The evolution of the Japanese ego: the discovery of themselves

Abstract: ‘There was no room for mercy in view of their crime.” None asked, none given. “They met their end … with … a touching acquiescence in their fate.” The world we are entering is that of Osaka novelist Ihara Saikaku (1642-93). It was, first of all, a world of peace — the gated, barred, frozen peace imposed by Japan’s new Tokugawa shogunate (1600-1868) after 400 years of on-and-off, mostly on, mind-numbingly meaningless civil carnage in which one’s self , one’s “ I ,” was good for one thing only: sacrifice to one’s feudal lord. Peace stirred commerce, commerce enriched merchants at the expense of the very samurai who so loftily despised them, and merchants, newly empowered by money if not respect, made a momentous discovery, what a later age would call “the pursuit of happiness.” It was a revolution, an egotistical revolution. Never before (or arguably since) had individual Japanese been more “themselves” — not members of a caste, class, hierarchy or family, lost in a whole that subsumed and consumed them, but each in effect affirming with delight, with rapture, with defiance, “I am, first and above all, myself, my own free, indomitable self, and if they kill me for it, that at least is a death worth dying!” “Five Women Who Loved Love” (“Koshoku gonin onna”) is the name Saikaku gives a collection of five tales, each consecrated to a love so fierce it makes the weak strong and the ordinary extraordinary. Love confers the dazzling gift of selfhood — only to snatch it brutally away from them. In Saikaku’s love stories, the public executioner is the overshadowing presence. Realism required it. Only one of the tales ends happily. Would that space permitted discussion of all five of these pulsing narratives! It doesn’t; we make do with two. Note, incidentally, since the underlying theme is selfhood, the frequent recurrence of disguise. The first thing a self needs, it seems, is a mask. “What the Seasons Brought” — a suggestive title. Of Osan, the heroine, suffice it to say that “her figure suggested the cherry buds, not yet blossoms, of Kiyomizu”; of Moemon, the anti-hero, that he was “honest and extremely frugal, so much so that he completely neglected his personal appearance … and slept with an abacus under his head, the better perhaps to reckon how great a fortune he could amass in a night spent dreaming of money-making.” Osan was the wife of the Kyoto almanac maker for whom Moemon worked. Had they never met, or met under different circumstances, their lives would have unfolded unremarkably enough. The circumstances under which they did meet were as follows: Rin, a servant girl in the house, falls in love with Moemon, unprepossessing though he is. Moemon couldn’t care less. His sights are set higher — on money. When at last, with insulting haughtiness, he condescends to meet the girl, Osan decides to teach him a lesson; she’ll disguise herself as Rin and, when Moemon comes to her, raise an alarm. She falls asleep, however, and all the feverish intensity of Moemon’s passion fails to wake her. Next morning, mortified, she plunges headlong: “From now on I may as well abandon myself to this affair, risk my life, ruin my reputation and take Moemon as my companion on a journey to death.” “Journey to death” is what it is. The lovers flee the capital. Death awaits them, biding its time. Tokugawa law is inexorable: “Illicit intercourse” was a capital crime — not because it’s immoral but because it’s ungovernable. Not even Tokugawa absolutism could tame it. All it could do was execute lovers, and that it did with gusto. The nearness of death fuels the fugitives’ passion; their passion fuels their selfhood. They stagger on, over mountains, through forests, deeper and deeper into a hostile countryside, Osan passing as Moemon’s sister, until Moemon hatches a plan to fake their deaths. That would throw pursuers off the track! Then they could really be themselves — dead and alive simultaneously, dead to the world, alive to each other! And so it might have been, for the ruse was artfully contrived, had not Moemon, once so prudent but now wholly in the grip of anarchic, reckless feeling, suddenly “lost himself in a nostalgic desire to see the capital again.” He returns in disguise, is recognized and apprehended; it’s over. “There was no room for mercy in view of their crime.” At the execution ground, “they died like dewdrops falling from a blade of grass.” Imagine now a girl, still a child, who conceives a passion for a man whose own passions are consumed and fueled by the love of boys: “Not once in his life had he amused himself with the fragile, long-haired sex.” Her name is Oman, his is Gengobei. Against all odds, “Gengobei, Mountain of Love” — such is the title — ends happily. The successive deaths of several lovers (“even the dew outlasts men’s lives”) have driven Gengobei to priestly asceticism. Poor Oman! Never has she been more “herself” than when, disguised as a boy, she pursues him deep into the mountains, determined to brave all, risk all, even life itself —what is life anyway in a world even the unenlightened know is fleeting and illusory? — for love of an avowed homosexual unaware of her existence and indifferent to her sex? Cold at first, Gengobei soon warms: “What difference does it make — the love of men or the love of women?” Love is love. Poverty pinches but not forever — Oman’s parents find the young people and bless them with their wealth. The executioner holds his peace — no class barriers having been breached, no law has been broken; the intercourse is not “illicit.” The lovers live happily ever after. It’s the only story in the “Five Women” not closely modeled on a real-life episode.


Japan's coveted cherry blossoms and other ecosystems threatened by alien species

Abstract: Spring has come — the season when cherry blossoms bloom nationwide. But ecologists warn that Japan’s most popular sites for hanami ( cherry blossom-viewing) might disappear in the next couple of decades. This is because red-necked longhorn beetles, a species foreign to the country, are eating the blossoms and damaging the trees. Red-necked longhorn beetles are one of many alien species disrupting the environment, prompting the government to take action. Below are questions and answers on what kinds of species are posing a threat, how they came to Japan and what measures the government is taking: How many alien species are there in Japan and what can be done to control them? Of all animals, insects and plants in Japan, about 2,000 are estimated to be alien species — in most cases introduced as pets. The Invasive Alien Species Law, which took effect in 2005, bans 132 “specific alien species” deemed harmful to people, the environment and other domestic species. Listed under three categories, the first includes species that disrupt biodiversity by eating and depopulating other species. Red swamp crayfish are among them. The second category includes poisonous species that are life-threatening to people, such as the redback spider. The third covers alien species that harm agriculture, forestry and fisheries, including raccoons that eat crops. The law bans the rearing, keeping, transporting or importing of such species, except in special cases such as for research. Releasing banned alien species into the wild is also prohibited. Those who violate the law face three years in prison or a fine of up to ¥3 million. Corporate entities face a fine of up to ¥100 million. The Environment Ministry has three basic principles regarding banned species: Don’t let them into the country, don’t release them into the wild, and don’t let them spread. Are red-necked longhorn beetles designated as a banned alien species? Not yet, but the government is moving to give them this status. First spotted in Aichi Prefecture in 2012, the insect rapidly spread nationwide. As of March, it was reported as inhabiting seven prefectures, including Tokyo, Osaka and Gunma. In Gunma, cherry blossom trees at Akagi Nanmen Senbonzakura, a well-known area in Maebashi for cherry blossom-viewing, were damaged by the insect. To combat the situation, the Environment Ministry announced this month that it is considering introducing 14 organisms, including the red-necked longhorn beetle, to its list of specific banned alien species. Other species under consideration include 10 types of stag beetles from the Neolucanus family, which are originally from Taiwan and India and now seen in Kagoshima and Okinawa prefectures. And a butterfly species called the red ring skirt that is reportedly inhabiting the Kanto region. The ministry plans to add the 14 species to the list as early as this summer. What are some of the most well-known alien species? The most notable would be the giant snapping turtle, which can bite off a man’s finger. Typically found in North America, they were brought to Japan as pets in the 1960s. After irresponsible owners released them into the wild, they are now found nationwide, including in Tokyo, with some even living in Ueno Park’s Shinobazu Pond and Hikarigaoka Park in Nerima Ward. The turtle overpopulated the Inba Swamp in Chiba Prefecture, forcing the prefecture to hire — for the first time ever — a hunter to clear them. It is believed some 16,000 giant snapping turtles live in the swamp, and Chiba Prefecture says it will have to exterminate at least 1,200 by the end of the year. What extermination programs are conducted by the central government? One long-term extermination program conducted since 2006 by the Environment Ministry is on mongoose, which are widespread throughout Okinawa and Kagoshima prefectures. Mongoose were first brought to Japan in 1910 from India, ironically to exterminate the deadly habu snake that was threatening people’s lives in Okinawa. However, rather than eating snakes, mongoose went after other rare animals, including the Amami rabbit and Amami tip-nosed frog, threatening them with extinction. The damage from mongoose was especially serious on the island of Amami in Kagoshima. After about 100 mongoose were initially released into the wild on the island in 1979 to eradicate habu, the number grew to over 10,000 at its peak in 2000. To combat the situation, prefecture officials, dubbed “Amami Mongoose Busters,” placed over 30,000 traps throughout the island, while using monitoring tools such as cameras and handling dogs trained to detect the mongoose scent. The Environment Ministry program ended in 2015, but the prefecture said it will continue to hunt mongoose. Over 32,000 mongoose have been eradicated so far, but the goal is to wipe out the entire population by 2022. Are there harmful species not yet designated under the law? Yes. Among them are the red-eared slider turtle, which has become overpopulated, causing significant stress on the environment. A study has shown there are about 8 million red-eared sliders, eight times the total number of domestic turtle species. It is believed that about 90 percent of all turtles in Japan are red-eared sliders. But the Environment Ministry has been hesitant to put them on the list of specific alien species, fearing many people who keep them as pets may release them into the wild to avoid being fined or imprisoned. Originally from the United States, red-eared sliders, known as midorigame in Japan, are believed to have been brought to the country in the 1970s and popularly sold at festivals and pet shops. Koichi Goka of the National Institute for Environmental Studies previously told The Japan Times that the turtles live about 60 years, and are often dumped in ponds and rivers when they grow too big. The ministry said red-eared slider turtles have mainly colonized waterways in the Kanto, Chubu and Inland Sea regions, harming the ecosystems there. They are estimated to consume up to 320 tons of water weeds a week. The ministry plans to restrict imports, increase culls and crack down on people who abandon them as pets.

environment ministry
mongoose
insects
specific alien species


Sea turtle flaps flippers in first rehab swim after coin-removal surgery

Abstract: BANGKOK - Bank the green sea turtle flapped her flippers with vigor in her first swim after a life-saving operation to remove a heavy mass of swallowed coins from her stomach. Veterinarians in Bangkok put the turtle in water Friday for the first time since her surgery four days ago to see how well she could move. The turtle was gently lowered into a large plastic tank and very quickly began swimming as best as she could in the restricted space. “It’s fantastic! She is responding very well,” said Dr. Nantarika Chansue, who led the team from Chulalongkorn University’s Veterinary Faculty. “Now she is very happy and looks like normal turtle.” The 25-year-old turtle was rescued from a pool in the seaside town of Sri Racha by the Thai Navy. The cause of her ill health was revealed by 3-D scans that showed she had been eating the coins thrown into her pool by passers-by who believed doing so would bring them luck or longevity. Over the years, the loose change got stuck in the turtle’s digestive tract, cracking her ventral shell and causing a life-threatening infection. The surgeons needed four hours to remove 5 kg (11 pounds) of money, counting 915 coins of various currencies. Some are still inside. Veterinarians hope Bank will pass them naturally. Her rehabilitation has involved manipulating her limbs to make sure the muscles don’t stiffen up after being out of water for a prolonged period, and checking that the surgical scar does not get infected. But there are lingering concerns. “The wound healing seems to be OK and there is no secondary infection because we are using sterile seawater,” said Nantarika, “but we have checked her blood and her nickel concentration is very high so we have to work on that.”


Putrid, pungent, heave-inducing: U.S. contest crowns the smelliest sneakers

Abstract: NEW YORK - Seven young contestants from around the United States put their smelliest shoe forward at the 42nd National Rotten Sneaker Contest in New York City on Tuesday. Twelve-year-old Connor Slocombe claimed first place for having the worst-smelling sneaker after losing three past attempts to win the contest. The four judges of the contest, which was held at Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Times Square, all cringed at the smell of Slocombe’s beat-up shoe. George Aldrich, a chemical specialist at NASA, said Slocombe managed to create all the smells he sniffs for in a shoe. “One is the very putrid, and then the pungent — that kind of gets up your nose and makes your eyes water,” Aldrich said. “And then the heave part, which is just an involuntary reaction. He had all three of them.” Techniques for developing putrid odors included never wearing socks and walking through mud, according to the contestants, some of whom traveled from Alaska, Colorado, Illinois and New Mexico to participate in the event. “Well, my aunt owns a farm, and sometimes I help out, so when I see animal poop I’ll step in it to get in the shoes to get dirty,” Slocombe said proudly. “And then when we go fishing, I’ll step in fish guts.” Slocombe walked away with $2,500 and Broadway show tickets. He will also be inducted into the Odor Eaters Hall of Fumes. A Vermont sporting goods store owner started the competition in 1974 as a way to promote a new line of sneakers. The foot care company Odor-Eaters became the official sponsor of the contest in 1988.


Lower House panel warns against overuse of state secrecy law

Abstract: A Lower House panel has voiced concern about the classification procedures of state secrets, warning that the nation’s controversial secrecy law was being overused. In a report released on Wednesday, the intelligence surveillance panel stopped short of issuing official recommendations, saying its comments were simply opinions. The panel has been tasked with curbing the arbitrary use of the secrecy law, which has been in force since December 2014. It submitted its second annual report to House of Representatives Speaker Tadamori Oshima on Wednesday. Among its concerns was the growing practice of classifying too much information — in some cases marking nonspecific information as state secrets “in advance.” Secrecy designations were removed from five files last year for this reason, according to the report. “The law, intended to prevent the boundless expansion of what can be designated secret, is being used in ways that diverge from its basic principles,” the panel said. The panel also pushed for further inquiries regarding discussions within the National Security Council, the minutes of which the government has refused to release. “The government will examine the report and consider the necessary actions based on what it says,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said on Wednesday. The report is based on questions to Cabinet ministers and expert witnesses from May last year about 443 files designated as state secrets up to the end of 2015. An Upper House panel is expected to submit its own report to Upper House Speaker Chuichi Date in the coming months.


Cameroon says regional forces have freed 5,000 from Boko Haram-held villages

Abstract: YAOUNDE - West African forces have freed 5,000 people being held in villages by Boko Haram in an operation that killed more than 60 fighters and destroyed the Islamist group’s hideout along the Nigeria-Cameroon border, Cameroon said on Wednesday. “(The) hostages freed consisted mostly of women, children and elderly people,” Communications Minister Issa Tchiroma Bakary told a news conference. He later clarified that “the 5,000 people were saved after a sweep at the border within Cameroonian territory … who were hostages that could not leave the villages,” adding that “more than 60 terrorists were … neutralized.” In addition, 21 Boko Haram suspects had been arrested in the raid in the Mandara Mountains between Feb. 26 and March 7, which destroyed a fuel depot and recovered weapons, motorcycles, around 50 bicycles, flags and “various propaganda objects.” Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram has been fighting since 2009 to try to establish an Islamic caliphate in the Lake Chad region, where Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad join. A coordinated push by the militaries of the four nations has dismantled much of the territory Boko Haram once held, but the group remains capable of launching lethal attacks, often targeting the civilian population. In 2014 Boko Haram gunmen abducted 276 schoolgirls from the Nigerian village of Chibok, to worldwide horror, and some 200 of them are thought to still be in captivity. The Lake Chad region has witnessed an increase in attacks bearing the hallmarks of Boko Haram in markets and refugee camps since late 2016, and the United Nations says more than 7 million people risk starvation owing to insecurity there. As its fighters have been increasingly been killed or locked up, the militants have sometimes resorted to using female captives as suicide bombers. Four female teenage suicide bombers killed two people and injured 16 others on Wednesday in the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri, where the uprising first began. Bakary said no Cameroonian soldiers had been killed in the raid, although one had been wounded.

religion
terrorism
boko haram
nigeria
cameroon


Teacher reaches settlement allowing use of maiden names at western Tokyo school

Abstract: A female teacher in her 40s and the Tokyo school she is employed at have reached a settlement that allows teachers to continue using their maiden names after marriage, the woman’s lawyers said Friday. Nihon University’s Third Junior and Senior High School, based in the city of Machida in western Tokyo, had prohibited teachers from using their maiden names, saying the use of the name registered in family registries made it easier to manage and specify individuals. But the terms of the deal, which was mediated by the Tokyo High Court and reached Thursday, will allow the female teacher and her colleagues to use their maiden names in school documents upon request. In October, the Tokyo District Court dismissed the teacher’s request that she be able to use her maiden name. That ruling said that asking the teacher to use her married name made sense as a practical issue, prompting the plaintiff to appeal to a higher court. The teacher began working at the school in 2003 and married in 2013, taking her husband’s surname and entering his family’s registry. In December 2015, the Supreme Court ruled that a law requiring spouses to choose a single surname was constitutional and that disadvantages of having to choose a single surname had been eased because the use of maiden names at work had become prevalent. The October ruling, however, stoked anger among proponents of using maiden names, saying that their usage remained an uncommon occurrence — an apparent step back from the Supreme Court’s earlier ruling. “I’m really happy that I could use the name I want,” the teacher said in a statement through her lawyer. The school, meanwhile, said in a statement that it accepted the settlement, adding that an extended court battle would not benefit anyone.


Toshiba turnaround hopes, planned sale of Westinghouse find skeptics

Abstract: Toshiba Corp. has been forced to sell off a number of its businesses as it continues to lose money since its accounting scandal broke in 2015, and is now burdened with its troubled U.S. nuclear unit Westinghouse Electric Co. Last year, the 142-year-old conglomerate sold its white goods and medical units. It is now looking to let go of its flash memory business and Westinghouse. Those businesses were its main profit drivers and helped establish Toshiba’s corporate identity. Now that those businesses have been deprived from Toshiba, it has left many with a big question: Can Toshiba really get out of its nuclear debacle and rebuild with its remaining businesses? The overseas nuclear business is likely to probably continue to pose major risks, so shedding Westinghouse is probably an obvious step to take, though it might be easier said than done due to the political and security hurdles, experts say. Toshiba has said it can bounce back with its remaining businesses by focusing on social infrastructure and electronics devices, but experts say restructuring will be critical if it really wants to achieve its goal of a 5 percent operating profit margin in three years. “Westinghouse has become such a burden . . . I think Toshiba is desperate” to eliminate the risks of the overseas nuclear business, said Tomoko Murakami, manager of the nuclear energy group at the Institute of Energy Economics, Japan, a Tokyo-based think tank. Indeed, Toshiba President Satoshi Tsunakawa said in a news conference last week that the sale of the majority stake in Westinghouse is the key to turning the firm around. That remark is a major shift for Toshiba, which has repeatedly plugged nuclear power since its ¥600 billion acquisition of Westinghouse in 2006 ahead of what was expected to be a nuclear renaissance at the time. But Toshiba announced last month that it would post a ¥700 billion impairment loss tied to Westinghouse due to cost overruns derived from construction delays for AP1000 reactors in Georgia and South Carolina. In a stroke of bad luck, the landscape for the nuclear power industry changed drastically after the nuclear crisis erupted at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant in 2011. This damaged the domestic market and resulted in the nationalization of Tokyo Electric Power Co. Yet Murakami said the nuclear power industry still has growth potential. Westinghouse provides, for instance, plant maintenance as well as fuel-related and consulting services used by existing plants around the world. Also, more reactors are expected to be built in China and other emerging economies, including India. But it is doubtful whether Westinghouse can really compete in that business while managing its risks properly, Murakami said. Because it failed to handle the cost overruns from the AP1000 reactors under construction in the U.S., “Westinghouse’s other businesses, such as maintenance, fuel and other solution services, might have problems” in the future due to management problems, Murakami said. In that case, Toshiba may be on the right track with its plan to sell Westinghouse. But whether Toshiba can really sell the troubled unit is a different matter. “Buyers won’t purchase Westinghouse at the same price (¥600 billion) that Toshiba paid. That would be the biggest issue for Toshiba,” Murakami said. She said there are companies, especially in China, looking to acquire Westinghouse’s nuclear know-how. China is developing its own reactors, but “it knows that the technologies have not been as high compared with the makers in the U.S. and Europe,” so it might want to turn to Westinghouse. However, it won’t be easy to sell Westinghouse to the Chinese because the U.S. government is likely to be reluctant to let its nuclear technology drop into China’s hands, experts said. Shedding the risk presented by Westinghouse is the top issue for Toshiba, but another matter is how to revive itself after selling off its flash memory business. Last week, Toshiba unveiled a three-year business plan aiming for sales of ¥4.2 trillion and an operating profit of ¥210 billion in fiscal 2019. The sales figure is down from the estimated ¥5.5 trillion logged in fiscal 2016 to account for the presumed shedding of Westinghouse and the flash memory unit, but the margin for operating profit was hiked to 5 percent from about 3 percent. Toshiba’s new core area will be the social infrastructure business, including elevators, air conditioners and train systems. It will also continue to focus on electronics devices including semiconductors and hard-disk drives. But experts said things won’t go that smoothly. “It almost seems like a pie in the sky now,” said Toshiro Sato, director at Kyokuto Securities Research Institute, adding that Toshiba has not provided details of how it will meet its goals. The 5 percent operating profit margin is a tough goal because it’s not an easy figure for other Japanese electronics makers to attain either, he said. Other than the flash memory unit, Toshiba’s businesses aren’t that profitable, which means restructuring steps including job cuts will likely be needed, Sato said. Atsushi Osanai, a professor at Waseda Business School, also questioned Toshiba’s strategy. “Toshiba has lost two core businesses (flash memory and nuclear power). It is saying that it will focus on social infrastructure, but that’s just what’s left in the company. Toshiba may have top-notch technologies in social infrastructure businesses,” but its sales and profit levels are not at the top in those industries, he said in an email interview. Excluding flash memory, Toshiba said it still sees its digital storage business as a growth area, but Osanai pointed out that HDDs will soon be replaced by solid state drives based on flash memory, so the firm can’t expect much growth. Meanwhile, “in the past, Toshiba depended too much on its flash memory unit,” so if it really gets serious about improving the profitability of other businesses, there is a chance, Sato said. While social infrastructure businesses may not have huge growth potential, their sales are quite stable, so by restructuring costs, Toshiba can probably increase their profitability, he said. In addition, Osanai emphasized that Toshiba needs to strengthen its management team. “I think it’s critical for Toshiba to bring a leader who can set a long-term strategy and firmly implement it,” he said.

nuclear power
toshiba
restructuring
westinghouse


Over 200 couples take part in Thailand's annual 'Running of the Brides' event

Abstract: BANGKOK - Some 250 couples in wedding dresses and suits raced through a Bangkok park on Saturday in the annual “Running of the Brides” to compete for $28,000 in wedding prizes. Sirada Thamwanna, 29, said she was exhausted after winning the 4 km (2.5 miles) foot race with her soon-to-be groom Sittichai Prasongsin, 27. “Just now, I told the groom that I was going to give up, I can’t do it anymore,” Sirada said after crossing the finish line in a white wedding dress and black running shoes. “He supported me and said that we only had a little more to go,” she added. The free wedding package includes a gown for the bride and suit for the groom, wedding bands, a honeymoon on the Thai resort island of Phuket and a trip to the Maldives.


Timing, like finances, everything for Osaka's new rail links

Abstract: OSAKA - Like Chicago, the American city it is most often compared to, Osaka is a major train junction connecting eastern and western Japan. With the last bit of a new shinkansen route now decided and plans moving forward for a new municipal line that will zip visitors from Osaka’s bullet train station to Kansai airport much quicker than before, the city hopes it will become ever-more convenient for tourists to stay in town for a while before heading off to Kyoto, Ishikawa, Hiroshima or Tokyo. Earlier this month, the Liberal Democratic Party-Komeito ruling coalition finalized plans for the last section of the Hokuriku Shinkansen Line from Kyoto to Shin-Osaka Station. The line, expected to be completed midcentury, will link the Sea of Japan coast city of Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, with Shin-Osaka Station in less than 1½ hours. The leg from Kanazawa to Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, is expected to open around 2022. Defense Minister Tomomi Inada, who represents a Fukui district it will stop in, and her supporters hope the route between Kanazawa and the city of Fukui will open before the Tokyo Olympics in 2020 to allow residents to hop on the Hokuriku bullet train to Kanazawa and then board the Nagano bullet train for Tokyo, a trip that would take hours less than is currently the case with regular express trains. The Kyoto-Shin-Osaka Station route was the last piece of the Hokuriku Shinkansen Line to be decided, following the setting of the route between Tsuruga and Kyoto. The Hokuriku bullet train will be able to take passengers from Kanazawa to Shin-Osaka Station in about 80 minutes at a cost of around ¥8,700. Currently, a Japan Railway express train makes the run in about 2½ hours at a cost of around ¥7,000. The next step is to conduct an environmental impact assessment and finalize where the new stations will be built. Both projects begin next month and are expected to be completed by around 2022. Assuming there are no problems and that financing is available, construction of the Tsuruga-Shin-Osaka route would then begin around 2031 after about a decade of preparation, with the line opening by around 2046. “Routing the last leg of the Hokuriku Shinkansen Line through the southern part of Kyoto Prefecture will bring economic benefits to the region,” said Kyoto Gov. Keiji Yamada earlier this month. He strongly backed the final choice. News that the Hokuriku bullet train line to Shin-Osaka was decided came at about the same time the city of Osaka announced plans for the Naniwasuji Line, which will run from a new station on the north side of JR Osaka Station to Kansai airport. The trip currently takes just over an hour on the fastest JR train. From the new station to the airport via the Naniwasuji Line, it will take 40 minutes. Planning for the Naniwasuji Line began almost three decades ago. When it will open depends on how quickly financing is secured. With construction costs estimated at ¥400 billion, how much of the financial burden should fall to city taxpayers, and how much to JR and other railways that will benefit from the line is expected to be the subject of contentious debate. “The number of visitors to Osaka is increasing and businesses are becoming more interested in the city. The Naniwasuji Line is critical for the north-south flow of traffic,” said Osaka Mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura last month.

ldp
kansai
shinkansen
hokuriku shinkansen


Mizuho plans fund to build dorms for foreign students in Japan

Abstract: Mizuho Bank Ltd. said Tuesday it plans to launch a ¥10 billion fund with a real estate developer and a trading company to build dormitories for international students studying in Japan. The number of international students is expected to increase, with the government aiming to boost the figure to 300,000 from the current 200,000 by 2020. The projected increase makes dorms a stable investment, said Mizuho spokesman Ken Kobayashi. Along with Mizuho, Tokyo Tatemono Co. and Marubeni Corp. will invest in the fund. Kobayashi said the window is open for parties interested in joining the project, adding that the fund will be launched around June. While details are still to come, seven to eight dorms will likely be built. The monthly rent will be in the tens of thousands of yen. Locations are also undecided, but Kobayashi said the group hopes to build the first complex in fiscal 2018. While Japan hopes to attract more foreign students, there are apparently not enough dormitories to accommodate them. An education ministry official said the ministry has heard from some colleges that their international students want to live in dorms, but the schools don’t have them. Thus, the new fund will be a meaningful project, Kobayashi said. The plan will also be promising from a business perspective because the vacancy rate is expected to be low, he said. The fund will look to sell the properties to other real estate investment funds after running them for roughly five years. According to a survey by the Japan Student Services Organization, a Tokyo-based semi-public body, 19.4 percent of international students were living in dorms provided by schools or public entities and 75.4 percent were staying in apartments or condos. The average monthly rent was ¥31,000, while 68.6 percent said the space was less than 15 sq. meters. The survey was taken in January 2016, collecting data from 7,000 international students, including those studying at colleges, vocational and Japanese-language schools.

international students
study abroad
mizuho bank


Harsher penalty for rape, sweeping revisions in bill approved by Cabinet

Abstract: The Cabinet approved a sweeping bill Tuesday that would impose harsher penalties for rape and other sex offenses, including the recognition of male rape victims for the first time. The measure, if passed by the Diet, will raise the minimum sentence for rape to five years from the current three years, expand the scope of victims, including males, and no longer require a victim to file a complaint in order to prosecute an assailant in a rape or sexual molestation case. Despite the enduring impact on survivors of sexual assault, the three-year minimum sentence for rape was shorter than the mandatory five-year minimum penalty for robbery under the current criminal code, which was enacted a century ago. Currently, a victim must first file a complaint to enable criminal prosecution. Removing this precondition is expected to ease the burden on rape survivors, since many are reluctant to go public. The bill will be submitted during the current Diet session and was compiled after a legal advisory panel to the justice minister issued a report in September calling for changes to the law. Among other proposed revisions is a clause covering domestic sexual abuse, which punishes parents or guardians who engage in sex with children in their care, even where force or threats are not involved. The current law requires use of force or threats in establishing rape cases. The bill also calls for raising the minimum sentence for rape resulting in death or injury to six years imprisonment from five years. Under current statutes, a person who robs a victim after raping them faces a shorter sentence than if the assailant had committed a single act of robbery. While the latest move marks a significant step forward for victims, some say tougher penalties alone will not prevent sex crimes and that enhanced correctional programs for offenders will be needed as well. The government has for years been looking toward strengthening penalties for sex offenses. In October 2014, the then-Justice Minister Midori Matsushima set up an expert panel to review the laws.


Foreign students surge nearly 15% thanks to lift from Vietnam

Abstract: The number of foreign students in Japan was 14.8 percent higher than last year as of May 2016, thanks to a boost from Vietnam, a public tally showed Friday. According to the Japan Student Services Organization, an independent administrative entity affiliated with the education ministry, 239,287 foreigners were studying across Japan as of May 1 last year. By country, Chinese accounted for the largest number at 98,483, up 4,372 from a year earlier. Vietnamese came second at 53,807, up 14,925, with nearly half enrolled at Japanese-language schools rather than universities. An education ministry official attributed the rise to a growing interest in Japan stemming from the increasing number of Japanese companies making inroads into Vietnam, as well as a rise in local agents assisting with studying in Japan. Nepalese ranked third at 19,471, up 3,221. By contrast, the number of Japanese studying abroad at universities and other institutions fell 3.9 percent in 2014 from the previous year, according to the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry. According to ministry data, a total of 53,197 Japanese were studying abroad in 2014. The United States was the most popular destination, down slightly at 19,064 from the previous year, followed by China with 15,057 and Taiwan with 5,816.


Thinning Arctic sea ice lets in light, prompts algae bloom: study

Abstract: OSLO - Climate change is stirring life in the Arctic Ocean as thinning sea ice lets in more sunlight, allowing microscopic algae to bloom in the inhospitable region around the North Pole, scientists said on Wednesday. The micro-algae may now be able to grow under the ice across almost 30 percent of the Arctic Ocean at the peak of the brief summer in July, up from about 5 percent 30 years ago, they wrote. Blooms may become even more widespread. “Recent climate change may have markedly altered the ecology of the Arctic Ocean,” wrote scientists in the United States and Britain led by Christopher Horvat of Harvard University. The first massive under-ice bloom of algae was seen in 2011 in the Chukchi Sea north of the Bering Strait separating Alaska and Russia, a region until then thought too dark for photosynthesis. The scientists, writing in the open-access journal Science Advances, based their estimates on mathematical models of the thinning ice and ponds of melt water on the ice surface that help ever more sunlight penetrate into the frigid waters below. The average thickness of Arctic sea ice fell to 1.89 meters (6.2 ft) in 2008 from 3.64 meters in 1980, according to another study. Sub-ice algae seem to become dormant in winter, when the sun disappears for months, and are revived in spring. Horvat said it was unclear how the growth might have knock-on effects on the Arctic food chain, perhaps drawing more fish northwards. “Very few of these blooms have been observed,” he wrote in an email. The new light adds to uncertainties about the economic future of the region that is warming at about double the average rate for the Earth as a whole. Almost all governments blame this trend mainly on a build-up of man-made greenhouse gases. U.S. President Donald Trump, however, has sometimes called man-made warming a hoax and signed an order on Tuesday to undo climate change regulations issued by former President Barack Obama. Governments of nations around the Arctic Ocean, including the United States, have been working on rules for managing potential future fish stocks in the central Arctic Ocean as the ice shrinks and thins. They last met in mid-March in Iceland.

climate
oceans
climate change
arctic
environment


China to launch lunar probe this year, testing capability for 'march towards deep space'

Abstract: BEIJING - China on Tuesday announced plans to launch a probe to bring back samples from the moon before the end of the year, which state media cast as competition to U.S. President Donald Trump’s ambitions to revitalize U.S. space exploration. The Chang’e-5 lunar probe is undergoing a final round of tests and is expected to be on standby for launch from August, the People’s Daily said, citing the China National Space Administration. The launch will involve new challenges for China in sample collection, taking off from the moon and high-speed re-entry to the Earth’s atmosphere, making it “one of China’s most complicated and difficult space missions,” an official from China’s Lunar Exploration Program, Hu Hao, told the paper. President Xi Jinping has called for China to become a global power in space exploration. “Not long ago, the United States’ Trump administration revealed an ambition to return to the moon. Our country also announced a series of deep space exploration plans,” said the official Science and Technology Daily. “The moon is the first stop for humanity’s march towards deep space.” In February, the Trump administration asked the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to look into the possibility of manning a heavy-lift rocket mission, expected to be launched in 2018, perhaps setting the stage for a human return to the moon. China’s new probe is the latest step in its lunar exploration program. In 2013, it completed its first lunar “soft landing” since 1976 with the Chang’e-3 craft and its Jade Rabbit rover. China is aiming to send a probe to the far side of the moon by 2018, the first such trip ever, and hopes to put astronauts on the moon by 2036.


Kanagawa man who tweeted 'lion scare' after 2016 Kumamoto quakes avoids charges

Abstract: KUMAMOTO - A man who fanned a “lion scare” with false tweets following the deadly earthquakes that hit Kumamoto last April has managed to avoid indictment. The Kumamoto District Public Prosecutor’s Office said Wednesday the act of the 21-year-old man from Kanagawa Prefecture did not merit criminal charges and he has shown remorse for his tweets. The man spread false tweets right after the first of several major quakes hit Kumamoto and its vicinity on April 14 last year, including one saying, “The earthquake has released a lion from the zoo — Kumamoto.” He also posted an image showing a lion walking on a street, which later turned out to be an unrelated image he had taken from the internet, according to police. On April 14 and 15, Kumamoto City Zoological and Botanical Gardens received more than 100 inquiries about an escaped lion. The man was arrested three months later for allegedly obstructing the zoo’s operations.


Sleepy Colorado town comes alive for Frozen Dead Guy Days

Abstract: NEDERLAND, COLORADO - Every March the cryogenically frozen corpse of a Norwegian man breathes fresh life into sleepy Nederland, Colorado, where throngs of fun-lovers fill the streets for Frozen Dead Guy Days, a festival in honor of the town’s most famous resident. The annual three-day festival is the brainchild of a local businesswoman who came up with the whimsical idea 16 years ago as a way to attract visitors to Nederland, where the man’s body has lain in repose in a shed since 1993. The event topped her wildest expectations: From a modest crowd of about 1,000 the first year, the festival now draws about 20,000 visitors. Many of them dress in Halloween costumes as they revel in such quirky events as a polar plunge, a frozen salmon toss, musical acts and a costume ball. “We never imagined it would be so well-received and grow so large — you could say I created a monster,” said Teresa Crush-Warren, credited with hatching the idea when she was president of the local chamber of commerce. This year’s festivities began with a parade of a dozen hearses, followed by a “coffin race” through the streets of the Rocky Mountain town, where temperatures hovered just above the freezing mark. Sam Baggall, 20, a student at the University of Colorado, stood next to the makeshift coffin she and her five teammates fashioned out of cardboard. “Our plan is to get out quick and be agile,” she said. The annual bash honors Bredo Morstoel, who died and was cryogenically frozen in his native Norway in 1989 with the hope that low temperatures will allow him to be resuscitated sometime in the future. After a four-year stint at a California facility, his grandson moved him in 1993 to his property outside of Nederland, 17 miles (27 km) west of Boulder. Six years ago, the chamber sold the festival to Amanda MacDonald, an event planner for the chamber. The festival itself is a break-even endeavor, MacDonald said by telephone, but it is a boon for local businesses in the hamlet of about 1,500 full-time residents. Morstoel’s grandson no longer lives in Nederland and the family has no connection to the celebrations other than paying for his upkeep. Once the festival ends, 59-year-old Brad Wickham will resume his job as Morstoel’s caretaker, every two weeks hauling 1,000 pounds (454 kg) of dry ice — carbon dioxide in solid form — to the sarcophagus and packing it around the corpse. “There are a lot of scientists studying cryogenics, but I’m just a guy with a truck and a strong back,” he said.


Japan's decluttering guru Kondo now has an app for tidying up

Abstract: AUSTIN, TEXAS - The newest tool for internationally acclaimed organizing guru Marie Kondo in her global battle against messy rooms is an app. “My goal is to have as many people as possible who can get the job done in tidying up,” she said in an interview after speaking at the South by Southwest technology conference in Austin, Texas, over the weekend. “To achieve that, I’m implementing various measures, one of which is the app to support decluttering,” said the woman whose name has been turned into a verb by followers who clean out clutter at home and say that have “Kondoed” their closets. Kondo is known to global audiences for her best-selling books, including “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing,” which has been translated from Japanese to more than 40 languages, with more than 7 million copies sold worldwide. The app called KonMari was launched a few months ago and gives out organizing tips, allows people to share before and after pictures, and provides a platform for her followers to socialize. The followers of the woman who earned a spot on Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People list in 2015 call themselves “Konverts.” But her critics see her as an irritating presence with a cult-like following, harping on the glaringly obvious need to be better organized. Kondo has made an art of folding clothes into optimal shapes for storage and her KonMari disciples see her words as a philosophy about seeking a happier life by putting their homes in order. Kondo spends 80 percent of her time outside of Japan, but with the help of technology, she wants to knock on the doors of more homes around the world. “Tidying up is a broad theme that is relevant to anyone in any country,” said Kondo, who has a knack for decluttering her quotes.


Pressure continues to mount on Moritomo Gakuen chief

Abstract: OSAKA - Pressure on Yasunori Kagoike, head of scandal-plagued Moritomo Gakuen, in the Diet and in Osaka Prefecture showed no sign of abating Monday even though he withdrew his application to open a new elementary school and indicated last week he would resign. With questions about why Moritomo Gakuen was able to purchase land from the government at a substantial discount and who in the political world might have helped him with the deal not going away, Kagoike turned down an invitation Monday by the Liberal Democratic Party’s members in the Osaka Prefectural Assembly to give unsworn testimony, saying this isn’t the right time. It wasn’t clear whether Kagoike will agree to appear at the assembly at a later date. Also Monday, a lawsuit against Moritomo Gakuen and Kagoike was filed in the Osaka District Court. Parents of a former child at a Moritomo-run kindergarten are seeking damages of about ¥1.65 million, claiming their child was expelled after they refused to join the Parent Teacher Association because it failed to provide itemized accounts for its expenditures. Other lawsuits are possible from Osaka parents who enrolled their children in the new elementary school originally scheduled to open April 1 but is now postponed indefinitely, forcing them to find other schools. In an Upper House committee Monday, Democratic Party member Toshio Ogawa, a former prosecutor, grilled Defense Minister Tomomi Inada on her relationship with Moritomo Gakuen. He revealed she had been listed as a legal representative for Moritomo in documents related to a civil court trial in 2005. Inada denied any involvement. “My husband and I had a law office and perhaps we had joint power of attorney. But I’ve never represented Moritomo or Kagoike, never been to court for them and have never given them legal consultation,” Inada said. The ruling and opposition parties in the Diet are expected Tuesday to discuss inviting Kagoike to provide unsworn testimony about what happened, and who was involved in the decision to sell the government-owned land valued at ¥956 million to Moritomo Gakuen for only ¥134 million. Osaka Gov. Ichiro Matsui, who is also the leader of the national Nippon Ishin no Kai party, has said he supports Kagoike testifying.

osaka
education
elementary schools
moritomo gakuen
yasunori kagoike


Abe stands his ground as Moritomo Gakuen scandal drags on

Abstract: More than a month has passed since nationalistic school operator Moritomo Gakuen first made headlines over a controversial land deal for its next school. With fresh revelations piling up daily against the Osaka-based company, the scandal has also engulfed the Diet, particularly the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, its leader, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, as well as his wife, Akie. But what is the central issue and why is the scandal impacting the political world, and Abe’s administration? Following are questions and answers on the saga: How did the scandal start? The scandal broke when the daily Asahi Shimbun reported Feb. 9 that Moritomo Gakuen had bought from the central government an 8,770-sq.-meter lot in Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture, last June for an estimated ¥134 million — about one-tenth of the price of comparable nearby land. The suspicious land deal initially drew attention because Akie Abe was to serve as the honorary principal of Mizuho no Kuni, a private elementary school Moritomo Gakuen planned to build on the land. Moritomo Gakuen runs an Osaka kindergarten known for an ultranationalist education style based on Shintoism, and the Toyonaka school was expected to operate in a similar manner. During Diet sessions, opposition lawmakers argued that some lawmakers may have pressured the Finance Ministry to provide a discount on the land and offer other favorable conditions to Moritomo Gakuen because Akie Abe had accepted the honorary post. Prime Minister Abe denied that he, his wife or his office were involved in the land deal, vowing he would resign as prime minister and as a Diet member should his comments prove false. Later in February, Akie Abe stepped down as honorary principal amid rising criticism of her decision to accept the position. The media storm, meanwhile, raged on as reports alleged the Finance Ministry offered other unusually favorable conditions to Moritomo Gakuen during the land negotiations. Moritomo Gakuen President Yasunori Kagoike, who announced Friday his plans to resign, is a “management member” of the Osaka branch of the Japan Conference (Nippon Kaigi), Japan’s largest nationalist lobby group, one reason the land deal caught the attention of overseas media. On Feb. 21, Nippon Kaigi released a statement claiming it had nothing to do with the land deal between Moritomo Gakuen and the Finance Ministry. Can the Finance Ministry defend the transaction? It has defended the deal in terms of it including unforeseen costs. In May 2015, the Finance Ministry concluded a land-lease contract with Moritomo Gakuen on the condition that the school operator purchase the land within 10 years. Later, industrial waste, including concrete, wood and plastic, was reportedly found in the soil. A third-party real estate appraiser estimated the value of the land plot at ¥956 million, but the Finance Ministry estimated it would cost ¥819 million to remove the industrial waste. The ministry said it discounted that amount from the appraised value and sold the land for ¥134 million in June 2016. What’s suspicious about the land deal? A major issue is whether the 86 percent discount was justified. How the waste removal cost was calculated has not been made clear. The Osaka Aviation Bureau of the infrastructure ministry calculated the cost, but during an Upper House session on March 1, the ministry admitted the bureau had no previous experience in estimating waste disposal costs. The government separately paid more than ¥131.76 million to Moritomo Gakuen to help decontaminate the land before it was sold. This means the net income from the land sale for the central government was only about ¥2 million. By contrast, the government sold an adjacent 9,492-sq.-meter lot for ¥1.423 billion to the Toyonaka Municipal Government in 2010. “The government gave up the national property for almost nothing,” Democratic Party lawmaker Nobuhiko Isaka said at a Lower House plenary session on Feb. 27. Has anything illegal been reported? No evidence has surfaced that laws were violated during the land deal, somewhat nullifying some of the opposition camp’s arguments against the LDP. The opposition suspects that ruling bloc lawmakers pressured the Finance Ministry to give Moritomo Gakuen favorable conditions on the land purchase. Ministry officials claimed they followed internal rules and had already discarded documents recording the details of the negotiations with Moritomo Gakuen, raising concerns that a further investigation would be difficult. LDP lawmakers maintain that because there appears to be no evidence the law was broken, no one should be summoned to testify before the Diet and no full-fledged investigation should be launched. A nationwide telephone survey conducted by Kyodo News over the weekend, meanwhile, found that 86.5 percent of respondents viewed the purchase of the heavily discounted land as inappropriate. The poll also showed 74.6 percent of respondents want Kagoike summoned to the Diet so lawmakers can get to the bottom of the land deal. Why did Moritomo Gakuen withdraw its request to open the Mizuho no Kuni Elementary School? The withdrawal on Friday was because the Osaka Prefectural Government had already indicated it would reject the request. Through Diet sessions and media reports, it was revealed that Moritomo Gakuen made a number of serious false statements — if not lies — about its elementary school plan. For example, it was revealed that Moritomo Gakuen had submitted three vastly different construction cost estimates — the figure it sent to the central government amounted to ¥2.18 billion, the one sent to the Osaka Prefectural Government was ¥756 million and the quote given to the operator of Osaka international airport was ¥1.5 billion. This has led many to suspect Moritomo Gakuen submitted different figures to maximize public subsidies for the project, according to media reports. Osaka Gov. Ichiro Matsui said it would be “practically impossible” to allow the school to open because the prefecture now must re-examine the application papers submitted by Moritomo Gakuen. How have voters and LDP lawmakers reacted? According to a poll conducted by the Mainichi Shimbun on March 11 and 12, 75 percent of 1,012 respondents said they are not satisfied with the government’s explanation of the land deal. But the same poll also showed the support rate of Prime Minister Abe’s Cabinet was still high, at 50 percent, though 5 points down from the previous poll last month. This high voter support for Abe’s government has apparently encouraged the LDP-led ruling camp to stand its ground and continue to reject calls from the opposition to summon witnesses and launch a parliamentary investigation into the suspicious land sale. Inside the LDP, no rival politician appears powerful enough to challenge Abe over the Moritomo Gakuen scandal, and so far, Abe’s political power has yet to be seriously dented.

shinzo abe
osaka
education
scandals
moritomo gakuen


Cockroach longevity linked to female cohabitation

Abstract: Female cockroaches living in groups with other females are more likely to have their unfertilized eggs hatch, a research team at Hokkaido University has found, providing a possible explanation for the reason the insect has managed to survive for hundreds of millions of years. When three female American cockroaches — a species widely found throughout the world — were placed together in a study, ootheca, or the egg case of the cockroaches, formed more quickly than when a single female was observed, the team said. “It explains well the fact that several female cockroaches will be able to maintain a colony in a more stable manner than a single female cockroach,” which can be regarded as a sign of cooperative behavior that is optimized for reproduction seen in other insects like white ants, the research team said in a news release Monday. A group of more than 15 female cockroaches was able to maintain a colony for more than three years, indicating that ootheca form faster the more cockroaches there are, it said. “We found that ootheca formation is facilitated when a female cockroach recognizes another female by touching it with their antennae, which are also used for smelling and tasting,” said Ko Kato, a graduate student who took part in the study. Backing the findings, ootheca formation in a group of female cockroaches with severed antennae was slower than those with the sensory appendages, the team said. In a case in which a female cockroach and a male cockroach incapable of copulating were placed together, the formation of ootheca took longer than the female-only group, the team said. To exterminate cockroaches, “It will be essential to prevent the spread of the females, as there are cockroaches that can expand their habitat range through parthenogenesis,” or asexual reproduction, the team said. The findings will be published on the zoology journal website Zoological Letters.


Akie Abe's connection with Moritomo Gakuen scandal puts role of Japan's first lady under spotlight

Abstract: OSAKA - Is the wife of a prime minister a public official who should be subject to legislative rules and bureaucratic regulations on her activities, or a private citizen who shouldn’t be held accountable over the political impact of her activities? As the land deal scandal involving Osaka-based Moritomo Gakuen, a nationalist private educational entity, drags on, debate continues in the Diet after speeches at the controversial school were given by Akie Abe, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s wife, during visits in 2014 and 2015. She came under fire not only for giving two speeches in which she praised the school’s educational philosophy, known for its nationalist ideology, but also for allowing her name to be used as honorary principal of a new elementary school that is now at the center of the scandal. She resigned the position after the scandal broke, when it was revealed last month that Moritomo Gakuen paid ¥134 million for land the government had valued at ¥956 million. Asked whether his wife is a public official, Shinzo Abe told the Diet earlier this month that she is not. “I’m a public official, but my wife is a private citizen,” he said. “As the wife of the prime minister, she accompanies me on overseas trips where her role entails the nature of a public figure. But my wife has a separate personality. For example, on nuclear policies, where she’s anti-nuclear, she goes to rallies that wouldn’t be appropriate for me to attend. So she’s definitely not a public official.” However, five bureaucrats are assigned to provide Akie Abe with support as Japan’s first lady. During her husband’s first stint as prime minster in 2006, she had only one such assistant. “The activities of a prime minister’s wife have expanded (over the years). A variety of people have asked me to do a variety of things, and I’ve become extremely busy,” she said last week. In response to Diet questions, the government said that when she spoke at Moritomo Gakuen, government officials accompanied her. But there were no legal problems, it claimed, because she paid for the officials’ travel fare. In September 2015, Akie Abe spoke at a Moritomo-run kindergarten where she was introduced as the honorary principal. Her visit came a day after her husband traveled to Osaka. It was also a day after discussions between government officials and a Moritomo contractor over construction costs were held at the new elementary school. The Finance Ministry admitted in the Diet that it disposed of records of those talks. The concept of an American-style Japanese first lady is a relatively recent one. Traditionally, prime ministers’ wives have acted as behind-the-scenes supporters and have shunned the limelight. Thus, legally, their status was vague. “The traditionally expected role of a prime minister’s wife has been nothing more than a hostess. In this regard, Akie can be called exceptional,” said Yu Uchiyama, a professor of comparative politics at the University of Tokyo. In the U.S., the role of first lady is both one of tradition and one fixed in current legislative policy and law. Over the centuries, it evolved into a combination of written and unwritten rules, precedents and expectations on the part of the public that are sometimes vague and contradictory. But in modern times, three laws heavily influence the first lady’s role in the U.S. and her limits. These include the Post Revenue and Federal Salary Act of 1967, the Anti-Deficiency Act of 1884 and the White House Personnel Authorization Act of 1978. The postal act prohibited nepotism in executive branch employment, appointments and promotions within the government. In practice, this meant a president’s wife couldn’t be appointed to or employed in an executive branch posting. The Anti-Deficiency Act, on the other hand, banned all voluntary governmental service, unless given to save a life in an emergency. These two laws seemingly created a Catch-22 — relatives of the president could not be paid to serve in the government and volunteers were not allowed to perform government service. To get around this, the Justice Department eventually decided that the first lady is a “legal volunteer” within the executive branch. Though working for free, she performs various duties on behalf of the president, traveling the world as a presidential representative, delivering speeches, hosting organizations at the White House and conducting substantive policy meetings. The most recent ruling on the role of a U.S. first lady came in 1993, after then-President Bill Clinton’s wife, Hillary, was appointed to chair a presidential task force on health care reform. Medical lobby groups filed suit against the appointment, and the question arose over whether Hillary Clinton, as the first lady, was also a federal official. The District Court for the District of Columbia concluded the first lady failed to conform to the legal definition of a federal official. On appeal, however, the D.C. Circuit Court reversed that judgment. The first lady was identified as a de facto federal official, in a narrow sense, and therefore subject to some federal regulations. “In this case, for the first time, the first lady is formally identified as a political actor in her own right. No longer can the political activism of the president’s wife be dismissed as the expression of one woman’s opinion,” Connecticut College professor MaryAnne Borrelli wrote in a 2002 article. Uchiyama said the Moritomo Gakuen scandal will lead to legal, or maybe less-binding, changes in Japan that could make the role of a prime minister’s wife more or less like that of the U.S. first lady. “In my opinion, the problems lies in the ambiguous dichotomy between ‘public official’ and ‘private citizen.’ Akie acts somewhat like a public figure and has influence over Japanese society. But she is just a private citizen,” Uchiyama said. “Currently, there is no law or government order that prescribes the role of the prime minister’s wife. But many, especially in the opposition parties, will demand public rules for the role.”


Japan defense chief Inada in crosshairs after Moritomo scandal flip-flop

Abstract: A court record linking Defense Minister Tomomi Inada and a scandal-tainted nationalist Osaka-based school operator emerged Tuesday, prompting Inada to withdraw an earlier denial of the link, as opposition lawmakers trained their fire on her for making a false statement before the Diet. The court document, a copy of which was first posted by freelance journalist Tamotsu Sugano to his Twitter account Monday, showed that Inada and her husband, Ryuji Inada, both lawyers, had served as court attorneys in October 2005 for Moritomo Gakuen, the scandal-hit school operator headed by Yasunori Kagoike. During an Upper House Budget Committee session Monday, Inada had vehemently denied ever serving as a court attorney or legal adviser to either Kagoike or Moritomo Gakuen. But on Tuesday, Kyodo News, which apparently obtained court records from the same lawsuit, reported that Inada had attended a trial hearing as an attorney for Moritomo Gakuen. During a Lower House plenary session later Tuesday, Inada admitted that she had attended a trial session in her husband’s place as an attorney for the embattled school operator. Inada claimed she had erroneously made the denial because she had forgotten the incident. “I’d like to correct this and apologize for it,” Inada said, adding that she hoped to continue to “sincerely perform” her duties. Opposition forces are now ready to further grill Inada and prolong Diet deliberations in a bid to force her resignation. However, the effectiveness of such tactics remains unclear, as the Abe Cabinet has appeared to weather the scandal so far, enjoying strong voter support in recent media polls. During Tuesday’s session, Inada also admitted that the law office she jointly ran with her husband offered legal advice to Moritomo Gakuen from 2004 through 2009. In the Diet, Inada has been repeatedly questioned by opposition lawmakers about her ties to Moritomo Gakuen, known for advocating ultranationalist, prewar values at its Tsukamoto Kindergarten in Osaka’s Yodoawa Ward. Inada, too, has been known for her nationalistic views when it comes to Japan’s wartime history. Facing reporters earlier Tuesday, Inada emphasized that she has nothing to do with the controversial land deal that has plagued the school operator. Moritomo Gakuen has been in the public spotlight in recent weeks after the Asahi Shimbun reported last month that it bought an 8,770-sq.-meter lot in Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture, from the central government at a heavily discounted price. The operator bought the parcel for an unusually low price of just ¥134 million from the Finance Ministry in June 2016. This was about one-tenth of the price of comparable nearby land. Opposition lawmakers have expressed suspicion that some powerful, conservative lawmakers may have put pressure on the Finance Ministry to offer the massive discount. Akie Abe, wife of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, had served as the honorary principal of an elementary school that was scheduled to be built on the land — a fact that has fanned public uproar over the scandal, prompting her to quit the post late last month. Also Tuesday, land minister Keiichi Ishii said the government will move forward with procedures to have Moritomo Gakuen repay about ¥56 million in subsidies. The subsidies were awarded after the school operator submitted to the central government a contract with a quote for construction costs far greater than in documents presented to other entities. In addition, the Osaka Prefectural Government is considering filing a criminal complaint against Moritomo Gakuen over inconsistencies in the documents, according to the prefectural board of education. A senior member of the school board said Moritomo Gakuen appears to have underreported the cost of construction to the prefecture to make its financial state look more solid. Information from Kyodo added

scandals
tomomi inada
moritomo gakuen
yasunori kagoike


In Japan first, woman gives birth using egg from anonymous donor

Abstract: A woman suffering from fertility problems due to an ovarian defect successfully gave birth using an egg from an anonymous donor in the first such case using in vitro fertilization in Japan, a nonprofit organization supporting the treatment said Wednesday. Although there have been earlier cases of children conceived using a husband’s sperm and eggs donated by sisters or friends, this is the only known case in the country involving eggs from an anonymous female donor with no ties to the recipient, according to the Kobe-based NPO Oocyte Donation Network (OD-NET). Both the mother, who is in her early 40s, and the baby girl born in January have been doing well and are free of health problems, the group said. The birth once again throws a spotlight on the country’s lack of laws on using eggs from third-party donors or stipulating parental rights to the child born through this medical treatment. A Supreme Court ruling in 2007 stated that a woman who gives birth is the legal mother of the child. But the current Civil Code does not specify the woman’s legal status if the child is born from a donated egg. A policy body of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party drafted a bill in March last year, stipulating that where a child is conceived from a third-party donated egg, the woman who gives birth to the baby is legally the mother. But the bill has not been submitted to the Diet. “We need more donors to cater to the needs of many. But for that, we definitely need legal regulations,” Sachiko Kishimoto, the head of OD-NET, said during a news conference in Tokyo. “If we have laws, those couples who wish to undergo the treatment can choose to do so with ease. The government should work on the issue seriously.” Two other women are currently pregnant after undergoing the same medical treatment with the support of the organization, according to Kishimoto. The woman who gave birth through IVF using the donated egg and her husband’s sperm said she recovered her will to live after she became pregnant. “I’ve gained hope to live by going through pregnancy, giving birth and raising the child,” the mother said in a statement issued Wednesday. “There still are so many people who ardently wish to have a child but are unable to do so because of their illness. I hope my case will give hope to such people.” OD-Net was launched in October 2012 and started soliciting volunteers to donate their eggs anonymously to help women who have fertility problems such as Turner’s syndrome or early menopause. The group limits eligible donors to those under 35 years of age who have previously given birth. Egg donors must also agree to disclose their personal information, such as their name and address, if a child born from one of their eggs should request the information after turning 15 years old.


University of Tokyo leads new Japan ranking of higher education institutions

Abstract: The University of Tokyo was crowned the nation’s top university for teaching and learning environments in a first-ever Japan ranking by the Times Higher Education (THE) magazine , with Tohoku University in Miyagi Prefecture coming in second and Kyoto University placing third. In THE Japan University Ranking 2017, produced in cooperation with educational services company Benesse Holdings Inc., national universities dominated the first nine spots. Seven were former Imperial universities founded between 1886 and 1939, including Nagoya University and Osaka University, which are considered to be on par with Ivy League schools in the United States. Renowned private institutions Waseda University and Keio University came in at No. 10 and No. 11, respectively. Unlike its annual global ranking that places greater focus on research performance, the Japan ranking emphasized what the institutions offer students. They were graded on four categories: educational resources, educational satisfaction, outcomes, and international environment, according to THE. By category, municipal public institution Akita International University topped the educational satisfaction ranking, while Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, which boasts students from 87 countries, led the international environment category. The University of Tokyo, commonly known as Todai, took first or second place in three of the four categories. But when it came to the internationalization of its campus, Todai lagged behind many, coming in at No. 54. Phil Baty, editor of the magazine’s rankings, said the list of the top 150 universities provides a “much richer, much deeper perspective of Japanese universities against the much wider range of criteria that is relevant to families and students.” In a recent news conference in Tokyo, he added that there is often “a lack of international outlook” at universities, “which haven’t been successful in recruiting international talents and international faculties.” Indeed, Japan is infamous for its poor internationalization of higher education. According to data released by the Japan Student Services Organization, as of May last year, the number of international students in Japan stood at 239,287, about 15 percent higher than a year earlier. But nearly 30 percent were students at Japanese language schools. In the annual THE world ranking released in September, the University of Tokyo was ranked at No. 39 and Kyoto University at No. 91. The two were the only Japanese universities that made it into the top 200. A total of 406 universities cooperated with the Japan assessment. The ranking was the second national ranking by THE following U.S. college rankings released last year.

university of tokyo
college
university rankings
times higher education


60% of sexual minorities bullied at school, survey finds

Abstract: Despite growing support nationally for added LGBT protection in recent years, nearly 60 percent of sexual minorities have been bullied at school, according to a recent online survey that also found teachers did not help end the intimidation. The internet survey, conducted by Yasuharu Hidaka, a professor of social epidemiology at Takarazuka University School of Nursing in Osaka, found that 58.2 percent of respondents faced bullying in elementary, junior high or high school, and most of them endured verbal abuse and anti-gay slurs. Only 13.6 percent said teachers had helped resolve the issue. The findings shed light on the lack of support for LGBT students at classrooms. Commissioned by Lifenet Insurance Co. and conducted between July and October last year, the study polled 15,064 subjects from teenagers to nonagenarians. Hidaka said the poll of sexual minorities is the largest survey of its kind to date in Japan. Nearly 70 percent of those surveyed did not learn anything about homosexuality at school. The percentage was lower for those in their teens and 20s, compared with those aged 40 or older. More than 20 percent said that homosexuality was taught in schools as “abnormal” or received negative information about sexual minorities. The ratio was higher for younger people than for older generations. In April 2015, the education ministry distributed a notice to education boards, urging them to protect sexual minorities. It also created a brochure on the topic the following year to be used by teachers. Despite these efforts, teachers’ general understanding of LGBT issues hasn’t improved much, said Hidaka. Hidaka conducted a separate study between 2011 and 2013 surveying 6,000 teachers from kindergarten through high school. Based on the survey, nearly 40 percent believed sexual orientation was determined by choice. In the same survey, only 13.7 percent said they had any experience educating students on LGBT issues. Over 40 percent of those who never taught the subject said they did not feel the need to do so. “Many don’t have the knowledge. They never imagine that there could be a sexual minority student in their classrooms,” Hidaka told The Japan Times on Wednesday. “The important thing is to conduct full-fledged training for teachers, as they can’t teach the subject without having a correct understanding of the issue.” The latest survey also found that about 70 percent of respondents faced discriminatory verbal attacks at school or in the workplace. Only 30 percent said these environments were LGBT friendly. “More companies are starting to turn their eyes to (issues faced by LGBT people). But such moves have been made mainly in Tokyo, or large-scale organizations, especially foreign companies,” Hidaka said. Japan still has a long way to go, he said, urging both private and public sectors to be more proactive in deepening understanding and respect for the LGBT community. Around 8 percent of the country — or 1 in every 13 people — belong to a sexual minority group, according to estimates by Japan LGBT Research Institute, a think tank launched by advertising giant Hakuhodo DY Holdings Inc.


1 in 4 men, 1 in 7 women in Japan still unmarried at age 50: report

Abstract: Nearly 1 in 4 men and 1 in 7 women in Japan were yet to be married at age 50 in 2015 in a clear sign that Japanese are increasingly shying away from tying the knot, a government report has showed. The new report, obtained ahead of its release by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, showed the proportion of people who have never married by age 50 hit a record 23.37 percent for men, up 3.23 percentage points from the previous survey in 2010, and a record 14.06 percent for women, up 3.45 points. The figures were in sharp contrast with a 1970 survey that showed 1.70 percent of men and 3.33 percent of women had never married by that age. The data, which excludes people who were divorced or separated by the death of a spouse by age 50, is released every five years based on a national census. Experts attributed the growing trend to less social pressure to marry and financial worries among workers as more people hold nonpermanent jobs. It also comes amid a nationwide low birthrate that shows no signs of abating and growing concerns that more people will resort to nursing and health care services when they get older in the absence of a spouse or child that can provide such care. “Being single for a lifetime is no longer a rare course of life,” said Akiko Kitamura, a senior researcher at Dai-ichi Life Research Institute who specializes in issues of marriage and childbirth. “There is less social pressure to marry than before, and more people are choosing to stay single of their own will. “At the same time, more young people cannot get married even if they wanted to because they cannot picture having a family, particularly a child, because of a lack of opportunity to meet people and of financial success.” Kitamura said the country needed policies for “stabilizing employment and arranging an environment in which both men and women can work while raising children.” Roughly 40 percent of Japan’s labor force comprises temporary workers, making unstable employment conditions more common than decades ago. The report showed that by area, Okinawa had the largest percentage of unmarried men, at 26.2 percent, while Tokyo had the largest percentage of unmarried women, at 19.2 percent. Another survey released by the governmental institute last year showed most unmarried people wanted to get married, but many cited a lack of finances as an obstacle. In that survey, which targeted people aged 18 to 34, 86 percent of male respondents and 89 percent of female respondents said they hoped to eventually get married, while more than 40 percent said ensuring they had money for marriage was a hurdle they needed to overcome.


60% of new utilities object to helping pay Fukushima compensation

Abstract: More than 60 percent of major new entrants to the electric power industry object to the government’s plan for them to shoulder some of the compensation costs stemming from the Fukushima nuclear crisis, a recent Kyodo News survey showed. Of the 44 utilities surveyed, 29 said the plan by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry could have a negative impact on their businesses or prevent liberalization of the retail electricity market. Last April, Japan freed up the retail electricity market, ending the decades-long monopoly of Japanese regional power companies. The new entrants are those that joined the industry after the liberalization of the market and are expected to promote competition, paving the way for lower electricity bills and new services. But the ministry decided in November last year on a plan to let the utilities share the burden of the aftermath of the nuclear crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, devastated by meltdowns triggered by the 2011 earthquake-tsunami disaster. Meanwhile, 70 percent of the new entrants said they were able to win customers as planned or even more. The survey shows that while the liberalization of the market has proceeded relatively smoothly, systematic problems remain. A total of 266 companies were registered as new electricity retailers as of March last year. The newcomers include gas suppliers such as Tokyo Gas Co. and Osaka Gas Co., major oil refiner JX Nippon Oil & Energy Corp., telecommunications service provider KDDI Corp. and railway company Tokyu Corp. Kyodo News sent questionnaires to 50 major new retailers of which 44 responded. About the ministry’s plan, 13 retailers said that it will have negative effects on their business, while 16 said the plan will have certain effect on the business. Only one company said that it did not expect any effects. The ministry has deemed users should shoulder their share of the burden as they have widely benefitted from nuclear power before the crisis but 18 companies said they did not agree with the ministry. A total of 30 companies said that the number of customers they have acquired so far reached or topped initial goals while 11 said that they were not able to win customers as expected. The survey found that 41 companies were satisfied that they had entered the electricity retail market because they were able to connect well with customers which contributed not only in boosting profitability but also in enhancing the recognition of the companies. No company said it regretted entering the market. On future management, 18 said they will expand their business operations while 8 companies said they will maintain the status quo. No companies said they will pull out of the market or consider scaling down operations. Meanwhile, Japan’s energy sector saw more deregulation with the city gas market freed up Saturday, allowing major utilities to enter the market and enhance competition with gas company rivals in the industry. Utilities including Chubu Electric Power Co. and Kansai Electric Power Co. have launched special websites introducing their lower gas price plans. But compared with the liberalization of the retail electricity market, the gas retail market has attracted fewer entrants.

fukushima no . 1
tepco
survey
nuclear crisis
power utilities


Investment funds target firms focusing on job, work environment reform

Abstract: With the government’s drive to create more flexible and effective working environments, investment companies have been setting up funds to invest in companies focusing on job market reforms, including the promotion of women in the workplace. Fund managers believe that business performance will improve at companies dedicated to labor reforms in response to changes in society, and therefore their stock prices will rise. The success of such funds could give a boost to government initiatives advocated by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe as part of his economic policies that are aimed at balancing people’s lifestyles and ways of working. Last October, Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Asset Management Co. set up one such investment fund, called “Minna no Chikara” (“power of everyone”), to solicit investors through online brokers. Managers at the firm invest in shares from various companies, including some Nadeshiko stocks, which are companies designated by the economy ministry and the Tokyo Stock Exchange as providing sufficient opportunities for women. The fund also invests in companies that actively promote better employee health and diversify their workforce by hiring more foreign staff and people with disabilities. Managers use their own criteria to determine the stability and growth potential of the companies. “We invest in corporations that can respond to social concerns. We also seek long-term investment gains,” a manager of the fund said. “We want investors to maintain their holdings for a long time.” Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co. set up a similar fund in July 2015, soliciting investors through three online brokers. At present, the fund invests in about 70 companies that its managers have determined are financially healthy, in addition to some of the Nadeshiko stocks. Analysts for the fund visit companies and ask how they promote or provide good working environments for women. Daiwa Asset Management Co.’s “Tsubaki” fund debuted in March 2015, which was touted as a “fund to help women’s success.” As of this April, the fund has been sold through 23 regional and credit banks. It invests in about 80 companies recognized as providing a good environment for women to continue working or companies selling products and services targeted mostly at female consumers. The fund has far outperformed the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s Topix index, a manager at the firm said.

funds
investment trust
work-life-balanace


Yamato raises delivery prices by ¥140 to ¥180

Abstract: In a move prompted by a serious staff shortage and a boom in online shopping, Yamato Holdings Co. has announced it will raise its basic shipping fee for door-to-door parcel deliveries by ¥140 to ¥180, depending on size. The rate hikes — Yamato’s first in 27 years — are expected to take place by September. Yamato President Masaki Yamauchi told a news conference that the extra revenue will be used to improve working conditions at the nation’s leading delivery firm. Yamato is responding to pressure from revelations last year that many of its delivery drivers were forced to work overtime without pay, prompting it to retroactively pay ¥19 billion in unpaid wages to drivers and other workers by July. The company’s problems reflect Japan’s demographic woes, including a chronic manpower shortage caused by a birth rate that’s been low for decades, and by a rapidly graying population. Restaurants, supermarkets and other firms in the service sector have been forced to change their business cultures and shorten operating hours. Yamato needs to raise prices to keep remain viable as part of Japan’s “social infrastructure,” Yamauchi said in announcing the reform plans. Base shipping rates vary by parcel size, place of dispatch and destination. For example, it costs ¥756 to send a package weighing up to 2 kg and measuring a combined 60 cm in length, width and height within one region. Yamato Transport Co., the holding company’s primary unit, said the hike will raise delivery prices by 6 percent on average in fiscal 2017, which began this month, from ¥559 per parcel last year. That could improve profitability. On Friday, Yamato Holdings posted a consolidated net profit of ¥18 billion for the past year through March, down 54.2 percent from a year earlier, due partly to payment of the unpaid wages. Revenue rise 3.6 percent to ¥1.47 trillion on rising deliveries driven by the boom in online shopping. Yamato Transport plans to begin offering a ¥50 per parcel discount to customers who collect them at its sales locations rather than at home. The change is an attempt to reduce the number of redeliveries slowing down its delivery drivers. It will also ask major corporate clients like Amazon.com to cooperate in adjusting shipping orders during busy periods. Large customers account for 90 percent of its deliveries. The company handled a record 1.87 billion packages over the past year through March. Yamato expects to reduce that volume by 80 million items in the current business year. Yamato Holdings will cut salaries for Yamauchi and five other executives for six months as a result of the unpaid overtime problem.

delivery
yamato transport
yamato holdings


In Virginia, the bizarre mystery of abducted and shaved cats

Abstract: NEW YORK - Police and townsfolk in Waynesboro, Virginia, are trying to figure out why someone is abducting and shaving pet cats. Since December, at least seven cats have suddenly shown up at their homes with shaved belly, groin and leg areas, Waynesboro Police Captain Kelly Walker said on Friday. “The shaving appears to be almost surgical,” Walker said. No harm was done to the animals, but they “seemed a little skittish” after the curious incidents, he said. The occurrences came to the attention of police when an owner asked about posting flyers to encourage the public to report suspicious activity to authorities. “Shaving Cats!!??” says the poster in Waynesboro, a city of 21,000 about 140 miles (225 km) southwest of Washington. “Several neighborhood cats have been ABDUCTED and had their lower abdomens and groin areas SHAVED. This is very upsetting to the cats and their owners.” Walker said the cats were collar-wearing, well-groomed pets, not strays or feral cats, although some were outdoor cats. All of them had been either neutered or spayed. The investigation focuses on five cats — some of which were shaved twice — from one household and two cats from another, which came home partially hairless three weeks ago. “Probably the best solution is for whoever is doing this to just stop,” Walker said.


Voter apathy can threaten democracy

Abstract: On April 17 the Asahi Shimbun reviewed the results of various local elections that had taken place the day before. The main story was not who got voted in or out, but whether or not anyone cared. The mayor of Matsue, Shimane Prefecture, was returned for a fourth term with a turnout of 58 percent, the lowest ever; Koriyama in Fukushima Prefecture had a turnout of only 38 percent, also a new low, while Hino’s 37 percent in Tokyo set a new record as well. The rare “high” turnouts — 72 percent in Itoigawa, Niigata Prefecture, and 77 percent in Bungo Ono, Oita Prefecture, were still the lowest in their respective histories. There were more than a few races that weren’t races at all, since they consisted of only one candidate. In many instances, the municipalities in question didn’t even bother to hold elections. Why waste taxpayers’ money? Voter apathy is not exclusive to Japan — Donald Trump essentially became the U.S. president because of it — but the reasons for lack of interest in the political process in Japan may be different than they are in other countries. In a post about low voting rates, President magazine columnist Toshihiko Maita cited on his personal blog a survey that found 86 percent of young people in Japan “don’t trust the government,” while only 55 percent of older people said the same thing. Conventional wisdom holds that people who don’t like the government in a democracy will do what they can to change it by replacing those in power with someone else via elections. In Japan, young people don’t vote as much as older people do. According to Maita’s blog, the voting rate for the cohort that was able to vote right after World War II has remained more or less constant over the years, while that for subsequent generations has dropped steadily. According to an expert in an April 2 Tokyo Shimbun feature , the experience of living under de facto military rule made people appreciate the idea of an elected government. As older generations die out, overall voting rates decline because younger generations don’t see the point. A lack of confidence in the government doesn’t lead them to do something about it because cynicism about the political process is built into their world view. That’s why the same politicians win over and over again. Only people who think they have something at stake vote. The most closely watched poll on April 16 was Toyama’s, in which the entire city assembly as well as the mayor’s seat was up for grabs. Last fall, a number of assembly members from various parties — mostly from the majority Liberal Democratic Party — admitted to forging expense receipts and pocketing reimbursements for personal use. Fourteen resigned and a by-election was held Nov. 16 to fill those seats. Seven others who also misused funds, all LDP members, did not resign. The turnout for the by-election was 27 percent. The Asahi Shimbun thought that LDP supporters, disappointed by the scandal, didn’t bother to show up. Those who won were either from non-LDP parties or independents, five of whom were endorsed by the LDP. Despite no dedicated LDP candidates, the party retained majority control of the 38-seat assembly. Then on April 16, the LDP strengthened its majority, despite the fact that the turnout was 48 percent, 5 percentage points lower than the last city election in 2013. More interestingly, the LDP members who won — all incumbents, including a few caught up in the expenses scandal — polled fewer votes than they had in the past. Asahi’s Toyama edition reported that the candidate who received the most votes, incumbent Yukari Akaboshi of the Japan Communist Party, benefited from the scandal backlash, but her popularity hurt other JCP candidates. Only one garnered enough votes to get a seat. The system in Toyama is such that voters choose one candidate, and the top vote-getters win. According to Asahi’s analysis, Akaboshi’s higher name recognition meant that people inclined to vote for someone from the JCP (which prosecuted the LDP scandal in the assembly) overwhelmingly voted for her. As a result, the JCP, which used to hold four seats in the assembly, lost two, meaning they no longer have enough to ask questions during debates. By contrast, all three candidates from the Social Democratic Party won because the party, endorsed by local labor unions, made sure supporters spread their votes among the three. Nevertheless, it was the LDP that benefited the most, despite the general population’s disillusionment with the party. Media coverage focused on LDP candidate Kiyonori Yoshizaki, one of the politicians disgraced in the scandal. He campaigned by, in his own words, concentrating “on the issues as a real assemblyperson,” but lost anyway. Another tainted LDP member also lost, but four others who admitted to wrongdoing were re-elected. More to the point, two dozen independents endorsed by the LDP won seats, despite the fact that the 27 LDP-endorsed candidates received 34,000 fewer votes than the 28 LDP-endorsed candidates received in 2013. So despite the fact that a large number of LDP assemblypersons were caught abusing their positions and the party garnered fewer votes than they ever have, the LDP in Toyama is now more powerful than ever. Is this situation solely due to voter apathy? Does it prove that political cynicism is deeper than the media admits? Is the opposition just hopelessly, irreversibly clueless? The only thing we can say is that voter turnout will get worse before it gets better. Tokyo Shimbun reported that an estimated 2.4 million eligible voters were unable to cast ballots in the last general election due to age. These people are over 80 and because of infirmities they were unable to go to polling places to vote, though they wanted to. When this cohort was in their 60s and 70s their turnout rate was around 80 percent, but it was only 47 percent in the Upper House election of 2016. Some local governments are trying to pass laws that allow shut-ins to vote at home or in care facilities, which will only help until that layer of citizens is gone. Until younger people see a reason for showing up at the voting booth, nothing much is going to change.

ldp
liberal democratic party
asahi shimbun
jcp
tokyo shimbun
toshihiko maita
japan communist party
yukari akaboshi
voter apathy