'Warring States' turmoil alive and well

Abstract: OSAKA - Japanese historians date the Warring States Period roughly from the middle of the 15th century to the beginning of the 17th century. But when it comes to Kansai politics, modern observers could be forgiven for thinking the ancient feuds and jealous rivalries of the regional lords are not yet over. That’s because the daimyo of Osaka Castle (i.e. Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto) is attempting to lead the region’s most prosperous city on a quest to unify the surrounding fiefdoms (Hyogo, Kyoto, Wakayama, Shiga, Tokushima, and Tottori prefectures) under a single banner (a Kansai regional block system) so as to challenge the dominant samurai and mandarins far to the east in what was once mosquito-infested swampland but is now the capital city of Edo (Tokyo). Unfortunately for Hashimoto, his attempts are being thwarted as rivals plot against him. Not in Edo Castle, where the courtiers must be looking upon Kansai politics with a combination of amusement and, possibly, disbelief, but in nearby Hyogo. Hyogo Gov. Toshizo Ido, a Hashimoto critic, is the nominal head of the Union of Kansai Governments, which, in theory, supports a regional block system. But he’s made it clear he does not favor a more powerful Osaka at the expense of Hyogo. On the other hand, Kyoto Gov. Keiji Yamada appears to be a Hashimoto fan. But for many in cultured, refined Kyoto, Osaka is town of coarse merchants best avoided, so there are limits on how much cooperation will be offered to Osaka. Meanwhile, Nara Gov. Shogo Arai prefers neutrality, keeping his prefecture out of the union and saying there is no benefit to his rural prefecture in competing with urban Osaka. Other governors are more supportive, but that’s because they lack major cities vying with Osaka for power and prominence. Historically, Kansai’s prefectures have fought among themselves for state funding, resulting in massive duplicity. Should Kansai airport be built in Osaka Prefecture? It eventually was. Kobe in Hyogo then followed by pursuing its own airport. From tourism promotion to public works projects, if one gets money from Tokyo, you can bet the others will ask for the same. A “republic of Kansai” is supposed to end the Kansai Warring States Period. But given that Hashimoto can’t even reorganize his own city, it will likely be a long while before some historian writes the saga’s final chapter.


Final season for 'Toru Hashimoto Show'?

Abstract: Is “The Toru Hashimoto Show,” the long-running Osaka political drama — which some might call a farce and others a tragedy — entering its final season? That’s the question Osakans of all political stripes are asking with the mercurial mayor set to leave office at the end of this month, only to stand for re-election March 23 for reasons not even Hashimoto’s most ardent supporters can fully explain. Officially, his resignation was prompted by anger at the lack of progress a committee of local politicians made in discussing his and his Osaka Ishin no Kai (One Osaka) political group’s goal of integrating the city of Osaka with Osaka Prefecture by April next year. The snap election is unlikely to change anything because Osaka Ishin does not have a majority in the municipal assembly and all other parties oppose Hashimoto’s integration schedule. Integration plans must be approved by the city assembly before a referendum can be held. But that has not stopped the mayor from deciding that the only way to bring about a citizen’s vote on a final plan, scheduled for October, is to hold an election now. “This election is about whether Osaka should be given the chance to vote this autumn in a referendum on an integration plan that needs to be finished by summer,” Hashimoto said earlier this month. In 13 committee meetings, four plans have emerged. The one favored by Hashimoto consolidates the city of Osaka’s 24 wards into five large districts. Each will enjoy much more power, especially of the purse, while Osaka City Hall would cease to function in its current capacity. That is just the first step toward integrating the rest of the prefecture into a single political and bureaucratic entity similar, in many respects, to Tokyo. Then, Hashimoto hopes, the stage will be set to achieve his ultimate goal, a “republic of Kansai” that would turn the region into a large, powerful entity akin to a Swiss canton, a Canadian province or a U.S. state. All of these ideas have long been greeted with varying degrees of opposition by the central government’s ministries in Tokyo, which are loathe to cede any financial or bureaucratic control over the local governments. But what prompted Hashimoto to resign earlier this month was not the resistance in Tokyo, but in Osaka, especially from then-ally New Komeito. When New Komeito, which forms a majority with Osaka Ishin in the municipal and prefectural assemblies, opposed combining the four integration proposals into one at the late January meeting, it was, for Hashimoto, the last straw. He launched a verbal tirade against New Komeito. In a remark aimed at the party’s Buddhist support group Soka Gakkai, the mayor implied that New Komeito politicians were behaving like religious followers. He also charged that New Komeito’s opposition broke an agreement with Osaka Ishin made before the 2012 Lower House election to support the Osaka integration plan in exchange for a promise from Hashimoto that his national Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) would not field candidates against New Komeito in six districts. All six New Komeito candidates won. But the party says it remembers what it promised Hashimoto quite differently. Regardless, it was clear long before 2012 that New Komeito’s Osaka branch had doubts about the integration plan, particularly the timetable that was attached to it. “What’s important is not to adhere to some schedule for integration but to deepen discussion of creating a system by looking at a variety of angles. We want to continue careful talks on the matter,” New Komeito Osaka prefectural assemblyman Yoshito Shimizu told the joint city-prefecture committee, a comment that angered Hashimoto and led to his resignation. Since then, the rift between New Komeito and Hashimoto has become a chasm, with Hashimoto threatening to personally run against New Komeito candidates in the next Lower House election and creating worries in Osaka that the lack of trust between the two now means that little or nothing will get done in the municipal and prefectural assemblies until local elections next year. In Tokyo, some Liberal Democratic Party members sense an opportunity, and are hoping the party’s Osaka chapter work out a deal with Osaka Ishin. Osaka Gov. Ichiro Matsui was with the LDP before he defected to Hashimoto’s movement. Matsui continues to stay in touch with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s team and briefly met with Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga in mid-February. The meeting was ostensibly about legislation for a casino proposal. But Matsui and the fellow LDP lawmakers who joined him in defecting to Hashimoto’s movement must also be wondering if it isn’t time to consider a rapprochement with their old party. In mid-February, polls by the Yomiuri and Sankei newspapers, normally Hashimoto’s strongest media allies, showed that more than 60 percent of Osaka voters disagreed with Hashimoto’s desire for a snap election. And the percentage of Osakans who backed Hashimoto — once between 80 and 90 percent — had dropped to under 50 percent. Yet despite Hashimoto’s sinking popularity and a growing sense of disappointment over his actions, no political party is currently challenging him in the election, slated for March 23. The likely exception, as of last week, might be Makoto Tonami, aka “Mack” Akasaka, leader of the Smile Party. A 10-time candidate in various elections, including the recent Tokyo gubernatorial election, the 65-year-old Akasaka has appeared in campaign commercials dressed variously as an angel (while wearing a “Hooters” T-shirt), Superman or a Gandhi look-alike. He advocates a healthier lifestyle through “smile therapy” and gets up to dance during staid NHK campaign videos. He advocates complete unarmed neutrality for Japan and mandatory voting. Hashimoto claims to welcome Akasaka as an opponent, even as he criticized the established parties for sitting out the election. But as one observer said jokingly, given the state of Osaka politics today, perhaps Akasaka’s most appropriate campaign poster might just be a photo of him grinning madly in an outrageous costume under a caption that reads: “Don’t Vote for the Fool in This Election.”

toru hashimoto
new komeito
osaka integration


Leave Article 9 alone: New Komeito's Osaka women

Abstract: Political alliances often resemble shotgun weddings. But Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, and smaller opposition forces such as Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto’s Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) that are pushing to amend the Constitution are now wondering if their efforts will fail due to a group of Osaka women who have made it clear some things will not be compromised for the sake of marriage. New Komeito is in the odd position of serving as the LDP’s coalition partner in the Diet, where Nippon Ishin is officially the opposition. Yet New Komeito — at least for the moment — is also Nippon Ishin’s partner in the Osaka Municipal and Prefectural assemblies, where the LDP is the opposition. Of course, New Komeito’s strongest supporters are in Soka Gakkai, the lay Buddhist group whose critics accuse it of being a powerful cult. But there is no doubt about two things. First, Soka Gakkai and New Komeito oppose revoking Article 9 of the Constitution, the “no-war clause,” along the lines Abe and Nippon Ishin co-leader Shintaro Ishihara envision. Second, New Komeito and Soka Gakkai are strong in Osaka. In particular, the women of Soka Gakkai who support New Komeito are organized, disciplined, and, in the grand tradition of Osaka, not afraid to speak their minds. Of New Komeito’s 51 Diet members, nine are from Osaka, the largest concentration of the party’s politicians in the country. In short, when New Komeito’s Osaka supporters talk, regardless of whether they belong to Soka Gakkai, the party listens. That’s what frustrates Takeo Hiranuma, co-leader of Nippon Ishin’s Diet group. Last year, he was quoted as saying the constitutional revision was being blocked “by a group of ladies in Osaka,” a not-so-subtle reference to New Komeito female voters there who like Article 9 just the way it is, thank you very much. However, Hiranuma’s view ignores two realities: The first is numbers-based, while the second has to do with history, myth and stereotypes that play a role in broader Osaka attitudes toward itself, Article 9 and those who would scrap it. First, Abe and the LDP want to change Article 9 by first revising Article 96, which stipulates a two-thirds majority vote in both houses of the Diet is needed to amend the Constitution. The LDP, Nippon Ishin and Your Party want to lower that to a simple majority. New Komeito is cautious, to say the least, about changing Article 96. Theoretically, Abe could team up with Nippon Ishin. But that likely means ditching New Komeito as a coalition partner — a heavy price to pay. The party’s ability to get things done for its voters and for those in LDP districts is widely respected in and out of the LDP, while Nippon Ishin Diet members are, by and large, inexperienced amateurs detested by the bureaucrats. Nor is opposition to revising Article 9 limited to New Komeito voters who belong to Soka Gakkai. As an ancient merchant city that was trading with Korea and China when Tokyo was nothing but swampland, Osaka’s historical mindset has traditionally been one of “war is bad for business.” During the Edo Period, the ruling samurai were seen by Osaka’s merchants less as loyal and honorable guardians and more as lazy braggarts who got drunk and were easily fleeced at the gaming tables. In the 1930s, Osaka had a reputation as being a particularly difficult place to recruit soldiers and sailors. Thus, with its long history of Asian ties, a preference for commerce over military adventures, and a strong contempt for Tokyo’s bureaucratic politics, large numbers of Osakans, not just a few Osaka women in one political party, do not share, even today, an inclination to revise Article 9 simply because Tokyo politicians say it’s necessary.

shinzo abe
toru hashimoto
osaka
ldp
new komeito
soka gakkai


Stem-cell leap defied Japanese norms

Abstract: It’s not surprising that last week Haruko Obokata issued a plea for privacy. On Jan. 29 she published a scientific paper on stem cells that could revolutionize medicine, and overnight the researcher based at the Riken Center for Developmental Biology (CDB) in Kobe became a domestic and international star. The onslaught of media attention went beyond what Obokata had discovered — a way to revert ordinary cells from the body into kansaibō (stem cells), cells with the ability to develop into any cell type. These cells, known as pluripotent stem cells, have long been seen as the key to regenerative medicine, because in theory they can be grown into new organs and tissues. As a young female scientist, Obokata is something of a rarity in Japan, and many reports included details of her life it’s hard to imagine being discussed if she was a man. Her laboratory is painted pink and yellow, and is decorated with pictures of Moomin characters from children’s books. She is 30, has a pet turtle — and a boyfriend. Instead of a lab coat, she wears a Japanese apron, a kappogi , originally designed to be worn over a kimono. The Internet shopping service Rakuten Ichiba reported a sharp increase in kappogi sales after the publicity. But none of this would have been news had Obokata’s work not been so amazing. When we heard of it in the New Scientist office here in London, where I am the news editor, we just couldn’t believe it. It is certainly possible to make pluripotent stem cells, and I’ve reported here about the work of another Japanese pioneer in that field, Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University. But Obokata’s method was so incredible in its simplicity that it almost sounded too good to be true. Yamanaka had identified four genetic factors that, when transferred into an adult cell using a virus, could cause it to revert to a pluripotent stem cell. This breakthrough work won Yamanaka a share of a Nobel Prize — but one of the inherent problems there is that transferring the four genetic factors can also cause cancer. Obokata’s work seems to avoid this completely. Rather than using a virus and infecting cells with genetic factors, she simply stresses them. Squeezing cells through narrow tubes or bathing them in an acidic solution turns them pluripotent. Surely, we thought, it can’t be so easy? It turns out that the editors at Nature, the British journal where Obokata’s work was published, couldn’t believe it either. When she and her colleagues submitted the work for publication in 2012, it was rejected. She went away, worked on more experiments and resubmitted. This time, after yet more extensive checks, the journal accepted the paper. And the scientific — and general — media deluge began. Other labs are already trying to replicate the work, and some scientists remain skeptical despite the extra-stringent review process prior to publication. One of the first things I wondered was whether, if this is the real thing, Obokata and her team have patented the discovery. The secret to a simple method for making pluripotent stem cells could be worth a fortune. At a press conference just before publication, where she was asked about this, Obokata replied: “Yes, we have a patent” — before abruptly stopping. “Actually, I have to say ‘no comment,’ ” she said. Clearly there are plans in motion behind the scenes. The Asahi Shimbun then reported that Obokata’s group had started with patent applications in April 2013. We can expect big things. One of the reasons this has caused such a sensation is that it comes out of left field. Her work is a great advert for thinking and working differently from the crowd — not a traditional approach for a Japanese scientist. Obokata’s co-author, Yoshiki Sasai, also at the Riken CDB, praised the approach, saying, “She held her own view backed by data.” Riken CDB is abuzz with important work at the moment. As I reported here in December, another stem-cell biologist there, Masayo Takahashi, is about to conduct the world’s first stem-cell trial on humans. In an interview with New Scientist, she praised Obokata’s discovery, saying, “I feel joyful that we are both working in this wonderful area of science.” So it’s a fascinating time — and fantastic to see women pioneering this research. However, Japan’s media still has a long way to go regarding its portrayal of women. After all, a piece in the Yomiuri Shimbun soon after Obokata’s paper was published ended with the cheesy observation that “she always strives to be fashionable as well.”

nature
kyoto university
stem cells
shinya yamanaka
masayo takahashi
haruko obokata
yoshiki sasai
riken center for developmental biology


Once upon a time, China anointed a 'King of Japan'

Abstract: In 1401, barely a century after the Mongols’ aborted invasions of Japan, and 600-odd years before Japan and China fell out over the Senkaku islets, a Chinese emperor conferred upon a Japanese shogun the title “King of Japan.” Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358-1408) was overjoyed at this mark of distinction. In a letter he sent via a trading delegation to Emperor Hung Wu, founder of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), Shogun Yoshimitsu willingly struck the pose expected of him: “In fear and dread, kneeling again and again, I respectfully state … ” The Chinese reply rewarded flattery with flattery, noting: “Japan has always been known as a country of poems and books.” In the lively correspondence that followed, Yoshimitsu signed himself, “King of Japan, Your Subject.” Future generations were appalled. How low had Japan sunk? In accepting vassalage, Yoshimitsu had betrayed his country; in accepting a royal title he had betrayed his Emperor, Japan’s true (if politically impotent) “king.” Sino-Japanese relations lose much of their savor if we view them only in the present. The current confrontation — dramatic and ominous enough, by modern standards — has a deep, deep background. China was Japan’s primary school teacher in the arts of civilization — religion (Buddhism), government (Confucianism) and so on. In the ninth century, after 400 years of intense discipleship, Japan turned inward. It stopped sending missions to China’s court and its monasteries. It needed to digest, to “Japanize” its acquisitions. The Heian Period (794-1185) is often called Japan’s first “Japanese” culture. China continued to loom large, an influence and a point of reference, but classical Heian literature constitutes in effect a declaration of cultural independence. Barbarian hordes from Mongolia conquered China in the 13th century. From their new capital at Peking they subjugated Russia and penetrated Poland and Hungary. The Mongol Empire at its peak was twice the size of the Roman Empire at its peak. When Kublai Khan, who ruled from 1259 to 1294, turned his hungry gaze on the remote islands of Japan, they must have looked like sitting ducks. The two invasions he launched, in 1274 and 1281, came to grief, casualties of fierce Japanese resistance and storms at sea that the Japanese mythologized as kamikaze — divine winds. Yoshimitsu, age 9, became shogun in 1367. The following year, the Chinese overthrew the Mongols. Then, in 1369, an envoy from Ming China arrived in Kyushu to discuss a persistent irritation — Japanese pirates. For centuries these marauders were the scourge of eastern Asia. China seemed helpless against their relentless attacks on its coast. Why Kyushu? The situation in Japan was confused. The country was divided. Two Imperial lines vied for supremacy — the Northern Court based in Kyoto and the Southern Court based in the mountains of Yoshino, some 100 km south. The Northern Court had the support of the shogunate, but the Southern Court controlled Kyushu, whose western coast was a veritable pirates’ nest — and Chinese information had it that the potentate in those parts, one Prince Kanenaga, was “King of Japan.” The “king” gave the envoy short shrift — in fact he put him under arrest. But the domestic tide was turning against him, and he changed his mind. A Chinese ally would be useful. He agreed to curb the pirates in return for Chinese support. It all came to naught. Yoshimitsu’s armies toppled Kanenaga, seized Kyushu, and at last brought the two courts together. That was in 1392. Now Yoshimitsu could turn to what he liked best. He was an effervescent, extravagant man, a great builder and a great spender. He sponsored noh theater, then in its infancy, and supported Zen Buddhism, to which he was deeply devoted. The project for which posterity best remembers him is Kyoto’s Kinkakuji — the Temple of the Golden Pavilion, built as a private retreat in 1394. No expense was spared. Where was the money to come from? From trade with China, he hoped. Ming China had a curious attitude to foreign trade. China was an ancient civilization, and a haughty one. China (in its own mind) was the “middle kingdom,” the center of the world. China had everything; it needed nothing. Trade, in the traditional Chinese view, meant China loftily accepting humbly presented “tribute.” The gifts it offered in return were not by way of commerce but symbols of China’s overflowing generosity. The master-disciple, lord-vassal relationship was implicit — taken for granted by China, swallowed with grace or resentment by “tributary” states. The Mongol interlude had been a deep humiliation which the early Ming emperors were determined to efface. Doing business with them meant kowtowing. Yoshimitsu could take it or leave it. He took it. He accepted the “King of Japan” title, despite the implied vassalage, and even brandished it against those Kyushu nobles who retained a menacing independence of spirit. As part of the agreement, he suppressed the rapacious pirates — boiling alive is one punishment mentioned in grateful Chinese records. The trade, under a licensing system whose limits were largely ignored, was lucrative. Japan sent laquerware, bronze vessels, fans, sulfur (used in papermaking) and — perhaps its most famous export — swords. In return it imported silk, drugs, books, porcelain and (most significantly) copper coins, representing the birth of a money economy. The story has a surprising sequel. In 1863, 455 years after Yoshimitsu’s death, a band of imperial loyalists burst into the Toji-in Temple in Kyoto and furiously “beheaded” three statues — Yoshimitsu’s and those of his two Ashikaga shogun predecessors. The wooden heads were displayed on a Kyoto riverbank, over a placard reading: “These three traitors having done the worst evil, their vile statues have been visited with the vengeance of heaven.” What would Yoshimitsu, “King of Japan,” have made of that?

mongol empire
kublai khan
kamikaze
heian period


New Zealand bans rappers Odd Future

Abstract: WELLINGTON - New Zealand immigration authorities on Thursday banned Los Angeles rappers Odd Future from entering the country after deciding they pose a threat to public order. The group was due to play an open-air concert with headline act Eminem on Saturday in Auckland. Border Operations Manager Karen Urwin said that authorities decided to decline visas to six group members after becoming aware of a 2011 incident in Boston in which some witnesses claimed group members incited fans to attack police officers. “It’s not a decision we take lightly and not one that happens often,” Urwin said. Group member Tyler, The Creator vented his frustration on Twitter on Thursday. “They said we were ‘terrorist threats and bad for the society’ or whatever. Sick,” he wrote. He later tweeted, “I love NZ tho.” The hip-hop group, which is also known as Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All, is known for its anarchic style and lyrics that canvas drugs, killing and rape. Urwin said the six rappers had intended to stay in New Zealand just a few days before leaving for Australia. She said it is rare to ban musicians under rules that cover character concerns. She said those provisions have been used in the past to stop people like white supremacist leaders and high-profile Holocaust deniers. She said some people have wrongly assumed that authorities considered the group’s lyrics in imposing the ban. “If we banned people who used swear words, we wouldn’t have many people left in New Zealand,” she said.


Return of shunto is hollow triumph for unions

Abstract: S hunto is in full swing. Or so it should be. Or so they say. Shunto is the Japanese word for the annual spring round of wage negotiations conducted between big business and trade unions. This “spring offensive” used to feature large in the annual economic calendar. As the deflationary 1990s and beyond set in, this offensive became an offensive no more. Faced with the prospect of corporate bankruptcies and accompanying job losses, labor unions rapidly lost their teeth. Gone are the days when the leaders of the large industry-wide unions were referred to as kings and emperors. In such times, a mere prime minister would balk at face-to-face meetings with those elites of the working classes. A head of government could not possibly compete with the clout and influence enjoyed by the captains of the labor movement. Media reports suggest that shunto is back. Given the pressure that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has brought to bear on both businesses as well as the unions, it is widely held that the unions are in a good position to go for monthly wage increases rather than just one-off bonus payments. At long last the time has come for labor unions to claw back some of the power that they have let slip through their fingers over past years. Yet again, or so they say. Is any of this true? Are we about to see union power on the rise again? Would that it were so. Yet the reality seems to be far from the case. Even if the large unions manage to secure some wage increases for regular employees of large corporations, that is not going to help alleviate the economic difficulties faced by the irregular working poor. Indeed if companies try to compensate for the cost increases they incur by raising full-time employee wages, this is liable to lead to even more greater hardship for workers on part-time contracts. Such a development surely cannot be counted as a triumph for the unions. Shunto is a word that held meaning and resonance when all working people were permanent employees on company payrolls. Under those circumstances labor unions could say that they were campaigning for workers’ rights merely by negotiating wage increases. That is no longer so. Indeed mere wage bargaining has never really been the basic function of labor unions. That is really not what labor unions are for. Their single most important function is to stand up for workers’ basic human rights. To the extent that securing wage increases for the salarymen of big businesses helped that cause, that was fine. But the world is a very different place now. Somewhere along the line, labor unions seem to have left behind their role as upholders of human rights and the labor movement. Labor unions that do not engage in the labor movement are a strange species of being indeed. Unless and until they start to remember what they really stand for, there is not a hope in a million that the return of the shunto will make any meaningful difference. It is very odd that unionization rates should be falling at a time when the poverty rate is rising and less and less people are able to secure decent wages in Japan. Now, if at any time, unions should come to the fore as defenders of the working poor. The shunto ought to be fought for all working people. And all working people is an increasingly nonuniform concept in the Japan of today. Shunto is not just about economic point scoring, it is about the right to live. Unions should be united in that awareness. Noriko Hama is an economist and a professor at Doshisha University Graduate School of Business.

shinzo abe
labor
employment
wages
shunto
trade unions


Tokyo Station's iconic brick building, witness to war, stands test of time

Abstract: Approaching its 100th anniversary in December, the red brick building of JR Tokyo Station in the Marunouchi business district is a symbol of the capital that continues to defy the high-rises around it with its classical architecture and stately appearance. The huge terminal, where trains arrive and depart 4,100 times a day, witnessed the war and Tokyo’s modernization and remains one of its main landmarks. Stretching 335 meters north to south, the station building is one of the biggest in the world. It has a symmetrical design, with identically shaped wings flanking its entrance, which was constructed for the Imperial family. Each wing has passenger entrance halls crowned with domes, and their walls are adorned with red bricks punctuated by white bands. The majestic appearance of the building is said to stem from late 19th century designs that were popular in Britain. Japan’s first railway started in 1872 as a line connecting the Shinbashi district with Yokohama. Forty years later, the Meiji government initiated a project to build an intermediary station in the capital. Construction took 6½ years, and the red brick building itself was completed in 1914. The structure is a masterpiece by Kingo Tatsuno, who is called the father of modern Japanese architecture and designed prominent buildings during the Meiji (1868-1912) and Taisho (1912-1926) eras, including the Bank of Japan’s headquarters, completed in 1896. The sturdy structure, built with the leading-edge technology of the day, survived the magnitude-7.9 Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923 with little damage. But even such a strong building couldn’t escape the ravages of World War II unscathed. In 1945, just a few months before the war’s end, a firebombing campaign by the United States destroyed much of the top, third floor and the domes. The building was renovated after the war, but a shortage of resources forced it to be rebuilt as a two-floor structure with the domes replaced by eight-cornered roofs, an appearance that would be retained for some 60 years. Currently, much of the brick building is composed of offices for railway operations, but about half is occupied by the Tokyo Station Hotel, which opened a year after the station opened for business and has been used to accommodate many state guests and well-known authors. Among the most notable guests were late novelist Yasunari Kawabata (1899-1972), a Nobel laureate in literature, and Hyakken Uchida (1889-1971), another renowned author and academic. Both were known to have written some of their works while staying at the hotel. Acclaimed writer Seicho Matsumoto (1909-1992), whose works include the 1958 detective novel “Ten to Sen” (“Points and Lines”), is another celebrity who is said to have loved the hotel, particularly for the view it provided of the railway tracks. In 1987, the historic building faced a crisis when a plan was hatched to replace it with a modern high-rise. But citizens stood up for its preservation, causing the plan to be altered to include the restoration of its original design and reinforcement against earthquakes. The building was thus restored in a five-year project that included reconstruction of the third floor lost 67 years before. Thanks to the completion of a new in-station facility that includes restaurants and shops, the building has become a popular tourist spot. To mark the building’s centenary, East Japan Railway Co. (JR East) plans to hold several commemorative events that include decorating train cars with a red brick motif and a special exhibition in the station’s gallery explaining the building’s history. In December, the red brick building will be illuminated in “fancy colors” to spark the celebratory spirit. The interiors of the domes that adorn JR Tokyo Station were recently refurbished. | SATOKO KAWASAKI Tourists walk past the front of the JR Tokyo Station building in the Marunouchi business district. | SATOKO KAWASAKI Parts of the landmark building can be viewed from windows in The Tokyo Station Hotel. | SATOKO KAWASAKI A child looks at a large, glass-covered silver bell that has become a popular meeting spot in JR Tokyo Station. | SATOKO KAWASAKI An old brick wall saved from the renovation of the Tokyo Station building is shown on public display. Some bricks were made of wood and burned during the U.S. firebombing of Tokyo during the war. | SATOKO KAWASAKI

architecture
tokyo station
trains
railways
jr


Kyoto widow held over spouse's death may be a serial husband killer

Abstract: KYOTO - Suspicion is mounting that a Kyoto Prefecture woman under arrest for allegedly killing her husband may have also killed previous spouses and lovers. Chisako Kakehi, 67, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of murdering Isao Kakehi, 75, who died last December in his home in Muko, Kyoto Prefecture. The Kyoto Prefectural Police found traces of cyanide in his body. Investigators said they also detected a trace of cyanide in personal belongings that Chisako Kakehi disposed of, and suspect she used the poisonous substance to kill her husband. They are searching to determine how she obtained the cyanide. She has denied the allegation. Police quoted her as saying, “I absolutely didn’t kill (my husband).” Despite Kakehi’s denial, mysterious deaths surround her. Investigative sources said Thursday they have found empty medicine capsules and thin papers for taking medicinal powder in a separate residence she maintains in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture. The police suspect she may have used them to wrap cyanide or laced food with the substance so that her husband would not notice the poison. They said they also found several books on medicine in the home. The sources said Kakehi tried to buy sleeping pills for her husband at a drug store before his death in late December, but eventually bought Chinese herbs with similar effects because she did not have a prescription for the pills. The police suspect that she had the husband take the Chinese herbs, followed by a capsule of cyanide. Kakehi is believed to have been married four times. The police said that in addition to her latest husband, five men in Osaka, Hyogo and Nara prefectures related to her have died since 2006. All four of the husbands and the two men she was dating died several years after they married her or became acquainted with her, they said. She is believed to have inherited assets totaling more than ¥100 million from the deaths. Police have already found a trace of cyanide in the body of a 71-year-old man in Kaizuka, Osaka Prefecture, who died in March 2012. They allege the man had a close relationship with Kakehi and are trying to determine how he died. Investigators say the man fell down on a road in Izumisano, Osaka Prefecture while he was riding a small motorcycle and subsequently died. Heart failure was blamed, but after Isao Kakehi’s suspicious death, police re-examined a blood sample taken from the Kaizuka man and found traces of cyanide. They suspect she induced Isao to take cyanide on Dec. 28. He he died that day at about 9 p.m. The police suspect Chisako Kakehi induced her latest husband, Isao Kakehi, to take cyanide at home in a yet-to-be determined method last Dec. 28, causing him to die at about 9 p.m. that day. According to Chisako Kakehi’s account to the police, she found him collapsed near the entrance to the room, and she called for an ambulance about 50 minutes later. The police detected an amount of cyanide far exceeding a fatal dose in his stomach and blood but did not find any traces around his mouth. This has led the police to believe Chisako Kakehi may have tricked him into ingesting the cyanide without being aware of it. After they started to search various locations, one of her acquaintances said she may commit suicide. The police arrested her on Wednesday morning.


Australian display of 1.2 million Christmas lights sets world record

Abstract: An Australian lawyer has set a world record by stringing up almost 1.2 million Christmas lights in the center of the national capital. Guinness World Records on Friday confirmed that the 120 km of multicolored wire strung in the shape of three interconnected giant, wrapped Christmas gifts in a downtown Canberra mall was the largest ever image made of LED lights. Lawyer David Richards assembled the Canberra light show with the help of an army of volunteers and powers it with electricity donated by a local power company. He set a Guinness World Record a year ago for the most Christmas lights on a residential property by cocooning his Canberra home with 502,165 bulbs. However, traffic snarls in his neighborhood created by 75,000 sightseers who visited the display over four weeks made it difficult for his family to get to and from their home. “I couldn’t do it again to my neighbors or my family,” Richards said, explaining the move to the city center. The latest light show will be open to the public free of charge from Friday until New Year’s Eve. Visitors to the 2013 light show donated 138,000 Australian dollars ($117,000) to a local Canberra Sudden Infant Death Syndrome counselling and support service. Richards said he expects donations to the SIDS and Kids ACT charity will be higher with the bigger and more spacious display. The 1,194,380 twinkling bulbs arranged since Wednesday beat the previous record set in Shurtan, southern Uzbekistan, by 181,540 lights.


Are Japan's public school teachers paid too much?

Abstract: Last month the Ministry of Finance presented a policy recommendation based on studies made by an advisory group. Such recommendations are fairly common, but this one caught more than the usual amount of attention because of where it was directed. The ministry thinks that the maximum class size for first year elementary school students should be increased from 35 to 40 . In purely economic terms, such a change would result in a reduction of as many as 4,000 teachers, which would translate as ¥8.6 billion in savings for the central government alone. However, the ministry’s explanation for why the change should be implemented was not made in fiscal terms. It was made in educational terms. Until the Democratic Party of Japan became the ruling party, maximum class size was 40, and the DPJ changed it to 35 in order to address the bullying problem. But the finance ministry says that bullying incidents have increased slightly since class sizes were reduced, so obviously it has had no effect. Obviously, this sounds more like something the education ministry should tackle, and, predictably, the education ministry objects to the recommendation, saying that increasing class number back to 40 runs counter to world trends , which favor smaller class sizes so that students can get more individual attention from teachers. The finance ministry has countered the objection by saying that the money saved by increasing class size can be spent on “pre-schoolers,” since the education ministry is now promoting tuition-free pre-schools for some households but have no budget for it. As several other media have pointed out, the finance ministry isn’t really interested in education programs. It is simply moving the money from one area to another. It’s a matter of bookkeeping. The ministry’s justification for cutting teachers is also problematic. It says that Japanese public school teachers’ salaries are higher than they are in other countries, which is a conveniently misleading truth. The salary of a median age 45-year-old full-time public school teacher in Japan is about ¥7 million, though a 2010 OECD survey found that Japanese teachers made on average the equivalent of $44,337 a year, which is $7,000 more than the OECD average. That’s probably what the finance ministry is talking about. What the ministry doesn’t mention is that this average salary was 8.6 percent less than it was in 2000, which is perhaps a reflection of the fact that more teachers are now non-regular part-timers . Moreover, as a percentage of total public spending on education, teachers’ pay in Japan is higher than it is in other developed countries — 86 percent compared to 81 percent in the U.S. and 67 percent in the U.K. — and as a portion of GDP Japan’s spending on education is the lowest of the 31 OECD countries, and has been for five years running. But the most significant statistic is work load . The average number of hours worked by a teacher in OECD countries is 39 a week, 20 of which are spent actually teaching. In Japan it’s 52 and 19 , respectively. Also, unlike in the U.S., where teachers can get two months off due to summer vacation, Japanese teachers have no time off other than mandatory paid vacation, which means when school is out they are required to show up for work. And Japanese public school teachers do not get paid overtime. Consequently, the finance ministry’s various justifications for increasing class size seems disingenuous, but they will probably play well with local governments, which pay two-thirds of education costs and stand to save more if class sizes are increased. However, it should be noted that in the larger scheme of things, class size reduction was never much of a policy. The DPJ wanted to reduce class sizes for all grades of elementary and junior high school, but it became fiscally and politically unfeasible, and so they limited the decrease to only Grade 1, with the hope that later they could extend it to upper grades. But then the Liberal Democratic Party regained power. As the Asahi Shimbun pointed out in an editorial, the policy has only been in place for three years, so it’s too early to judge its effects, either on bullying or on the quality of education in general. Since enrollment is dropping, the number of teachers will also naturally drop due to attrition. Basically, the finance ministry wants to cut expenditures and sees education as the easiest way to do it by resorting to “bureaucratic hocus-pocus,” as one part-time teacher put it in a letter to Tokyo Shimbun.


Italian mobsters take secret oath in police video

Abstract: ROME - Recruits for Italy’s ‘ndrangheta crime syndicate have been caught on video taking a loyalty oath, swearing “under the splendor of the moon,” in a ceremony secretly recorded by police in what investigators called authorities’ first such glimpse of the ritual. Carabinieri paramilitary police in Milan on Tuesday released video of what they said were two “convivial” get-togethers of suspected mobsters at a farmhouse in Castello di Brianza, northern Italy, with one recruit as young as 17. The oath reminds the recruits that traitors are expected to kill themselves and to keep an extra bullet handy in case it comes to that. Investigators didn’t explain how they managed to film at the ceremony. Prosecutors said it was the first time authorities have obtained video of an ‘ndrangheta initiation ritual. The same investigation led to 38 arrests. The probe concentrated on loans mobsters made to businesses in northern Italy and Switzerland that were unable to get credit otherwise. In a separate intercepted phone call, one suspect says to tell someone reluctant to repay money: “I will cut his head off.'” Milan prosecutor Ilda Boccassini said the video shows how “the force of tradition” helps the ‘ndrangheta, a global cocaine trafficking organization, to thrive. Suspected mobsters are seen kissing each other on the cheek in greeting. The ‘ndrangheta, rooted in the southern Calabrian region, has spread north as it invested illicit revenues. In another scene, four males huddle together as words of a loyalty oath are repeated. “Right in this holy evening, in the silence of the night, under the light of the stars and under the splendor of the moon, I create the holy chain … the holy society,” one man says.

italy
mobsters
'ndrangheta
loyalty oath
police video


JCP releases campaign platform, vows to cancel consumption tax hike to 10%

Abstract: The Japanese Communist Party has announced a set of campaign pledges for the Dec. 14 lower house election, promising to “cancel” the planned consumption tax hike and seek other ways to secure funds for social security. The party also took aim at Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s “Abenomics” policy package of monetary easing, fiscal stimulus and a pro-growth reforms, saying it has caused the country’s income gap to widen and the economy to worsen. As alternatives to raising the spending tax to 10 percent from the current 8 percent, it offered to increase taxes on the wealthy and big companies, and cut spending on wasteful public works projects. The party also reiterated its anti-nuclear stance. The JCP expressed opposition to ongoing talks on a Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement that would create a free trade area among Pacific Rim countries, and to the secrecy law that will impose tougher penalties on leakers of state secrets as a way to bolster information protection. The law is set to take effect Dec. 10. On other contentious issues, the opposition party said it would “retract” a Cabinet decision in July to reinterpret the pacifist Constitution to enable the use of the right to collective self-defense, and will unconditionally remove U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa Prefecture. Abe is promoting the relocation of the base to the Henoko district of Nago from a densely populated area in Ginowan, both in Okinawa, which hosts the bulk of U.S. military installations in Japan.

election
consumption tax
consumption tax hike
japanese communist party
platform


Shinagawa, a gateway to old and new Tokyo

Abstract: In the Edo Period, Shinagawa was the first “shukuba machi,” or “post station town” to be built on the Tokaido, the coastal road linking the bustling Nihonbashi district in Edo, then the de facto capital under the Tokugawa shogunate, to Kyoto, which remained the nominal capital in the west. Men dressed as an Edo wanderer (left) and a ‘kawaraban’ (handbill) peddler pose at the Edo Fuzoku Gyoretsu (Edo Culture Parade) near the former Tokaido Road between the Yatsuyama and Aomonoyokocho districts in Tokyo’s Shinagawa Ward on Sept. 28. | YOSHIAKI MIURA Shinagawa prospered as the gateway to Edo, as Tokyo was then known, with both visitors and westbound travelers stopping there to rest and buy supplies. At the time, the area was said to have 7,000 residents and 1,600 homes. Even today, traces of Shinagawa’s early prosperity can be seen in its cityscape. To help preserve and pass on its traditions, a special 2-km parade was launched between the Minami-Shinagawa and Aomonoyokocho neighborhoods in late September. Women immaculately dressed as “oiran” (high-class prostitutes and courtesans), caught spectators’ eyes while others decked out as merchants, policemen and townsfolk from the period depicted its rich history. Today, Shinagawa is a place where old meets new. Visitors can deviate from the old Tokaido road near Keikyu Railway’s Kita-Shinagawa Station by walking along a street south of it that will show how close Shinagawa once stood to the coastline before additional land was reclaimed from Tokyo Bay. Historical evidence of this can be seen in old houses facing a canal where several “yakatabune” party boats are docked. The houses contrast heavily with several modern buildings nearby. Another historic spot is the Kujirazuka (whale mound) where the remains of a 16.5-meter whale were buried after it created a stir by beaching itself one stormy day in 1798, documents say. Shinagawa evolved into a major train station during the modernization drive of the Meiji Era that began in 1868. Shinagawa, now a crucial link to both Haneda and Narita airports, will likely see its role as international gateway grow ahead of the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo. People in period costumes take part in the Edo Fuzoku Gyoretsu (Edo Culture Parade) near part of the former Tokaido Road between the Yatsuyama and Aomonoyokocho districts of Shinagawa Ward, Tokyo, on Sept. 28. | YOSHIAKI MIURA A traditional ‘yakatabune’ (party boat) contrasts with modern buildings in the background near Keikyu Kita-Shinagawa Station in Tokyo on Nov. 15. | YOSHIAKI MIURA Girls offer silent prayers to the Kujirazuka (whale mound), where the remains of a 16.5-meter whale that beached itself on the coast of Shinagawa on a stormy day in 1798 are buried. | YOSHIAKI MIURA

tourists tourism shinagawa edo traditions


That vexatious 'so desu ka'; Dalai Lama installed; Ikeda picked to be prime minister; Shibuya police box top lender nationwide

Abstract: 100 YEARS AGO Tuesday, Nov. 10, 1914 Journalist irritated by the words sō desu ka Writing from the Savage Club, London, the Tokyo Asahi’s war correspondent, Mr. Sugimura, describes his luncheon there with Mr. Mackenzie of the Times as host. Mr. Mackenzie, while in Japan in the same capacity, learned to hate the words sō desu ka ( Is that so?). Applying to the military authorities for permission to go to the front, the staff officer in charge says, sō desu ka! Day after day passes on without any news, and he goes to the same office to hurry them up, but only the same word is repeated by the same party. I can’t wait any longer — sō desu ka. Please try and let me go at once — sō desu ka. What are you going to do for me after all? — sō desu ka. I must say goodbye to you, then — sō desu ka! Certainly that was the most tantalizing phrase in the whole world, he says. And Mr. Sugimura in great sympathy but without thinking of it says, “sō desu ka!” — much to the disgust of his host. 75 YEARS AGO Monday, Nov. 27, 1939 Fourteenth Dalai Lama installed in Tibet A living “baby” Buddha now accepting homage from the 2 million people he will rule till death, and believed by his followers to have the same soul possessed by the ruler who preceded him, is the subject of a strange story being unfolded in fragmentary news from Tibet. “The small boy in knee-boots and yellow robes, recently installed in Lhasa’s hilltop palace, is Tibet’s 14th Dalai Lama, just identified after more than five years of search for the thirteenth Lama’s successor,” says a bulletin from the Washington, D.C., headquarters of the National Geographic Society. “Until he reaches his majority, regents will rule in his name.” “Tibet, secluded between the world’s highest mountain barriers and the gloomiest windswept desert of Asia, is one of the last theocracies surviving in the modern world. The Dalai Lama, head of both church and state, is acclaimed as a living embodiment of Buddha. His succession is determined by no commonplace father-and-son hereditary arrangement, but by the principle of reincarnation. When a Dalai Lama dies, oracles fall into trances for guidance, and priests search the country for a boy born at the instant of the ruler’s death. The spirit of the former Dalai Lama is accepted as having entered the baby, who thereupon becomes ruler of a land one-sixth as large as the United States, and head of a priesthood numbering between one-fifth and one-seventh of the entire population. The young Dalai Lama referred to is Tenzin Gyatso, who continues to hold the position today. 50 YEARS AGO Tuesday, Nov. 10, 1964 Ikeda picks Sato to be next prime minister Ailing Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda picked former State Minister Eisaku Sato as the man to succeed him Monday morning. The verdict, in the form of a message addressed to a general meeting of Liberal-Democratic members of both Houses of the Diet, was entrusted to two Tory president-makers at the National Cancer Center at Tsukiji, Tokyo, where Ikeda is receiving treatment for cancer. Ikeda handed the message to Tory Vice President Shojiro Kawashima and Secretary General Takeo Miki immediately after they briefed him on their latest round of negotiations to single out his successor. Kawashima and Miki read the message at the Dietmen’s caucus held in the Diet building hours later. The caucus then voted on Ikeda’s recommendation. In a brief address to the party caucus, Sato said he fully realized the gravity of his new duties as well as that of the situation both in and outside of Japan. He pledged his efforts to further strengthen Tory unity and resolutely tackle his political tasks. He then solicited massive Tory support for this endeavor. Ikeda had announced his resignation, due to ongoing cancer treatment, the day after the closing ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics. He died on Aug. 13, 1965. 25 YEARS AGO Saturday, Nov. 4, 1989 Shibuya police box is top lender nationwide The police box in front of Shibuya Station, besides being one of the busiest in Tokyo, is the top money lender among Japanese police boxes. When people in Shibuya spend more than their budgets allow, or lose their purse or wallet, they come to this police box to borrow enough money to get home. Last year, 2,925 loans totaling ¥753,858 were recorded by Shibuya police. The average loan was about ¥257. “We have a budget for it. The budget is mainly based on how much we gave out the year before,” said Shiro Sakurai, the station chief. “When people come to borrow money, we usually ask them to show us their IDs, but even if they don’t have IDs with them we lend them money sometimes,” another policeman said. “From our experience, we can usually tell if a person is reliable or not. “But there are people who take advantage of our system. They borrow money from several police boxes and disappear,” he added. Loans are also provided to those who are injured or do not have enough money to go home because they have lost their way, as well as those who left home without money. “The appearance of the borrowers is not a factor in our decision to lend them money or not,” the officer said. “We don’t discriminate against them. Also, we have never had foreigners asking to borrow money,” the officer said. “But if they come, we’ll lend them money, too. “We can lend as much as ¥1,000 at a time,” he added. “More than that, we have to get permission from our superior.” The police box money-lending policy is still in effect today.

shibuya
tibet
dalai lama
eisaku sato
hayato ikeda
police box


Chinese tourists step up for Abe as Japanese tighten belts

Abstract: When Jingyan Hou made her first trip to Japan in 1997, the office worker from Beijing spent ¥200,000 during a weeklong stay on accommodations, meals, transport and souvenirs. On her second visit this year, she spent that much on just one Louis Vuitton handbag in Tokyo’s Ginza shopping district. The increasing wealth of travelers like Hou, 45, underscores the opportunity for Japan to expand its tourism industry as China’s burgeoning middle class goes on vacations abroad. The yen’s slump to a seven-year low against the dollar is also broadening the country’s appeal globally and bolstering the Abe administration’s effort to double visitors by the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. “There’s a lot of room to boost the number of foreign tourists coming to Japan with these growing economies in our neighborhood,” said Daiki Takahashi, an economist at the Dai-ichi Life Research Institute in Tokyo. “They’ll have a big impact if the current trend continues.” While Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s growth strategy faces opposition on many fronts — from farmers fighting tariff cuts to corporations against outsiders on their boards — fostering tourism has few detractors. It is a bright spot in an economy that dropped into recession last quarter as consumers cut spending after the government increased the consumption tax in April to help rein in the world’s biggest debt burden. Foreign visitors spent ¥1.5 trillion in Japan in the nine months through September, more than all of 2013, according to the Japan Tourism Agency. Money from inbound tourists is on course to surpass spending by Japanese travelers overseas next year for the first time in at least three decades, said Takahashi. Hou is doing her part, spending about ¥1 million over a week in October, half of it on shopping. “I can get more stylish products in Japan than what I can find back in China,” she said, with shopping bags in each hand at the Mitsukoshi department store in Ginza. Her purchases ranged from clothes and accessories to cosmetics and Pokemon figures. Chinese tourists are now the world’s top spenders, forking out $129 billion in 2013, World Tourism Organization figures show. Around 2 million mainlanders visited Japan in the first 10 months of 2014, more than double the number from 2006, according to the Japan Tourism Agency. And yet for visitors to Japan, they remain behind South Koreans and Taiwanese. In all, more than 10 million foreigners traveled to the third-largest economy last year. While the Japanese economy has struggled after the consumption tax bump in April and the yen has slumped 12 percent, duty-free sales at Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings Ltd.’s Ginza outlet have almost doubled compared with the same period a year ago, said Kayo Yoshida, one of its customer service managers. Mitsukoshi nearly tripled bilingual sales assistants at its Ginza store to 21 this year and is expanding its range of duty free products, Yoshida said. As Abe seeks to revitalize regional areas, Japan is also attracting foreign tourists to destinations outside the well-trodden corridor from Tokyo to Mount Fuji and on to Kyoto. The city of Sakaiminato, Tottori Prefecture, population 36,000, is one of the beneficiaries. The port is rebuilding some of the older infrastructure at its harbor as tourists visiting on cruise ships increase to a projected 16,000 this year. On one day last month, 3,600 Chinese visitors disembarked from a liner, boarded 100 buses and set out sightseeing and shopping, said Tsuyoshi Furuhashi, a spokesman at the local tourism association. “We need to attract tourists like this as our population declines in Japan,” Furuhashi said. Japan lowered the minimum income requirements for Chinese seeking tourist visas in 2010 and might extend the use of multiple-entry visas to the whole country rather than just Okinawa, as it is now, according to the Foreign Ministry. Indian tourists became eligible for multiple-entry visas for short sightseeing stays in July and waivers are in place for people from Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. While Japan is well rated for customer service, transport and cultural attractions, it has a reputation for expensive accommodations. Manryo Inc., the operator of nine hostels for foreign tourists in Tokyo and Kyoto, has found one solution for visitors trying to keep lodging costs low. Three of its hostels are former love hotels. Manryo’s hostel in Tokyo’s Asakusa district offers its cheapest rooms at ¥2,200 per day, versus about ¥5,500 to ¥10,000 for a business hotel. “We had only 350,000 foreign tourists when Japan hosted the Olympics for the first time in 1964,” said Masataka Ota, chief consultant at Japan Tourism Marketing Co. “It’s amazing to think we may have 20 million next time.”

china
tourism
tokyo 2020
2020 olympics
inbound tourism


LDP incumbents look to have electoral lock on nation's nuclear heartland

Abstract: OSAKA - Political decisions over the fate of Fukui’s aging reactors have long been in the hands of powerful pro-nuclear Diet members who represent the prefecture. The Dec. 14 poll is not expected to change that, although it will be the first in which only two Fukui Lower House members are up for re-election. The loss of one seat stems from electoral district reforms that went into effect last year. Currently, the prefecture has three districts. The No. 1 district, which mostly encompasses the city of Fukui in the north of the prefecture, is represented by Tomomi Inada, a right-wing Liberal Democratic Party policy chief and close ideological confidant of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The No. 2 district includes the inland town of Ono on the eastern flank of the prefecture, as well as municipalities just north of the city of Fukui on the border with Ishikawa. It’s represented by Taku Yamamoto, also of the LDP and the husband of internal affairs minister Sanae Takaichi, another close right-wing Abe confidant. Fukui No. 3 is the nuclear power district. It includes the towns of Tsuruga, home to two reactors, one of which is 44 years old; Mihama, which hosts three reactors, two of them over 40 years old; Oi, where there are four reactors, two in excess of 35 years old; and Akahama, two of whose four reactors are, or soon will be, 40 years old. The No. 3 district is represented by the LDP’s Tsuyoshi Takagi, who appears to be less of an ideologue than Inada, although he once lent his support to a film denying the occurrence of the Rape of Nanking. But more importantly for local pro-nuclear voters and Kansai Electric Power Co., which operates the above reactors, Takagi has always been a fierce supporter of atomic energy and played an influential Diet role in getting two of the Oi reactors restarted in 2012 despite nationwide opposition. Those units were shut down for inspection last year. For the coming election, however, Fukui will have only two districts. The first is a nonnuclear zone, incorporating the city of Fukui and the towns in the north. The other covers the middle and southern part of the prefecture, where all of the nuclear plants are located, near the borders of Shiga and Kyoto prefectures. The LDP has been weighing a plan to field Inada in the first district, Takagi in the second, and Yamamoto as a proportional representation candidate. As of late last week, discussions were ongoing. At the moment, none of the opposition parties has announced any candidates. In the 2012 Lower House election, Takagi won the No. 3 district by nearly 50,000 votes against his Democratic Party of Japan rival, who ran on a mildly anti-nuclear platform. How Takagi will fare under the revised districts is uncertain. But unless strong anti-nuclear candidates emerge in the coming days, it appears Takagi, Inada and Yamamoto will continue to represent Fukui in Diet deliberations over the prefecture’s old atomic plants for years to come.

fukui
nuclear reactors
lower house elections


Kepco weighs new lease of life for geriatric reactors

Abstract: In a decision that will set a precedent for Japan’s rapidly aging nuclear reactors, Kansai Electric Power Co. must soon choose whether to restart reactors 1 and 2 at its Takahama plant in Fukui Prefecture and operate them beyond the 40-year threshold, the first time a Japanese utility has faced such a dilemma. Under new government guidelines adopted in 2012, 40 years is the maximum limit, in principle, on how long the nation’s reactors are allowed to operate. After that, they are supposed to be decommissioned, a process that can take decades. However, if a utility decides to continue to use them, it can apply for a one-time-only extension of 20 years if it meets a series of additional safety tests the government describes as “stringent.” Currently, all of Japan’s 48 commercial reactors are idled. To apply for a two-decade extension on those now at or close age 40, their operators have to apply for special government inspections by no later than next July. These checks will be more expensive than the inspections currently being carried out on younger reactors. Of Fukui’s 13 commercial reactors, 11 of which are operated by Kansai Electric, five are, or soon will be, at the 40-year limit. Another three are over 35 years old, and the utility will have to decide their fate in the next few years. The two Takahama reactors went into operation in November 1974 and November 1975, with a capacity of 826,000 kilowatts each. Earlier this month, Kansai Electric President Makoto Yagi said the utility would consider whether to decommission units based on whether they could still turn a profit if granted a 20-year extension. But Fukui politicians have cautioned the company to think about more than just the bottom line. “What’s important is to think about plant operation and decommissioning at the same time. Local governments, as well as utilities, have to check the decommissioning process and this will require funding,” Fukui Gov. Issei Nishikawa said last month. “Where will midterm storage facilities be built? Where will a final storage facility for the spent fuel and nuclear waste be located? It’s necessary for the central government to be deeply involved.” In September, Fukui Vice Gov. Tatsuji Sugimoto warned Kansai Electric Vice President Shigeki Iwane that “if you’re going to discuss decommissioning, you won’t get anywhere unless you treat finding a midterm storage facility for the spent fuel, the problem of disposing of nuclear contaminated materials, and how decommissioning will impact the local economy as one set of issues.” Decommissioning is of special concern to Fukui because it threatens the state subsidies that have been flowing into the prefecture for four decades. Between the 2007 and 2012 fiscal years, Fukui received at least ¥20 billion annually. From 1974 to 2012, prefectural data show Fukui received about ¥390 billion under three laws designed to reward local governments if they agreed to host nuclear plants. Much of this has gone into roads, bridges, dams and other projects that keep the coffers of local construction companies full, provide employment for their workers as well as in local service industries, who then return the money via donations for local and national pro-nuclear lawmakers of the Liberal Democratic Party. But while Kansai Electric, local governments in Fukui, the governor and major corporations in the region support both the restart of the prefecture’s newer reactors and, if possible, extending the Takahama units for another 20 years, at least one survey shows the rest of Kansai appears to be generally fine without nuclear power. The Institute of Nuclear Safety System Inc., established and owned by Kansai Electric in Mihama, Fukui Prefecture, conducted a multiple choice survey last fall on how people in six Kansai prefectures and the southern part of Fukui felt about power generation, especially nuclear energy. The results showed that, despite pressure from the pro-nuclear lobby for reactor restarts and higher electricity bills, 46 percent of the respondents felt either that atomic power should not be used or that other sources of electricity should be tapped. Although another 45 percent believed the use of nuclear energy was “inevitable,” only 8 percent replied it would be a “good” source of power. In addition, the survey indicated that, despite Kansai Electric jacking up its power rates by 10 percent overall in spring 2013, not many of the respondents were overly concerned. “The negative effects of the long-term suspension of nuclear power generation have not been recognized,” said institute official Atsuko Kitada. Then there is a question the survey did not address: to what extent should the rest of Kansai be involved in decisions to restart or extend the operational life of the Fukui reactors. Since the March 2011 Fukushima meltdowns, relations between Fukui and other Kansai prefectures that rely on its nuclear power plants have often been tense. Leaders in neighboring Kyoto and Shiga whose towns lie within a 30-km radius of the Fukui reactors want more of a say in their future. Anti-nuclear groups add that talk of extensions is underway even as the nation has yet to end the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 plant. “It is particularly unconscionable for the Abe government to open the way for old reactors to operate when the Fukushima accident is ongoing,” said Aileen Mioko Smith of Green Action, a Kyoto-based anti-nuclear lobby. In October, Maizuru, a port city in Kyoto Prefecture that lies less than 10 km from the Takahama plant in Fukui, called for the definition of “local government consent” to be expanded to those municipalities within a 30-km radius of the facility since, by law, they have to draw up evacuation plans in case of a disaster. Around 144,000 people, including Maizuru’s 88,600 residents, live within 30 km of Takahama. But Nishikawa rejects such calls. “I recognize the definition of local consent as meaning Fukui Prefecture and the towns and villages that host the power plants,” he told reporters last month. “Since it’s been those areas closest to the nuclear plants that have borne the greatest risks over the past 40 or 50 years, there is a natural difference between them and other areas (outside Fukui).”

fukui prefecture
kansai electric power co .
nuclear reactors


Eels face the slippery slope to extinction

Abstract: Last week I was crossing the River Thames on the way to work in London, and I happened to see a cormorant emerge from the water with a thrashing eel in its mouth. The bird juggled the fish, skillfully managing to position it so it could swallow the wriggling animal headfirst. While it was a disaster from the eel’s point of view — after all, they can live for up to 20 years before breeding — it was for me quite an encouraging sight. The number of European eels has crashed in recent years, so to see one in the Thames is a good sign. Even if it was being eaten. Eels — whether European or Japanese — are elusive, mysterious creatures. We have eaten them for millenniums, but we still don’t understand the basic details of their reproductive behavior. They spend most of their lives in freshwater rivers, but then migrate in vast numbers, with Japanese eels swimming thousands of kilometers to spawn at an unknown location near Guam and the Mariana Islands. European eels have a similarly mysterious spawning ground somewhere in the Sargasso Sea. That ignorance is now more pressing than ever, as both Japanese and European eels are officially classed as being in danger of extinction. To foodies, unagi (Japanese eels) need no introduction. A famous, cherished national dish, some 100,000 tons of the animal are eaten in Japan each year. (This accounts for around 70 percent of the worldwide consumption.) The “u” of unagi is often written in hiragana on shop signs in the shape of an eel. When I worked at the National Institute for Environmental Studies in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, one of my colleagues was famous for his love of eel. He couldn’t wait for Doyo no Ushi no Hi (Midsummer Day of the Ox), the traditional day when eel is consumed, supposedly to counteract the summer heat. But consumption of eel is now year-round, and as a result, supplies are becoming scarce. By some counts, numbers have crashed by around 95 percent from the 1960s. In response, the International Union for Conservation of Nature has now put Japanese eels on its Red List of Threatened Species. People may be becoming aware that the amount of eel being consumed is unsustainable, and even the slow-moving Fisheries Agency might act to protect the animal. What people don’t seem to appreciate, however, is just how mysterious the eel is. “Although our ecological research is often covered by the media and we have public lectures and symposiums, many Japanese people don’t know about much of the mystery of eels,” says eel biologist Mari Kuroki, of the Department of Aquatic Bioscience at the University of Tokyo. Kuroki has written a book for children, “Unagi no U-chan: Daiboken” (“Adventures of U-chan the Eel”), so that they will at least learn of the dangers faced by eels. Foodies may know that the best eels are held to come from Lake Hamana in Shizuoka Prefecture, and some people think this is also where they reproduce. Not so. Eels live for some years in freshwater lakes and brackish estuaries before they mature and become “silver eels.” Then, no longer feeding, the eels start heading out to the ocean. All over East Asia eels leave their rivers and start swimming. They swim for weeks, covering thousands of kilometers. How do they know where to go? How do the baby eels, when they are hatched in the depths of the ocean, get back to freshwater? We don’t know. “The spawning behavior and the spawning migration route still remains a mystery,” says Kuroki. Some facts are known. The baby eels feed on something called marine snow — a shower of dead plants and animals that slowly and continuously drifts down through the ocean. The peculiar nature of this food makes raising baby eels a tricky business. The route of the journey back is unclear. Some part of the route is determined by ocean currents, and some by active swimming. “Overfishing is apparently the main threat,” says Kuroki. Overfishing affects the numbers of young eels that can establish themselves in rivers, because commercial fisheries remove young eels to raise them in farms. But fishing also affects the mature animals — these are caught by fishermen (in the olden days by men using cormorants to catch the eels for them) as the eels migrate back out to sea. “Also, the degradation of the river environment is a serious factor,” she adds. Kuroki and her colleagues are tagging eels with radio transmitters in order to better understand the route taken by these unusual animals. One thing recently discovered about European eels is that they can be eaten by whales. To some extent, eels are at the mercy of ocean currents. And these are known to be changing as the ocean gets warmer as a result of climate change. “The return route to the ocean and the mechanism of adult eel migration is still not well validated,” Kuroki says. “If they use ocean currents, a slight global climate change could have a big influence.” One of the things I love about Japan is how a respect for nature is deeply woven into society, culture and legend. Eels are a prime example. They appear in many rakugo comic stories, and lend themselves to various idioms. And the famous legend of the country being balanced on the back of a catfish, whose wiggling is supposed to account for earthquakes? In some regions the foundation animal is said to be an eel. So in that sense the animal is the literal foundation of the entire country. The species must be preserved!


At Kyoto University, police blitz line of legal protests

Abstract: On Nov. 4, a man in his 30s stepped onto the grounds of Kyoto University. A couple of days earlier, in Tokyo, two Kyoto University students had been arrested at a demonstration after an alleged scuffle with police. Those arrested were allegedly connected to the radical left-wing group Chukaku-ha (Middle Core Faction). What happened next remains the subject of some dispute. The man was forced to admit that he was a plainclothes police officer and “escorted” by the students to a classroom, where he was detained and questioned by school officials for three hours. Kyoto University was angry that the sanctity of its campus had been violated. Critics warned the incident was yet another sign that Japan under Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his right-wing henchmen (and women) was out of control, and that fundamental academic freedoms were being threatened. Then late last week, as if to prove the critics were right, police decked out in full riot gear raided a Kyoto University dormitory as part of the investigation into the students who were arrested in Tokyo. Why call out the riot police? To “prevent confusion,” according to a Jiji Press report. Police forces and college campuses in Japan have a complex relationship. In 1963, the Supreme Court ruled that “the autonomy of a university has traditionally been recognized as a way to guard academic freedom.” This has been interpreted by pretty much everybody as meaning police officers do not have the right to invade a college campus and target students for questioning or surveillance without due cause. In the Kyoto University incident, there was no apparent due cause. Even if there was, the university has an agreement with the police in Kyoto that it be notified in advance before any officer steps foot on campus grounds, and this was not done. Chukaku-ha, an extreme leftist group that has a history of detonating bombs at police stations and firing rockets onto the grounds of Kyoto Imperial Palace, has long been a target of police monitoring. Exact figures are hard to come by. Media reports indicate the group has up to 200 hard-core members and an unknown number of supporters, ranging from the low hundreds to as many as 3,500. It traditionally recruits from the ranks of labor leaders and college students. While some members are violent, official reports tend to hint that Chukaku-ha is just one group among many posing a danger to “public order.” A 19-page document released in January by the Public Security Intelligence Agency includes a section on groups in the public spotlight. It lumps the generally low-profile Chukaku-ha in with all of those who oppose the Futenma base relocation plan for U.S. forces in Okinawa, the deployment of the MV-22 Osprey tilt rotor aircraft to the prefecture, constitutional revision, the state secrets law and the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. The report also has a separate section labeled “extremist” groups, where Chukaku-ha and other “left-wing” groups are again included. Interestingly, another section is labeled only “right-wing groups,” the presumption, one assumes, being that “right-wing” groups are not “extremist.” No doubt Chukaku-ha members are involved with — or, at least, intellectually support — the legal protests mentioned above. As Japanese citizens they have that right. However, readers can be forgiven for wondering if authorities are blurring the line between legal demonstrations by the many with the illegal actions of a few in one group in order to justify their monitoring of anyone they choose, no matter where they are located — including on college campuses. View from Osaka is a monthly column that examines the latest news from a Kansai perspective. Announcement Eric Johnston will speak in Kyoto on how The Japan Times and the foreign media covered the Fukushima meltdowns crisis, between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Nov. 22 at Foodelica. Web: foodelica.com Tel: 075-703-5208 (Space is limited. Please RSVP) Cost: ¥1,000 (includes one drink and small sweet) Speech is in Japanese, with an English-language Powerpoint presentation; Q&A in Japanese and English.

kyoto university
academic freedom
public protest


More abandoned dogs reported in three prefectures

Abstract: Amid a rash of dog abandonment cases across the nation, 80 additional instances have been reported since October 2013 in Saitama, Yamanashi and Saga prefectures, according to local communities and animal welfare groups. Officials in Saitama Prefecture said 46 abandoned dogs of various breeds, mainly small ones including Chihuahuas, were found between October 2013 and July of this year. Eight of the cases involved Chihuahuas abandoned in a single park in the city of Saitama. Seven dogs were discovered in the park on Oct. 27, 2013, two of which were found dead. Between then and July, 31 abandoned dogs were found in the same park, none of which were wearing a collar. “The dogs may have been deliberately disposed of by a breeder,” a prefectural official said. The Saitama Prefectural Police are looking into the cases as possible violations of the Act on Welfare and Management of Animals. On June 2 and June 30, six Chihuahuas were found abandoned near the river that divides the cities of Asaka and Shiki in Saitama Prefecture. The city of Higashimatsuyama, also in Saitama Prefecture, said nine miniature dachshunds were abandoned in July. In Yamanashi Prefecture, as many as 26 mature small breed dogs including Yorkshire terriers were found in the town of Nanbu in March and April. The prefecture said another eight dogs were found roaming the town’s streets earlier in the year. Yamanashi Prefecture launched an investigation and inspected about 100 dog breeders but found no evidence of violations. According to Happy Voice, an animal welfare group based in Saga Prefecture, 18 abandoned Maltese dogs were found in October and November in that prefecture, in addition to an earlier case in which seven dogs were either caught alive or found dead. In some of the cases, people who picked up the animals did not report to local authorities but had taken them in, the group said. On Wednesday, prefectural officials spotted a stray dog, believed to have been abandoned, in a parking lot in Takeo and took it to a shelter.


Two Chilans sentenced for 1974 torture of president's father

Abstract: SANTIAGO - Two retired Chilean military officers were sentenced to prison Friday for the torture death of the father of President Michelle Bachelet. Judge Mario Carroza ordered Cols. Ramon Caceres Jorquera and Edgar Cevallos Jones to serve three years and two years, respectively, for the 1974 torture of Gen. Alberto Bachelet. The maximum possible sentence was five years. Gen. Bachelet was imprisoned for treason during the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet because he had opposed the coup that ousted socialist President Salvador Allende. The regime also arrested Michelle, who was 23 years old, and her mother, Angela Jeria. The women were tortured in a secret prison for two weeks before they fled into exile. “The fact that the trial ended and the truth that we knew from the start is finally known gives me lots of tranquility,” Jeria told local TV after the judge’s decision. “At the same time, it gives me hope that justice will come for all of those who were held with my husband … and everyone else who suffered torture and repression.” Gen. Bachelet remained loyal to Allende, refusing to endorse the coup of Sept. 11, 1973, even after Allende committed suicide while making his last stand in the bombed-out presidential palace. Court documents say officers held Gen. Bachelet at the Air Force War Academy, keeping him tied and blindfolded, withholding water and ordering him at gunpoint to remain motionless for hours. The stress aggravated the 50-year-old general’s heart problems, causing his death in March 1974. The day before his death, he left a note to his wife saying he had been brutally “softened” by his interrogators. Michelle Bachelet returned from exile in 1979. She became a doctor and rose through the ranks of the Socialist party. Chile transitioned to democracy in 1990. Bachelet was elected to her first term as president in 2006. She then ran the U.N.’s agency for women until she was elected president again last year.

history
courts
military
torture
chile
michelle bachelet


Mao Tse-tung seeks to quell internal friction; Shinkansen starts operations; Tokyo Olympics open; America's No. 1 threat?

Abstract: 75 YEARS AGO Wednesday, Oct. 25 1939 Mao Tse-tung seeks to quell internal friction Mao Tse-tung, an executive member of the Communist Party, issued an important article in the Hsin Hwa Ji Pao, an organ of the Chinese Communist Party in Chungking, of Oct. 19 under the caption “New Stage in Campaign of Resistance (by) Chinese Communist Party,” wherein he emphasized “thoroughgoing resistance” and manifested a vigorous attitude among the communists against internal friction, urging a united national front and voicing a strict warning to the Kuomintang. The article in substance reads as follows: “The (war with Japan) recently entered the stage of ‘inactive confronting’ which proves complete validity of the foresight which was declared at the sixth enlarged plenary session of the Central Executive Committee of the Chinese Communist Party held in December last year. We should take advantage of (these circumstances) to prepare ourselves for a counter-offensive. “Regarding the issue of the democratic government, the National People’s Congress should be immediately convoked to enforce genuine democracy. There are some people who talk of ‘plots of the Chinese Communists Party’ in an attempt to prejudice against the party’s progressive theory of resistance, which is (in fact) at the vanguard of the move towards liberation from the Japanese.” Mao Tse-tung, who is in the executive position of the Chinese Communist Party, boldly and straightforwardly declared in the article the communists’ readiness to counteract any attempts to reject the Communist Party and voiced a strict warning against the possibility of separation of the Kuomintang from the Communist Party. 50 YEARS AGO Friday, Oct. 2, 1964 World’s fastest trains inaugurate operations The world’s fastest trains began operations Thursday as the Japanese National Railways’ ¥380,000 million New Tokaido Line opened between Tokyo and Osaka. Opening of the 515-km railroad that connects the two cities in four hours was celebrated in a ceremony Thursday morning at the JNR head office in Marunouchi, Tokyo with the Emperor and Empress in attendance. The Emperor said in a congratulatory speech: “May I express my great pleasure at the inauguration today of the New Tokaido Line that has been completed despite many difficulties. I hope for JNR’s continued efforts for increased transportation capacities and improved safety.” Earlier this morning, the all-electrified New Tokaido Line’s first trains, Hikari No. 1 and 2, left Tokyo and Osaka at 6 a.m. simultaneously after gala ceremonies. The Hikari No. 1, packed with nearly 1,000 people, first hit the maximum speed of 210 kph between Shin-Yokohama and Odawara as passengers cheered. Both the first inbound and outbound trains arrived at their destination at 10 a.m. as scheduled. 50 YEARS AGO Sunday, Oct. 11, 1964 XVIII Olympiad opens with pomp in Tokyo The XVIII Olympiad, the first to be held in Asia, opened Saturday afternoon amid a profusion of pomp and youthful enthusiasm at the National Stadium before an over-capacity crowd of 80,000 spectators. It was a flawlessly executed, color-splashed ceremony under a sparkling blue autumn sky. Eager holders of opening ceremony tickets began to arrive at the stadium hours before the gates opened at 10 a.m. The huge oval was filled by 12:45 p.m., an hour before the ceremony began. Cannons boomed, 10,000 homing pigeons soared above the stadium, a choir sang stirring music specially composed for the Olympiad and the drama of the world’s greatest international athletic event was climaxed by the lighting of the Olympic flame atop the stadium. The Emperor, the patron of the Tokyo Olympic Games, proclaimed the Olympiad open at 2.58 p.m. Before the Emperor read his message, 6,500 athletes and officials from 94 nations, including 18 nations participating in the Olympics for the first time, marched into the stadium. 25 YEARS AGO Sunday, Oct. 8, 1989 Japan ‘greater threat’ to U.S. than Soviet Union It came as a shock to many Japanese to learn through a Newsweek poll, conducted by the Gallup Organization in the U.S., that 52 percent of the 600 people interviewed by telephone on Sept. 28-29 thought “the economic power of Japan” was a “greater threat” to the U.S. than “the military power of the Soviet Union.” The obvious conclusion is that Soviet strongman Mikhail Gorbachev and his cohorts have performed a good job of selling their disarmament promises. At the same time, the emergence of freedom-seekers inside the Soviet Union has been augmented by the movements among the Soviet satellite countries to shake off the Communist Party yoke. But Foreign Office spokesman Taizo Watanabe saw the charges made against Japan in the magazine article to be serious enough to require a comment. He reportedly defined the word “threat” as meaning a combination of an intention to invade and the capability of doing so. Watanabe said it was not a “threat” but rather a “challenge” which Japan was presenting—to produce higher quality goods at better prices for the satisfaction of consumers. This reminds one of the old story about building a better mousetrap and having the world beating a path to your door.

china
soviet union
shinkansen
bullet trains
tokyo olympics
tokaido shinkansen
mao tse-tung


South Korea rumor crackdown jolts social media users

Abstract: SEOUL - South Korea’s president is cracking down on rumors in cyberspace in a campaign that threatens the popularity of Kakao Talk, the leading social media service in a country with ambitions to become a global technology leader. Prosecutors announced the crackdown two weeks ago after President Park Geun-hye complained about insults directed at her and said false rumors “divided the society.” That rattled users of smartphone-based Kakao Talk used by 35 million of South Korea’s 50 million people. It prompted a surge of interest in a previously little-known German competitor, Telegram. Rankey.com , a research firm, said an estimated 610,000 South Korean smartphone users visited Telegram on Wednesday, a 40-fold increase over Sept. 14, before the crackdown was announced. The company said its estimate was based on a randomly selected group of 60,000 people it follows regularly. On Friday, Telegram was the most downloaded free app in Apple Inc.’s App Store in South Korea. On Google Inc.’s store, Telegram was the No. 2 downloaded free communications app, behind only Kakao Talk. South Korean users left reviews on Telegram saying they left Kakao Talk to seek “asylum.” They asked Telegram to add a Korean language service. The uproar threatens to slow adoption of social media or send South Korean users to foreign services, undercutting government ambitions to build a high-tech “creative economy.” “It will definitely limit the number of new signups, as users opt for services which are not subject to monitoring,” said Jon Bradford, a managing director at startup accelerator TechStars in London. “Any policies that the Korean authorities only impose upon local businesses will damage their competitiveness both at home and abroad.” South Korea is one of the most wired societies, with 85 percent of its people online and 40 million smartphones. The government has promised to step up financial support for tech startups. Kakao Talk’s dilemma echoes criticism of U.S. technology companies following disclosures of widespread government surveillance. Internet and other companies have struggled to reassure users while saying they are legally obligated to cooperate with authorities. Last week, China’s telephone regulator said it approved Apple’s new iPhone 6 for use on Chinese networks after the company promised never to allow other governments secret “backdoor” access to users’ data. In Germany, the consumer privacy regulator of the major city of Hamburg told Google it must obtain Germans’ permission before using information about them to create profiles for email and other services. Park has been sensitive about the Web and social media after her government came under criticism following a ferry sinking in April that killed 300 people, most of them high school students. Yong Hye-in, a 24-year-old college student, complained her friends were targeted for unjustified data collection after she was detained during a protest in May demanding government action over the ferry disaster. She received a notice that her house and her Kakao Talk account had been searched with a court’s approval. Yong was alarmed to find investigators obtained personal information of people she contacted. That included messages, photos and videos and network addresses. “It was an indiscriminate collection of data of people around me,” she said. “They should weigh how much (my friends) were involved in the case.” Jung Jinu, an opposition politician, complained investigators who looked into his role in a protest over the ferry tragedy collected messages and phone numbers from his 3,000 contacts on the service. He said many used Kakao Talk to discuss social, labor and political issues. “It is no different from eavesdropping,” Jung said. Kakao Talk, owned by Daum Kakao, an Internet portal and app developer, denied it gave authorities data of Jung’s friends. But the court warrant that Jung showed said all messages he sent and received between May 1 and June 10 were subject to search. Park ordered the justice ministry last month to investigate unfounded stories in cyberspace. At a Cabinet meeting on Sept. 16, she complained about insults about her and said online rumors have “gone too far and divided the society,” according to the presidential office’s website. Two days later, prosecutors announced the launch of a team to monitor online information. They said anyone who posts or passes on information deemed false will face punishment. They said that for “grave matters,” investigations will begin without waiting for complaints and offending information will be deleted. The Seoul prosecutors’ office did not respond to repeated phone calls seeking comment. News reports say authorities will only monitor public posts on Twitter, Facebook, online forums and Web portals, not private messages exchanged on online messengers. Officials at Kakao Talk said authorities cannot look at users’ messages without a court order. “We are aware of such concerns,” the co-CEO of Daum Kakao, Lee Sirgoo, told reporters on Wednesday. Lee said the company had “top security technology” to prevent leaks and only stored messages for a short time. However, he said, Kakao Talk is “subject to South Korean law” and “when there is a fair execution of law, we cooperate with prosecutors” by handing over information. So far, the potential for users to migrate to Telegram, which has fewer features such as emoticons, or other messaging providers is unclear. Rankey.com ‘s survey showed about 90 percent of users of devices that run Google’s Android, the most popular operating system in South Korea, visited Kakao Talk every day. Only 2 percent launched the Telegram app at least once on Wednesday. Some people say Kakao Talk could protect users by encrypting their data. But the company said it saves messages for up to five days in unencrypted form to allow users to copy them onto multiple devices. Responding to growing surveillance concerns, Kakao Talk said Thursday it would reduce the storage period to three days. Yong, the college student, said she has joined Telegram. She also tries to meet people in person instead of using messengers. But she said too many people still use Kakao Talk, so she cannot stop using it completely.

internet
south korea
social media
park geun hye


Parasite museum aside, you won't be saury for visiting Meguro

Abstract: When Japanese hear the word Meguro, some might recall the old “rakugo” comedy “Meguro no Sanma” (“Meguro’s Saury”), about a samurai lord in the Edo Period who fell in love with the taste of saury, the fish that was considered humble fare for peasants and others on the lower rungs of Japan’s social ladder. In the story, the lord and his men are starving while hunting in an area now occupied by modern Meguro and decided to eat saury grilled in a coarse manner by peasants in a desperate bid to end their hunger. But the taste was so spectacular the lord repeatedly ordered the fish after returning to his castle. But the saury, cooked in a refined manner by servants, never tasted as good, the story goes. Eventually, the lord came to believe that only Meguro’s saury was good, although there was hardly a way to get fresh fish in the inland district. Centuries later, Meguro, now part of central Tokyo, is still famous for saury. Last month, 7,000 saury caught in the Pacific off Iwate Prefecture were shipped in for the annual Meguro saury festival, which sees dozens of vendors grilling the fish over charcoal briquets to serve to visitors for free. Apart from saury, Meguro is also known for Meguro Gajoen, a famed wedding hall that opened in 1931. The hall, designed to embody modern design and traditional beauty, was designated a cultural asset by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. The owner founded the building as a first-class Japanese restaurant, but later added an annex with banquet rooms, guest rooms, a shrine, church and photo studio to create an “all-in-one” hall. If you’d like to add a twist to your visit to Meguro, you may want to take a look at Meguro Parasitological Museum, which touts itself as the world’s only museum of the kind. Unexpectedly, many young couples and girls patronize the museum, which showcases some 60,000 parasite species. One of the main exhibits is an 8.8-m tapeworm. Beside it is a string of the same length placed for comparison. A young man visiting with his girlfriend kept his distance from the worm while she scrutinized it. Two other visitors, Ayumi Goto, 19, and Shizuka Kameda, 20, said they were impressed by the vast collection.


Bear in Chinese zoo bites arm off boy trying to feed it

Abstract: BEIJING - A bear in China has bitten off the arm of a 9-year-old boy who tried to feed it through the cage. Media reports say the attack happened Saturday afternoon at Pingdingshan Hebin Park in central China, which has a zoo inside. The boy managed to push his arm into the cage to feed it when the bear bit him. A doctor at the Pingdingshan No. 152 Hospital, who treated the boy, said Sunday that he lost his entire right arm, which had to be amputated.