Sacred dance helps preserve community spirit in Tohoku

Abstract: When Masayuki Sasayama’s house was swept away by the tsunami three years ago, he was temporarily separated from his family and forced to stay in an evacuation shelter, but the tragedy did not stop him from helping preserve his hometown’s “kagura,” a traditional performance art dedicated to Shinto gods. Sasayama, who has been reunited with his family but still lives in temporary housing, is a member of Nanbuhan Jushoin Nengyoji Shihaidaikagura, a group that performs a Shinto dance and plays music dating back to 1699 and which is a vital part of an annual festival in Kamaishi, Iwate Prefecture. Kamaishi is one of the coastal communities devastated by the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami. Seven months after the disasters, the group began performing the dance again on a regular basis, even if it meant having to borrow vital supplies, including drums. Their passion to keep the tradition alive resonated with the private sector and officialdom, both of which have been shifting from post-disaster emergency aid to the long-term rebuilding process that focuses on addressing the psychological care of the affected communities. As a result, financial help has been extended to intangible cultural assets such as festivals, which are abundant in the Tohoku region. Last year, the Iwate Prefectural Government officially recognized the local kagura as an intangible cultural asset. Private organizations such as the Foundation for Cultural Heritage and Art Research have offered aid to ensure that the art is protected, giving the final push for Sasayama’s group to make a “full-fledged comeback.” Aid to intangible cultural assets is part of the foundation’s 2011 “Save our Culture” program launched in the aftermath of the tsunami. Working in cooperation with the New York-based World Monuments Fund, the aim is to preserve and restore cultural heritage, including historic sites and objects damaged on March 11. “Once a disaster strikes, the focus is on securing food items, medical supplies and shelter, but just as important is the emotional care to the affected people,” said the foundation’s executive director, Hiroshi Komiya. The project also has support from the Cultural Affairs Agency. “In the face of a disaster of unprecedented scale, it becomes all the more compelling (for us) to support traditional art and festivals which carry the wishes of reconstruction,” said Satoshi Yamato, the agency’s councilor on cultural properties. Sasayama, whose group is based in the Tadakoe neighborhood in Kamaishi, recounted how he and other members, while still in the evacuation centers and only two days after the disaster, started looking for their instruments and other materials that were washed away by the tsunami. Five lion masks, which are central to the dance, were initially lost, although four were later retrieved. Despite the tragedy and time constraints in preparing for the annual October festival at Ozaki Shrine in Kamaishi, the group pushed through with it. The 46-year-old Sasayama, who learned the art as a child, felt the festival could not begin without their group, which is responsible for carrying the “goshintai,” or “sacred body of the deity,” from an island via ship to the Shinto shrine where the festival is held. “The festival is an important opportunity once a year to bring the community together,” he said. Sasayama, who is self-employed but spends a great deal of time promoting the performance art, said the 3/11 disaster “gave us an even greater sense of crisis that we should be prepared to protect our art just like our forefathers have done.” “We hope that the full-fledged comeback of this traditional performing art could somewhat serve as a source of strength and inspiration to people,” he said. And he is hopeful he can pass on the art to future generations. Tomoya Kikuchi, 15, is one of the youngest performers of the kagura dance. He is ready to inherit the legacy. “I like everything about this art, the dance, the sound of the drums and flute,” said Kikuchi, a Kamaishi-based junior high school student. “Right now, Kamaishi is doing its best to rebuild and I hope our dance can brighten up the spirits of the people here,” he said.

3/11
iwate
3.11
kagura performance
kamaishi
3/11 anniversary


Top kitchenware, plastic sushi lure cooks, tourists alike to Kappabashi

Abstract: If you want to open a restaurant, the Kappabashi district in Tokyo’s Taito Ward is the place to go because it has everything you need, and more. Situated between the popular Ueno and Asakusa districts, Kappabashi boasts more than 180 shops selling tableware and kitchen equipment for business use and store fixtures. The shops stretch for almost 1 km along the shopping arcade linking Kototoidori Street in the north with Asakusadori Street in the south, showcasing not only kitchenware but also lifelike plastic models of food. Although the arcade is dedicated to the food industry, Kappabashi has in recent years become popular with amateur cooks and tourists, who throw in a visit because of its close proximity to Asakusa. One of the main draws is the skillfully crafted plastic samples of ramen, sushi, tempura, cakes and other food displayed at restaurant entrances throughout Japan. But many also come to purchase top-notch “hocho” (kitchen knives). Some are chefs at Japanese restaurants overseas, but others are merely housewives and husbands with a strong preference for quality cooking utensils and an interest in maintaining them, shop owners said. The origins of Kappabashi date back to the Taisho Era about 100 years ago, when a small group of shops began selling kitchenware. As other shops followed suit, the merchant community gradually grew. Despite the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake and the devastating Tokyo air raids of World War II, Kappabashi never died out. As Japan rebuilt from the war, its food culture diversified, increasing the need for different kinds of kitchenware and handing the industry a big chance. Kappabashi’s merchants thrived. Unlike decades ago, many shops here now cater to general consumers. Each autumn, Kappabashi organizes a bargain event that draws as many as 300,000 people from across the nation. As long as Japan’s food culture grows, Kappabashi will continue to thrive.

tourism ueno tableware asakusa kappabashi kitchenware


Despite hurdles, businesses bring jobs, opportunities back to Tohoku

Abstract: KAMAISHI, IWATE PREF. - When the March 2011 tsunami smashed the seafood processing factory where Shoichi Sato was working, he lost his job but eventually found a new life. Three years later, Sato is among the businessmen helping to bring back the fishing industry, long a mainstay livelihood for coastal towns dotted along the Tohoku coastline. Sato’s company, Kamaishi Hikari Foods, employs only 25 people but supports hundreds more who sell their catches of octopus, squid, salmon and mackerel for processing right at the water’s edge. In Kamaishi’s Toni district, whose entire port was wrecked by the tsunami, it’s about the only game in town. Businesses throughout the northeast face a reality TV show’s worth of obstacles to setting up shop, from shortages of financing and construction workers and materials, to lengthy delays in administrative approvals and overburdened transport networks. For Sato, it was the Qatar Fund Foundation, established by the Qatari government to help tsunami-damaged areas in Tohoku, and other groups that pitched in with money to buy equipment and advice on how to best run his new business. Sitting in his second-floor office overlooking a wharf under reconstruction, Sato said he got “zero” financial help from the government, which until recently would not approve subsidies for new businesses. Across the region, the government says nearly two-thirds of damaged land has been reclaimed and 78 percent of fishery processing restarted. But for the majority, sales are well below pre-disaster levels. Most damaged stores and other businesses are operating from temporary quarters such as shipping containers and prefabricated huts. The regional economy was in trouble even before the March 11, 2011, Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami triggered the Fukushima nuclear disaster that contaminated chunks of the coast with radiation. The 18,520 people dead or missing as a result of the natural disasters were remembered last week as the country marked the third anniversary of the tsunami. Tens of thousands of people are in limbo following the meltdowns at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, unsure if they ever will be able to resume farming, fishing or other businesses, or even return home. To the north, the seven biggest fish markets in Iwate and Miyagi, the two other prefectures that suffered massive damage from the tsunami, but not radiation, reported a combined catch of 303,629 tons in 2013, down from 444,894 tons in 2010 before the disaster, but up from 169,786 in 2011. It took the prefectural government more than a year to approve Sato’s tiny factory, which uses an innovative freezing process to package fish, seafood and seaweed for direct sales to a Tokyo supermarket and a sushi chain, his main customers. The process causes less damage to cells in the frozen food, improving quality when they are thawed for use in sushi and sashimi. In the Tohoku region, young workers tend to leave to seek work in bigger cities. Fishing pays poorly, costs are rising and there are few other jobs. At the same time, the jobs that do exist go begging: Sato employs three generations of women from one family, from the 63-year-old grandmother to the 18-year-old granddaughter. Some of his employees travel from homes far up the coast to get to work. As in much of the region, about half of Toni’s 1,800 residents are still living in temporary, prefabricated huts. Fed up with delays being resettled in new homes on higher ground, many residents are leaving. “I need to be able to pay the fishermen more for their fish, or they won’t manage to stay in business. That’s apart from making any money here ourselves,” said Sato. He is keen to improve quality through innovations such as testing the salt content of his ice and water for optimal levels for freshness. He works with Japan Fisheries Cooperatives, the alliance of fishery cooperatives that oversees the industry, and helped coordinate the transfer of seed oysters and seaweed beds to tsunami-damaged areas, hurrying along the recovery process. Still, nearly a quarter of fishing-related businesses have closed since the tsunami. In Miyagi Prefecture alone, only 18 of the 142 ports wiped out in the disaster have reopened. In the port of Ogatsu, Miyagi Prefecture, oyster farmer Hiromitsu Ito lost his home, his fishing boats and his oyster beds soon after he had taken out a loan to begin oyster processing. Like Sato, he restarted from scratch. But Ito is innovating with an online business model. His customers pay a membership fee and can buy a share of the catch directly from Ito’s business. Ito and his business partners used funds from the membership fees to help fishermen get back up and running. They are also training newcomers like 23-year-old Yuuki Miura, a fisherman apprentice, hoping to keep the industry alive. “When I was small, I lived with my grandfather and I grew up watching him work,” said Miura. In a region whose population is fast declining and aging, time pressures are felt by all, said Ito, the oyster farmer. “This year is the real deal, it’s the make-it-or-break-it year,” he said.

tsunami
3/11
fisheries
kamaishi
3/11 anniversary
kamaishi hikari foods


Are mandatory Kim haircuts a baldfaced lie?

Abstract: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s distinctive hairstyle is the ‘do of the day on the Internet, thanks to a viral report that every male university student in the capital is now under orders to get a buzz just like it. But it appears the barbers of Pyongyang aren’t exactly sharpening their scissors. Recent visitors to the country say they have seen no evidence of any mass haircutting. North Korea watchers smell another imaginative but uncorroborated rumor. The thinly sourced reports say an order went out a few weeks ago for university students to buzz-cut the sides of their heads just like Kim. U.S.-based Radio Free Asia cited unnamed sources as saying an unwritten directive from within the ruling Workers’ Party went out this month, causing consternation among students who didn’t think the hairdo would suit them. “I was there just a few days ago, and no sign of that,” said Simon Cockerell of Koryo Tours, which brings foreign tourists to North Korea. “It’s definitely not true.” An AP journalist in Pyongyang also said he had not seen any recent changes in hairstyles among college students. Though the forced grooming story may be one of many reported oddities about North Korean life that turn out to be false, it is true that the government has its own “fashion police.” Choe Cheong-ha, a defector who left North Korea in 2004, said members of a government-run youth organization routinely check for people who are not dressed appropriately. They look for whether people are wearing the mandatory lapel pins with the images of former leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, or for violations such as blue jeans, clothes with English words or short dresses. But Choe said directives on hairstyles aren’t much of an issue, since most people voluntarily keep their hair neat and conservatively styled.


Economic figures reveal more than you see

Abstract: The Cabinet Office’s Economic and Social Research Institute on Jan. 17 released the finalized figures on the country’s economy’s stocks (the net value of accumulated assets at a balance date) and flows (net transactions, including income and expenditure, during an accounting period) that were recorded in national accounts in 2012. The preliminary value of transactions covering the October-December period last year has already been released in the form of gross domestic product figures, but the total value of assets in the economy is only disclosed once a year — and almost a year later — because it takes time to confirm the figures. Therefore, the recorded value of assets in the economy as of the end of 2012 is the latest available. As the adjusted totals now go back to 1994, I’d like to review the figures over the past 19 years and highlight a few salient points: First, Japan’s net assets (or national wealth) — calculated by deducting national debt from assets — fell from ¥3,398.9 trillion at the end of 1994 to ¥3,000.3 trillion at the end of 2012 — a loss of ¥398.6 trillion over the past 19 years. Given that the nation’s nominal GDP was ¥472.6 trillion in 2012, the data shows that national wealth equivalent to as much as 84.3 percent of the year’s GDP was lost over the same period. If this is likened to a household’s finances, by extension the value of a family’s assets are 84 percent less than what they were 19 years ago. These figures clearly illustrate the impact of Japan’s “lost decades.” This subsequently raises the question of what has been lost over the past 19 years? Assets are generally divided into financial and nonfinancial assets. Tangible nonproduced assets have comprised the biggest component of the loss — mainly land, which is usually classified as a nonfinancial asset. The net worth of such assets fell by ¥813.9 trillion — from ¥1,958.6 trillion to ¥1,144.7 trillion — over 19 years. One of the two main factors behind the decline is of course the ongoing hangover from the asset-inflated bubble economy of the late 1980s and early ’90s. In addition, land has been exposed to market competition across national borders in such forms as the overseas transfer of manufacturing plants. In other words, Japanese land is still expensive by international standards. Finally, I’d like to highlight the changes in the ratio between financial and nonfinancial assets. In 1996, financial assets accounted for 59.7 percent of the total versus 40.3 percent for nonfinancial assets. In 2012, the ratio of financial assets was up nearly 10 percentage points to 68.9 percent, with the nonfinancial assets accounting for 31.1 percent. What these changes signify is that Japanese companies and households have become more defensive in a bid to maintain the liquidity of their assets. On the other hand, expenditure in Japan’s public sector has increased, with the private sector investing in most of the public bonds that have been issued to finance that expenditure. Needless to say, this has led to a stalemate in public-sector finances and fluctuations in currency exchange rates. People tend to pay attention to GDP — statistics of short-term transactions — as an indicator of economic trends. However, it is also important to watch figures pertaining to economic assets that reflect the accumulation of the total value of such transactions. Teruhiko Mano is an international economics analyst.


Bitcoin believers unfazed by losses in Mt. Gox collapse

Abstract: Like other bitcoin evangelists, Ken Shishido is ready to write off the money he lost in the bankruptcy of Tokyo-based virtual currency exchange Mt. Gox as the price of revolutionizing global finance. “In the early days of the automobile, there were traffic accidents because you didn’t have traffic lights or pedestrian crossings,” he said Friday, hours after Mt. Gox said it had lost up to half a billion dollars of investor funds, including some of his. “But we didn’t ban automobiles.” Shishido, who lives in Tokyo, was one of about 10,000 investors in Japan who became creditors in Mt. Gox’s bankruptcy when the company capped a tumultuous period of weeks by filing for bankruptcy on Friday. He lost about a tenth of his investment in bitcoin in Mt. Gox, he said, and expected none of that money to come back. Early enthusiasts for the 5-year-old crypto-currency were drawn to its revolutionary ideals of transparency and a lack of central or official control. There was also a heady mix of geek chic — the currency is “mined” through a process involving complex computer math — and laissez-faire Austrian economics. Mt. Gox’s loss is eye-popping, but so too is the number of creditors — 127,000 — in what had been the world’s biggest exchange. That means the average trader lost the equivalent of $3,500 in the bankruptcy at current bitcoin prices, assuming no money is recovered in the court-supervised restructuring that is set to play out in Tokyo over the coming months. Bitcoin’s value spiked in April 2013 as the crisis-racked Cyprus government clamped down on withdrawals and seized deposits, rattling faith in “fiat” currencies created by government declaration. The crypto-currency soon crashed back. Late last year, as the number of exchanges and its name recognition grew, it took off again. It gained wider acceptance and attracted speculators and high-profile proponents such as the investor twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss of Facebook fame. Investors interviewed after the exchange collapsed faulted Mt. Gox and its French CEO, Mark Karpeles, but they remained committed to the bitcoin idea. Roger Ver, a big investor in Mt. Gox, said he did not know if he would ever get any of his lost bitcoin back. “But the important thing to realize is that Mt. Gox is just one company using bitcoin. The bitcoin technology itself is still absolutely amazing,” he said. “Even if one email service provider is having a problem, that doesn’t mean people are going to stop using email. It’s the same with bitcoin.” Ver spoke of “all of the positive ways in which bitcoin is going to change the world. . . . If anything, it is kind of for the better of bitcoin that the irresponsible players are going out of business.” Shishido said he does not expect to get his virtual money back, but that the rest of his bitcoin investments had soared 10-fold in value. Keiichi Hida, a bitcoin investor and member of the Japan Digital Money Association, lost ¥100,000 worth of bitcoins, which he got involved with as a form of “study.” But he was unfazed. “We should make it a national project to have bitcoin used nationwide at the time of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics,” he said. “I think then everyone would come to Tokyo in an instant.” Mt. Gox CEO Karpeles, even after bowing to apologize for the exchange’s bankruptcy, later said the currency will endure. “The bitcoin industry is continuing, and the most important thing now is to limit the impact of (Mt. Gox’s collapse) on that,” he said.

internet
theft
bitcoin
currency
mt . gox
mark karpeles


When it comes to tourism, image is everything

Abstract: During his re-election campaign these past two weeks, one of the lesser-known successes touted by Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto was the Osaka Government Tourism Bureau, which he set up to promote the area to tourists and convention organizers. The new bureau marks the latest effort by a town, city or prefecture in Kansai to distinguish itself and grab a piece of the domestic and international tourism pie. But when promoting themselves overseas and, to a lesser extent, within Japan, the first and most fundamental problem is the region’s weak or nonexistent presence in the minds of would-be visitors. Despite recent efforts to coordinate tourism efforts, politicians are still very much in competition with each other, and even well-known Kansai cities are seeking new ways to re-brand themselves. One way is through food. Not too long ago, relatively little thought was given to Kansai cuisine’s potential as a tourist draw. But now fussy foodies in search of the perfect can’t-find-it-in-Tokyo-or-anywhere-else meal, made with fresh ingredients grown locally, are being targeted by promotion campaigns. These efforts are only expected to grow after “washoku,” or traditional Japanese cuisine, was added to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list in December. In Kansai, Kyoto’s restaurant industry played an influential role in pushing for the listing. Japan’s well-known cultural capital appears to have the least to be concerned about when it comes to image. But thanks to the renewed attention Japanese food has received from the UNESCO heritage listing, Kyoto is re-branding itself as a source of health food cuisine by touting local ingredients like “kujo negi,” a kind of leek. Restaurants specializing in the use of local produce have been springing up in and around the touristy Kiyomachi area. Other prefectures are also promoting their food and drinks. In Nara, long thought of as the one place in Kansai with an undistinguished cuisine, city officials now proudly boast of local strawberries. In Wakayama Prefecture, plum-based products, especially homemade “ume-shu” liquor, are proliferating at shops in Kansai that cater to tourists. And Tottori hopes beef-eaters in Kansai, after they’ve paid a visit to Kobe, will come up to their prefecture and sample the local Olein 55 beef that, despite its rather unappetizing name, enjoys the promotional support of the central government. Yet efforts in and around Kansai to create an image via food are likely to see limited success overseas. For starters, there is a severe lack of information in English about restaurants in the localities where the touted food originates, or even about restaurants in major Kansai cities dedicated to a particular delicacy or cuisine. In addition, unless you are as obsessed as those promoting their cuisine and its distinctive characteristics, it’s unlikely you’ll remember, for example, that the soup you ate contained Kyoto, not Shiga, leeks after you’ve returned home, or care much about the difference between Kobe beef and Tottori beef. And what about Osaka? After years of trying to promote the city as the “kitchen of Japan” — an effort that met with only mixed success — officials have switched gears somewhat and are trying to promote the city as an entertainment center. Music is a big part of this campaign. When it comes to Western, or American, music, Kobe has long been known as the heart of Kansai’s jazz scene, while back in the 1970s Kyoto was famous for its blues bars. Today, however, Osaka is attempting to reinvent itself as a major international jazz center. To that end, it will host its Third International Jazz Day, another UNESCO-endorsed project, on April 30. Presented in partnership with the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, the event features workshops with famous musicians from around the world, and concludes with a concert in Osaka Castle Park that evening. Even as Osaka aspires to become an international jazz mecca like Paris or Stockholm, the region will continue to promote itself as an Asian gateway. Indeed, since Kansai International Airport opened in 1994, touting its Asian connections has been the one consistent theme in the otherwise numerous, and at times schizophrenic, efforts to create a lasting domestic and international image. Yet what those connections are, beyond trade relations, or why Asian tourists should automatically prefer modern Kansai over the more traditional parts of Japan is never made clear. With the central government announcing earlier this year that it hopes to attract 20 million foreign visitors to Japan by the 2020 Tokyo Olympics — about double last year’s number — promotional efforts throughout Japan are expected to increase. Over the next six years, we can look forward to all manner of attempts by prefectures, towns and even villages to create a recognizable image that will lead to increased tourism revenue or at least sales of local products. PR efforts resulting from such attempts may appear a bit desperate at times. But Kansai-area officials in particular worry that unless foreigners form a strong image of the region as a whole by then, those who do venture outside of Tokyo in search of adventure will go to a part of the country that has managed to create not only a good image, but also a unique one promising something other than the same kind of food, music and entertainment that can be found pretty much anywhere in Japan. Or the world.


Historical ifs and weathers or not

Abstract: To suggest that history is shaped by chance weather events and climatic variation doesn’t lend it quite the same gravitas as if it were wrought by great leaders. It certainly isn’t as inspirational. But such processes can be just as important — and the weather can sometimes foil even the best-laid plans for world domination. Take the storms that blew up off Kyushu in 1274 and 1281. Luckily for Japan, they happened just as Kublai Khan and his Mongol horde were trying to invade. Later named kamikaze (divine winds), the storms helped repel the Mongols — but what has not been appreciated is that climate change had helped them to expand their empire in the first place. Mongolia is a country of extremes, with short, hot summers and long winters in which temperatures of minus 30 degrees are not unusual. It doesn’t rain much, and during most of the year — on average for 257 days — the sky is cloudless. But it hasn’t always been so across those boundless tracts of central Asia. Amy Hessl from the department of geology and geography at West Virginia University, and colleagues, studied tree-ring data from 107 living and dead Siberian pines in central Mongolia stretching back more than 1,100 years. The rings — made by new growth each year — can be used for dating, but also to make inferences, mainly from their widths, about the climate. Hessl, working with Neil Pederson of the Tree Ring Lab at Columbia University, New York, found they could pick out the big climatic events of the past 1,000 years. From 950-1250 there was an unusual warming called the Medieval Climate Anomaly. Then, from around 1350-1850, there was a cold snap that’s now dubbed the Little Ice Age. But the most unusual thing the team found was a persistent wet period in Mongolia from 1211-25 which, they suggest, boosted grassland productivity. For a culture based on horses and other livestock, this was incredibly beneficial. At the time of this sudden increase in fodder, the ruler of Mongolia was one Genghis Khan. Under him, the empire grew to reach as far west as central Europe and as far east as the shores of Japan, becoming the largest — in terms of contiguous land area — that the world has ever seen. Adverse climate events such as drought are often linked with the decline of complex societies, said Hessl. But what hasn’t been much studied is the opposite: The link between beneficial conditions and a rise in the complexity of a society. (The work is published in the journal PNAS, DOI reference: 10.1073/pnas.1318677111.) By the time Genghis Khan’s grandson, Kublai, came to power in 1260, Korea was a tributary state of the Mongols known as Goryeo. But Kublai Khan wanted Japan, too, and he amassed huge fleets for his invasion attempts in both 1274 and ’81 — with an arsenal that included devastating gunpowder bombs. Faced with this common foe, on both occasions Japan’s samurai fought together rather than battling among themselves as they had always done. For all their fabled prowess, though, they were stymied by their age-old rules of engagement which involved warriors calling out the name of an enemy with whom to engage in single combat. Similarly, archers would take aim at just one target, and fight in single combat by firing arrows at each other. The Mongols paid no heed to such stuff, instead sweeping into the Japanese en masse, killing and maiming any which way they could — including by loosing fire arrows, poison arrows or ceramic shells filled with gunpowder into their ranks. It was only a storm in 1274 and a typhoon in 1281 that led to the Mongols’ defeats, as their fleets were scattered and sunk. Yet the Japanese victories engendered a sense of invincibility that persisted until 1945. But it’s not all ancient history. The tree-ring data also show the effect of a drought afflicting Mongolia in the present century. This is a mark of the Anthropocene, the era of history in which human activities themselves influence the climate and impact Earth’s ecosystems. The warming we’ve seen over central Asia of late is related to human activity, said team member Kevin Anchukaitis of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts. But that doesn’t mean it is possible to state scientifically that particular events — such as Mongolia’s drought — are caused by global warming. “It is difficult to attribute the 21st-century drought in Mongolia to climate change,” he said. But he expects warming to “become even more of a factor in future droughts.” Hessl agreed that droughts are going to be more likely. “We would expect to see similar events in the future based on past moisture variation in Mongolia and predictions of warming in the region,” she said. The contention that history is shaped by climate — with the British Empire, for instance, said to have been built by a people escaping their homeland’s grim weather — may not be so wide of the mark after all.


Trade deals trump sex slave issue for Osakans

Abstract: When Osaka Mayor and Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) co-leader Toru Hashimoto uttered his infamous remarks last May that Japan’s wartime sex slave system was necessary at the time, he was roundly — and rightly — condemned at home and abroad. It was clear then, and clearer today, that the real reason he got in trouble was because he was caught saying out loud what many Japanese of his generation, and not a few elders in the government — including, perhaps, at the highest levels — truly believe but refuse to say directly. However, recent events have loosened the floodgates of candor. Today, Abe’s government is locked in a tense standoff with South Korea over the “comfort women” issue. Every ambitious right-wing politician in Japan who can find a microphone is now repeating at full volume what Hashimoto said 10 months ago. Compared to the spit and venom coming out of sex slave deniers in Tokyo and elsewhere, Hashimoto’s comments last year are increasingly sounding intelligent and restrained. Yes, that’s how bad it’s gotten. But what Hashimoto’s critics have never fully appreciated is that while he opened a Pandora’s box with his comfort women comments, it was a topic an entire generation was curious about. Raised on historical revisionist manga, ignorant of either the facts or the morality of the issue, the “Hashimoto Generation” became angry and confused when confronted by a past they never knew and the vague replies of their elders in the political and social mainstream when they tried to learn. Only the historical revisionist camp seemed to have, conveniently enough, all of the “facts.” The young Hashimoto Generation’s anger warmed the hearts of Japan’s old right-wingers. It also allowed them to now pose as wise, experienced leaders who were — depending on which think tank audience or television camera they or their foreign apologists were addressing — “realists,” “moderates,” or “pragmatists” who would, in the end, rein in the young hotheads so as not to upset the status quo. Today, however, nobody seems to know how to handle either the comfort women controversy or the younger generation. Hashimoto may have started the current fire. But to lump him in with the crude right-wing politicians now fanning the flames risks misunderstanding the mayor and, more generally, his Osaka followers and how they see the broader relationship with the Korean people. Nearly 1,000 years before political power shifted to Tokyo in the 17th century, Korean and Chinese merchants were trading in Osaka. In the late 20th century, a strong community of Korean residents led the way in local human rights education. Many Osakans who support Hashimoto’s economic policies grew up with Korean neighbors, friends and colleagues. Of course, it’s not surprising that they feel they “know” Koreans quite well. Such supporters have little if any true love for all the yelling about the comfort women issue and they are particularly disgusted by anti-Korean hate speech. Those politicians elsewhere banging on about the sex slave issue are increasingly seen in Osaka as opportunists who have no real interest in pursuing a lasting solution or listening to Korean concerns. Thus, the Hashimoto Generation as a whole may have wanted answers to the comfort women issue and now believes revisionist claims the historical facts are not “settled.” But in Osaka, you can also find those who believe, rightly or wrongly, that their city’s trade and cultural history with Korea combined with a traditional merchant’s disdain for rigid politics means their odds of success in “doing a deal” — quietly, behind the scenes — with South Korea are better than anybody shouting in the streets of other cities, especially Tokyo’s. View from Osaka is a monthly column that examines the latest news from a Kansai perspective.


Key firms agree to hike pay scales

Abstract: Many major firms notified their labor unions Wednesday that they will raise pay scales to conclude this year’s spring wage negotiations, responding to strong calls from the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to help end long-standing deflation. Toyota Motor Corp., which has huge influence over other companies, will raise its average monthly pay scale by ¥2,700, while Honda Motor Co. is planning a ¥2,200 increase. Likewise, six major electronics firms, including Hitachi Ltd. and Panasonic Corp., will raise their wage scales by ¥2,000 per month, the highest on record for the sector. Although management in many of these companies failed to fully meet labor unions’ demands, these will be the first hikes in six years, reflecting significant improvement in their business performances partly stemming from the yen’s weakness, which benefits exporters. A pay scale hike involves uniformly lifting a company’s basic wage other than a seniority-based regular wage increase. It often results in a rise in labor costs, as pension benefits are calculated based on the basic wage. Realizing wage hikes is considered a key for success of Abe’s economic policies dubbed “Abenomics,” which aim to bring about a “virtuous cycle” of increases in corporate earnings, wages and consumption to conquer nearly two decades of deflation. Some companies plan to fully accept labor unions’ demands over annual bonuses, while Nissan Motor Co. will also raise the monthly pay scale by ¥3,500 to fully satisfy the demand. The moves are thanks to the administration’s rare and strong calls on companies to hike wages. Unions have seen some success during negotiations in this year’s “shunto” spring pay talks, with many of them winning a pay-scale increase. “This will be a major driving force for our country to exit from deflation and achieve economic revival,” economic and fiscal policy minister Akira Amari told reporters, adding the response of management was “beyond expectations.” Hiromasa Yonekura, the head Keidanren, the nation’s most influential business lobby, said the move by major companies is a “result of firms sharing recognition that (a wage increase) is needed to overcome deflation and realize a virtuous economic cycle.” The focus now shifts to whether such moves will spread to medium-size and small companies as well as nonregular workers, a development considered necessary if the economy is to withstand a possible downturn in demand as a result of the consumption tax hike that is coming April 1. On top of manufacturing companies, many firms in the service industry will raise wages, with convenience store chain Lawson Inc. moving to increase its pay scale for the first time in 12 years after agreeing to fully meet its labor union’s demand for an average pay scale hike of ¥3,000 per month. Meanwhile, Suzuki Motor Corp. decided to forgo a pay scale hike due to concerns about the business environment, including the uncertain outlook for emerging economies. Struggling electronics makers Sharp Corp. and Pioneer Corp. will also skip a pay scale increase as their labor unions refrained from submitting demands, effectively withdrawing from the unified labor talks of major electronics companies. In addition to export-oriented manufacturing firms that benefit from a weak yen, nonmanufacturers such as restaurant operators and retailers, which enjoy brisk business thanks to robust domestic demand, will raise their pay scales. This will help mitigate the adverse impact of the consumption tax hike, said Koya Miyamae, senior economist at SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. “The government now needs to promote a growth strategy, including a corporate tax cut as well as tax breaks to support families with children, in order to prevent a further decline in population and bolster domestic demand,” Miyamae said. At a news conference in Tokyo, labor leaders welcomed the pay hikes, saying unions were able to meet their goals to a certain extent. “We considered (the wage hikes) as a concrete step for pulling Japan out of deflation and realizing a virtuous economic cycle,” said Yasunobu Aihara, president of the Confederation of Japan Automobile Workers’ Unions.

shinzo abe
toyota
shunto
labor unions
wage talks
electronics manufacturers


Back on track: Sanriku Railway's long road to recovery

Abstract: OFUNATO, IWATE PREF. - A little more than three years after the devastating earthquake paralyzed the northeast, coastal communities shattered by the ensuing tsunami are slowly returning to normal. Shops that were destroyed are gradually reopening. Residents forced to evacuate to distant parts are returning to their hometowns. And soon, communities along the coast of Iwate Prefecture will take another step toward recovery: Sanriku Railway Co. is set to restart full-scale operation of its South Rias and North Rias lines. Train runs are set to resume on a 15-km stretch between Yoshihama and Kamaishi stations on the southern line Saturday, and on a 10.5-km stretch between Omoto and Tanohata stations on the northern line Sunday. Covering most of Iwate’s coastline, Sanriku Railway’s two lines were a central part of life for many residents before the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. But the railway was crippled by the tsunami after its train cars were flooded beyond repair and entire sections of track were swallowed whole. “Seeing the state the tracks were in, I thought we would never recover,” said Shoichi Kumagai, a 30-year veteran at Sanriku Railway. “It seemed like the world was about to break apart,” he said, recalling the magnitude-9.0 earthquake. “Immediately following the disasters, everyone was just trying to survive,” he said. “But as soon as things settled down, I had people come up to me and ask, ‘Can we ride the train yet?’ “ With roads destroyed or blocked by rubble, the people at Sanriku Railway knew they had to act quickly. The North Rias Line resumed operation just five days after the quake, carrying passengers free of charge across the small portion of tracks that was left undamaged. The South Rias Line, however, was more severely damaged and took more than two years for partial operations to resume. It was not just the trains and tracks, however, that needed to be repaired. The station buildings and bridges also took severe damage, and the South Rias Line’s main office in the city of Ofunato was flooded by tsunami. “The seawater filled the first floor, so all of the employees fled to the second floor office,” Kumagai said. Many of Sanriku Railway’s employees were themselves victims of the disaster. Taiki Sato, 28, had been working there as an engineer for less than a year when the quake and tidal waves hit. “My wife was pregnant then, and her parents’ house got washed away in the tsunami. We both lived out of our workplaces after that, on constant standby.” “Now that all operations are going back online, it’s really hitting home that things are returning back to normal,” Saito said. For the past three years, Sanriku Railway has worked with the government-backed Japan Railway Construction, Transport and Technology Agency to rebuild its facilities. The roughly ¥10 billion in rebuilding costs were originally to be shared by the railway, the Iwate Prefectural Government and the central government. But the central government ended up shouldering the entire cost. The railway also received support from outside Japan. Kuwait donated roughly ¥40 billion in crude oil to the three prefectures most heavily damaged by the disasters, and Iwate used part of its share to buy five new train cars for Sanriku Railway. Residents along the lines are more than eager for the trains to be restored. “I used to take my children on the southern line all the time when they were little,” said Kuniko Minawa, 65. “It was sad having train tracks but no train running on them. Once it starts back up, I’d like to take the train to see my husband’s old house.” Haruka Mori, 18, said: “I always use Sanriku Railway to come to Ofunato to hang out. I want to ride the entire length of the southern line when it starts up again.” “There’s still a lot of rebuilding to do, but the resumption of the Sanriku lines makes me think progress is becoming more visible,” Mori said. Starting full operation is only the first step in Sanriku Railway’s rebirth, however. Like many other small regional train lines, the North Rias and South Rias lines suffer from a dearth of regular customers. Populations in the countryside are on the decline, and more and more people use cars to get around. Sanriku Railway has worked to cover those losses by attracting tourists from other prefectures, operating special event trains, such as the Disaster Education Train, in which company employees lecture passengers on the damage the Great East Japan Earthquake wreaked on the railway and surrounding areas, and the Omiai Train, where passengers sit face to face in search of a potential marriage partner. The number of tourists riding the Sanriku lines also got a boost from a cameo appearance by the North Rias Line in the hugely popular TV drama “Amachan.” But with the six-day-a-week, half-year-long show ending six months ago, it remains to be seen whether the railway lines can sustain the growth in popularity. “We received kind words and support from people all over Japan, and I think the only way we can show our thankfulness is to show that we have more passengers now than ever,” said Sanriku Railway’s Kumagai. “Of course we want local passengers, but we want to plan all kinds of events so that people from outside Iwate will visit disaster-struck areas,” he said.

tsunami
3/11
tohoku
earthquakes
3.11
sanriku railway co .


Pulmonary pest ravages; study of racial hygienics urged; Japan mourns Gen. MacArthur; Takeshita resigns over Recruit scandal

Abstract: 100 YEARS AGO Tuesday, April 21, 1914 Chiba ravaged by pulmonary pest The dreadful pulmonary pest (pneumonic plague) has plunged districts of Omikawa and Moriyama-mura, Chiba, into consternation. The physicians and police officials, who are working to check the spread of the disease, facing imminent danger almost every minute, are greatly hampered in their efforts by a scarcity of workmen, even when offered tempting wages, and the unwillingness of local physicians and nurses to assist them. All physicians and police officers engaged in quarantine work are dreaded by the local people as the pest itself. They are shunned on the road and refused lodging. The sixth death from the plague in the district occurred Saturday. At present two adults and a child are lying near death, suspected of the disease, in a temporary shed. The crude asylum has been prepared in an isolated spot and enclosed with a fence of tin sheets. Police-Inspector Mano and other officers, refused lodging in Omikawa and Moriyama, are obliged to lodge in Sawara. Only a few workmen agreed to help build the isolation asylum. A cask of sake was always placed in the workshop to spur on the men, who drew the liquor freely from it during their work to inspire them with courage. Since the initial outbreak of the plague in Tokyo’s Fukagawa district, 72 fatal cases have been reported. At present, 1,315 patients are in hospitals. The quarantine director, Mr. Kunizawa, says that there is no positive way of putting an end to the plague, but it will die out of itself when more regular weather sets in. 75 YEARS AGO Wednesday, April 12, 1939 Racial hygienic course at universities urged Supporting a suggestion by Dr. Koichi Miyake, Professor of Tokyo Imperial University’s Medical College, the Gakujitsu Shinko-kai (Academic Promotion Society) is planning to propose to the Education Ministry the opening of a course on racial hygienics at various medical colleges. The proposed course would offer study on inter-racial blood mixture, heredity, mental and hygienic problems between races. Should it be brought to existence, the course will be the first of its kind in this country. Dr. Miyake has been studying various problems pertaining to blood mixture among the Oriental races, particularly among Japanese, Chinese, Manchous (people from the then-extant state of Manchukuo) and Chosenese (Koreans). He is an ardent advocate of inter-racial marriage for the solution of the problems of the East. 50 YEARS AGO Tuesday, April 7, 1964 U.S. Gen. MacArthur mourned by Japan A cable conveying the condolence of Emperor Hirohito and Empress Nagako on the death of Gen. Douglas MacArthur was sent to Mrs. MacArthur, widow of the deceased five-star general, Monday. MacArthur died of acute kidney and liver failure at Walter Reed Medical Center, Maryland, early Monday morning Japan time. He was 84. Japanese political leaders were also quick to send messages. In a message to U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda said: “I wish to express to the American people my deepest sympathies over the passing of Gen. MacArthur. The general, as a courageous patriot and a loyal citizen, served his country brilliantly throughout his life. The Japanese people remember him with affection not only a great soldier but also a friend of this country. “Gen. MacArthur, representing the victors, dedicated himself with sympathy and farsightedness to the reconstruction of Japan after World War II. I wish to express my grief on the occasion of his death.” Foreign Minister Masayoshi Ohira, in a cable to Mrs. MacArthur, said: “The passing of your beloved husband is a source of painful sorrow for us in Japan. Now that he has performed his duties in this world, we pray that he will rest in peace.” 25 YEARS AGO Wednesday, April 26, 1989 Takeshita says he will resign over scandal Noboru Takeshita announced Tuesday he will step down as prime minister after the Diet passes the nation’s 1989 budget. In a nationally televised news conference, Takeshita, 65, expressed “profound apologies” to the nation for the loss of faith caused by the Recruit influence-buying scandal. The prime minister declined to disclose whom he had in mind as his successor. He said he did not want to influence the ruling party’s selection of a new president — a position that carries with it the prime ministership because of the LDP’s majority in the Diet. At the start of his 30-minute news conference, Takeshita read a message addressed to the nation. “The widespread public distrust of politics triggered by the Recruit case has created a very serious crisis for parliamentary democracy in our country,” he said. Takeshita has been under intensive criticism because large amounts of funds were provided to him by Hiromasa Ezoe, former chairman of Recruit Co. Ezoe is now under indictment on charges of bribing government officials. Takeshita admitted in the Diet earlier that he and his associates had accepted ¥151 million in political donations, fundraiser ticket sales and share-sale profits from the Recruit group. Last week it came to light that he borrowed ¥50 million more from Ezoe in 1987 in the name of an aide, Ihei Aoki. Takeshita and his rivals were then vying for the LDP presidency before the term of former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone ended in November. Takeshita’s planned resignation comes as public approval for his Cabinet has hit a historic low. Analysts tie the reaction not only to the Recruit case but to the controversial 3 percent sales tax that was implemented April 1.

medicine
douglas macarthur
disease
discrimination
chiba
pneumonic plague
noboru takeshita


Atrophied Osaka changes mindset toward entrepreneurs

Abstract: Osaka has long been known as a merchant city, home to small but innovative businesses ranging from consumer electronics to processed foods. But the city where young entrepreneurs once flourished has recently found itself playing second fiddle to Tokyo. No matter where they’re from, Japanese — especially younger ones who come up with hit ideas — end up taking them to Tokyo because its sheer size means new thinking gets embraced in ways that Osaka and, indeed, the Kansai region, just do not. College graduates from western Japan often prefer to remain in Kansai, especially if they know they will have to help take care of their elderly parents soon. Many have dreams of starting their own business. But if they’re operating in the popular IT sector or the service industry, Kansai is just too small, or too conservative, for most young entrepreneurs, — even if they have a good idea and can find funding. In addition, long-established ties, family connections with customers and suppliers, and a host of other hidden realities can make it difficult for outsiders, especially in the service industry, to succeed. Newcomers are viewed less as potential partners with ideas for increasing profit, and more as potential rivals with ideas that can put the established players out of business. In recent years, the city of Osaka has begun to recognize that such thinking is killing the local economy and tax base. Whatever one thinks of Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, he is surrounded by younger supporters, many of them entrepreneurs or self-employed professionals fed up with the area’s fossilized attitudes toward developing entrepreneurs. At Business Innovation Center Osaka, Chie Yamano is aware of the need to encourage budding businesspeople. “People can come in off the street and get advice about starting a business in Osaka. We can look at their business plans, provide advice on where to find local lawyers, accountants and real estate agents. We hold seminars for startup businesses, and can make introductions to potential business partners,” Yamano said. Real estate in parts of Osaka is dirt cheap, and the cost of living is generally less than that of Tokyo. But costs are not everything. Contacts and access to startup capital are also crucial. Unlike Tokyo, Osaka and the Kansai region in general lack the number and types of groups needed to match entrepreneurs with investors. One place getting attention for its attempt to unite young entrepreneurs in Osaka is Knowledge Salon. The organization, based in the Grand Front Osaka building that opened last year, is part of the larger Knowledge Capital facility and holds lectures, workshops and other business-related events. “Our members come from a wide variety of backgrounds, and have a broad range of interests, but there are many here who have an interest in forming their own business and are looking for potential partners or collaborators,” said Yu Sekiguchi, an assistant manager at Knowledge Capital. Virtually all official interest in, and attention to, nurturing entrepreneurship in Kansai is focused on sectors that the central and local governments and Kansai business organizations run by huge corporations have deemed priorities. These include pharmaceuticals, biotech, medicine and even tourism, if Kyoto is included. But what about the service industries? Food is an especially cutthroat business in Kansai. Any chef, wannabe chef, or budding restaurateur with dreams of becoming Japan’s version of Wolfgang Puck or Jamie Oliver will find that, while it’s fairly easy to set up a restaurant, keeping it going is another matter. While Osaka claims it’s the kitchen of Japan, outsiders often see Kyoto, a huge destination for domestic and international tourists, as the potentially better market. However, the Kyoto restaurant industry is quite closed, and despite efforts on the part of the city to promote Kyoto cuisine nationally and internationally, only entrepreneurs with unique ideas and an ability to adjust to the “Kyoto standard” of preparing and serving food — regardless of whether that food is traditional Japanese fare or not — are likely to succeed. That said, compared to just a decade ago, one can see a greater number of younger restaurateurs in Kyoto today, many of whom are focusing on specialized cuisine, especially macrobiotic, vegetarian and organic dishes prepared with locally grown produce. “There are definitely opportunities for a certain type of restaurant owner in Kyoto. The food has to be unique, but not too unique, of high quality, but still affordable and adjusted to Kansai tastes, which are different from Tokyo tastes and often less spicy. It also helps if you can create a cozy or even exclusive atmosphere,” said Jiro Fujii, an Osaka-based restaurant consultant who advises potential clients about Kansai. After the March 11, 2011, Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami, Kansai’s leaders hoped concerns about further damage would lead to an influx of younger people who wanted to escape Tokyo and start over. That has not happened to the extent some predicted. In fact, the worry among Kansai politicians and business leaders is that, given the rapidly aging population, declining birth rate and a possible accelerated shift to Tokyo ahead of the 2020 Olympics, the region, especially Osaka, will continue to lose business. Freelance journalist Yuji Yoshitomi, in a recent book about Osaka, warned that without an economic recovery, the city will likely go the way of Detroit — run-down and bankrupt. Yamano admits the city needs to do more to bring in young entrepreneurs. But she said there is an understanding among the younger generation of Osaka leaders that they need to do more to encourage entrepreneurs and that now, actually, is the time for Japanese with an entrepreneurial bent to get established. It’s a message Osaka has paid lip service to for decades, though. Despite a myriad of competitive advantages on paper (excellent transportation systems, good living environment, lower cost of living, access to a huge pool of young labor via the universities), only time will tell if the latest message of “Come west, young entrepreneur” marks the beginning of the long-awaited, much-promised, and not yet realized Osaka, and Kansai, renaissance.

restaurant
kansai
entrepreneurship
service industry


Asia's worst-smelling fish a South Korean delicacy

Abstract: MOKPO, SOUTH KOREA - The aroma of one of South Korea’s most popular delicacies is regularly compared to rotting garbage and filthy bathrooms — and that is by its fans. The unusual dish is typically made by taking dozens of fresh skates, a cartilage-rich fish that looks like a stingray, stacking them up in a walk-in refrigerator and waiting — up to a month in some cases. “You know when it’s done by the smell,” said Kang Han-joo, co-owner of a seafood store in the bustling fish market of Mokpo, a port city on the southwestern tip of the Korean Peninsula, a region that is considered the food’s spiritual home. As Kang spoke, he sliced small, stinking, glistening dark-pink fish steaks with a large knife and laid them in plastic foam boxes for shipment to customers around South Korea. The smell of the fish, which is called “hongeo” in Korean and usually eaten uncooked, is unmistakable, unavoidable and a deal breaker for many. A profound, pungent stink of ammonia radiates from the animal after it has been ripening for weeks. First-timers often squeeze their eyes shut as they chew. Tears stream down the cheeks. The throat constricts with the effort of swallowing. Kang notes, in a dramatic understatement, “When it’s fermented a long time, the smell becomes deeper.” Americans are still getting used to gentler fermented Asian foods — spicy Korean kimchi and Japanese miso, for example — yet many South Koreans claim a love — an addiction, even — for this extreme form of fermentation. Restaurants specializing in the fish can be found throughout the United States. One online hongeo appreciation society boasts more than 1,300 members. “Some people start to crave it as soon as they smell the ammonia,” said Shin Jin-woo, a seafood store worker in Mokpo. “There’s no need to advertise how intense the smell is. Everyone already knows.” Shin’s store has two fermentation refrigerators. Walk into one and a blast of ammonia burns the eyes, the nose and sinuses, the tongue, throat and lungs. Skates are fermented up to 15 days in the first refrigerator, where the temperature is 2.5 degrees Celsius (36.5 Fahrenheit), and up to another 15 days in the second refrigerator at 1 C (34 F). Shops in Mokpo custom-ferment the fish and ship the results to restaurants and hongeo fans around South Korea. The vast majority of the more than 11,000 tons of hongeo consumed in the country comes not from South Korean-caught fish but from cheaper frozen imports. Shop owners thaw and clean the imported fish, which can cost up to five times less than the local version, and place the hongeo in refrigerators to ferment. Hongeo’s history is murky, but it emerged in the days before refrigeration, when food that could keep for a long time without rotting was prized. Someone — maybe a fisherman on a long voyage or a clever, hungry or desperate farmer — discovered that skate didn’t spoil as easily as other fish, and a dish was born. Shop owners say the traditional method of making hongeo is to put the fish on a bed of hay in a clay pot, pile more hay on top and leave it. Learning to love, or at least tolerate, what many consider the smelliest fish in Asia takes perseverance. Fans commonly say that if you try it four times, you will be hooked. People who aren’t fans may be mystified by how anyone could meet that threshold. “It’s a freaking punch in the face,” said Joe McPherson, the founder of ZenKimchi, a Korean food blog, and an eventual devotee of the fish. “Like everyone else, I gagged the first time.” Natives of the southwest say hongeo should be eaten plain. They sometimes complain that the copious garnishes provided at restaurants disguise the taste and smell. Most first-timers, however, tend to embrace all the extras they can, creating a hongeo “sandwich” with garnishes that can include red pepper paste, salty miniature shrimp, raw garlic, chili salt, slices of fatty boiled pork and some extraordinarily strong kimchi. Even with “some of the most powerful flavors in the world to put up against it . . . it does not cover up the flavor at all,” McPherson said. The extremely chewy texture — spongy flesh and hard cartilage — also makes for tough swallowing. And the smell of ammonia is so powerful it lingers for hours on clothes, skin and hair. The second time, if there is one, is usually a little better. One trick is to inhale through the mouth and exhale through the nose while eating. This helps fight the smell some and also intensifies a surprising tingling and cooling — almost minty — sensation in the mouth, throat and face. There are various theories explaining the food’s popularity. Some Koreans describe their craving as similar to the desire for a cigarette: You want it despite its obvious negatives of doing so. McPherson says the fish is also valued for its interesting texture and the sensation it produces in the mouth — two things that can be as important to Koreans as flavor. There is also something convivial about hongeo restaurants, where large amounts of strong Korean booze are as ubiquitous as the fish. Still, while some Korean restaurants in the United States serve hongeo, it is unlikely to catch on except “in hard-core foodie circles,” McPherson said. “I can see maybe college fraternities hazing their freshmen with this, but it’s very much a ‘dare’ food, like live octopus.”


Now is the time to research Alzheimer's

Abstract: The team leader at the Laboratory for Proteolytic Neuroscience at Riken’s Brain Science Institute is not a man usually given to making apocalyptic statements. Yet when I asked him whether Japan should be investing more money in Alzheimer’s research, he responded with more than the usual academic plea for more money. “Alzheimer’s disease,” said Takaomi Saido, “will destroy Japan’s social-welfare mechanisms in the near future.” Saido, based in Wako, Saitama, is on a twin social and scientific mission: to protect Japanese society from the ravages of Alzheimer’s disease, and to uncover the secrets of how the brain ages. It’s interesting that he emphasizes that his mission is about protecting society. Alzheimer’s is already one of the most expensive diseases in developed countries. In the United States, it costs more than $100 billion a year. Saido is only too aware of how this will increase. “My social mission is to protect social-welfare mechanisms,” he told me, “because the socioeconomical cost of Alzheimer’s disease will be greater than the government’s annual income by 2050 unless the disease becomes preventable.” That sounds like a lot of money. But the estimate for the financial burden caused by Alzheimer’s in Japan by 2050 is $500 billion a year, which is about the same as the government’s annual revenues. Why is the cost going to increase so much? “People will be receiving much less pension after retirement and paying more taxes and hospital costs,” Saido said. So the government should invest now to save in the future. If we can find a way to treat or prevent Alzheimer’s, the number of people who suffer from dementia and the burden on caregivers will be smaller. “Alzheimer’s research is much more cost-effective than any other research field, including stem-cell research,” Saido assured me. As an example, Saido offered his new mice. Years in the making, these are no ordinary mice. The Riken team thinks it may revolutionize research into Alzheimer’s, and this is the scientific part of Saido’s twin mission. “My scientific mission is to uncover the essence of brain aging, one manifestation of which leads to Alzheimer’s disease development.” Much of the research conducted into Alzheimer’s uses mice as “models” of humans. Scientists use strains of mice that have a genetic propensity to develop Alzheimer’s-like symptoms, and it might go without saying, but mice are not the same as people, and the models are not perfect. In particular, the strain of mouse commonly used in Alzheimer’s research makes too much of a particular protein, known as amyloid precursor protein. This APP leads to the production of amyloid deposits, which are thought to cause the breakdown of neurons in the brain and which are the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease. But since the mouse makes too much APP, Saido thinks much of the work done on that mouse strain — and there has been a lot — is flawed, and won’t help our understanding of the disease in humans. The new mouse model is a strain that produces APP and the subsequent amyloid deposits in a way that is more realistic for the actual human disease. The details have just been published in the journal Nature Neuroscience. “The generation of appropriate mouse models will be a major breakthrough for understanding the mechanism of the disease,” said Saido, “which will lead to the establishment of presymptomatic diagnosis, prevention and treatment of the disease.” I asked Saido for any preventative advice. “To my knowledge, the only scientifically proven measure is a daily exercise, like one hour of walking,” he said. Much remains to be discovered about this insidious disease. But there is hope. Two recent papers in the British journal the Lancet show that in the U.K. and Denmark there is a decrease in the number of people getting Alzheimer’s disease. The first paper shows details of two surveys of people with Alzheimer’s in the U.K., one in 1994 and the other in 2014. The researchers expected that the second survey would show more people with Alzheimer’s, since the average age of the population had increased over the intervening 20 years. But the numbers came up some 200,000 short. The evidence suggests that people are developing Alzheimer’s at an increased age. Something appears to be delaying the onset of the disease. (The DOI reference for this paper is 10.1016/S0140-6736(13)61570-6.) The Danish study shows that people in their 90s born in 1915 were healthier and smarter — they performed better on cognitive tests — than people in their 90s born in 1905. So something improved in the lifestyle or diet of people born in 1915 that seems to have protected them. (The DOI reference for this paper is 10.1016/S0140-6736(13)60777-1.) What are we to make of this? Some might say that it shows, for developed countries at least, that better nutrition, fitness and education may be helping to reduce the reach of Alzheimer’s. Maybe that’s true — but only slightly. “To conquer Alzheimer’s disease, it is essential to establish presymptomatic diagnosis and preventive medicine,” said Saido. He also suggests that the apparent decrease in Alzheimer’s seen in the U.K. may be due to a decrease in the consumption of fish and chips. That’s not as glib as it might seem, as an improved diet could reduce vascular forms of dementia, which would also reduce Alzheimer’s. But even if you doubt that the fabric of society is at risk — or that fish and chips have much to do with it — he’s right that we need to conquer the disease.

science
elderly
alzheimer 's disease
healthcare
aging japan


America: the superpower ally that's far, far away

Abstract: Japan is, at heart, politically as well as geographically, a country of small towns. One of these is home to the Japanese-American political relationship. Populated by distinguished elders and ambitious young courtiers from government and academia on both sides of the Pacific, this village has its own lexicon, holds town meetings at think tanks and issues nonbinding resolutions promoting the status quo. To become a permanent resident of the nichibei kankei mura (Japan-U.S. relations village), one must first have the right resume. Like homes, restaurants and gas stations, it’s first about “location, location, location.” That means having an address in either one of America’s two cities (New York or Washington — are there any others?), or in Japan (this merely being a synonym for Tokyo, of course). Thus, it’s not surprising to discover that, compared with Tokyo, serious and informed interest in, and conversation about, the Japan-U.S. relationship in Kansai is somewhat lacking, to be polite. It’s not that people in Kyoto, Osaka, Nara or Kobe like or dislike Americans more than people in Tokyo. Rather, they’re just indifferent because of their location. For most Kansai residents, politically, economically, and in terms of individual relations, America is a distant country indeed. In 2011, according to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, more than 67 percent of Kansai’s exports went to Asia, with 24 percent sent to China alone. By contrast, just under 11 percent went to the United States. Also almost 57 percent of Kansai’s imports came from Asia, as well one-third from China, as opposed to just under 7 percent from the United States. Less than 8,000 people from North America, including Canada, were registered as living in Kansai’s three main prefectures of Kyoto, Osaka, and Hyogo in 2011. By contrast, Tokyo alone had more than 35,000 North Americans, excluding U.S. service members. At Kansai airport, just how distant America is can easily be grasped. This month, there is one direct daily flight to the U.S. mainland, to San Francisco, from Kansai airport. Another flight to New York, three times weekly, originates in Taiwan. Narita alone flies to 16 U.S. mainland cities daily, in many cases more than once. All Nippon Airways and Japan Airlines have given up on Kansai as a North American hub, and with Haneda adding even more U.S.-bound flights, most Kansai travelers going to the United States on these airlines fly out of Itami to one of the two Tokyo airports to catch a connecting flight. All of the above means it’s very hard to get Kansai people strongly interested in discussing the upcoming visit of President Barack Obama, Japan-U.S. politics or the role of the American military, especially since there are no U.S. bases in Kansai. So, people in Kansai think, what is the point in raising such complicated and controversial issues about a country whose people I don’t see? Better to just talk about food, television programs or office gossip. Kansai’s exception to this indifference to politics is arguably Kyoto. After Tokyo, it’s the most popular tourist destination for American tourists, which means opportunities to interact with Americans the rest of Kansai doesn’t have. But those are short-term encounters rather than long-term relationships with people who have personal or professional reasons for being in Japan. The ancient capital is also a draw for academic or cultural specialists who have a distinct lack of interest in anything outside their field of study. Thus, the Japan-U.S. relationship, especially the political aspect, is of less interest than in Tokyo because while everyone understands that it’s important, the small American presence in Kansai means the politics are quite removed from the way people here live their lives. Out of sight, therefore, out of mind. View from Osaka is a monthly column that examines the latest news from a Kansai perspective.


New arms export principles, guidelines are adopted by Abe Cabinet

Abstract: Japan on Tuesday adopted new principles and guidelines on arms exports, the first major overhaul in nearly half a century of its arms embargo policy, as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe set the stage for the country to play a more active role in global security. Despite concern that the new policy change will hurt the country’s status as a pacifist state, the Cabinet approved the rules that update the so-called “three principles” on restricting arms exports in the Cold War era, and give more clarity and leeway to the country’s weapons export policy. The newly adopted three principles on the transfer of defense equipment state that Japan will continue to embrace the basic philosophy of a pacifist state that abides by the U.N. Charter. Under the new principles, Japan will prohibit the export of weapons to countries involved in conflicts. The ban will also apply when exports violate U.N. resolutions. Japan will allow arms exports only if they serve the purpose of contributing to international cooperation and its security interests. Even when exports are allowed, Japan plans to impose strict screenings and make the process transparent. The unstated use and transfer of Japanese equipment to third parties will also be kept in check. Abe is reworking the country’s defense and security policy to deal with new security threats, and the new guidelines are one of his major policy goals. He is expected to decide whether to reinterpret the war-renouncing Constitution to enable Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defense and defend an ally under armed attack, namely the United States. Before Tuesday’s approval, the ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and the New Komeito party called on the government to ensure Japan would not help countries involved in conflicts, and would disclose information on arms export deals to the public. Opinion polls have indicated the public in Japan is unsure about the decades-old guidelines being changed, fearing a lack of clear limits on arms exports could undermine the pacifist stance. Under the new scheme, the defense, foreign and trade ministries will normally conduct screenings. The National Security Council, a body launched in December to speed up decision-making on defense and foreign policy, will decide whether to allow exports when deals are considered important and require caution. The government will publish annual reports on defense equipment approved by the ministries for exports, and also disclose information on deals discussed by the NSC. Adopted in 1967, and turned into a virtual blanket ban in 1976, the “three principles” on arms exports have turned into a symbol of the country’s pacifist stance. As the security environment has changed since the end of the Cold War, there have been calls for Japan to review its arms embargo policy rather than making “exceptions” to the rules. Japan has long banned the transfer of weapons to communist states, countries subject to embargoes under U.N. resolutions and those involved in international conflicts. In 2011, Japan relaxed the rules to allow exports for humanitarian and peaceful purposes, and to make it easier to participate in the joint development and production of weapons.


Ruling puts whaling in doubt

Abstract: THE HAGUE - The future of Japan’s whaling was thrown into doubt after the International Court of Justice ruled Monday that the nation’s annual hunt in the Antarctic was not really for scientific purposes — as Tokyo had claimed — and ordered it halted. The ruling was a major victory for whaling opponents, as it ends for now one of the world’s biggest whale hunts, for minkes in the icy Southern Ocean. The judgment was praised by Australia, which brought the case against Japan in 2010, and by environmentalists, who have been seeking an end to whaling since the 1970s on ethical grounds. The world court’s decision leaves Japan with a tough choice between ending whaling outright — despite past claims that it would never abandon such a deep-seated cultural practice — or redesigning its program to make it a scientific endeavor after all. Japan has previously all but ruled out joining Norway and Iceland in openly flouting the international consensus against commercial whaling. Australia’s former environment minister, Peter Garrett, who oversaw the suit’s launch, said he felt vindicated. “I’m absolutely over the moon, for all those people who wanted to see the charade of scientific whaling cease once and for all,” Garrett told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. “I think (this) means without any shadow of a doubt that we won’t see the taking of whales in the Southern Ocean in the name of science.” In a 12-4 majority judgment, the U.N. court sided with Australia, finding that Japan’s program fell short of following scientific methods. For instance, judges said Japan had given no reason for its target of 850 minke whales annually and often failed to meet the target. It gave no defense of why it needed to kill that many to study them. And the “research” program had produced just two peer-reviewed scientific papers since 2005. “The court concludes that the special permits granted by Japan for the killing, taking, and treating of whales . . . are not ‘for purposes of scientific research,’ ” presiding Judge Peter Tomka said. The court ordered Japan to grant no further permits for its current Antarctic program. Japan had argued its study was aimed at determining whether commercial hunting could be conducted on a sustainable basis. The International Court of Justice is the U.N.’s court for resolving disputes between nations and its rulings are binding and not subject to appeal. Although sovereign countries can and occasionally do ignore them, both Japan and Australia had pledged to abide by this decision. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said Monday the government will keep its word and obey the court “as a state that places a great importance on the international legal order.” However, he criticized the International Whaling Commission, the main international body that regulates whaling, which ordered a moratorium on all commercial whaling in 1986. That moratorium has remained in place despite recommendations from its own scientific committee that some whale species are robust enough to support a whaling industry. Suga said Japan has cooperated with the IWC for decades “despite the deep divisions within the commission, and its inability in recent years to function effectively.” He left the question of what Japan will do next unanswered. But the daily Asahi Shimbun reported Tuesday that Japan could try to rescue its Antarctic whaling program by sharply reducing catch quotas under a revamped “scientific whaling” program. The outlook is tough, however, with more than half of the IWC members now opposed to whaling, the daily said. Membership in the IWC is voluntary and Norway and Iceland have simply decided to ignore its mandates while remaining members. Under IWC rules, countries are allowed to issue themselves as many permits as they see fit to kill whales for scientific purposes. The permits are subject to a nonbinding review by a 200-member scientific committee that has been critical of Japan for many of the same reasons outlined by the world court’s ruling. Norway hunts around 500 minke whales in the Northeast Atlantic each year, while Iceland hunts roughly 50. Japan has a second scientific program in the North Pacific that culls around 100 minke whales annually. That program may now also be open to challenge because it was not covered in the Australian suit. Activist Pete Bethune, a New Zealander who has clashed frequently with Japanese whalers in attempts to stop their hunt, said, “justice was served” by Monday’s ruling. “The court dissected their scientific program, pulled it to bits and it proved that the amount of science is tiny relative to the commercial aspects,” he said outside the courtroom. The ruling left the door open for Japan to launch a new scientific hunt, though any new program would face intense scrutiny and would presumably need to be better designed. Judges said explicitly there was nothing in international law that forbids killing whales as part of a scientific study. It also noted that whales culled for scientific purposes may be slaughtered and sold — although that could not be the primary purpose of a scientific study. Consumption of whale meat has declined in popularity in Japan in recent years but it is still considered a delicacy by some. Most of the whale meat from Japanese hunts ends up being sold. Mitsumasa Kamiota, an official with the Fisheries Agency, underlined that Japan has not said it will quit research whaling altogether. He said Monday’s ruling only affects the country’s Antarctic program, and whaling in the North Pacific will continue. Kamiota also hinted that Japan may eventually come up with a new research program in the Antarctic. He said Japan does not intend to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission. “There is no change to our commitment to continue scientific research whaling under the international rules,” he said. “We will carefully examine what is allowed and what is not allowed under the ruling.” Japan had argued that Australia’s suit was an attempt to force its cultural norms on Japan, saying it was equivalent to Hindus demanding an international ban on killing cows.

sea shepherd
whaling
hague
nisshin maru
whalers
international court of justice
icj
australia-japan relations
whale hunts
iwc


Declining appetites are bigger threat to whaling

Abstract: The greatest threat to Japan’s whaling industry may not be the environmentalists harassing its ships or the countries demanding its abolishment, but consumers who have lost their appetite for the delicacy. The amount of whale meat stockpiled for lack of buyers has nearly doubled over the last decade, even as anti-whaling protests helped drive catches to record lows. Meat equivalent to more than 2,300 minke whales is sitting in freezers while whalers still plan to catch another 1,300 per year. Low demand will unlikely recover given Monday’s ruling by the International Court of Justice in The Hague that Japan should stop its research whaling in the Antarctic Ocean because it isn’t really for scientific purposes. The ruling was a major victory for whaling opponents such as Australia, which argued that it is a cover for commercial hunts. The stated goal of the research, which began in 1987, is to show that commercial whaling is environmentally sustainable, but a growing question is whether it is economically sustainable. The government-subsidized whaling program is sinking deeper into debt and faces an imminent, costly renovation of its 27-year-old mother ship, the Nisshin Maru. “A resumption of commercial whaling is not a realistic option anymore, and the goal has become a mere excuse to continue research hunts,” said Ayako Okubo, a marine science researcher at Tokai University. “The program is used for the vested interests.” The research program began a year after an international ban on commercial hunting took effect. Japan is one of a handful of countries, including Norway and Iceland, that continue to hunt whales despite the moratorium. Activists from the Sea Shepherd group try to block the whalers by dragging ropes in the water to damage their propellers, lobbing smoke bombs at the ships and other methods. Whale meat not used for study is sold as food in Japan. But according to Fisheries Agency statistics, the amount of whale meat stockpiled in freezers at major ports around the country totaled about 4,600 tons at the end of 2012, from less than 2,500 tons in 2002. A Fisheries Agency official conceded that Sea Shepherd’s efforts to harass whaling ships have kept the stockpile from growing even bigger. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media. Whale meat supplied half of protein needs for Japanese people 50 years ago, but today it is limited in most of the country to specialty restaurants and school lunches. It is a bigger part of the local diet in several coastal whaling towns that are allowed to conduct small-scale coastal whaling outside of International Whaling Commission oversight. The number of whale meat distributors and processors declined by half between 1999 and 2012, according to industry statistics. Distributors have said whale meat is unpopular largely because of the high price it commands, a lack of recipe varieties and negative image. Once a cheaper substitute for beef, it’s now about the same price. Whale bacon is sold as a delicacy, priced at about ¥2,000 per 100 grams, several times the cost of regular bacon. The Institute of Cetacean Research, a nonprofit entity overseen by the government that runs the program, made ¥2 billion from sales of whale meat last year, down from more than ¥7 billion in 2004, according to a financial report viewed by The Associated Press. The institute rejected repeated requests for comment on whaling and its future, citing concerns about possible repercussions and violence by Sea Shepherd environmentalists on Japanese whalers. The five-ship fleet is expected to return home within weeks, though the institute did not give any details. Its website is filled with press releases related to Sea Shepherd instead of its research. Initially, the government injected about ¥500 million a year into the program, or about 10 percent of its costs. By 2007, the subsidy had grown to about ¥900 million, and is projected to exceed ¥5 billion for the current fiscal year ending in September. That includes money for anti-Sea Shepherd measures, such as repairs for damage and dispatch of a patrol ship. In 2011, the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry used an earthquake and tsunami disaster reconstruction fund to help cover whaling debts. The ministry later acknowledged funneling ¥2.3 billion of the fund into whaling, triggering a public outcry. The whaling subsidy, now part of a broader package of fisheries issues, will expire next year. Okubo, the marine researcher, says the research has been a comfortable option for Japan to keep the embattled industry alive without taking drastic restructuring needed if they are serious about going commercial again. The research has justified subsidies, kept jobs for whalers and allowed Japan to catch up to the ambitious catch quota. The industry at its peak in the 1960s had more than 10,000 crew members and fishermen, but that number has dropped to fewer than 200, plus a small number of coastal whalers. The only commercial whaling operator still in business in Japan is Kyodo Sempaku Kaisha, which is affiliated with the Institute of Cetacean Research and manages whaling ships and meat sales. Monday’s ruling in The Hague could cost Japan the roughly 1,000 whales it takes in the Antarctic each year, or its catch quota could be reduced. Other Japanese whaling programs in the North Pacific and off the coast of Japan will not be affected. Masayuki Komatsu, a former Fisheries Agency official who served as a negotiator at International Whaling Commission annual meetings, says Antarctic whaling is legal under international rules. “What’s at stake is not just whales. It’s a matter of territorial rights, in a way,” said Komatsu, now a fisheries professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies. “The Antarctic is an open sea that everyone is entitled to its rich resources. There is no need to concede to nationalistic confrontation.” But a 2011 report by a Fisheries Agency panel of outside experts recommended scaling back or terminating the Antarctic hunts, suggesting that coastal whaling could be enough for Japan’s tiny appetite for whale meat. It was supposed to be an interim report, but no final report was ever published.

sea shepherd
whaling
consumers
icj
australia-japan relations
research hunts
whale meat


Tokyo jumps on theme bar bandwagon

Abstract: Tokyo and its surrounding areas provide an array of entertainment spots to serve the varied interests of its inhabitants, day or night. The latest fads are theme bars and restaurants for those seeking an unusual drinking or dining experience. Guys who were fascinated by Ultraman in the heady high-growth 1960s can lose themselves in nostalgia at Kaiju Sakaba , a Kawasaki restaurant-bar themed on the space monsters the hero battled in the sci-fi TV series, whose popularity with kids pushed its viewer rating as high as 45 percent. Supervised by the famed Tsuburaya Productions Co., which still produces the show, the establishment is based on a make-believe story in which the operator, space invader Alien Baltan, serves “kaiju” (monsters), who gather for a pint after losing to the space heroes. It is now open to Earth inhabitants, as the story goes. In addition to more than 200 kaiju figures and photos on display, the bar, which opened March 14 and will stay open for a year, offers kaiju-themed dishes that stir memories of old “Ultraman” episodes. For “tetsuota,” short for “tetsudo otaku” (railway geeks), Tetsudo-Izakaya Little TGV in Tokyo’s Akihabara district provides an ideal setting for tipple-loving rail enthusiasts. On typical weekday evenings, suit-clad businessmen gather here to discuss their obsession by a large “N-scale” railway layout decorated with photo displays and rail memorabilia such as engine name plates in real train seats. While the above two restaurants target mainly hobbyists, the restaurant Ninja Akasaka is for those looking for more of a show. Its mysterious, dimly lit decor resembles old “ninja houses” with a creaky wooden floor, staircases and secret doors. The eatery resembles an amusement park attraction filled with lots of fun ideas. It also offers ninja shows by professional magicians and serves dishes in a unique, fun presentation style.

bars
kaiju sakaba
tetsudo-izakaya little tgv
ninja akasaka


Chilean city still besieged by fire as toll rises to 15 dead, 500 hurt

Abstract: VALPARAISO, CHILE - Helicopters and airplanes dumped water on wildfires and the smoldering wreckage of hilltop neighborhoods around Valparaiso for a third straight day Monday as sailors in riot gear stood ready to evacuate 700 more families whose homes could be lost if the winds shifted. At least 11,000 people have already been made homeless by wildfires that sent burning embers flying from hilltop to hilltop. A 15th body has also been discovered, while the toll of destroyed homes has risen to more than 2,500. As smoke rose from smoldering ruins all over the picturesque coastal city, many compared the scene to Dante’s “Inferno.” Some people made their way home after days without sleep, only to discover ruins. The fires — so hot they created their own fierce winds — consumed a few entire neighborhoods. In other districts, some houses stood unscathed but remained in danger from glowing embers carried by the shifting winds. “We are looking at the largest air operation ever assembled against a fire like this,” Chilean President Michelle Bachelet said. She said the blazes had grown to “dimensions never before seen.” Chile’s forestry agency predicted it would take three weeks to completely stamp out the fires, which began Saturday in a forested ravine and quickly spread into ramshackle housing on one of Valparaiso’s 42 hills. Hot dry winds blowing out to sea whipped embers onto other neighborhoods on six densely populated hills where people live in poorly constructed homes without municipal water or sewer connections, fire hydrants or streets wide enough for emergency vehicles. As of Monday, there appeared to be no end in sight. Helicopters were flying without pause, dumping water on hot spots. Aid was flowing in from all over Chile to Valparaiso, where evacuees crowded into eight shelters. Hundreds of young volunteers climbed hills carrying bottles of water and shovels to help victims search the ruins of their homes. “We’re going to rebuild right here. Where else would we go?” said Carolina Ovando, 22, who lost the humble home she kept with three small children. Schools were closed, some of them damaged by fires and others jammed with evacuees. Navy officer Julio Leiva said Monday that the death toll had risen to 15, with most of the bodies too badly burned to identify without DNA tests, according to the national forensics service. More than 500 people were also being treated at hospitals, mostly for smoke inhalation. Bachelet coordinated the emergency response with her Cabinet, canceling a trip to Argentina and Uruguay. She asked Chile’s neighbors for backup in case of other fires, freeing Chilean planes and helicopters to join the fleet in Valparaiso. Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman promised to collaborate with rescue teams and water-dumping planes. From the Vatican, Pope Francis sent a message sharing his prayers. Bachelet put the entire city under military rule, and 5,000 firefighters, police, forest rangers, soldiers, sailors and civil defense workers joined the response. Cars were banned from streets leading up eight of the Valparaiso’s hills so emergency vehicles could get through. Valparaiso is an oceanside city of 250,000 people surrounded by hills that form a natural amphitheater. The compact downtown includes Chile’s congress and its second-largest port, and the city owes its status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site to the colorful homes built on slopes so steep that many people commute using stairs and cable cars. But what’s beautiful on postcards can be dangerous for those who live there: Many people have built on land not fit for housing. “We are too vulnerable as a city. We have been the builders and architects of our own danger,” Valparaiso Mayor Jorge Castro said Sunday in an interview with Chile’s 24H channel.

military
weather
fires
chile
michelle bachelet


Government plans to resume 'research whaling' in 2015

Abstract: LOS ANGELES - The nation’s Institute of Cetacean Research (ICR) has filed briefs in the U.S. District Court in Seattle stating its intent to resume whale hunting in the Southern Ocean as early as fiscal 2015. The move, made Friday, immediately faced strong opposition from conservation group Sea Shepherd as it came less than two weeks after the International Court of Justice ordered Japan on March 31 to halt its so-called research whaling. The government plans to resume whale hunting as soon as the fiscal year starting April 2015 by tweaking parts of its research program, including reducing the number of whales taken. The ICR has said that the new program will not run counter to the ICJ ruling. The ICR and Sea Shepherd have been locked in a legal dispute in the United States, with the institute seeking an end to the anti-whaling group’s interference in its hunt. “The statement that Japan issued that they would comply with the ICJ ruling was I believe insincere,” Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson said. “Japan has a history of duplicity with regard to whaling. I fully expect that Sea Shepherd Global will be prepared to return to the Southern Ocean in December 2015 to once again defend the integrity of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary,” Watson said.

sea shepherd
whaling
icj
southern ocean
research whaling