-floor unit fell on him after two big jolts. “I could not stand, and the next thing I knew, I was buried,” he said. “My friends encouraged me (to hang on) so I didn’t feel (the rescue) took a long time,” Shibata said. “I’m really grateful and glad to be alive. But I am worried as some of my friends seem to be still trapped in the apartment.” Most of the building’s residents are Tokai University students. A woman living across the street saw at least five students rescued but said there still seemed to be people trapped underneath. Tokai University said six apartment buildings near its Aso campus, including the building where Shibata lived, had been damaged and two students were confirmed dead. In the town of Mashiki, which was heavily damaged by a magnitude-6.5 temblor Thursday night of maximum intensity, the houses half-destroyed by that quake were flattened by Saturday’s jolt and the subsequent aftershocks. Many residents got buried after returning home after the first quake, when they found out power was restored. “That was the final blow,” a local firefighter said of Saturday’s powerful quake. “With all these aftershocks, there is really no safe place anymore, including shelters.” Megumi Sugita, 35, who took refuge with her family, said, “I can’t relax due to the repeated aftershocks. I hope (the quakes) will stop soon.” Near Minamiaso, the Aso Ohashi bridge and a tunnel connecting the area with the city of Kumamoto also collapsed, paralyzing traffic and isolating some 60 guests at hot springs inns, a local inn association said. At a park in Kumamoto’s Chuo Ward, several hundred evacuees screamed and trembled every time an aftershock hit. Covered in blankets, some were seen providing support to others with comforting words. In neighboring Oita Prefecture, residents and travelers visiting the Yufuin area, famous for its hot springs, also spent a sleepless night in shelters after the earthquake destroyed homes and other buildings. Kumamoto quake info: where to go, how to help

earthquakes;2016 kumamoto earthquake

jp0010655

2016/04/17

Kumamoto quake info: where to go, how to help

Starting with a magnitude-6.5 quake on April 14, a series of major earthquakes have hit the central Kumamoto area of Japan, causing deaths, injuries and widespread damage to the area’s residences and infrastructure. As aftershocks continue, tens of thousands of people have moved into evacuation centers which are doing their best to support the evacuees’ needs. Here is a list of info for people in the area and ways you can help the survivors. Evacuee services Kumamoto City International Center The center is offering shelter to non-Japanese residents, plus multilingual translation assistance. Kumamoto Volunteer Center (Japanese language) Bath facilities free to evacuees (Japanese language; note; many have had to close) Communications/info Google person finder Lost touch with someone? Find them here or register your whereabouts. Free Wi-Fi spots in Kumamoto Japan’s three major carriers are participating. Safety tips from Japan Tourism Agency Free calls on Line app Line Out allows free domestic calls for up to 10 minutes. Shelter List of public shelters on Yahoo Airbnb offers free lodgings Financial donations Multiple charities are accepting donations to go toward various forms of aid and support. Please consult the organizations’ FAQs carefully before donating. The Japan Times has no official relationship with any of these organizations. Association for Aid and Relief, Japan Civic Force (Japanese language) Global Giving Japanese Red Cross donation (Japanese language) Kumamoto Japan Earthquake Bitcoin Relief Fund Second Harvest Kumamoto Earthquake Relief Support Peace Winds America The Nippon Foundation (Japanese language) Yahoo Japan donation (Japanese language) Other ways to show show your support Ginza Kumamoto-kan Kumamoto Prefecture’s official flagship store in Ginza, Tokyo, has been swamped with customers since the quake, as Tokyoites have sought to demonstrate their support for the quake-hit prefecture by buying Kumamoto produce.

earthquakes;aid;charities;2016 kumamoto earthquake

jp0010656

2016/04/10

Rescued castaways spelled 'help' with palm fronds on remote Pacific island beach

HONOLULU - The men rescued in this tale of three castaways were not named Tom Hanks, or Gilligan, or Robinson Crusoe. Though they might as well have been. In a scene straight from Hollywood, or a New Yorker cartoon, a U.S. Navy plane spotted the word “help” spelled out in palm fronds on a beach on a remote island in the Pacific Ocean. The three men, missing for three days after a wave overtook the skiff they were traveling in, were found waving their orange life jackets on the tiny Micronesian island of Fanadik, several hundred miles (kilometers) north of Papua New Guinea, officials said Saturday. The men’s families reported them missing Tuesday after they failed to show up at the Micronesian island of Weno, where they were traveling from their home island, Pulap. “Fortunately for them, they were all wearing life jackets and were able to swim to the deserted island,” U.S. Coast Guard spokeswoman Melissa McKenzie said. A local boat picked the men up and took them to a hospital. McKenzie said she didn’t have information on the men’s condition Saturday, but officials told The Washington Post they were not injured. Two bulk carriers searched a combined 17 hours for the men as part of AMVER, a U.S. Coast Guard voluntary search and rescue program. With AMVER, rescue coordinators can identify participating ships in the area of distress and ask them to help. In the last two weeks, 15 people have been rescued in the Pacific with the help of 10 AMVER vessels and six aircrews, the U.S. Coast Guard said.

u.s. navy;rescue;papua new guinea;pacific ocean;u.s. coast guard;micronesia;robinson crusoe

jp0010657

2016/04/10

In campaign, Israeli Army begs former soldiers to bring back weapons, bullets, gear

TEL AVIV - The Israeli Army is searching for hundreds of weapons and tens of thousands of munitions — from its own former soldiers. It turns out that many soldiers have ended their service by walking away with memorabilia. The military is now pleading with them to bring back their boots, sleeping bags and cold-resistant suits — not to mention guns, grenades and ammunition. No questions asked. A month-long campaign is underway across the country with the motto “Clear out your closet — Return equipment to the army,” stressing there is no risk of prosecution. Officials have opened 100 collection points at bases and police stations. Outside an army headquarters in Tel Aviv, three soldiers were positioned on the sidewalk while men and women of various ages arrived with cardboard boxes or plastic bags. Some avoided getting out of their cars, apparently too ashamed for making off with the items or having neglected returning them for so long. Nearby, a bucket gradually filled with equipment and uniforms. De-miners were ready to intervene in case any of the deliveries still posed a danger. In three weeks, “thousands of people have done their duty,” the commander of the operation, Brig. Gen. Yoram Azulai, said. “And I can assure you that we have not taken one name,” he quips. An army spokesman said so far the collection has yielded 220 firearms, 20,000 parts of uniforms, 700,000 bullets or grenades, 1,000 explosives and 1,300 pyrotechnic devices — particularly popular at weddings for fireworks. Some of the items could even be worthy of a museum. “A kibbutz decided to give up the cache of illegal weapons it held for decades,” said Azulai. “An officer who served during the War of Independence returned a gun dating from 1948, while we also recovered weapons from the Yom Kippur War” in 1973. Azulai said the danger of an accident or of weapons being stolen are serious concerns. “In everyday life, it is very common to come across people who use military equipment for leisure,” he said. “But in Israel and in an enhanced security environment, this is a very bad idea.” “(A man) could blow up his house, endangering the lives of his children and other civilians. And of course, this material could fall into the wrong hands, those of criminal or terrorist organizations,” Azulai said. The issue resonates because military life touches nearly all Israelis. Men are conscripted for 32 months and then spend years in regular reserves duty, while women serve two years. Many have found post-military uses for their gear. A one-piece, cold-resistant “Hermonite” suit can be used in winter, the rugged olive green uniforms and boots are perfect for gardening and outdoor work, and comfortable military sleeping bags are popular for camping. Infantry helmets have been put to use for weekend motorcycle rides. Those who hold onto of such gear tend to fall into three broad types, said Azulai. They include the “nostalgic” who wants to hang on to memories; the “cautious” who feels under-equipped, especially in case they are again called up for reserve duty; and those who simply neglect to return the gear. A previous collection campaign in 2008 led to the retrieval of equipment worth a reported 7.5 million shekels ($2 million), with the army able to re-use goods worth 4.5 million shekels. But “when you see the defense budget (60 billion shekels), it is a drop in the sea,” Azulai said. Israel “does not rely on what people bring to win the next war.”

israel;military;soldiers;tel aviv;grenades

jp0010658

2016/04/19

Duck lives to see another day thanks to 3-D printer used to make new feet

CEDARBURG, WISCONSIN - A duck that lost its feet to frostbite is waddling again thanks to a U.S. school teacher and a 3-D printer. Vicki Rabe-Harrison rescued Phillip the duck and, after watching a video of a 3-D printer online, turned to South Park Middle School teacher Jason Jischke in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, for help. Rabe-Harrison told WBAY-TV that she was planning to put Phillip down when Jischke called to say he and his class were working on the project. It took them six weeks of trial and error to get the prosthetic feet just right. Phillip was a bit wobbly when he first tested his new feet, but has now joined other birds and animals at a sanctuary north of Milwaukee. Autumn Farm Sanctuary co-founder Alyssa Herbst says Phillip is now getting used to his new feet.

u.s .;animals;offbeat

jp0010659

2016/04/21

Half-mile Tijuana-San Diego tunnel turns up, along with ton of cocaine, vast pot trove

SAN DIEGO - U.S. authorities said Wednesday that they discovered a cross-border tunnel that ran a half-mile from a Tijuana house equipped with a large elevator to a lot in San Diego that was advertised as a wooden pallet business, resulting in seizures of more than a ton of cocaine and seven tons of marijuana. It was the 13th sophisticated secret passage found along California’s border with Mexico since 2006, including three on the same short street in San Diego that runs parallel to a border fence with a densely populated residential area on the Mexican side. The unusually narrow tunnel was only about three feet wide, equipped with a rail system, lighting and ventilation. The tunnel was unusual because it was used for cocaine, not just marijuana, said Laura Duffy, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of California. Tunnels are often built for marijuana because its bulk and odor make it more difficult to escape border inspectors’ scrutiny than cocaine and other drugs. The elevator, which was big enough for eight to 10 people, was located in the closet of a Tijuana house whose floors were strewn with mattresses, Duffy said. The tunnel zig-zagged for 874 yards to the fenced commercial lot in San Diego, where the exit was covered by a large trash bin. Other tunnels that have ended in California were inside houses and warehouses. “It’s a rabbit hole,” Duffy told reporters. “Just the whole way that it comes up and that it comes up out right into the open, it is a bit ingenious, I think, and it’s something completely different than what we’ve seen.” Investigators didn’t know when the tunnel was completed. Margarita Ontiveros, who works at a law office next to the San Diego lot, said the tenants arrived about a year ago and often bought and sold wooden pallets. “They loaded and unloaded a lot of pallets,” Ontiveros said. “They sold very cheap.” Investigators began to monitor the lot daily last fall after Border Patrol agents assigned to the area saw heavy traffic and grew suspicious, said Duffy. The prosecutor said she was “fairly confident” that the first drug load was sent earlier this month but didn’t rule out the possibility that some got through undetected. Six people were arrested in the San Diego area Friday on drug- and tunnel-related crimes, including one U.S. citizen, two Cubans who were granted asylum and three Mexicans who were legally entitled to be in the country, Duffy said. Authorities saw a trash bin forklifted on to a truck at the San Diego lot on April 13 and followed it to a parking lot in San Diego, a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations investigator said in a criminal complaint. Two days later, San Diego County sheriff’s deputies stopped a truck after it left the parking lot, seizing 2,240 pounds of cocaine and 11,030 pounds of marijuana. Marijuana found in the tunnel and trash bin brought the total pot haul to more than seven tons, authorities said. The discovery demonstrates the enduring appeal of tunnels to smugglers, despite the significant time and money required to build one. Dozens have been found along the U.S.-Mexico border in recent years, mostly in California and Arizona. Many are found incomplete. The San Diego-Tijuana region is popular because its clay-like soil is relatively easy to dig with shovels and pneumatic tools, and both sides of the border have warehouses that provide cover for trucks and heavy equipment.

marijuana;cocaine;tunnel;san diego;border patrol;tijuana

jp0010660

2016/04/21

Enthusiastic artist gets granular with Taiwan's president-elect

TAIPEI - A Taiwan artist has refused to see the big picture and instead captured the likeness of president-elect Tsai Ing-wen, to celebrate her inauguration next month, on a single grain of rice. Chen Forng-Shean, who has also sculpted the face of China’s late Chairman Mao Zedong on rice, said the staple was a fitting medium for his work because it met the basic needs of ethnic Chinese. “Rice gives nourishment to the proverbial belly of the ethnic Chinese people. I used rice (as a medium) to encourage Taiwan’s leader, Tsai Ing-wen, hoping that she can take care of the common people, so they don’t need to endure hunger, and improve their financial situation,” he said. He outlined the facial features and accompanying Chinese characters with a needle-point pen onto the surface before carving and then dabbing black paint into the grooves. It took three months and more than 10 tries to get the sculpture to Chen’s satisfaction. Visitors to his cluttered workshop near the capital Taipei can view more than 150 of his works using a magnifying glass. Chen reminded Tsai, who will take office on May 20, that she pledged in her acceptance speech in January to work for the people of Taiwan. ” ‘(Be) modest, modest and even more modest.’ I wrote this sentence of hers onto this grain of rice.”

taiwan;sculpture;tsai ing-wen

jp0010661

2016/04/21

Shindo: Japan's earthquake intensity scale

On April 15, the day after the first earthquake struck Kyushu, all of the nation’s major newspapers carried the same headline: “Shindo 7 in Kumamoto.” No further explanation was needed. When Japan’s earthquake-battered populace feels the ground shake, it looks to its TVs and Twitter feeds to check not only the magnitude, but the shindo , or shaking intensity. On every TV channel, digital overlays report the region hit and show waves of numbers rippling away from the epicenter: one area might register as shindo level 3, defined as “felt by most people in that zone,” another as level 4 (“most people are startled”). The first magnitude estimates typically come later. A level 7 — the maximum on Japan’s earthquake intensity scale — is a panic-inducing event that has been recorded only four times. On each of those occasions people were killed. While the intensity scale may seem baffling to some, by communicating the intensity of the shaking felt in a specific area, it offers a far more immediate indication of the potential for damage than does the magnitude scale. Magnitude, which is the value of the energy released at the source of an earthquake, can be a poor indicator of the impact on the surface: A quake of a large magnitude striking deep underground will do far less damage than a smaller one hitting at a shallow depth. “Earthquake waves are attenuated as they propagate,” said Prof. Robert Geller, a seismologist at the University of Tokyo. “They don’t attenuate much when the quake is only a few kilometers deep, right underneath a populated area.” As magnitude is inferred rather than directly measured, he says, there are discrepancies between the magnitude assigned by different agencies — the 1995 Kobe quake that killed more than 6,000 people was a magnitude 6.9 according to the United States Geological Survey, but a magnitude 7.3 according to the Meteorological Agency in Japan. The magnitude scale is logarithmic, indicating a difference in energy release of almost four times between the two readings. Unlike magnitude, shindo is a relative, arbitrary measure of the intensity of the shaking in a specific location. The shindo right above the epicenter will typically be the highest, with the level receding as distance grows from the epicenter. Japan’s intensity scale runs from zero to 7, with levels 5 and 6 confusingly sub-divided into “upper” and “lower.” The Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11, 2011, which spawned the giant tsunami that triggered the Fukushima nuclear disaster, was felt nearly nationwide. The shindo readings ranged from 7 in part of Miyagi Prefecture and upper 5 in parts of Tokyo to a barely perceptible 1 in Kyushu. There have been only four occasions when a level 7 was recorded, data from the Meteorological Agency going back to 1923 show — the March 2011 quake, the Kobe quake in 1995, the 2004 Chuetsu earthquake that killed 46 and derailed a bullet train, and last week in Kumamoto. At level 7, the Meteorological Agency says, it is “impossible to remain standing.” People may be “thrown through the air,” wooden buildings may fall, and even reinforced concrete walls may collapse. Until 1996, shindo was mostly measured by the agency’s staff stationed around the country, who for more than a century reported how strong they felt the shaking and then surveyed the extent of the damage left behind, according to documentation on the agency’s website. Now a network of seismographs spans the country, measuring the initial P-waves when an earthquake strikes. Agency computers collate the data and almost instantaneously issue estimates of its size and likely location. This network is crucial to informing Japan’s early-warning alert system. When an earthquake of a certain size is detected, warnings are issued to iPhones, TV screens and factory lines. Trains automatically halt, and people are given time to prepare before the more damaging S-waves strike. The warning system has become a source of pride, hailed in government pamphlets as a unique example of national ingenuity. “It’s useful but not perfect,” said Geller, “because it gives warnings that let them stop trains for distant quakes but not for quakes right under the track.” In 2013 the agency was forced to apologize after mistakenly warning of an impending magnitude-7.8 quake in the Kansai region that never materialized.

earthquakes;2016 kumamoto earthquake;shindo;magnitude

jp0010662

2016/04/07

Cat island draws tourists; residents regret loss of tranquility

FUKUOKA - With two islands populated by large numbers of stray cats, Japan has a new tourist craze: sea cruises to visit the felines. Ainoshima, also known as Cat Heaven Island, is a 20-minute ferry ride from Shingu port near the city of Fukuoka. It has seen a startling change of late as groups of women, foreign tourists and other feline-fanciers visit the fishing village to see the cats. But although island welcomes the economic boost, there have been complaints about visitors’ behavior: They ignore signs telling them not to feed the cats, they drop litter — and they block the toilets. About 100 cats live on the island, which is a little less than 6 km around and has a population of roughly 280 people. It was only about a year ago that the tourist boom began here. In the past, locals say, only anglers would visit. The town office, which had done nothing to promote the cats on the island, could not figure out why so many people were arriving until it became apparent that Ainoshima, along with Tashiro Island in Miyagi Prefecture, had been featured in the news. TV network CNN named Ainoshima and Tashiro islands as one of “six places where cats outshine tourist attractions” in 2013, and the Japan Times published an article about Ainoshima in 2014 titled “ The feral felines of Cat Heaven Island. ” Little by little, the cats of Ainoshima have acquired global fame, and now, instead of Abenomics, the talk of the town is nekonomics (cat-nomics). The cats are everywhere, lying about and frolicking when visitors disembark at the port. The visitors’ faces light up as they snap photos and bend down to stroke the cats. On one clear March day, a ferry that makes round trips from the Kyushu mainland was packed with visitors. It can carry up to 150 passengers. “On days like consecutive holidays we can’t accommodate them unless we employ extra vessels. It’s an amazing change,” said ferry captain Kiyokazu Mifune, 46, who lives on the island. The visitors love what they find. “All of the cats are friendly and playful. I’m glad I came here,” said Haruka Izu, 26, a vocational student from the city of Miyazaki. Kiriko Chinen, 25, from Okinawa, agreed: “The atmosphere with the cats living on this tranquil island is wonderful. I want to come again.” Business has been booming for Ainoshima’s sole dining facility. The economic impact from the influx of tourists has been considerable. But the enthusiasm is tempered. Islanders complain of tourists littering, stopping up public toilets and feeding the cats. Foreign visitors especially are cited as causing headaches. “It’s great that our island has become famous, but it’s no good if they disrupt our tranquil way of life,” said a man in his 60s. The town of Shingu has posted signs in Japanese, English and Korean that say do not feed the cats. “We want to make sure everyone can coexist so there is no friction between the islanders, the cats and the tourists,” said an official of the town’s industrial development section.

tourism;cats;ainoshima;fukuoka prefecture

jp0010664

2016/04/30

Can police successfully keep a lid on gang violence?

When the Kobe-based Yamaguchi-gumi broke up in August last year, many expected a turf war to erupt as the country’s largest crime syndicate battled for territorial control against a newly formed group called the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi that was founded by expelled gangsters in the aftermath of the split. Until last month, police have struggled to keep a lid on the tensions that exist between the groups. Skirmishes between rival gang members have escalated since August, with crimes across the nation ranging from violent acts and shootings to vehicular rammings of offices. Given the escalating violence, it’s a little surprising that it took police until April 15 to designate the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi as a crime syndicate. “So long as they’re only killing and hurting each other, it makes our job easier,” a veteran cop told me, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Admitting that we’re in the middle of a gang war forces the police to put more officers on the streets and, ironically, they then have to protect rival factions from each other. Who wants to baby-sit gangsters?” Until it was officially designated as a crime syndicate, the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi held a tactical advantage over its rival in the battle for territorial control. While police had been on high alert, they were generally unable to move against the newcomers. Unlike its fledgling rival, the Yamaguchi-gumi has already been designated an organized crime syndicate. A group must meet certain criteria before it can be given such a designation: it must procure capital through violence, contain members holding criminal records and be overseen by a top-down organizational hierarchy in which subordinates take orders from a leader. Empowered with the crime syndicate designation, police have had the authority to arrest Yamaguchi-gumi members for extortion and fraud. Police can also order the group to stop demanding money and goods, and to limit the use of its offices. On April 15, though, the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi lost its tactical advantage. The Hyogo Safety Commission officially announced that the group, headed by Kunio Inoue and located in Awaji, Hyogo Prefecture, had also been designated an organized crime group. As a result, both groups can now be raided and harassed by the police. They compete on equal footing and face equal consequences for their actions. What’s more, Yamaguchi-gumi associates have privately said they have been instructed by superiors to avoid any major conflicts until the G-7 Ise-Shima summit has been concluded in Mie Prefecture at the end of May. The Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi is believed to have handed down similar orders to its members. The groups fear that police would crack down on their activities if they embarrassed the government by engaging in violence in the leadup to the global event. As a result of the recent developments, the skirmishes between gangs have, for the most part, halted. Police should have been relieved but the situation may have become a little murkier now that a wild card has been thrown into the mix. Tadamasa Goto, a former leader of an affiliate group in the Yamaguchi-gumi syndicate, returned to Japan last month for the first time in five years. Could his visit ruffle some feathers? According to the April 23 issue of weekly magazine Friday, Goto is believed to hold around $100 million in financial reserves. He is also believed to be on friendly terms with Inoue, the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi leader. In contrast, Goto’s relationship with the Yamaguchi-gumi appears to be a little strained. He is believed to have promised to trade information on his associates with federal agencies in the United States in exchange for a visa to receive a liver transplant in 2001. The syndicate expelled Goto in 2008 after he was accused of attempting to overthrow the leadership of the group with 10 other members, according to Katsumi Kimura in “Goodbye Yamaguchi-gumi.” It appears Goto has some unfinished business to sort out with the Yamaguchi-gumi and the financial resources to do so — $100 million buys a lot of molotov cocktails. Goto may be 73 years old but he’s in good shape thanks to the efforts of a surgeon in the United States. Depending on his actions while he is back in the country, it may not be long before gang violence escalates again.

yamaguchi-gumi;tadamasa goto;kobe yamaguchi-gumi;gang violence;kunio inoue

jp0010666

2016/04/08

Man scales cliff to propose to girlfriend, needs helicopter rescue

MORRO BAY, CALIFORNIA - As marriage proposals go, Michael Banks’ was a cliff-hanger. Banks, 27, scaled 600-foot Morro Rock just off California’s Central Coast early Thursday morning to propose to his girlfriend, who was watching via FaceTime video. The good news: Banks’ girlfriend said yes, according to Morro Bay fire Capt. Todd Gailey. The bad news: Banks got stuck, and had to be plucked by helicopter for a tricky, post-proposal flight to safety. Banks “took a different trail down, much steeper” and became stranded, Gailey said. “He couldn’t go any direction, on a sheer ledge, with his feet dangling 80 feet off the ground.” Rescuers called in a helicopter, and Gailey descended by cable to hoist Banks from the narrow ledge, with the rotors spinning near the cliff and ocean spray battering both men. Banks was calm for most of the ordeal, but “a little unnerved” at that part, Gailey said. Morro Rock is a landmark located just offshore from the community of Morro Bay. Climbing is banned but some go anyway and there have been several fatal falls over the years. Typically when someone needs to be rescued they are ticketed, Gailey said. It was not immediately clear if Banks, who was unharmed, was cited. Banks said nothing during the rescue about any second thoughts on his choice of setting for the proposal, Gailey said. However, the fire captain said others should consider a place “where you’re not in danger of falling off a cliff.”

accidents;california;psychology;marriage

jp0010667

2016/04/08

Swedes invite world to call random citizens on new hotline

STOCKHOLM - Ever felt like calling up a complete stranger in Sweden? Now is your chance. The Swedish Tourist Association has set up a hotline that lets callers worldwide “get connected to a random Swede.” On its website, the nonprofit group says the idea is “to spark people’s curiosity about Sweden — our culture, nature and mindset. To help us do this, we have the people of Sweden.” It’s not completely random. The Swedes who take the calls have volunteered by downloading an app. But they are not vetted or given any instructions about what to say. “It’s like when Swedes travel the world. You don’t know who they’re going to talk to and what they’re going to say,” said Magnus Ling, the head of the Swedish Tourist Association. About 3,000 people had dialed the “Swedish Number” by midday Thursday, a day after it was launched, and roughly the same number of Swedes had signed up to answer calls, Ling said. The website says the initiative honors the 250th anniversary of Sweden’s 1766 Freedom of the Press Act, believed to be the world’s first law supporting the freedom of expression. Ling admitted there was another motive: recruiting members to the tourism association, which is funded through membership fees. Swedes who sign up to receive calls will receive an email inviting them to join the group, he said. The calls are not monitored but they are recorded, “so that if someone says I was threatened or harassed we can go back and see who it was and even block that number,” Ling said. The website didn’t say that calls are recorded when AP checked it Thursday. Ling said it was listed in the user terms, which those answering the calls — but not those making them — must agree to. He later called back saying the information would be added to the FAQ section of the website. The biggest number of incoming calls has come from Turkey. Ling said he didn’t know why, but thought it had to do with the initiative getting attention there both in traditional media and social media. After signing up to test the service, this Stockholm-based AP reporter received four calls, about one an hour. The first was a woman from Turkey with limited English skills. The second hung up. The third was an engineering student from Britain. And the fourth was another journalist: Tim Nudd, creative editor at Adweek in New York. “I just wanted to call and see how this whole thing works,” said Nudd. He, too, was writing an article about it. The hotline follows a similar initiative on Twitter by the Swedish Institute, the government’s own PR agency. Since 2011 it lets a different Swedish citizen manage its official @Sweden account every week. Ling said the feedback he had received on the hotline was almost all positive, though he said a small number of callers were just trying to hook up with Swedish women. “I’ve heard of just one or two such calls,” Ling said.

sweden;tourism;travel

jp0010668

2016/04/08

Man gets life for Tochigi girl's murder despite lack of physical evidence

UTSUNOMIYA, TOCHIGI PREF. - A man on Friday was sentenced to life in prison for murdering a 7-year-old girl in Tochigi Prefecture in 2005 in a case that centered solely on dubious confessions rather than physical evidence. The ruling handed to 33-year-old Takuya Katsumata by a panel of professional and lay judges at the Utsunomiya District Court was in line with the prosecutors’ demands. But given the failure of the Tochigi police to recover the murder weapon, the credibility of Katsumata’s confessions — allegedly made under duress — became a major point of contention when his trial began in late February. According to the indictment, Katsumata stabbed Yuki Yoshida to death on Dec. 2, 2005, a day after abducting her on her way home from school in what was then Imaichi, Tochigi Prefecture. He was arrested on suspicion of murder in June 2014 but pleaded not guilty in May 2015. The defense alleged that Katsumata was maltreated during detention and that while he gave conflicting statements during the interrogation process, he eventually settled on a plea of not guilty. The prosecutors said that a video-taped confession showing Katsumata describing the murder with gestures was concrete and realistic. But the defense counsel questioned its credibility, noting that the time he said he killed the girl did not match the time of her death as deduced from the contents of her stomach. The defense also said police coerced him into changing small details in his earlier statements during the initial investigation phase. Moreover, Katsumata’s defense team also claimed he was subject to violence during detention and was told his punishment would be reduced if he admitted guilt. The victim’s family demanded a life sentence. “Our suffering from losing an irreplaceable life cannot be healed. We cannot even allow the defendant to run away from his sin through the death penalty,” they said in a statement read out at the trial.

murder;life sentence;tochigi prefecture;takuya katsumata;confession

jp0010669

2016/04/24

Party name undermining Osaka Ishin candidate's chances in Kyoto by-election

KYOTO - What’s in a name? The Lower House by-election in Kyoto on Sunday showed that, when it comes to political parties, what you call yourself does matter. Especially if your party’s name is that of a historic rival city voters and residents have traditionally disdained. The poll to replace disgraced Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Kensuke Miyazaki in Kyoto’s No. 3 district after he was forced to resign when extramarital affairs came to light, offered Osaka Ishin no Kai a chance to try to grow its Osaka base outside the city and prefecture. To this end, the party backed Natsue Mori, 34. She ran against Kenta Izumi, 41, who had the support of the Democratic Party. Late on Sunday, Izumi was declared the winner of the race after beating Mori and another candidate, Yukiko Ono, who was backed by the conservative Party for Japanese Kokoro. From March, when Osaka Ishin decided to field a candidate in the Kyoto No. 3 race, it faced a huge problem: its name. Although some party officials have said they prefer it be switched back to Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) after the Upper House election this summer, it appears candidates will be stuck with Osaka Ishin until then. In the Kyoto campaign, which kicked off on April 12, it became clear that running a candidate under a party with Osaka in its name was problematic. In an attempt to overcome the skepticism, Osaka Ishin leader Ichiro Matsui, who is also the governor, and Mori went for the existential, arguing that, no, Osaka as represented in the party name does not refer to the big, brash merchant city that cultured Kyoto people have long looked upon with distaste, if not disgust, but to a state of mind and a call to political action. “In our party’s name, the word ‘Osaka’ in hiragana does not denote the name of a place. It is, rather, symbolic of a political revolution occurring in Osaka,” Matsui claimed during a campaign appearance on behalf of Mori in early April. The party ditched the standard kanji spelling of Osaka earlier in a bid to address the complaint. On the other hand, Mikio Shimoji, an Osaka Ishin member in the Lower House from Okinawa, elected to try and sell the Osaka brand with a more down-to-earth, comparative advertising approach meant to appeal to voters’ thirst for change, regardless of the label on the political bottle. “Sapporo beer isn’t just a beer sold in Sapporo. It’s drunk nationwide,” Shimoji told a rally just before the kickoff of Mori’s campaign, arguing Osaka Ishin’s geographical reach was not limited by its name. Rival Democratic Party officials, including Kyoto-based Upper House member Tetsuro Fukuyama, took advantage of the local traditional dislike of all things Osaka by insisting Osaka’s political revolution should stay in Osaka. Despite the fact they are only about a half-hour apart on the fastest trains, the two cities have long been far apart in many ways. Historically, residents in both places didn’t want much to do with each other. That’s less the case today, especially among younger people, but Osaka’s image is, in general, not that good among Kyoto’s traditional types. At least not good enough to guarantee a large number of Kyoto voters will cast their ballots for an Osaka-named party in this summer’s crucial Upper House election. Beyond the problem of its name, however, there are two other barriers to persuading people in other parts of the country to vote for Osaka Ishin. The first is the party platform, a mixture of neo-liberal, corporate-friendly policies that appeal to the merchant city of Osaka. But in more rural, aging Japan, social welfare concerns, taking care of the elderly and public works spending of the kind Osaka Ishin doesn’t always support are important to voters and local businesses. Nor do voters, especially in tight-knit smaller communities, always share Osaka Ishin’s belief their local bureaucracy is bad and needs further cuts to stimulate economic growth. The second problem is that Osaka Ishin’s Matsui lacks the charisma, independent image and feisty populist appeal of Osaka Ishin founder Toru Hashimoto, who retired from politics last December and is not expected to run in the Upper House election. A former LDP member and ally of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, opposition parties in Osaka have long joked that Osaka Ishin is not a separate party but the Osaka faction of the LDP, or at least the Abe faction of the LDP, on most major national issues. Thus, if the LDP loses big in July and Abe is replaced, many voters wonder what that will mean for the political fortunes of Osaka Ishin’s politicians, regardless of whatever name it eventually chooses? These are all problems party leaders are familiar with. For the moment, though, their focus is now on how to sell the “Osaka brand name” to voters around the country who see Osaka not as symbol of a national political renaissance or even a national product with a local name, but as place too far removed from their own needs, and concerns, to put their trust in.

kyoto;ldp;by-election;ichiro matsui;osaka ishin no kai

jp0010670

2016/04/24

Kyushu quakes kick off fault-finding search in western Japan

OSAKA - The recent, and continuing, earthquakes in Kyushu once again have many people consulting maps to determine just where Japan’s fault lines are situated, and whether where they live is more, or less, likely to see a large temblor anytime soon. In the Kansai region, there are about two dozen major fault lines that lie partially or entirely in the roughly six prefectures — Kyoto, Shiga, Nara, Osaka, Hyogo and Wakayama — that form the traditional heart of the region. There are also fault lines in Fukui Prefecture, including under areas hosting the nuclear power plants that supply much of the region’s electricity. The one that has Osaka residents the most concerned is the Uemachi fault, a roughly 42-km fault that runs from Toyonaka in the northern part of Osaka Prefecture down to the center of the city of Osaka before terminating around Kishiwada, not too far from Kansai airport. Seismologists believe there is only a 2 or 3 percent probability of a major earthquake along this fault over the next couple of decades. Elsewhere, the Mikata and Hanaore fault zones run from Wakasa Bay in Fukui Prefecture — not far from the nuclear plants — down through the city of Kyoto, while the Ikoma fault zone runs along the border between eastern Osaka and Nara Prefecture. The probability of earthquakes occurring along the Mikata and Hanaore fault zones over the next 30 years is judged to be minimal. So where in Japan can one move to get as far away as possible from seismic fault lines? A glance at official geological maps shows that, on Honshu, Okayama Prefecture has virtually no faults, while most of central and northern Hokkaido is also largely fault-zone free. Much of southern Wakayama and many places along the Pacific coast are free from fault lines. But the real worry in those places is a major quake in the Nankai Trough area along the ocean floor that could trigger tsunami. Given the official prediction of a 70 percent chance of a massive earthquake striking the Nankai Trough within 30 years, residents along the coastline from Kyushu to the Kanto region have reason to be careful.

earthquake;kansai;nuclear power plants;fault lines

jp0010671

2016/04/15

Toyota, Honda suspend plants rattled by Kumamoto quake

Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. were among companies that suspended operations Friday after a powerful earthquake struck Kyushu, damaging factories and supply chains. Flights and trains were also disrupted after the magnitude-6.5 quake, which struck at around 9:26 p.m. on Thursday. Companies operating in the region scrambled to grasp the extent of damage to their facilities and check that their employees were safe. Honda suspended production at its motorcycle manufacturing plant in Ozu, Kumamoto. “It will take time to resume operations,” said a Honda official. Toyota Motor Kyushu Inc. suspended production at three factories in Fukuoka Prefecture on Friday morning. Two of them resumed operations later. Tire maker Bridgestone Corp. suspended production at its Kumamoto plant. Meanwhile, electronics makers are also inspecting equipment at facilities they operate in Kumamoto. Sony Corp. was checking up on nearly 1,000 employees at its semiconductor plant in Kikuyo at the time of the quake. Mitsubishi Electric Corp. was inspecting two factories, one in Koshi that makes semiconductors and another in Kikuchi, which makes liquid crystal displays. It told all workers to stay home. Convenience store operators announced plans to dispatch relief supplies to Kumamoto. FamilyMart Co., Lawson Inc. and Seven & i Holdings Co. are shipping bottles of water and food such as rice balls. There was disruption on transport networks, with four flights canceled linking Kumamoto with Tokyo and Osaka. The flights were operated by All Nippon Airways Co. and Sola-seed Air Inc. Japan Air Commuter Co., an affiliate of Japan Airlines Co., said it will fly between Kagoshima and Fukuoka as an emergency step as bullet train services were suspended in Kyushu. A deadhead shinkansen train was derailed in Kumamoto. The Japan Transport Safety Board dispatched investigators to look into it. The Kumamoto region had already been facing a downturn in business sentiment, including the tourist industry. The Bank of Japan’s Kumamoto branch office this month reported in its local tankan survey of business sentiment that confidence among the area’s companies is likely to slump over the next few months, with pessimists set to outnumber optimists. The index will drop from 7 in March to minus 1 in June. Zero marks an even split on views. Tourism is an important source of revenue for the prefecture, which draws travelers from home and abroad with its Kumamon mascot, a famous castle and Mt. Aso, one of the largest active volcanoes in the country. The castle’s stone walls were damaged by Thursday’s earthquake. The tankan outlook for hotels and restaurants is forecast to decline to minus 11 in June, from zero in March, while for retailers the forecast drop is to 5 from 20. The tertiary sector, which includes the retail and services industries, accounts for more than 70 percent of Kumamoto’s economic output, according to the prefectural government. “Japan’s economy has weak growth momentum and remains in a fragile state with the absence of a powerful and sustained engine for growth,” said Yasunari Ueno, chief market economist at Mizuho Securities Co. in Tokyo. “Any unexpected powerful shock could push the nation into a recessionary phase.”

earthquake;earthquakes;kumamoto;2016 kumamoto earthquake

jp0010672

2016/04/15

Dethroned Puerto Rico beauty queen files $3 million lawsuit

SAN JUAN - A beauty queen who was dethroned as Puerto Rico’s representative at this year’s Miss Universe contest after organizers accused her of having an attitude problem is taking her fight to court. Kristhielee Caride filed a $3 million lawsuit Thursday in which she demands the return of her crown and the multiple gifts she won, including a car, plastic surgery and a seven-day cruise. She was stripped of her title nearly a month ago. The lawsuit alleges breach of contract and contractual damages. It was filed against PR Crown Entertainment and officials including Desiree Lowry, national director of Miss Universe Puerto Rico. Lowry’s attorney, former Puerto Rico Justice Secretary Antonio Sagardia, said that he declined to meet with Caride’s attorneys at their request. “There’s nothing to talk about,” he said. “Our decision is final.” Caride was stripped of her title after she was criticized for being dismissive and saying in an interview with a local newspaper that she does not love cameras. “That’s like an athlete saying, ‘I don’t like to train,’ ” Sagardia said. Lowry told reporters at the time that Caride never apologized and said only that she was having personal issues and that such an incident would not happen again. However, Lowry said Caride then canceled other appearances because of a doctor’s appointment she refused to reschedule. The lawsuit says Caride underwent an unspecified surgical intervention in late February and needed to rest for a month. It said she then made a required public appearance and did not wear unspecified, required post-operation accessories on Lowry’s orders. The lawsuit also states that a friend of Caride’s suffered a hemorrhage during that time and it affected her emotional state. The lawsuit says Caride was briefly hospitalized for depression after she was stripped of her title. Caride said in a Facebook post last month that beauty queens are not exempt from bad days and that she allowed her feelings to come before her job. She apologized and said she was turning over her sash even though she disagreed with the decision.

women;puerto rico;contests

jp0010673

2016/04/15

Connectivity, news and social media become crucial lifelines in quake-hit areas

With lessons learned from the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, mobile phone carriers and media organizations on Friday rallied to offer crucial communications services to victims of the Kumamoto quake. In a first, three major mobile phone providers — NTT Docomo Inc., KDDI Corp. and SoftBank Corp. — said they had activated emergency public WiFi hot spots in Kumamoto Prefecture. The WiFi access point is named “00000JAPAN” and is available free of charge regardless of a person’s existing phone carrier. The idea initially came from the plight of people affected by the Tohoku earthquake in 2011, said Shigeru Morioka of Wireless Lan Business Promotion Association, a liaison group that organized the service. “At the time of the Great East Japan Earthquake, some people complained they couldn’t connect to the Internet because base stations of phone carriers they were contracted to had collapsed,” Morioka said. “By using WiFi, anyone can access the Internet no matter who they have a contract with.” Media organizations also offered live streaming of their coverage to people in affected areas. NHK started emergency online live streaming of NHK news on Thursday for people who do not have access to TV. NHK World also posted English live video updates on its website. TV Asahi also streamed its quake coverage live for several hours via its YouTube channel. To help victims call family and friends to confirm their safety, popular messaging app Line offered a free service to allow app users to call any number, named Line Out , for a domestic call of up to 10 minutes. However, since the service might jam up cell phone lines, Line Corp. urged people to use it only in urgent situations. Meanwhile, the Japan Tourism Agency has provided foreign tourists caught up in the earthquake with safety tips and helpful links on its English website . In line with recent natural disasters, crucial information was also posted on official social media accounts, while survivors tweeted to show that they were safe. Moreover, posts of people in the disaster-hit area proved to be informative thanks to the latest smartphone apps that allow users to stream live videos to the world. Using an iPhone and live stream app Periscope, Noel Vincent, a 25-year-old English teacher who lives in Kumamoto, broadcast early scenes of post-quake Kumamoto and fielded questions from viewers. “There were a lot of people logging in from South America, the United States, Japan — both expats and Japanese citizens — and a very diverse group of people were watching my stream,” Vincent said. His live streaming Thursday was viewed by more than 3,000 users. “This isn’t surprising but the number one question (from viewers) was ‘are you ok?’ or ‘ daijoubu ?’ I did get a lot of comments suggesting that I should go inside, or I should (take) cover under a desk, mainly from Japanese viewers,” he said. “It seems like people’s perception on ‘earthquake preparedness’ varies a lot depending on where they are from.” Vincent said he used the app for the first time to report what was happening at the disaster site. “It was very interesting because I was downtown and a lot of people had been out drinking and were intoxicated,” he said. “But at the same time it was a lot of other people flooding the streets that were nervous, scared, uncertain and didn’t know what to do.” (Staff writer Atticus Massari contributed to this story.) Kumamoto quake info: where to go, how to help

social media;earthquakes;wifi;2016 kumamoto earthquake

jp0010674

2016/04/15

Kumamoto residents pick up the pieces following Kyushu's strongest quake

MASHIKI, KUMAMOTO PREF. - The toll from the high-intensity earthquake in Kumamoto stood at nine dead and over 1,000 injured Friday as rescue crews scrambled to search the debris for survivors. The shallow, magnitude-6.5 quake toppled houses and buckled roads in and around the prefectural capital on Thursday night in what was Kyushu’s first level 7 temblor on the seven-tier Japanese seismic intensity scale. “It was just like the Great Hanshin Earthquake or the Great East Japan Earthquake. I never thought I would experience that here,” mother-of-one Akiko Hakata told The Japan Times. “I hunched over my son to protect him.” Most of the victims were in the town of Mashiki, on the capital’s eastern fringe. But heavy damage was incurred elsewhere, including at historic Kumamoto Castle. The quake struck at 9:26 p.m. at a depth of just 11 km under Mashiki, the Meteorological Agency said, prompting tens of thousands of residents from there and elsewhere to take refuge at public shelters for the night. “Last night, most people stayed outdoors, or stayed inside their cars. It was so cold and frightening,” Hakata said. Officials are fielding hundreds of calls about damage and trapped people, but multiple aftershocks are disrupting rescue operations. At a collapsed house in Mashiki, however, an 8-month-old girl was pulled alive from the rubble 6½ hours after the quake. The effort saw more than 50 policemen and firefighters extract Asami Nishimura from her home after the second floor collapsed while her daughter, Miku, was asleep downstairs. The evacuation centers were packed with dazed people. Emergency food at one center in Mashiki on Friday morning ran out immediately, but supplies recommenced later in the day. At another, Tomiko Takahashi, 94, recounted being awakened by a loud noise from the quake. When the door refused to budge, she got out by squeezing through a crack in the walls, which had partially collapsed. “I can’t sleep because of fear from the aftershocks. I have never experienced something so frightening,” she said. Hakata and her husband were looking for food and a place to charge their phones in Mashiki but said they plan to evacuate to Kumamoto by car because they heard the city still has running water and electricity. Ayumi Ishikawa, 34, said she and her family fled their home without many belongings. “I’m sure we have to be ready for a prolonged evacuation, but I don’t have a sense of reality about this,” Ishikawa said. Mashiki tourism official Shinji Takahashi said 20 to 30 percent of the buildings in town collapsed. “There are 34,000 people living here, so we are preparing four or five elementary schools and libraries to be used as a shelter tonight, and probably for a while,” Takahashi said. Although volunteers have stepped forward to help coordinate the work, he said more manpower is needed. “We are short of staff. If we go on like this, we will be going three or four days without sleep.” The Self-Defense Forces have been deployed, and the National Police Agency said it has dispatched 1,084 officers from 19 prefectures to help. The injured are being treated around town hall, where food and water are being distributed. At a hastily set up medical center, a 16-year-old girl who was diagnosed with a depressed skull fracture she said could not remember what happened. Power was cut in many areas, and gas leaks prompted Saibu Gas Co. to turn off supplies to some homes in the capital. Tens of thousands of households were without running water. The full extent of the damage became clear on Friday. At least 20 buildings collapsed, but many more sustained cracks or other structural damage that may render them uninhabitable. There were also seven fires. Kumamoto Castle, a designated important national treasure and arguably the prefecture’s No. 1 tourist attraction, sustained heavy damage. Part of the castle’s main wall collapsed and tiles fell from its roof. Massive stone embankments crumbled in at least six locations, and numerous cracks emerged in the walls, according to the castle’s management office. The damage in Mashiki may take a long time to repair. The roads were ripped apart, and smashed kawara tiles and shattered walls lay everywhere. Walking down the street is hazardous, given the many cracks in the asphalt and falling debris from buildings, and all the stores are shut. In the meantime, aftershocks continue to jolt the neighborhood. The epicenter was only 120 km from Kyushu Electric Power Co.’s Sendai power station in Kagoshima, Japan’s only active nuclear plant. According to the Kumamoto police, the four men and five women were killed: Toshiaki Ito, 61, Fujito Aramaki, 84, Masataka Murakami, 61, Tatsuya Sakamoto, 29, Sueko Fukumoto, 54, Yoko Miyamori, 55, Tomoko Tomita, 89, Hanae Murakami, 94 and Yumiko Matsumoto, 68. Kyushu Electric said there were no abnormalities in the plant, adding that it is looking into any possible damage. Shikoku Electric Power Co. said its idled Ikata nuclear plant in Ehime Prefecture sustained no damage. JR Kyushu suspended the Kyushu Shinkansen Line after the quake, while power on the Sanyo Shinkansen Line, which connects Honshu to Kyushu, was lost between Hakata and Kokura stations. Operations later resumed at around 9:40 p.m. The Meteorological Agency said it was the first level 7 quake since the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011 and the first on such a scale to hit Kyushu. Remarkably, the heaviest damage was confined to Mashiki, with areas around Kumamoto experiencing strong jolts between 3 and lower 5 on the Japanese scale. Among the numerous aftershocks, however, was one with a preliminary magnitude 6.4 and an intensity of upper 6 that hit the area shortly after midnight, and was preceded by one with a magnitude of 5.7 shortly after 10 p.m. Information from Kyodo added

earthquakes;kumamoto;mashiki

jp0010675

2016/04/15

Sitting atop two faults, Mashiki should expect more shocks

Strong aftershocks might rattle southwestern Japan in the coming days as a result of Thursday night’s magnitude-6.5 earthquake in central Kumamoto, the Meteorological Agency and seismology experts say. As of 9 p.m. Friday, 147 aftershocks had been recorded since the quake struck at 9:26 p.m. Thursday, it said. The quake took the seven-tier Japanese intensity scale to its max, making it the first level 7 temblor to rock Kyushu. By number of aftershocks logged within 12 hours of a quake, the Kumamoto temblor ranks third since 1995, the agency said. The top two spots are claimed by the Niigata earthquake of 2004, which resembles the Kumamoto quake, and the Iwate-Miyagi inland quake of 2008. Thursday’s earthquake originated around 11 km below the town of Mashiki, an area of old houses where the Futagawa and Hinagu faults lie. The agency said strong aftershocks often occur after shallow quakes because there is a tendency for the Earth’s crust to be weaker nearer the surface. According to a government task force that researches earthquakes, there is a 0.9 percent probability of a 7.0-magnitude quake taking place on the Futagawa fault over the next 30 years, and a maximum probability of 6 percent of a 7.5-magnitude quake striking the Hinagu rift. Despite heavy investment on research, the government has never succeeded in predicting a major earthquake. The Futagawa fault stretches more than 64 km from the village of Minamiaso to the tip of the Uto Peninsula via Mashiki, while the Hinagu fault runs some 81 km from near Mashiki to the south of the Yatsushiro Sea, the task force says. With rain forecasted for the area over the weekend, the area is at risk of landslides due to the quake-softened ground. An upper 6 aftershock struck at three minutes past midnight and was followed by a lower 6. Two lower 5 shocks and 16 logged as 4s were also recorded. In March 2013, the agency began measuring ground movement intensity for earthquakes of longer duration and came up with a four-level scale. According to that scale, a Level 4 quake is too intense for people to stand. That intensity was recorded for the first time during Friday’s upper 6 aftershock. “With many active faults still undiscovered, it would not be surprising for a similar quake to occur anywhere in the Japanese archipelago,” said Katsuhiko Ishibashi, professor emeritus of seismology at Kobe University. “There is no guarantee that further shaking won’t be stronger than that of Thursday night, so rescuers and evacuees need to be extremely careful,” Ishibashi said. The Meteorological Agency said it is unclear whether the temblor is connected to the faults. But Keiichi Tadokoro, associate professor at Nagoya University’s Earthquake and Volcano Research Center, strongly suspects a link. “The largest intensity figure was recorded only in Mashiki, possibly because the ground there is easily shaken,” he said. The damage is concentrated in a narrow area with many older houses that lack seismic reinforcement, reminiscent of the 1995 Kobe quake that killed about 6,500 people, said Yoshiteru Murosaki, head of the Education Center for Disaster Reduction at the University of Hyogo in Kobe.

earthquake;aftershocks;mashiki;kumamoto precture

jp0010676

2016/04/15

Infant rescued from rubble in Mashiki more than six hours after devastating quake

KUMAMOTO - An 8-month-old girl was pulled alive from the rubble of a collapsed house in Mashiki, Kumamoto Prefecture, in the early hours on Friday morning, more than six hours after a devastating quake pummeled the area. More than 50 policemen and firefighters were involved in the rescue effort at the home of Asami Nishimura, where the building’s second floor had collapsed. Nishimura’s daughter, Miku, was asleep downstairs when the quake struck. The workers persevered amid aftershocks and the smell of leaking gas, and shortly before 4 a.m. on Friday a cry of joy went up as the child was found unharmed, lying in a narrow space in the wreckage. Mashiki residents had spent a sleepless night in evacuation centers on Thursday. The town’s gymnasium and nearby facilities were packed with people after the magnitude-6.5 earthquake struck, leveling some buildings, sparking fires and ripping up roads. Emergency food supplied Friday morning ran out immediately. Tomiko Takahashi, 94, said she was awakened by a loud noise Thursday night and found broken glass scattered around her room. The door would not open and she had to escape by squeezing through a crack in the walls, which had partially collapsed. “I can’t sleep because of fear of aftershocks. I have never experienced something so frightening,” she said. Ayumi Ishikawa, 34, said she and her family fled their home without taking many belongings. “I’m sure we have to be ready for a prolonged evacuation, but I don’t have a sense of reality about this,” Ishikawa said. The area suffered constant aftershocks all night long, and mothers hunched over their children to protect them whenever the buildings shook. A 79-year-old woman who lives alone said she fumbled about in the darkness at her home for a drug she needs for heart disease but could not find it. “I want to go home to pick it up, but I’m too afraid to go back,” she said. Injured people sought help at a hastily set up treatment center. A 16-year-old girl who was diagnosed with a depressed skull fracture she said could not remember what happened to her. In the neighboring city of Kumamoto, about 100 people gathered in a central park following the quake. Some stayed there overnight, spreading plastic sheets on the ground, locals reported. The quake severely damaged Kumamoto Castle, a designated important national treasure and arguably the prefecture’s No. 1 tourist attraction. Part of the castle’s main wall collapsed and tiles fell from its roof. Stone embankments crumbled in at least six locations and numerous cracks emerged in the walls, according to the management office. Kumamoto quake info: where to go, how to help

earthquakes;evacuees;kumamoto prefecture;mashiki;2016 kumamoto earthquake

jp0010677

2016/04/22

Lawyers say official misconduct may be hard to prove in Flint tainted water scandal

MINNEAPOLIS/DETROIT - The lead criminal charge brought on Wednesday against two Michigan state officials in connection with the tainted water supply in Flint, Michigan, could be difficult to prove, lawyers familiar with the state’s criminal law said. The charge against state Department of Environmental Quality water supervisor Stephen Busch and water engineer Michael Prysby alleging “misconduct in office” might also be difficult to deploy against higher-level officials without day-to-day responsibilities relating to the city’s water, the lawyers said. The lawyers interviewed said that to prove official misconduct, the prosecutor, to get a conviction, would have to show that someone acted with intent either by failing to perform a duty or acting in a way that violated a duty. “It has to be more than really screwing up your job or making a negligent mistake in your job,” James Brady, a former federal prosecutor now at the law firm Dykema Gossett in Grand Rapids, Michigan, told Reuters. Official misconduct is a felony carrying a penalty of up to five years in prison. It has been used before in Michigan against police officers accused of excessive force as well as legislators and public officials, including former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice. Other charges also were lodged against Busch and Prysby, who have pleaded not guilty. A third official, Flint water quality supervisor Michael Glasgow, was charged with tampering with evidence and willful neglect of duty. It was not immediately clear when he would enter a plea. In announcing the criminal charges, state Attorney General Bill Schuette, a Republican, vowed that no one was above the law and said more charges were to come. Embattled Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, has been the focus of public outcry over the Flint water crisis. Though he has apologized publicly for the contamination, which resulted from a decision to switch the source of the city’s water, Snyder told a news conference on Wednesday he did not believe he was himself criminally liable. “A handful of bureaucrats created a terrible situation in Flint,” he said. But the governor also highlighted the challenge at the heart of the official misconduct charges. “Was it actually criminal, or was it just poor decision-making?” Snyder asked at the news conference. Busch and Prysby violated the anti-misconduct law when they willfully and knowingly misled other regulators in violation of their “duty to provide clean and safe drinking water” and to protect public health, the state attorney general’s office said. Prysby further violated the same law when he authorized a permit to the Flint water treatment plant despite knowing the plant was deficient, the office said. Demonstrating intent is not often clear-cut, the lawyers said. “This is an amorphous offense, which makes it a challenge for both sides, both for prosecutors and the defense,” said Peter Henning, a law professor at Wayne State University in Michigan and a former federal prosecutor. Theoretically, the lawyers said Schuette or the special prosecutor could go after higher-level officials including Snyder for “misconduct in office” during Flint’s lead crisis but they said it would be a challenge for prosecutors the more removed the official was from day-to-day decisions. The charges against Busch and Prysby are closely related to their duties with the DEQ. “Where it becomes difficult is if it is not clear what that person’s obligations were,” Henning said. Kilpatrick, who resigned as Detroit mayor in 2008, was one senior official in Michigan who faced a misconduct charge. He subsequently pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, admitting to lying under oath, in a deal with county prosecutors. He was later convicted on separate federal charges and is currently serving a 28-year sentence. Some other U.S. states have similar laws barring official misconduct. Last year, a same-sex couple in Kentucky accused Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis of official misconduct after Davis refused to issue marriage licenses despite a court order; Kentucky’s attorney general opted not to prosecute.

lawyers;michigan;tainted water;flint

jp0010678

2016/04/22

Man pleads guilty over yoga altercation on airplane

HONOLULU - A tourist accused of becoming violent because he couldn’t do yoga on a plane pleaded guilty Thursday to interfering with a flight crew. As part of a plea deal, Hyongtae Pae is expected to be sentenced to time served, which was about 12 days, and to pay about $43,600 in restitution to United Airlines. Pae was headed home to South Korea after a Hawaii vacation to celebrate his 40th wedding anniversary when his actions last month forced the pilot to turn the Tokyo-bound plane around. According to court records, he didn’t want to sit in his seat during the meal service, so he went to the back of the plane to do yoga and meditate. Authorities say he refused to return to his seat, threatened crew members and passengers and shoved his wife. Through an interpreter, Pae told the judge in Korean he acknowledges he “caused others to become fearful” and that “it is correct that they were trying to subdue me and I resisted.” Pae tried to bite and head-butt two U.S. military members who was passengers on the flight trying to restrain him, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Darren Ching. He hadn’t been able to sleep in 11 days and felt “excited,” Pae told authorities after he was arrested. U.S. Magistrate Judge Kevin Chang previously allowed Pae to be released, but prevented him from returning home. On Thursday, Pae’s attorney, Jin Tae “JT” Kim, asked the judge to revoke the release so that Pae can return to the Honolulu Federal Detention Center. Pae has run out of money to continue staying in Honolulu and can’t afford to see a doctor to refill medication, which is running out, Kim explained. Chang denied the request and asked that Pae work with court officials to figure out an alternative to incarceration. Sentencing is scheduled for July 28, but officials are working to expedite the hearing so that Pae can return home sooner. Medication has improved Pae’s mental state and he is well-rested, Kim said.

airlines;south korea;psychology;offbeat

jp0010679

2016/04/22

Hurdles cleared but disillusionment, homesickness prompt Filipino health workers to exit Japan

MANILA - A number Filipino nurses and caregivers who seized the opportunity to train in Japan to work there have ended up returning to the Philippines, including some who passed the tough licensing exam. “The journey to becoming a nurse in Japan was indeed a mission impossible. . . . We were very tired physically, mentally and emotionally while studying to pass the board exam and working at the same time. All of us were pushed to study even on our rest day,” a Filipino nurse who quit only a year after his deployment in 2011 said recently. The 33-year-old nurse, who requested anonymity so he could freely express his views, is among more than 1,200 Filipino nurses and caregivers who were accepted by Japan starting in 2009 under the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement. Under the program, nurses and caregivers from the Philippines first learn the Japanese language and culture, undergo training in Japanese health facilities, and then take the Japanese licensing exam in their respective profession. Candidates who pass are granted a working visa, allowing them to both work and help graying Japan address its growing shortage of health workers at the same time. A fresh batch of 60 nurses and 275 caregivers is about to complete a six-month Japanese language and culture course in the Philippines before deployment to Japan in June. “Learning the language alone is already difficult, and it’s all the more grueling trying to pass the exam,” the Filipino nurse, who has already migrated to another country after returning from Japan, said in an email message. He complained also of a change in the payment terms in his contract when he started working in the Japanese hospital. To encourage candidates to complete the program, he said they should be allowed to shadow their Japanese counterparts as they perform their jobs, instead of getting assigned tasks usually performed by orderlies or janitors. “If I could turn back the clock, I would have not chosen to sacrifice my career as a public nurse back home and my family life,” the Filipino nurse said. Filipino caregivers Aira Ignacio and Bernadette Villanueva, speaking in a separate interview, also attested to the difficulty of working and studying at the same time when they entered the program in 2011. “There are times when you really wanna give up, because not all things in Japan are good,” Ignacio, 30, said. “There were times during my first year there that I asked myself if that is really the job that I wanted, because I’m not really used to taking care of old people, and doing it alone.” Ignacio, who is a licensed nurse in the Philippines, was assigned to a facility in Okinawa, while Villanueva, 29, went to a facility in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture. But unlike the other nurse, Ignacio and Villanueva endured the challenges of their three-year training program and passed the licensing exam for caregivers in 2015. Both said that while their respective facilities supported them in their studies while they worked, they also had to study in their free time just to make sure they passed the exam. But passing the exam did not lead to a significant increase in pay, contrary to their initial expectations. For this reason, coupled with personal ones — recurring back pain and wanting to be reunited with her family (Ignacio), and marriage plans (Villanueva), the two decided to return to the Philippines last year. Equipped with Japanese skills, the two now have relatively high-paying jobs in Manila as interpreters in hospitals for Japanese patients who cannot speak English. The two agree that their present circumstances are much better than if they had continued working in Japan as licensed caregivers, because aside from the good pay, they are also living with or close to their respective families. Being able to continue speaking Japanese and working in the medical field are additional benefits. But amid their difficulties in Japan, Ignacio and Villanueva said there were plenty of positive things they will never forget, foremost of which is the sense of achievement of overcoming the physical, mental and emotional challenges as affirmed by their successful shot at the licensing exam. “Living in Japan is not like being in heaven. There’s loneliness, homesickness. But when I felt the desire to go home before, I just thought right away of the reason why I went there,” Villanueva said. “We advise them to have lots of patience, because you really have to study and work at the same time,” Ignacio added. The two admit to being open to the possibility of returning if the right offer comes, noting also how they miss the clean environment, the politeness of the Japanese, and the efficiency of the public transport system, among other aspects. According to official data, just over 160 of the nearly 200 Filipino nurses and caregivers who passed the Japanese licensing exam from 2010 up to 2015 are working in Japan. For this year, 56 Filipino caregivers and nurses passed, but there are no data immediately available as to how many of them are employed in Japan. The Japan International Corporation for Welfare Services, which directly handles the program on the part of Japan, said the most common reasons cited by those who passed the exam but decided not to work in Japan are personal and family issues, particularly the desire to just be close to and take care of their parents.

philippines;caregivers

jp0010680

2016/04/22

Three women fatally stabbed, man found wounded in Shizuoka home; son arrested

SHIZUOKA - Four people were found stabbed Friday morning, three of them fatally, in their home in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, and a 31-year-old man who was on the run was arrested four hours later for allegedly wounding his father, the Shizuoka Prefectural Police said. Yoshitaka Ikeya, a company employee, has admitted stabbing his father, and the police said they are investigating his connection to the other stabbings, they said. At around 3:10 a.m. Friday, the police received a call from his father, Hisakatsu, a 60-year-old restaurant owner of Hamamatsu’s Kita Ward, saying he had been stabbed in the side by his son, who had fled in a car. The suspect, who apparently caused a car accident in the ward, left the vehicle on a street and allegedly fled. The suspect’s grandmother, 83, mother, 62 and sister, 32, were confirmed dead, the police said. According to the Hamamatsu board of education, pupils of an elementary school in Kita Ward were told to come to school an hour late because of the incident.

murder;arrest;hamamatsu

jp0010681

2016/04/25

Pope visits Rome park unannounced to mark Earth Day, decries money 'god'

ROME - Pope Francis has made a surprise visit to one of Rome’s main parks to participate in an Earth Day event. Francis, who wrote an encyclical decrying the exploitation of the Earth’s environment and resources often at the expense of the poor, went to Villa Borghese, a park filled with Sunday strollers. He sat on an outdoor stage along with an Italian priest who has courageously denounced Naples-area mobsters for systemically dumping toxic waste on local farmland in a lucrative, illicit operation often serving legitimate businesses. The pope told the audience that money has become a god “at the center of the world.”

rome;pope francis;mafia;earth day

jp0010682

2016/04/25

First-time investors urged to turn to inexpensive 'robo-advisers'

It appears not many people are into investment in Japan. As of last December, only about 16 percent of Japan’s ¥1.7 quadrillion in personal financial assets was held in stocks, investment trusts or bonds. This is partly due to a general belief that investments are for the affluent or those with financial expertise. Others, meanwhile, just don’t want to take the risk. But a new service known as robo-advisers might change this trend, allowing people to dive into investments more easily. Piggybacking on the growing finance technology sector, companies are now offering the automated wealth management technology service that creates financial asset portfolios and manages investment for clients. Following are some questions and answers about robo-adviser: What do robo-advisers do? Many robo-advisers invest in exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, which are securities that track indexes, such as the Nikkei 225 and NASDAQ 100. To start a service, people fill in information about themselves, such as age, investment experience and willingness to take risks, on robo-adviser websites or apps. Based on those answers, robo-advisers will create asset portfolios suited to the client’s profile. Although it contains the word “robo,” it’s more like an online-based artificial intelligence. But AI-based advisers are not suitable for investing in particular firms’ stocks in a high-risk, high-return approach known as active investing. Such strategies need a more complex analysis on why a particular company is performing well or not. “Robo advisers still cannot make such decisions,” said Toshio Taki, who heads a laboratory to research finance- and technology-related trends at Tokyo-based Money Forward Inc. “Even if they can, those systems are very costly.” Which companies provide robo-adviser services in Japan? While dozens of firms already provide robo-adviser services in the U.S., such firms are only emerging recently in Japan. Money Design Co., a Tokyo-based startup, launched a robo-adviser service called THEO in February. Based on user information, THEO offers a diversified portfolio consisting of 30 to 40 ETFs selected from about 6,000, including from overseas. Nao Kitazawa, the company’s chief operating officer, said THEO took a passive investing style aimed at following long-term market averages. Another firm, 8 Securities, has provided low-cost robo adviser service 8 Now! since last May, while Tokyo-based startup Wealth Navi kicked off its invitation-only service for users who registered their email address in January. Internet giant Yahoo Japan is also reportedly looking into a similar move. Also, Mizuho Bank has been running a Web service called Smart Folio, which provides asset portfolio optimization for users based on questions and answers. But Smart Folio does not actually manage the investment and only gives portfolio suggestions. Why rely on AI instead of fund managers, who usually handle investments or suggest portfolios? Investments have been somewhat exclusive to wealthy people and those who have expertise. But the AI-based service can lower the hurdle for beginner investors, experts and robo-adviser firms said. “Simply put, it has to do with the cost,” said Taki of Money Forward. While securities firms provide asset management services using wrap accounts, they usually require tens of millions of yen in startup capital. This is because securities firms cannot earn enough commission from small-capital investments to cover the cost of human fund managers. But as robo-advisers are cheaper to run, the services are available for those who want to start investing with much smaller amounts of money. “We have really focused on lowering (the) psychological, economic and physical hurdles for customers,” said Kitazawa of Money Design. People can start investing with ¥100,000 through Money Design’s THEO, paying a 1 percent annual management fee. The user interface is easy to understand and people can start or quit anytime via their smartphones, Kitazawa said. As a result, Money Design has attracted about 2,000 users since its launch. Of those, 41 percent have had little investment experience, while 54 percent have invested ¥200,000 or less. About half the users are aged 30 or under. “By creating a product that lowers hurdles and firmly explains that they can start investing easily, it is possible to attract (people previously uninterested in investing),” said Kitazawa. How reliable are robo-advisers? Kitazawa said that the benefit of robo-advisers is to eliminate the subjective views of humans and thus human error. “Our management style is (to let robo advisers) analyze all the data from the past and come up with the best options,” he said. “There is no need to include estimates by humans on how stock prices or interest rates will change next week. It’s an advantage to secure objectivity.” Taki also said that when it came to creating a passive investment portfolio, there was no big difference in whether human experts or robo-advisers recommended investment targets. But robo-advisers still cannot take care of the detailed needs of customers, such as advising on taxes in relation to investments, he said. Also, although more robo-advisers are expected to debut in Japan, Taki added that it will be hard for such firms to differentiate their AI products from rivals because they tend to be similar, as they use the same portfolio-optimization mode. The competition, therefore, is likely to focus on providing cheaper management fees. In addition, attracting consumers who are indifferent to investment, to a service which is also new and unfamiliar to many, is something that robo-adviser firms will need to work on, said Taki.

investments;shares;ai;robo-adviser;portfolios

jp0010683

2016/05/03

Closing arguments begin in LA 'Grim Sleeper' serial killer trial

LOS ANGELES - The “Grim Sleeper” trial was nearly over Monday after months of testimony about a serial killer targeting black women during the 1980s crack cocaine epidemic on the south side of Los Angeles. Lonnie Franklin Jr., 63, faces the death penalty if convicted of killing nine women and a 15-year-old girl between 1985 and 2007. All were shot or strangled, and their bodies were dumped in alleys and trash bins. Perhaps the most riveting witness against Franklin is the only woman known to have survived the serial killings. She described being shot in the chest and sexually assaulted in 1988. Then, she noticed her attacker taking a Polaroid picture of her before pushing her out of his car. When Franklin was finally arrested 22 years later, the same photograph — showing the wounded woman slouched over in a car — was one of many pictures found in his possession, prosecutors said. Franklin was connected to all 10 victims named in this trial through either ballistics or DNA evidence, prosecutors said. Many of the victims were prostitutes; others used cocaine. Franklin targeted women who were “willing to sell their bodies and their souls in order to gratify their dependency on this powerful drug,” prosecutor Beth Silverman told jurors. Before his arrest, a police officer posed as a pizza parlor busboy to collect DNA samples from dishes and utensils Franklin used at a birthday party. Franklin’s defense questioned the DNA evidence. Attorney Seymour Amster told jurors that many victims had DNA from more than one man on their bodies, and that more than 20 DNA tests excluded his client. Both Silverman and Amster acknowledged disliking each other, and at times held heated arguments in the courtroom out of the jury’s hearing. At one point, Amster even yelled at Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy after she ruled that he would have to refile a subpoena. “I am now going to rest. We have no defense,” Amster declared, prompting gasps in the courtroom. “I cannot represent this man any further.” However, he continued on with the case. Authorities dubbed him the “Grim Sleeper” because the killings attributed to him stopped from 1988 to 2002. Dozens of police officers had failed to solve the case in the 1980s, and the renewed killings prompted the creation of a special task force. Franklin was finally arrested in 2010. The closing arguments began with prosecutors after the judge delivered jury instructions on Monday. The process could last two days.

serial killer;los angeles;grim sleeper

jp0010684

2016/05/03

Mexican town's annual festival fetes donkeys with races, fancy dress parade

OTUMBA, MEXICO - This is a place where every donkey will have its day — a small town just north of Mexico City that gives the beasts of burden a chance on May Day to kick up their hooves. The annual donkey fair in Otumba attracts up to 40,000 people who come to see the animals compete in costumes and race around a track with jockeys on their backs. Tourists squeeze through the jammed fairgrounds wearing donkey ears and munching on classic fair cuisine, including the local version of burritos — a dish popular both north and south of the Mexican border that borrows the Spanish word for donkey. Costume themes for the animals ranged from the ride-sharing Uber to pre-Hispanic temples, and Donald Trump was a category in itself this year. Four families dressed their donkeys in likenesses of the U.S. Republican Party presidential candidate who has vowed to build a border wall to keep out Mexican immigrants he has called “rapists.” Adolfo Garcia Aguilar, who works on a cattle farm, said his family pitched in to dress his burro in a red tie, black boots and a blond wig. “We’ll see how we do — if they kick us out, donkey and all,” Aguilar joked before Sunday’s costume competition. Other Trump-decked donkeys featured signs that declared: “Impostor! I’m the real Donald Trump!” and “If I win the 12,000 peso ($700) prize, I’ll put a wall between Otumba and Teotihuacan,” referring to the famed pre-Aztec city of pyramids nearby. None of them won much favor with the audience at the 51st annual donkey fest, though. Audience applause chose the winners: donkeys emulating a Smurf, a firefighter and an Uber ride. Zeus Laredo, a physics teacher who attended the fair with friends, said he backed the eventual winner: a donkey dressed up as the papa Smurf who was attended by an entourage of people in Smurf costumes. Otumba was an important donkey market during Spanish colonial times, standing at the crossroads of major roads leading to Mexico City, where the beasts pulled heavy loads and carried travelers. Today, however, farmers use tractors and pickup trucks, and the donkey population is in decline. The animal that won the jockey race is more a pet than a worker. The 12-year-old winning jockey, Wilfrido Lemus Corona, learned to ride his donkey, Veso, when his grandfather plopped him on top when he was just 6 to carry him across the fields, his mother Patricia Corona Espinosa said. Family and friends threw the tiny jockey into the air Sunday after he scored his third consecutive win. He also took home 12,000 pesos in cash. With donkey numbers declining, Otumba’s Flores family decided to open a donation-funded sanctuary they named “Burrolandia,” or Donkeyland. It currently hosts 30 donkeys that German Flores said would otherwise have ended up at the slaughterhouse. At Burrolandia they live out the rest of their days grazing and can be visited by tourists on weekends. Flores said the majority of their donkeys came from farmers who either could not afford them anymore or who no longer had room after moving away from their farms. Fair organizer Juan Carlos Chavez said Otumba hopes its annual festival creates awareness about the animals. “Donkeys are wonderful animals,” he said. “People say they don’t understand, but they do.”

animals;mexico;donald trump

jp0010685

2016/05/03

Kamakura boasts ancient history, hip beaches

Kamakura, an ancient capital city during the Kamakura Period (1185-1333), may not be as popular as Kyoto, but it is one of the few places near Tokyo where visitors can explore the nation’s ancient history. Currently major tourist draws, the Great Buddha statue, Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine and other temples and shrines dotting the area reflect the power of the Kamakura shogunate (1192-1333) of times past. Strolling through the bamboo garden at Hokokuji Temple, tourists can easily forget that it’s just an hour’s train ride from skyscraper-filled Tokyo. Visitors can enjoy the tranquility of the garden, which sports some 2,000 stalks of bamboo, while sipping matcha green tea at the temple cafe. A little closer to Kamakura Station, many students on field trips as well as tourists flock to Tsurugaoka shrine even on weekdays via the Dankazura, a walking approach route that was recently refurbished. Visitors should bear in mind that on weekends the area around the shrine can get heavily congested as thousands of people descend on it. But Kamakura boasts more than just ancient history. The city is also home to the Shonan area, known for its popular surfing spots and beaches. Shonan attracts residents who commute to Tokyo but still want to live in a rural but hip seaside town. Visitors view the bamboo garden from a cafe at Hokokuji Temple in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, on April 16. | SATOKO KAWASAKI Maidens in costume walk in front of Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, on April 16. | SATOKO KAWASAKI Tourists take photos of the Great Buddha in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, on April 16. | SATOKO KAWASAKI Yuigahama beach in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, is seen on April 16. | SATOKO KAWASAKI Children wave at a Kanagawa Railway train, better known as the Enoden, in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, on April 16. | SATOKO KAWASAKI

kamakura;tsurugaoka hachimangu shrine;hokokuji;great buddha

jp0010686

2016/05/04

Okonomiyaki gives you nutrients you need!

Recent visitors to Cat Street near Harajuku might have noticed a curious little pop-up giving away bottles of pills. A neon red cross glowed behind the counter while two women in white lab coats showed customers scientific-looking charts on clipboards. Hangover cure after a night out? Not exactly. The sign outside read Fast Food Aid. Panels inside explained the concept: The customer hands over a fast-food restaurant receipt and, in return, receives a bottle of food supplements customized to replace the nutrients missing from that meal … for free. Public service? Nah. Fast Food Aid turns out to be part of a clever marketing campaign for a chain of restaurants specializing in the okonomiyaki savory pancake. Dohtonbori is promoting a new restaurant opening in Hiroo (on May 26) by cheekily spelling it out: The healthy ingredients in Dohtonbori’s healthy okonomiyaki have all the nutrients you need. The campaign is part of Dohtonbori’s recent makeover, which includes a new emoji-like logo and “Tasty-healthy” slogan. It is also announced the chain’s new policy of only using domestically grown vegetables by issuing a public apology for “not having done so earlier.” The Fast Food Aid popup ends on May 4, but you can always go to any of the Dohtonbori stores later for a fix.

fast food;okonomiyaki;japan pulse

jp0010687

2016/05/05

Provocations mount as Iran threatens to close Strait of Hormuz to U.S., allies

TEHRAN - The deputy commander of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard said Iranian forces will close the strategic Strait of Hormuz to the United States and its allies if they “threaten” the Islamic Republic, Iranian state media reported Wednesday. The comments by Gen. Hossein Salami, carried on state television, follow a long history of both rhetoric and confrontation between Iran and the U.S. over the narrow strait, through which nearly a third of all oil traded by sea passes. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday criticized U.S. activities in the Persian Gulf. It’s unclear whether that signals any new Iranian concern over the strait or possible confrontation with the U.S. following Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers. “Americans should learn from recent historical truths,” Salami said, likely referring to the January capture of 10 U.S. sailors who entered Iranian waters. The sailors were released less than a day later, though state TV aired footage of them on their knees with their hands on their heads. “If the Americans and their regional allies want to pass through the Strait of Hormuz and threaten us, we will not allow any entry,” Salami said, without elaborating on what he and other leaders would consider a threat. “Americans cannot make safe any part of the world,” he added. Lt. Rick Chernitzer, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet in Bahrain, said American sailors “continue to operate in accordance with professional maritime standards and international law” in the Persian Gulf region. “We remain thoughtful, vigilant and responsible mariners as we conduct our operations here,” Chernitzer said in a statement to The Associated Press. “We do, however, reserve the inherent right to self-defense.” The U.S. and Iran have a long history of confrontations in the Persian Gulf. They even fought a one-day naval battle on April 18, 1988, after the near-sinking of the missile frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts by an Iranian mine during the Iran-Iraq war. That day, U.S. forces attacked two Iranian oil rigs and sank or damaged six Iranian vessels. A few months later, in July 1988, the USS Vincennes in the strait mistook an Iran Air flight heading to Dubai for an attacking fighter jet, shooting down the plane and killing all 290 people on board. U.S. Navy officials say they face near-daily encounters with Iranian naval vessels. In January, an unarmed Iranian drone flew over a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf, the first such overflight since 2014, according to Navy records obtained by AP. The U.S. has also criticized what it called a “highly provocative” Iranian rocket test in December near its warships and commercial traffic. Iran said it has the right to conduct tests in the strait and elsewhere in the Gulf. Iran sank a replica of a U.S. aircraft carrier near the strait in February 2015 and has said it is testing “suicide drones” that could attack ships. On, Wednesday, Iran filed a formal protest with the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, which handles American interests, over a resolution filed by Rep. J. Randy Forbes, R-Va., that referred to the body of water as the “Arabian Gulf” and objected to Iran’s actions there. A report by the state-run IRNA news agency quoted Iran’s Foreign Ministry as saying the country will take any necessary action to maintain security, peace and stability of the Persian Gulf region. Forbes’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

iran;u.s. navy;iran nuclear deal;strait of hormuz;suicide drones

jp0010688

2016/05/02

Defense lawyer, with guide dog's help, carries welfare-related caseload

KOBE - Lawyer Kimiko Yoshie walks through a narrow aisle in court, led by a guide dog. Taking a seat on the defense side, she gently pats the dog’s head and smiles at him as he stretches at her feet. Being visually impaired, 45 year-old Yoshie from Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, is always with Kuru, her 7-year-old male Labrador retriever, including in court. Other than helping Yoshie dodge obstacles, Kuru’s laid-back attitude also helps calm defendants and other clients she meets for the first time, Yoshie said in an interview held prior to International Guide Dog Day on Wednesday. Although she has lost 98 percent of her vision from sickness, she laughs off the impairment with her cheerful character, saying she suffers no inconveniences. But Yoshie, who is an active member of the court and involved in welfare-related lawsuits, is a rare example of a guide dog-assisted practicing lawyer, according to the Japan Federation of Bar Associations. Just prior to starting her law studies at Nagoya University, Yoshie was diagnosed with pigmentary degeneration of the retina and told she may go blind by the age of 40. Thinking she might have to give up her dream of working for the United Nations and unable to discuss the situation with her friends or family, she was then certified as seriously handicapped at age 24. The turning point came when Yoshie started working for a law office four years later. Impressed by a female lawyer establishing a support organization for children with leukemia in postwar Iraq, she decided to focus on helping the underprivileged. Yoshie passed the national bar examination after five years of challenges. Initially based in Nagoya, she tackled such lawsuits as questioning the constitutionality of the law to help impaired people become financially independent, and cases involving mentally impaired consumers. Since her illness worsened gradually, she contacted a guide dog association to ensure her safety and that of others around her. She met Kuru in spring 2010. In spring 2013, after getting married, Yoshie moved to a law office in Kobe. “There are many cases in which people with disabilities would rely on judicial power. “Being a lawyer with an impairment, I would like to defend my clients while empathizing with them,” she said, adding that she will continue working on welfare-related lawsuits, together with Kuru.

lawyers;disability;guide dogs;kimiko yoshie

jp0010689

2016/05/02

New law bans bias against people with disabilities, but shortcomings exist, say experts

On April 1, a new law aimed at advancing the rights of people with disabilities took effect explicitly banning discrimination against them and requiring government bodies and private-sector businesses to pay greater attention to their needs. While the Law to Eliminate Discrimination against People with Disabilities will make life easier to some extent for the nation’s 7.8 million people with impairments, experts point to its shortcomings and limitations. Why did Japan create the law? The law is part of the government’s moves to align domestic laws with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, signed in 2007 and ratified in 2014 and to which Japan is a signatory. The law cleared the Diet in June 2013, but took effect only in April to provide time for the public and private sectors to prepare. What does the law ban and seek? The law comprises two key parts. For the first time it bans “unjust discrimination” against people with disabilities. It also asks government agencies and private businesses to take “reasonable accommodation” to remove social barriers for such individuals. What is considered discriminatory under the law? The government has issued rough guidelines on examples of acts deemed discriminatory, under which organizations cannot refuse to serve people because of their disabilities, delay responses to their requests or bar their attendance to symposiums or other events. Signs that say “No people with disabilities” are now banned. Examples of “reasonable accommodation” include “writing documents from dictation upon request,” “using illustrations, dictations, cards and PC tablets to communicate,” and “making seating arrangements in a way that take their disabilities into consideration.” But the examples do not cover every situation and leave room for interpretation and negotiation. Also, the central and local governments are legally mandated to take measures, but private-sector entities are only asked to “strive” to take action. Private-sector organizations can be slapped with a fine of up to ¥200,000 if they don’t report to authorities on their practices when asked or make false claims in their reports. Do these pointers provide enough information for people to take proper action? Rights advocates say no. “The law does not clearly define what exactly constitutes discrimination,” said Kiyoshi Harada, an official at the secretariat of Japan Disability Forum. JDF is a nongovernmental network consisting of 13 national-level organizations working on behalf of people with impairments. “The law’s significance lies in the fact that municipal governments and businesses are asked to take action. This has given people legal grounds to lodge complaints when they have issues,” Harada said. He said “reasonable accommodation” is specific to individual needs and hard to generalize. “It’s different from ‘barrier-free’ regulations, where rules are much more clear-cut, such as the size of certain building equipment or angles of ramps.” For example, blind workers might ask their employers to make documents available in Braille. Employers are required to respond to such requests to the best of their ability, but they might find it financially difficult to put all documents in Braille. In such cases, explaining their difficulty to those who made the requests and offering alternatives, such as providing documents in advance or electronic versions, can be regarded as fulfilling their obligation, Harada said, noting that, this way, blind employees have time to ask other people to read the documents for them or use computer software that reads out typed text. Now that the law is in place, data on what kind of requests are made and how they are dealt with can be collected. Such a database will eventually set standards for unacceptable behavior and for recommended practices, he said. What if parties disagree on the law’s requirements? The law merely says the central and local governments should respond adequately to requests for consultation from people with disabilities, their families and other supporters to resolve disputes. Specifically, welfare officials at both government levels are encouraged to create regional councils to help resolve conflicts, though it is not mandatory. Council members can include representatives of rights groups, family members, government officials and academics. According to a recent survey by the Cabinet Office, only 112, or 6 percent, of 1,741 municipalities in Japan had set up such councils before the law took effect. Exactly what these councils are supposed to do is not spelled out in the law, however. The law must be reviewed in three years. How can it be improved? Harada said the regional dispute-settlement mechanism should be beefed up, and ideally be separated from government oversight. Japan has no independent watchdog that handles issues related to human rights, not only for people with disabilities but also for other vulnerable members of society, including women. “Ideally, we’d like to see something like the Board of Audit of Japan, which supervises government spending,” he said. “For example, the Justice Ministry has a bureau that deals with human rights issues, but because it is a ministry bureau questions (of neutrality) arise when it comes to human rights at prisons, which the ministry also supervises. We need a mechanism similar to the audit board.” The law should also make it mandatory for companies to take “reasonable accommodation” on the issue, he added. “I want people to know the law, as it is the first one of any kind banning discrimination,” Harada said. “The law could be the first step to creating a society where everyone — regardless of whether they have a disability — will be free of discrimination.”

rights;diet;discrimination;disability

jp0010690

2016/05/20

Eiffel Tower to host four residents during soccer tournament

PARIS - Four lucky competition winners are set to be the first people in history to use the Eiffel Tower as a vacation home next month. Rental company HomeAway is taking over part of the first floor of the iconic landmark for the duration of the UEFA Euro 2016 soccer tournament in Paris, and transforming it into living quarters. The competition opened Thursday for the chance to stay in the famous monument, which provides panoramic views onto the Arc de Triomphe, the Sacre Coeur and the Seine River. Brian Sharples, HomeAway CEO, called the move “unprecedented” and said it was “guaranteed to provide the most epic vacation memories of a lifetime.”

soccer;paris;contests

jp0010691

2016/05/18

Filipino health workers tout program offering careers in Japan

MANILA - Filipino health workers training in Japan under an intergovernmental program are increasingly taking up the opportunity to learn about Japanese health care and practice their profession in the country. “I believe that if I’ll be able to work in Japan, I will learn even more and grow professionally,” Filipino nurse Angelito Custodio told Kyodo News. “The health care system in Japan is very good and the technology in Japan is very high.” Custodio, a 25-year-old licensed nurse in the Philippines who has worked for more than three years at a hospital in Bulacan province just north of Manila, is part of the eighth group of Filipinos currently preparing to travel to Japan for training. His group consists of more than 60 nurses and 275 caregivers who began a six-month Japanese language and culture course in Manila late last year. They will continue similar training during their first six months in Japan after their expected deployment in June. As with earlier aspirants, the new candidates will then be assigned to different health facilities in Japan and go through training while preparing to take the Japanese licensure exams for nurses and caregivers. Once they pass the exams, they have a chance to work in Japan. “I want to work in Japan because it is one of the safest countries in the world,” said Mary Jane Balberona, 29, one of the candidate caregivers in the latest group. “The people are very well-disciplined and I’m very interested in the Japanese culture. Aside from that, I believe that my service would be of value in Japan,” Balberona said. Both she and Custodio acknowledge that one of the major difficulties is learning the Japanese language, which is very different from Filipino and English. Having applied for the program in 2014 but failed to make the cut, Balberona said she took a 150-hour Japanese language course in preparation for her second attempt. Custodio, whose older brother was part of the program’s seventh group and remains in Japan in the hope of eventually passing the license exam for nurses, said the current language and culture course handled by the Japan Foundation is helpful. “It’s quite difficult but we know that if we practice every day, in the future we’ll be able to speak somehow in Japanese,” he said. Yuka Otani, one of the 22 Japanese teachers sent from Japan to teach the current batch of candidate health workers, said Filipinos were more adaptable to foreign languages, including Japanese, because they were already accustomed to multiple languages. Having taught the Japanese language in Malaysia and Vietnam as well, she said Filipinos were also “more cheerful in learning” and creative in presenting their skills. Japan has accepted over 1,000 Filipino nurses and caregivers under the program since its launch in 2009, three years after the two countries forged the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement. Official data show that more than 250 Filipinos have passed the Japanese license exams, with most currently working in Japan. Ruby Pink Abriol, 31, a Filipino nurse who passed the Japanese license exam for nurses in 2014, said she had zero knowledge of the Japanese language when she joined the third batch of applicants in 2011. Speaking to Kyodo News during her recent vacation in Manila, Abriol admits that even now, she is still not confident of her Japanese proficiency. “I was like a working student in Japan. Half-day is spent for studying and half-day for working. At night I study for about four hours. And on my days off I study for eight to 12 hours,” she said. In addition to the language barrier, Abriol said she also has had to adjust to the working environment in Japan, where people are focused, professional-minded and can sometimes be very strict. She was also surprised when she was assigned cleaning and janitorial tasks during her early days in Japan. Even after passing the nurse license exam, there are limits to what she is allowed to do to patients on her own and the salary increase is minimal. “It’s really a tough job because it takes lots of responsibilities . . . but professionally, it’s advantageous,” said Abriol, who will take up a new challenge when she starts working at a different hospital in Japan this month. Unlike other aspirants who have left Japan without completing the program or even after they have passed the license exams, Abriol decided to continue to work in the country for now. “Passing the board exam was really difficult. Not everyone can have this privilege,” she said. Despite the hardships, she encourages fellow Filipino health professionals not to pass on the opportunity to train and work in Japan, because for her, the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. But while she advises aspirants to study and adjust to the Japanese culture, she also hopes Japan will do the same toward Filipinos and other foreign workers “so that both governments’ long-term goals will be met.” “Japan really needs health workers. That’s a long-term need. I’m hoping and wishing they will learn to adapt to foreigners so that a lot of nurses can also come (to work in Japan),” she said. Abriol is proud about one of the differences she sees between Filipino nurses and their Japanese counterparts in that the former consider their career as a “personal” job. “We treat patients like family,” she said.

manila;filipinos;health care;nurses

jp0010692

2016/05/11

Bitcoin operators await regulation in Japan amid push for legitimacy and widespread use

Bitcoin operators are keenly watching the Diet as it deliberates bills to regulate the currency, believing the legislation is key to regaining the public trust’s in the virtual tender and luring more players to the industry. The bitcoin phenomenon fell under a cloud following the 2014 bankruptcy of Mt. Gox, a bitcoin exchange that claimed $390 million worth of the virtual currency disappeared from its computer system. Users lost their bitcoins and the firm’s CEO, Mark Karpeles, was arrested last year for allegedly falsifying data. Learning from the bitter experience, the government is set to place bitcoin operators under its supervision. At the same time, it will recognize the digital currency as similar to money, setting a legal definition for the first time once the bills pass the Diet and take effect. The bills passed the Lower House last month and are currently under deliberation in the Upper House. As fintech, a term coined by combining “finance” and “technology,” flourished worldwide, Japan wanted to keep up with the trend by creating legislation to cover bitcoins. “This is epoch-making,” said Mike Kayamori, CEO of Quoine, a Tokyo-based bitcoin exchange, adding that Japan was at the forefront globally of trying to establish legal definitions around bitcoin trade. Approved by the Cabinet in March, the bills to revise laws including the Banking Act and Payment Service Act stipulate that virtual currencies have “asset-like values” that can be used in making payments and can be transferred digitally. The legislation also obliges bitcoin business exchanges to comply with various regulations — something nonexistent when the Mt. Gox fiasco took place — and the Financial Services Agency is expected to become the industry’s watchdog. As such, the new regulation will require bitcoin exchanges to register with the government and submit annual reports. When necessary, the FSA will be able to conduct an on-site inspection and issue business improvement orders. To prevent the virtual currency from being used for money laundering and terrorism, operators will also be obliged to confirm the identity of users when they open accounts. Yuzo Kano, CEO of Tokyo-based startup bitFlyer, which also runs a bitcoin exchange, said he believed a key point in the legislation was that it protected bitcoin users. “It will help improve the trust in the virtual currency,” he said. He said without the bills, users would distrust the entire system because it was not recognized by the government. “I am hoping the new rules will stimulate the growth of the industry,” he said. Bitcoin — a decentralized cryptocurrency launched in 2009 — is used in transactions via a peer-to-peer network that connects users’ computers directly instead of via a main server, enabling users to transfer small amounts of the virtual currency almost free of charge. Its core technology, blockchain, a public ledger that logs every transaction and is considered impervious to fraud, has been touted as revolutionary, since it achieves a legitimate currency system without a central authority, such as a bank or government. Once the new regulations are in place, industry officials hope bitcoins will be seen as a legitimate currency that will attract more new players. After their mandatory registration, bitcoin business operators will gain a “significant level of trust” that will make it easier to work with other firms, especially with conservative Japanese banks, said Kayamori, who is also a former senior vice president of SoftBank Group in charge of its Asia operations. The key to running financial services is to cooperate with banks, because they provide corporate accounts, he added. “The business-to-business field will really grow and various applications will be available to consumers, such as a payment method,” he said. Kano of bitFlyer agreed, saying the system needed to attract major Japanese companies for it to spread because most bitcoin companies were currently startups. Although it has been growing, the Japanese bitcoin market is still in its infancy and too small for many startups to compete, so “nobody is really making a profit,” said Kano. “It’s essential for big firms to enter the market, especially major payment and commerce firms,” he said. Bitflyer users increased to 150,000 in March, up from 100,000 in January, with most users in Japan. Quoine, whose exchange service is used in other parts of Asia, said trade volume in March was ¥12 billion, a 200-fold jump from the same month a year ago. “The market itself has been growing, so I’m hoping everyone will be happy someday,” Kano said. Kayamori of Quoine said he believed bitcoins had great potential to spread in Japan for two main reasons — the popularity of foreign exchange and widespread loyalty programs. After the new rules take effect, existing financial institutions will probably start offering investment options for the virtual currency, said Kayamori. He added that investing in virtual currencies was similar to foreign exchange trade, so bitcoins could be a popular investment option. One setback, though, could be that bitcoin is known as a volatile investment tool. In November 2013 it traded at about $1,200 per bitcoin, but this is now about $450. Another positive factor, Kayamori pointed out, is that Japan had a variety of widespread loyalty programs, including T-point and Ponta cards. The virtual currency, which can be used to make payments not only in Japan but also to participating stores overseas, could be an option to convert those loyalty points, he said. In Japan, more and more shops are accepting bitcoins. According to Coincheck, another Tokyo-based startup that provides an exchange service and bitcoin payment system, there are over 1,000 such stores now. Kayamori said Quoine had talked to loyalty program operators who have shown interest. But they are currently reluctant because accounting procedures and the legal status of the virtual currency remain unclear. “They are literally waiting” for the rules to be in place, said Kayamori.

diet;bitcoin;mt . gox;virtual currencies

jp0010693

2016/05/11

30-year-old Siamese is world's oldest living cat

MANSFIELD, TEXAS - A Siamese cat born during President Ronald Reagan’s administration has been named by Guinness World Records as the world’s oldest living cat. Guinness says Scooter celebrated his 30th birthday on March 26. He lives in Mansfield, Texas. Owner Gail Floyd attributes Scooter’s longevity to staying active. She tells Guinness he keeps busy by traveling and has visited 45 of the 50 states. Some of his favorite activities include getting blow-dried after baths and snacking on chicken every other day. Scooter isn’t Guinness’ oldest cat of all time, though. That mark belongs to a fellow Texas cat that lived to be 38.

u.s .;animals;records;offbeat

jp0010694

2016/05/29

Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson, a man who rams whalers for a living

PARIS - He’s a fugitive on Interpol’s Red List and a marine vigilante who’s done jail time after extradition requests. Yet to many, he’s also a heroic marine conservationist who risks his life and those of his crew to save countless endangered whales, turtles, dolphins and sharks from slaughter. Love him or loathe him, Paul Watson, the 65-year-old, silver-haired founder of Sea Shepherd and co-founder of Greenpeace is now a celebrity because of his job: ramming whaling boats for a living. Watson has a hit U.S. reality TV series, “Whale Wars,” that has aired on the Discovery Channel since 2008 about his organization’s fight against Japanese whalers. And his influence reached new heights with the award-winning documentary “Sharkwater,” which conservationists say resulted in shark finning being banned worldwide. Both have attracted a new legion of global fans to Sea Shepherd’s controversial approach of battering whaling and fishing ships. The tactics have landed him in the legal hot water even as they boost his renown. During an interview with The Associated Press in Paris, Watson — a dual U.S.-Canadian citizen — was stopped four times in the street by fans of all nationalities who asked for autographs. “The camera is the most powerful weapon we’ve ever invented, so we had to utilize that weapon. That’s why we created the (reality) show,” he said. France has granted Watson political asylum, shielding him from extradition requests by Costa Rica and Japan on charges that he asserts are trumped up. Watson now lives as an international fugitive in a luxurious 18th-century chateau near Bordeaux. “It’s not bad,” he said with a smile. Japan says Watson allegedly masterminded Sea Shepherd’s disruption of Japanese whale hunts in the Antarctic Ocean and thus put whalers’ lives at risk during the hunt. Watson’s career has been as stormy as the seas he’s traveled. Co-founder of Greenpeace in 1969, he left the organization eight years later. “I left Greenpeace because protesting is submissive. Like ‘Please, please, please don’t kill the whales,’ ” he said. The same year he founded Sea Shepherd with the mantra using “aggressive nonviolence” to protect marine life. “We’ve never caused a single injury to anyone but all the stories of ramming ships are true,” he said, his eyes sparkling. Getting celebrities on board has boosted his cause. It was not until the 1970s, when he got blond bombshell Brigitte Bardot to pose “cheek-to-cheek” with a baby seal on the ice, that he first realized the “power of celebrity.” “It got us the cover of every major publication in the world,” he said. Now it’s an integral part of his organization’s outreach. A scary-looking Sea Shepherd ship — a camouflaged vessel painted with jagged shark’s teeth — was docked in front of the world’s media at the celebrity-filled Cannes Film Festival this month with activist Pamela Anderson in tow, drawing attention to the campaign against Antibes’ Marineland, Europe’s largest Sea World-style theme park. Sea Shepherd is suing the marine park for negligence that they claim led to the deaths of an orca and other animals — allegations that Marineland officials deny. “I don’t love the celebrity thing, but it’s what gets the message across,” Watson said, citing supporters including Christian Bale, William Shatner, Pierce Brosnan, Sean Connery and Richard Dean Anderson. “We can’t lose because we’ve got two James Bonds, Batman, Captain Kirk and MacGyver on our advisory board.” Isn’t he forgetting Robert Redford, who is also on the board? “Robert Redford wasn’t a superhero in ‘Captain America,’ he was a villain,” he laughed. Humor is just the veneer on a focused, dogged determination that’s carried him through six decades of fighting for the rights of marine life. An Interpol Red Notice is the closest instrument to an international arrest warrant in use today — the police organization circulates those notices to member countries listing people who are wanted for extradition. Watson said the original charges from Japan — the world’s biggest whaling nation — date from 2010, when a Japanese whaling vessel cut a $2 million Sea Shepherd boat in half. The Sea Shepherd captain then boarded the Japanese ship — “to confront the whaler who just destroyed his boat” — and was summarily arrested. Watson claims the captain “made a deal” with the Japanese to suspend his sentence “in return for him saying that I ordered him to board.” Watson says the captain wrote an affidavit to the U.S. State Department a year later admitting that he’d lied to Japan, which led the U.S. to ignore the extradition request — after briefly handcuffing him when he crossed the border from Canada. He says the Costa Rica request is also trumped up and is linked to the Japanese charges. Watson’s charm comes from his effortless way of making extreme positions seem highly reasonable. He says all the property that Sea Shepherd destroys by ramming it at sea is being used for criminal activity. “So we don’t see a problem with that,” he explained.

sea shepherd;whaling;paul watson