As Germany's Merkel retreats, Europe shows it still needs her firefighting

Abstract: BERLIN/BRUSSELS - German Chancellor Angela Merkel is starting her retreat at home just as she’s needed more than ever by her allies abroad. As Europe prepares for life without the leader whose clout underwrote its global standing and solutions to its crises over the past decade, the continent faces another challenging few months with the German leader’s legacy as the euro region’s rock in the balance. Italy’s financial stability is in question, Britain is due to leave the European Union in March and populist parties are conspiring to reshape the continent’s politics in EU elections weeks later. There’s also the test of unity over sanctions against Vladimir Putin’s Russia and keeping peace in the Balkans — all with Merkel now at her weakest. The 64-year-old’s remarkable longevity had to run out of road at some point. Her enemies were made, political capital spent and she was hobbled by a refugee crisis that caused a nationalist backlash in Germany. But it comes at a critical time as the balance of power tips further toward the kind of nationalist protectionism espoused by the U.S. under President Donald Trump and away from Merkel’s vision that left her as the beacon for liberal democracy among supporters. The baton is now being passed to French President Emmanuel Macron and the pressure will be on him to emulate Merkel’s ability to weigh Europe’s needs while sustaining ties with Russia, Turkey and China. While Merkel announced she would relinquish leadership of her Christian Democrats and will step down as chancellor within three years, populist former army officer Jair Bolsonaro celebrated winning the presidency in Brazil. “There’s no European leader who was as suited to this high-wire act as she was,” said Jan Techau, senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund in Berlin. “The question will be who has the unbelievable diplomatic skills that she has.” Merkel won four elections for her Christian Democrats over 13 years in office, including a resounding victory in 2013 as Germany’s dominance of Europe peaked during the continent’s debt crisis. She was pivotal to Greece agreeing to the terms of its bailouts and keeping the euro region together. By 2017, she led the party to a historic low, her standing challenged by Trump’s rise to the U.S. presidency and retaliation against her open-door migration policy. A far-right party entered Germany’s parliament for the first time since the immediate aftermath of World War II on her watch. An economic boom and Germany’s lowest unemployment in a generation failed to help her Christian Democrats at the ballot box. Merkel says she intends to stay until the end of her term and focus on the global stage. Her leeway, though, will depend on who her party chooses as its next leader in December. Possible contenders include hard-liners on government spending and critics of her refugee policy, suggesting the party might complicate her efforts to foster European unity with Macron on such things as the budget. “If there were still people in Paris or elsewhere hoping for an agreement on key European dossiers this year, like euro-zone reform or migration policy reform, they should forget about it,” said Janis Emmanouilidis, director of studies at the European Policy Center in Brussels. “Nobody is going to listen to her anymore in Europe. She has taken herself immediately out of the game,” said Sebastian Maillard, director of the Jacques Delors Institute think tank. Maillard was referring not only to Merkel’s decision to quit as chair of her party before stepping down later as chancellor, but also to not run for an EU position afterward. “It’s a tough blow for Europe,” Maillard said. Julian Rappolt, an analyst for the European Policy Center, predicted few, if any major decisions would be taken before the May elections for a new European Parliament. “Nothing will happen before the end of the year and probably nothing will take place until the European elections,” Rappolt said. “There is the risk of paralysis at the European level,” he said. But the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, disagreed that Merkel’s announcement would lead to paralysis, a commission official said. “Angela Merkel’s decision was expected. She had foreseen it and it changes nothing. The chancellor will not leave right away,” the official said on condition of anonymity. Sudha David-Wilp, deputy director of the German Marshall Fund’s Berlin office, also noted that Merkel’s departure was not a surprise and appeared to be orderly. “I don’t see chaos or instability for Europe because this is going to be a very slow departure,” David-Wilp told said from the United States. “Right now it is not in anybody’s interest for the grand coalition to split apart in Berlin,” she added in reference to Merkel’s ruling coalition with the center-left SPD party. For Brexit, Merkel’s lame-duck status adds another element of uncertainty to the EU-U.K. divorce talks, though it’s unlikely to substantially change the immediate prospects of striking a deal, people familiar with the negotiations said. Making a dignified exit was important to Merkel, who witnessed her political mentor Helmut Kohl go down to defeat after he insisted on seeking re-election in 1998 after 16 years in power, according to people familiar with her thinking. Growing up in former communist East Germany, her career has taken her from the euphoria of the Berlin Wall’s opening in 1989 to the vitriol of anti-immigration protesters waving “Merkel must go” signs during last year’s election campaign. Taking herself out of the firing line of domestic politics, including critics in her own party, may mark part of her legacy. Hours after her unexpected retreat as party leader, she met South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the Berlin chancellery to discuss investment in Africa. “This could be a good change for Merkel to refocus on playing an important role on the international stage,” said Jan Kallmorgen, head of Berlin Global Advisers, a political-risk consultancy. “Of course, other leaders realize that Merkel is weakened. But she still has enough international standing to face leaders like Putin and Trump.”

u.s .
eu
u.k .
angela merkel
germany
elections
refugees
donald trump
brexit


Japanese hospital takes fight to flu via 'Mouth of Truth'

Abstract: OSAKA - With the arrival of flu season, Osaka University Hospital on Tuesday introduced a unique way to keep the virus at bay, deploying a hand sanitizer dispenser in the shape of a famous Roman sculpture. Playing on the legend of the ancient marble “Bocca della Verita” in Rome, the hospital set up a replica of the “Mouth of Truth” that automatically dispenses liquid sanitizer when a hand enters its mouth. The Italian carving, so the legend goes, bites down on a liar that dares tempt fate by placing their hand in its mouth. “This looks so fun that I want to stick my hand in it,” said a 74-year-old woman who was visiting the hospital with her husband. “I’m sure that children find this entertaining.” Patients and visitors will be able to take fate into their own hands with the hospital’s Mouth of Truth until Nov. 16. The hospital said it did not think the usual tactics to increase people’s awareness about the flu were working and decided to pique people’s interest by offering them something very different. Once infected by the virus, symptoms of patients with a weakened immune system can turn serious, so it is critical that the hospital has strong defenses to keep the influenza virus out, said Daiichi Morii, a doctor with the hospital’s Infection Control Team, which planned the installation.

virus
osaka university hospital
mouth of truth


Don't let me down: Japan superfans lose fight for 1966 Beatles tour footage

Abstract: It’s been a hard day’s fight, but a group of Japanese Beatles fans have lost their bid to get police to hand over historic footage of the band’s 1966 Japan visit . The superfans took their battle for the film — recorded by police as a security measure — all the way to the Supreme Court, arguing it was a “historical document.” Police had offered to release the footage, reportedly about 35 minutes long, but only after blurring the faces of everyone in the film except the Beatles, citing privacy reasons. Two lower courts backed the police against a group of citizens from Nagoya who wanted the entire film released uncensored, saying it would be almost impossible to identify people in the footage more than 50 years later. But the long and winding legal battle ended last week when the Supreme Court rejected their argument, the group announced. The Beatles toured Japan only once, playing five concerts, and were trailed across the country by legions of screaming fans. A lawyer for the group seeking the footage said it would have huge historical significance for Beatles enthusiasts. “It is a document that should be made available from a historical standpoint,” lawyer Satoshi Shinkai told the Asahi Shimbun daily. “The final concert given on July 2 was apparently electrifying,” added fan Toru Omura, who has written books about the impact of the group’s tour. “If confirmation can be made of the existence of footage from that day, there would be huge excitement,” he told the newspaper. The Beatles remain popular in Japan, and former group member Paul McCartney arrived in Tokyo this week to kick off his new world tour.


Women demand compensation from Tokyo Medical University over rigged entrance exams

Abstract: Women who applied unsuccessfully to Tokyo Medical University are demanding it pay a total of ¥7.69 million ($68,600) in compensation for manipulating entrance exam results in favor of male applicants, their lawyers said Monday. The 24 applicants, who took the medical school’s entrance exams in 2006 or later, are demanding it pay ¥100,000 in damages for every year an applicant took the entrance exam and refund exam fees. “We would not have applied if we had known about the illegal score rigging, and it has caused us great emotional distress,” the women said in a document presented to the university. They also demanded their scores and their correct application results be disclosed. According to the lawyers, the 24 women, who range in age from those in their teens to those in their 30s, include those who failed the university’s entrance tests and are seeking another chance, undergraduates studying medicine at other universities and those who pursued different careers after giving up on trying to become doctors. The group demands a reply from the university within two weeks. “We want the university to deal with it as soon as possible,” said Sakura Uchikoshi, who heads the lawyers’ group. Tokyo Medical University admitted in August it had manipulated exam scores for over 10 years to curb female enrollment. It said it did so to avoid a shortage of doctors at affiliated hospitals, because it claims female doctors tend to resign or take long periods of leave after getting married or giving birth. The university plans to lower the total academic fee for its medical faculty by ¥10 million to about ¥19.8 million, starting with students entering in 2020, with the goal of preventing the number of applicants from declining, sources said Monday. The revised fee will likely be the second lowest among the 31 medical faculties at private universities, according to a survey by major cram school Kawaijuku. For students who entered this year, the most expensive academic fee was ¥47.3 million for Kawasaki Medical School, while the lowest was ¥19.1 million for the International University of Health and Welfare. The education ministry has probed 81 medical schools in Japan since the problem was brought to light. In its midterm report, the ministry said more universities are likely to have manipulated entrance exam results against female applicants and favored particular individuals, without disclosing the names of those institutions.

gender
universities
discrimination
tokyo medical university


Four charged in slaying of Slovak reporter and his fiancee ordered held for trial

Abstract: BRATISLAVA - A Slovak court on Sunday ordered four people jailed until their trial for the murder of investigative reporter Jan Kuciak and his fiancee, a state prosecutor said. The February killings sparked nationwide protests that toppled the government of Robert Fico, who had run Slovakia for all but two of the past 12 years. Three suspects were detained in a house raid on Thursday morning and charged with murder on Friday. The fourth suspect, a woman detained separately on Friday, has been charged with participating in the murder, which may have included helping, planning, ordering or organizing the killing, Kuciak family’s lawyer, Daniel Lipsic, told Reuters. Authorities released no further details on the four suspects and it is not yet clear when the trial might take place. Kuciak had, among other things, investigated fraud involving businessmen with Slovak political ties, and the suspected mafia links of Italians with businesses in Slovakia. A prosecutor said the February murder was likely a contract killing related to Kuciak’s work. His final story, published posthumously, reported on an Italian living in Slovakia with past business links to two Slovaks who later worked in the office of then-Prime Minister Fico. Both of the Slovaks resigned, but deny connections to the murder. Their Italian former business partner has also denied having connections with the mafia and the murder, but was detained on a European drug trafficking warrant in March and extradited to Italy in May. Weeks of public protests in March eventually forced the departure of the long-serving Fico but his three-party coalition has remained in power under Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini, who comes from the Smer party, which Fico still heads.

murder
journalist
mafia
slovakia
jan kuciak


Curfew imposed in anglophone Cameroon ahead of 'independence' anniversary

Abstract: YAOUNDE - Cameroon imposed a 48-hour curfew on its English-speaking regions a day ahead of the one-year anniversary of a symbolic “independence” declaration by anglophone separatists, officials said on Sunday. The anniversary on Monday comes ahead of Sunday polls that anglophone secessionists have threatened to disrupt. “The movement of people between areas in the northwest is banned for a period of 48 hours from Sunday, Sept. 30 until Monday, Oct. 1,” said Adolphe Lele Lafrique, governor of the largely English-speaking northwest region. Similar measures were in force across Cameroon’s other anglophone areas, officials told AFP. Hundreds of civilians and dozens of security forces are understood to have been killed in the majority French-speaking country’s anglophone northwest and southwest this year. In October 2017, radical anglophone leaders declared a “Republic of Ambazonia” in the two English-speaking regions, which were incorporated into francophone Cameroon in 1961. In Buea, a town in the southwest that has been at the heart of the nascent anglophone insurgency, officials also announced a raft “of special security measures. According to a directive issued by a district official which was seen by AFP, all shops and bars in Buea will be closed on Sunday and Monday. Buea, a town of 90,000, was deserted from around 1600 GMT on Saturday with shops shut and civilians staying indoors while the military patrolled key roads, two local sources told AFP by telephone. Pro-independence campaigners were planning a protest march for Sunday, they added, in defiance of the curfew. The order also affects all cultural, social and sporting activities as well as public and private forms of transport, it said. The two-day curfew also affects the southwestern coastal towns of Limbe and Tiko, said a separate order seen by AFP. Last year’s independence declaration marked the start of a crisis that has cast a shadow over the Oct. 7 elections, in which 85-year-old President Paul Biya, who has ruled the country for 35 years, is seeking a seventh term in office. Biya responded to the nascent insurgency with a crackdown which has seen separatists responding with a surge of bloody attacks in which they have killed troops and police and torched schools and other symbols of the Cameroonian state. Divisions between the anglophone regions and Cameroon’s authorities dates back a century to when Britain and France occupied Cameroon, taking over Germany’s principal colony in West Africa. The two countries divided it into separate spheres of influence that were later formalized by the League of Nations, the forerunner to the U.N. The much larger French colony gained independence in 1960. A year later, the British colony also gained independence. Some of the English-speaking areas chose to join newly-formed Nigeria, others to become part of the federation of Cameroon.

elections cameroon anglophone francophone


Load lifted from students' shoulders as ministry recommends letting them leave textbooks at school

Abstract: In early September, the education ministry issued a notice to boards of education nationwide asking schools to let students leave their textbooks and other study materials at school — the practice known as okiben in Japanese — to reduce the weight of their school bags. While some students and parents welcome the move, others worry that it could lead to problems such as students studying less at home or their belongings getting lost or damaged. “I used to always feel tired because (my backpack) was really heavy,” said Fuku Kutsuwa, 9, a fourth grader at Gifu Elementary School in the city of Gifu. “Now it’s light, so I don’t get exhausted even if I run.” Her backpack only contains five or six textbooks. She said she started to think her backpack was heavy around the time she became a third grader, because she had to carry more textbooks as the number of subjects increased. In May, her father, Masashi, 50, weighed her backpack after hearing from her that she was having a hard time carrying it. The backpack weighed 6 kilograms, he said. “My daughter’s weight is 24 kg. I was surprised that the backpack weighed as much as a quarter of her weight,” he said. There was no rule at the school banning okiben , but nobody had been doing it. The parents’ association, including Fuku’s father, started discussing the issue with the school principal in late May, and in mid-June, the principal told all the students that they could leave their textbooks and other belongings at school. “I’m glad that children can now go to school with light backpacks,” Masashi said. Students’ school bags have become much heavier in recent years as the textbooks they use are thicker and there is a greater variety of supplementary materials, reflecting the government’s policy shift away from the so-called yutori cram-free education. According to the Textbook Publishers Association of Japan, the number of pages in elementary and junior high school textbooks for fiscal 2015 increased 30 percent compared with those for fiscal 2005. In Nagoya, most schools tell students to take all their study materials home. But following the education ministry’s release of the notice, the city’s education board plans to come up with a policy, before the end of the school year in March at the latest. A 42-year-old mother of a 13-year-old girl in Nishi Ward, Nagoya, said her daughter’s junior high school does not allow okiben . “I feel sorry for my daughter going to school every day half crying, saying her shoulders and back hurt,” the mother said, adding that her school rucksack is almost bursting open because of the amount of textbooks and study materials in it. It often weighs more than 10 kg. The girl must walk more than 20 minutes to school with the heavy rucksack, and sometimes also with her box lunch, bottle of drink and gym clothes. “I don’t know why they have to bring back home all the study materials every day, even the ones they don’t need for their homework,” the mother said. “I hope the school will soon allow okiben , because I’m worried that their bones might get crooked or they could collapse on hot days.” Katsumasa Sugimoto, 61, who is head of Nagoya Sports Clinic and knows about children’s physical development, said that “children lack muscular strength, and their shoulders and backs can easily be damaged when they lift up heavy backpacks. They should avoid putting excessive burdens on themselves.” Meanwhile, some teachers and parents are concerned that encouraging students to leave study materials at school could make them care less about textbooks. “(If students leave their textbooks at school) they might not get a chance to make it a habit to use textbooks when they study at home,” said a teacher in charge of third graders at an elementary school in Kaizu, Gifu Prefecture. Another teacher in charge of second graders at an elementary school in Kani, also in Gifu, said, “If study materials are left at school, they might get lost or be deliberately damaged.” A woman from Higashi Ward in Nagoya, although worried about the burden of a heavy backpack on her daughter who is a second grader in elementary school, said, “I still want her to bring them back home at least while she is in elementary school, so that she learns how to take good care of her textbooks.”

education
textbooks
schools
students
regional voices : chubu series


Japanese professor Tasuku Honjo wins Nobel in medicine, together with U.S. scientist, for work on cancer therapy

Abstract: STOCKHOLM - Japanese scientist Tasuku Honjo was awarded on Monday this year’s Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, for his discovery of a protein that contributed to the development of an immunotherapeutic drug against cancer. Honjo, a 76-year-old professor at Kyoto University, won the prize with U.S. national James Allison, the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute said. Honjo opened a pathway for a new cancer treatment by discovering the PD-1 protein, which is responsible for suppressing immune response. “I’m very honored and pleased to receive the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine,” Honjo told a news conference following the announcement. His method of treating cancer — by controlling the protein’s function to suppress immunity — led to the development of Nivolumab, a drug marketed as Opdivo and used against lung cancer and melanoma. Following the discovery of the protein in 1992, Honjo presented his research in 2002 showing that a drug that prevents the unification of cancer cells and that the PD-1 protein is effective against cancer in animals. In 2006, his research was tested in a clinical trial before Opdivo was finally approved in Japan, in July 2014, and subsequently in the United States and Europe. Their work led to a fourth class of treatment — alongside surgery, chemotherapy and radiation — that harnesses the immune system. “I’d like to continue the study a bit more so that this immunotherapy can further assist cancer patients in the future,” Honjo said at the news conference. “I hope this treatment will develop further, as researchers around the world are making efforts for such a purpose,” he added. The Nobel Assembly said after announcing the prize in Stockholm that the therapy “has now revolutionized cancer treatment and has fundamentally changed the way we view how cancer can be managed”. “Allison and Honjo showed how different strategies for inhibiting the brakes on the immune system can be used in the treatment of cancer,” the assembly also said in a statement on awarding the prize of 9 million Swedish crowns ($1 million). The Nobel jury noted that “for more than 100 years, scientists attempted to engage the immune system in the fight against cancer”. “Until the seminal discoveries by the two laureates, progress into clinical development was modest.” A native of Kyoto, Honjo spent much of his youth in the city of Ube in Yamaguchi Prefecture. As a child, he enjoyed the outdoors, and deepened his interest in becoming a scientist by observing Saturn and reading the biography of renowned Japanese bacteriologist Hideyo Noguchi (1876-1928). Allison, a professor at the University of Texas, and Honjo won the Tang Prize, touted as Asia’s version of the Nobels, in 2014 for their research. In 2016, Honjo also won the Kyoto Prize in Basic Sciences. In his message upon receiving the Kyoto Prize in 2016, Honjo said, “Doing research isn’t simply about studying hard. Reading papers and memorizing them doesn’t make you a good researcher.” “Follow your curiosity,” he advised, “and have the courage to meet the challenge. That’s where science starts, in my opinion.” The pair will receive their Nobel from King Carl XVI Gustaf at a formal ceremony in Stockholm on Dec. 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of Alfred Nobel who created the prizes in his last will and testament. In recent years, three Japanese nationals had won the Nobel Prize in medicine, including Yoshinori Ohsumi, who won in 2016, and Satoshi Omura, who won a year earlier. In 2012, Kyoto University’s Shinya Yamanaka also won the prize. Including two who later became naturalized U.S. citizens, Japanese nationals have now won a total of 26 Nobel Prizes across all categories. Last year, U.S. geneticists Jeffrey Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael Young were awarded the prize in medicine for their research on the role of genes in setting the “circadian clock,” which regulates sleep and eating patterns, hormones and body temperature. The winners of this year’s physics prize will be announced on Tuesday, followed by the chemistry prize on Wednesday. The peace prize will be announced on Friday, and the economics prize will wrap up the Nobel season on Oct. 8. For the first time since 1949, the Swedish Academy has postponed the announcement of the 2018 Nobel Literature Prize until next year, amid a #MeToo scandal and bitter internal dispute that has prevented it from functioning properly.


Fate uncertain for World War II air raid shelter at closing Thai zoo

Abstract: BANGKOK - With the Sunday closure of Thailand’s oldest zoo, the future of its historical World War II air raid shelter remains unclear. Dusit Zoo closed its doors to the public after running for eight decades. The zoo announced in early August that it would move from its central Bangkok location. The new zoo has yet to be built. Following the announcement, visitors flocked to the zoo to relive old childhood memories or simply enjoy being around animals. But some Thais also wonder what fate awaits the old underground shelter, which was built by the Thai government in the years following the 1941 Japanese invasion. Thailand was a neutral country when Japan invaded on Dec. 8, 1941, just after attacking the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor. It forced Thailand to allow passage for its troops to attack British-held Malaya and Burma. A number of air raid shelters were subsequently built across Bangkok, including at Dusit Zoo, which was once a public park. After the war, the underground shelter — a rectangular room 10 meters long, 4 meters wide and 2 meters high — was turned into an exhibition at the zoo. In the corner of the damp, dimly lit shelter sit statues of a huddled-up family, including one of a woman cradling a baby in her lap. Natthapong Pingate, 46, who was visiting with his aging mother before the closure, understands why the zoo’s planned relocation to a far bigger site outside Bangkok will be good for its animals, but cannot help but feel a bit of sadness. “When my mother was young, she witnessed the bombing, which wrought damage not only across central Bangkok, but also in the outskirts of the capital. To us, the air raid shelter is a reminder of the war,” Natthapong said. Many such shelters in Bangkok no longer exist, including a large one that was in front of Hua Lamphong Railway Station, the capital’s main station. That shelter has been replaced by a fountain and elephant monument. Those that remain are scattered across a few sites, such as Parusakawan Palace, which now hosts the headquarters of the National Intelligence Agency; Suan Sunandha Rajabhat University, a public university near the zoo; and Asiatique: The Riverfront, a large shopping mall by the Chao Phraya River. The government’s Zoological Park Organization says the zoo’s closure, delayed by one month to accommodate an influx of visitors, will not be further postponed. The zoo will be relocated to a site in Pathum Thani province north of Bangkok three times the size of the current site, with its construction expected to begin next year or later and the opening planned within the next three years. Its more than 1,000 animals are being temporarily transferred to six public zoos in different provinces. Chonlada Khumlap, a 20-year-old university student, hopes that the air raid shelter will remain open to the public, even after the zoo closes, to help Thais learn about history. “If the air raid shelter is demolished or access to it is prohibited, I think it would be bad,” said Chonlada, during her first, and possibly her last, visit to the zoo. Chonlada said she was taught at school about World War II — such as the foreign invasion of her country, Thailand being part of the war and the war’s effects on Thai people — but had never visited a real wartime relic before. “Being inside the narrow and pitch-dark shelter, I felt sad. It must have been so scary to be there during the war.” As for the fate of the shelter, Pitak Unson, director of Dusit Zoo, said it is up to the Crown Property Bureau, the zoo’s landlord. No official announcement has been made on the plan for the overall property. King Chulalongkorn, who laid the foundation of modern Thailand during his 1868-1910 reign, established the Royal Private Garden and introduced a herd of axis deer from Java Island, in what is now Indonesia, and other wild animals into the garden. Dusit became the first public zoo in Thailand in 1938 following royal permission given by King Ananda Mahidol, an uncle of the current king. Over the years, the zoo grew to become one of the most popular tourist attractions in Thailand, drawing more than 2 million visitors a year and generating 150 million baht (around $4.6 million) in revenue for the country.

wwii
history
thailand
imperial japanese military
dusit zoo


Osaka to recognize two websites with curated content as hate speech against Koreans living in Japan

Abstract: OSAKA - A panel commissioned by the Osaka Municipal Government has said it has recognized two websites with curated content as amounting to hate speech against Koreans living in Japan. The municipal government plans to authorize the findings and ask internet service providers to take down the websites under a municipal ordinance on the fight against hate speech, the panel said Friday. It will be the city’s first recognition of a website with curated content as containing hate speech, according to the municipal government. The websites have contained slanderous comments about Korean residents in Osaka and left them open for viewing by the general public, the panel said. One of the sites has encouraged viewers to comment on its content and the panel ruled that this act has fueled hateful words. Osaka has recognized four online videos as being forms of hate speech since 2016, when the ordinance was put into effect.

osaka
internet
rights
discrimination
hate speech


Goichiro Toyoda taps technology in bid to save Japan's health care system

Abstract: Goichiro Toyoda, 34, has an impressive resume. A graduate of the prestigious University of Tokyo faculty of medicine, Toyoda worked as a brain surgeon in Tokyo before leaving to become a research scholar at Children’s Hospital of Michigan. Toyoda, however, eventually quit what looked to be a perfect medical career path for an elite doctor, hoping instead to work from the outside to make Japan’s health system sustainable and efficient. “Japan’s current health system cannot be sustained if it continues to be the way it is now,” said Toyoda, co-CEO of Medley Inc., a Tokyo-based medical venture. The nation’s annual medical expenditures soared to ¥42.1 trillion in fiscal 2016 from ¥33.1 trillion in fiscal 2006, according to the latest data released by the health ministry. Given its rapidly graying population and arrivals of new drugs and technologies that come with hefty price tags, medical costs are almost guaranteed to increase, he said. But in a country where all citizens are covered by public medical insurance, many take medical services for granted and visit hospitals even with minor symptoms without thinking at all about costs. Toyoda’s peers share a similar sense of crisis, saying the current system cannot be sustained. But due to their extremely busy workloads dealing with patients day and night, nobody Toyoda knew has been able to take any action, he said. “I wanted to devote myself to actually doing something about it,” Toyoda said. After working for over a year as a consultant for the health care industry at McKinsey & Co., he joined Medley in 2015 as co-CEO to expand and develop health-related services via the internet. Hoping to help raise people’s awareness of health issues — which he believes is crucial to improve and change the country’s health system — he led a project to launch an online medical encyclopedia where people can search for and learn about illnesses they are suffering by typing in symptoms or names of diseases. All the information is written and edited by medical doctors. To maintain its neutrality, the content is limited to information that most, if not all, medical practitioners agree on. Today, more than 600 doctors are registered with Medley to help edit the encyclopedia, and the website offers information on about 1,400 illnesses, 30,000 drugs and 160,000 medical facilities. “I wanted to create (an online encyclopedia) that people can trust and get medically accurate information,” Toyoda said. “It is like Wikipedia, but one created by medical doctors for patients.” When people are diagnosed with an illness, many search for information online to gain knowledge about the disease and find out what treatment they need. But there are hardly any websites in Japanese that provide accurate and up-to-date information that nonmedical experts can comprehend, Toyoda said. What’s worse, the internet is also awash with bogus health information, such as that seen in the plagiarism scandal that hit DeNA Co.’s health care information website Welq in 2016. “There are many patients who get depressed and confused after scrolling through so many pages and sites on the internet,” Toyoda said. “I wanted to create a website that patients can visit whenever they get confused.” According to the firm, between several million to tens of millions of people visit the site every month, and it gets feedback from users every day. Many visitors say the information helped them make necessary choices about whether or not to undergo an operation. Others said the site deepened their understanding about illnesses they are suffering. “Many think it’s hard to understand medical information. But I want people to realize it’s not that hard. They can learn about an illness by reading (what’s contained in the encyclopedia),” Toyoda said. What Toyoda and Medley aim to do is the realization of medical treatments that patients and their families can be satisfied with. “To be able to satisfy, I believe they need to have knowledge (of the illness they are suffering), and, together with a doctor, they need to make their own choices such as whether or not to undergo an operation,” Toyoda said. Apart from the encyclopedia, the firm also launched a telemedicine platform called Clinics, which enables patients to consult doctors via video and pay fees with credit cards. Since its launch in February 2016, more than 800 medical institutions have introduced the app-based service, according to the firm. Many people who need to visit doctors regularly in order to keep treating chronic illnesses stop going to hospitals, as it often requires them to take a half day or even a full day off work. But by using the telemedicine service, it is much more convenient for such people to get the treatment they need, he said. For its latest service, Medley is developing a system for electronic medical records. Toyoda said he eventually wants to launch a service which enables patients to see their own medical histories with an app. “In Japan, a patient’s medical record is managed separately by each medical institution. I think it’s absurd that patients do not have access to their own medical records,” Toyoda said. “That, I think, is leading to insufficiencies in the health system.” The creation of a system in which all medical records of one patient are shared among hospitals and the patient could eliminate unnecessary examinations, such as patients taking a CT scan every time they visit a different hospital for the same illness, he said. “I want to expand health services using the internet. An increase in such services will serve to raise people’s health literacy or their interest in Japan’s medical system,” Toyoda said. “And, I believe, that will make it easier to launch new health services that are necessary (to change the shape of Japan’s health system).”


Temperature reaches 36 C in Niigata, hitting a high for October

Abstract: Temperatures rose steeply across Japan, mainly along the Sea of Japan coast, on Saturday, marking 36 C in Sanjo, Niigata Prefecture, the highest on record at any location in the country in October. The previous high for October was 35.1 degrees recorded in Itoigawa, also in Niigata, on Oct. 9, 2013. The Meteorological Agency issued a high temperature warning for Niigata, calling for vigilance against heatstroke. Temperatures were pushed up by warm air flowing from the south toward Typhoon Kong-rey, which is moving near the southern part of the Korean Peninsula toward the Sea of Japan. The mercury climbed to 35.7 C in Joetsu, 35.3 degrees in Nagaoka and 35.1 degrees in Kashiwazaki, all in Niigata Prefecture. Temperatures reached 30 C or higher at 185 observation locations, or 20 percent of all such sites across Japan, including in Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture, which recorded 34 C and in Kahoku, Ishikawa Prefecture, where it reached 33.8 C.

temperature
meteorlogical agency
typhoon


Social media lambaste 2020 Olympic volunteer program

Abstract: Organizers of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics have started accepting applications from those hoping to volunteer at the games a little less from two years from now. As you might suspect, Japan’s online community had plenty to say about the issue from the second it went live. Many people viewed the attempt to drum up volunteers for the games with cynicism. To be fair, this criticism started long before the organizers started accepting applications online. When the organizing committee first unveiled its plan, it stated up front that volunteers wouldn’t receive any monetary compensation for their services. The organizers also said they hoped to attract a number of students by offering university credits in exchange for doing specific tasks. Twitter users began to criticize the plan , with some arguing that college kids shouldn’t be put in a position in which they’d have to deal with this . The lack of pay also ruffled feathers, inspiring a number of netizens and web publications to describe the plan as “black volunteering” (after the “ black companies ” tag given to firms that exercise exploitative and illicit work practices). While the concept of volunteering might imply an altruistic spirit, plenty pointed out that the Olympics receive billions of dollars from sponsorship. Offering to help put on the world’s largest sporting event without monetary compensation isn’t the same as donating a little time to your local dog rescue organization. One particular jab along such lines came from a parody site billed as a “ student volunteer support group .” What looks at first like straight-faced boosterism soon reveals itself to be a satire about volunteering for the event, which also pokes fun at the expected high temperatures and costs of putting the event on. The message, in case you miss it: “Olympics bad.” The organizers subsequently reversed course and offered a card worth ¥1,000 a day to cover transportation , but this failed to change the general discussion online. Instead, the proposal was met with sarcasm and digital eye rolling . A number of people online have noted that profitable companies such as advertising titan Dentsu are set to benefit from the Olympics, so why should they get to have their cake and eat it too? However, the conversation shifted once the online application form was launched, and it didn’t take people long to point out what is needed to apply . The instructions greet applicants by warning them that it should take about 30 minutes to go through the entire process. Scroll down a touch more and applicants are told they’ll need to upload some form of government-issued identification to confirm they are who they say they are and, possibly, include any relevant language certificates they might possess. Some argued that the application process was over-the-top , with at least one Twitter user wondering whether sending in answers by fax would be simpler . Others made fun of the website’s overall design. Making fun of archaic-looking Japanese websites is a pastime shared by all — prepare to shed a tear for Geocities — but the page devoted to volunteers for Tokyo 2020 went a lot further than anything that could once be found on AOL. As Twitter users and hosts on AbemaTV demonstrated , scrolling down the page on a smartphone could prompt warning boxes to pop up, giving users the same experience as when visiting the sketchier corners of the internet. A reporter at Yahoo Japan uncovered a plethora of errors while trying to sign up, including a calendar where every date is replaced with “NaN .” The site was so bad, some thought it was designed by somebody who was deliberately trying to frustrate people . The website was created by French company Atos , and many have speculated that it probably cost the government millions of yen. The mere thought of this prompted anger online before the organizers responded by saying … they wouldn’t change anything . Volunteers have been staples of the Olympics for decades. The 2012 Summer Games in London spawned breathless celebrations of the unpaid helpers. The Rio edition had a few similar odes , but thousands also quit during the games . It was the same story at Pyeongchang. Many are starting to see the Olympics as less of a celebration and more of a boondoggle. One counterargument appearing online in Japan following the volunteer snafu is the drive to get nostalgic for the 1964 Games in the capital. That event revolutionized the country and many college-age volunteers helped to make it a success. As Twitter user @amiromii noted , however, those volunteers were paid an amount of money that was attractive to them at the time. The times have since changed, and if Tokyo hopes to pull off a successful games in 2020, it will have to adapt to new realities. The coding on its website looks like a pretty good starting point.

volunteering
2020 tokyo olympics
japan pulse


Shincho 45's fumbles over LGBT issues hastened its demise

Abstract: Some magazines meet their end with a whimper. Last month, however, a monthly called Shincho 45 went out with a bang. On Sept. 25, Shincho 45’s publisher, Shincho-sha, announced it would suspend publication of the magazine in response to protests from the LGBT community and others over several articles that appeared in its August and October issues. Company President Takanobu Sato explained that the magazine — which was launched in 1982 — had been “facing declining sales and during the process of trial and error, an editorial malfunction occurred.” That “editorial malfunction” began in Shincho 45’s August issue with a four-page article by Mio Sugita, a 51-year-old Lower House member representing Hyogo Prefecture who occasionally airs outspoken conservative views in the media. Sugita noted that the liberal Asahi Shimbun had run 260 articles on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual issues over the previous year, compared to 159 and 73 articles by the more conservative Yomiuri and Sankei newspapers. Sugita voiced skepticism that people are really discriminated against because they identify as LGBT. She also claimed that LGBT couples have no reproductive capacity, hence “Does it serve any purpose to invest tax money in them?” In what turned out to be its swan song, Shincho 45, in response to criticism of its article by Sugita, devoted seven articles in its October edition to criticism of the critics. One, by conservative commentator Eitaro Ogawa, dismissed LGBT issues as legitimate political concerns using language that was particularly crude. Shincho 45’s long decline did not happen in a vacuum. The rate of attrition of major A5-size monthly and biweekly magazines — roughly the size of trade paperbacks — has been high. Shokun! (published by Bungeishunju-sha), Dacapo (Magazine House), Gendai (Kodansha); Hoseki (Kobunsha), Takarajima 30 (Takarajima-sha) and Uwasa no Shinso, among others, have all shut down in just the past two decades. Changes in Shincho 45’s content and editorial slant under a string of successive editors failed to bring back readers, and its monthly print run reportedly fell to an average of 16,800 copies during the second quarter of this year — down by around 40 percent from a decade ago. Hiroyuki Shinoda, editor and publisher of Tsukuru, a monthly that analyzes the mass media, saw the decline as a malaise affecting the entire magazine industry. His four-page article for Tsukuru’s October issue, titled “Magazine journalism stands at a fork in the road. The publication of Mio Sugita’s discriminatory remarks: Worries about and suggestions for Shincho 45,” hit the stands before the October issue of Shincho 45. “In the past,” Shinoda wrote, “it was a matter of course for journalism to assume an anti-authoritarian stance. At the start of a new political administration, the weekly magazines would vie with one another to track down and report on its scandals. However, that atmosphere has dissipated. Magazine journalism is facing a really difficult situation.” Spa! (Oct. 9-16) recalled that 23 years ago a magazine from another major publisher was shut down due to protests over a controversial article. On Jan. 17, 1995 — the same day as the Great Hanshin Earthquake — the February 1995 issue of Marco Polo, a glossy monthly magazine published by Bungeishunju-sha, went on sale. In it was an article titled “There were no Nazi gas chambers.” The writer, a Japanese physician, purported to debunk the generally accepted view that large numbers of people, mostly Jews, were murdered in gas chambers at death camps in German-occupied Central Europe. The Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center and other Jewish groups were particularly incensed over the timing of the article’s appearance, 10 days before the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp. When Marco Polo’s editor balked at demands for an apology and retraction, the Simon Wiesenthal Center appealed to the magazine’s advertisers to withdraw their ads. Germany’s Volkswagen AG was the first to do so, and other major firms followed suit. Beset by attacks from all sides, Bungeishunju-sha announced it would kill the magazine — although Jewish groups had made no such demand. While Marco Polo and Shincho 45 may have been discontinued for different reasons, their closing has two crucial things in common. First, the publishers of both magazines reacted in a way that effectively closed the door to public discussion, by critics and readers alike, of what were certainly controversial topics. And second, in the absence of an open airing, the public was left in the dark about how the two magazines editorially failed to prevent the publication of articles that so baldly flaunted historical and social facts — and also about what ultimately drove the publishers to pull their plugs. Marco Polo is long gone, but I would like to inject a personal note regarding Shincho 45, which I have been reading for more than 25 years. During its heyday in the 1990s, it ran top-notch investigative articles by Fumiya Ichihashi, who exhaustively covered several notorious unsolved cases such as the Glico-Morinaga kidnapping and corporate blackmail incidents. I suppose at least some readers, myself included, will miss it. So what happens next? Shincho-sha used the term kyūkan (suspension of publication) as opposed to haikan (discontinuation of publication). Shincho-sha has a history of reviving its suspended magazines, such as the photo-zine Focus (which was halted in 2001), for occasional special editions. So while it may be too much to hope for a revival of Shincho 45, it’s too soon to say that the brand is gone for good.


Repatriation program reveals Koreans' plight in Japan

Abstract: In August, five North Korean defectors residing in Japan filed a lawsuit in Tokyo District Court charging Pyongyang with human rights abuses. The plaintiffs were described in the Mainichi Shimbun as “second-generation ethnic Koreans” who grew up in Japan but moved to North Korea during the mobilization of Koreans between 1959 and 1984, which was supported by the governments of both North Korea and Japan. During this period, about 93,000 people were “repatriated” to a country very few really knew and none had ever lived in. They bought the propaganda sold by Pyongyang and its political arm in Japan, the General Association of Korean Residents of Japan, or Chongryon, which presented North Korea as “a paradise on Earth.” The plaintiffs described widespread starvation and brutal political persecution after they arrived. Eventually, they escaped to South Korea and made their way back to Japan. Japanese media like nothing better than to demonize North Korea, and the lawsuit has been covered extensively. However, no media outlet has identified the plaintiffs’ support group, which is presumably paying their court fees. The repatriation project was spurred by Japanese nationalist elements that wanted to push all ethnic Koreans out of Japan after World War II. The support group also seems aligned to the right side of the political spectrum. Now they are using these defectors to advance their anti-North Korea agenda, and while that doesn’t necessarily make the lawsuit a cynical stunt — many Japanese, regardless of political leanings, don’t like North Korea — it’s important to consider what the true aim of the suit is, especially given that Japan and North Korea do not have diplomatic relations and, as a result, the defendants in the case have no way to respond, even if they wanted to. While the lawsuit may not count as political theater, it’s theater nonetheless, and if it has any worth in that regard, it should be to draw attention to an event that has never been fully appreciated by the domestic media or public. The people who made the move are quite old, and time is running out for gaining any understanding of what happened to them, since no detailed records of the repatriation program were kept at the time. If the lawsuit adds to our knowledge, then it will have value, even if that isn’t its purpose. Jiro Ishimaru, editor of the Asia Press news agency, has been reporting on North Korean matters for many years. Much of his work on the repatriation program is based on interviews with defectors, and he formed a special research group that will release its findings next year to mark the 60th anniversary of the start of the program. On July 9, the Mainichi Shimbun ran one of these reports, which describes interviews with ethnic Korean women living in Seoul who were repatriated and then escaped years later. One 79-year-old woman grew up in Hiroshima and had been evacuated from the city before the atom bomb was dropped. Her father ran a lumber yard, which failed after the war so the family couldn’t afford to send her brother to high school. Local Chongryon representatives came to her house and told the family that if they moved to North Korea, he could attend school for free, so eight of her 10 siblings, as well as her parents, moved to North Korea in the early 1960s as part of the repatriation program. Two brothers stayed behind in Japan and regularly sent money, which they essentially lived off. As the woman described it, a class system developed among the returnee community depending on how much money they received from Japan. Life was difficult. Members of her family were imprisoned for arbitrary reasons. After her own sons were arrested in the 1980s and ’90s and one died in custody, her family was sent to the countryside, where people were starving. She decided to escape with other former Japan residents. About 200 defectors have made it back to Japan, and many of the people interviewed by Ishimaru over the years have said that Chongryon’s most persuasive means of getting people to move to North Korea was to say they could escape discrimination in Japan. Almost every Japanese political party supported the repatriation program while it was being carried out, an indication of the general attitude toward ethnic Koreans. In June, the weekly magazine Josei Jishin ran a profile of filmmaker Yang Yong-hi to publicize her new memoir, which covers her university days from 1997 to 2003. At the end of her last movie, the critically acclaimed “Kazoku no Kuni” (“Our Homeland”), which takes place in 1997, the main character is shown lugging a large suitcase through Ueno, about to embark on an unspecified journey. Yang was born into an ethnic Korean family in Osaka in 1964. Her father was a Chongryon executive. When Yang was 6, he sent her two older brothers to North Korea as part of the repatriation program, which he was instrumental in promoting. Later, Yang visited her brothers in North Korea twice. One became mentally ill due to pressure to conform. She resented the regime for what they did to him. He died at the age of 56. However, her life in Japan was also fraught with frustration. Home was a stifling Confucian patriarchy, and because of her background she always had trouble finding work. Eventually, she met and befriended the film critic and TV personality known simply as Osugi, who encouraged her to embrace her Korean heritage and follow her dream to New York, where she studied filmmaking at the New School. In the city’s multicultural environment she came to understand and appreciate her mixed birthright, while cultivating a healthy skepticism toward any nationalist sentiments, a dynamic she has explored in her movies. The work of Yang and Ishimaru, not to mention that of photojournalist Takashi Ito, who has visited North Korea many times to interview Japanese wives, provide windows onto a world that most Japanese people know nothing about — not just the repatriation tragedy, but the wider story of Koreans in Japan.


Japan Times 1943: New substitute for soy sauce discovered

Abstract: 100 YEARS AGO Saturday, Oct. 5 1918 Cabinet ministers to give up bodyguards The open-door policy is now to be realized by all government offices since the Hara Ministry came to existence. Formerly, especially in times of bureaucratic government, the offices of ministers, vice-ministers and other high officials were closed to almost every outsider, but now it is announced by the authority that these offices are to be opened to all persons, except those who interfere with business. In a recent issue of the Advertiser, reference was made to the desire said to have been expressed by Mr. Noda, minister of communications, as to the dispensing of the services of ministerial personal guards though the practice has been in vogue for many years. It now appears that the discontinuance of ministerial guards is to be adopted in respect of all the members of the new Cabinet and the police authorities have been notified of the decision. Another departure by the Hara Ministry is the abolition of the policy of secrecy and reticence, which has been so zealously adhered to by preceding governments, and what may be termed an open-door policy will be followed as far as possible. It may be added that the practice of attaching a personal guard to Cabinet ministers in this country originated in those turbulent days in the early years of Meiji when assassinations and attempts thereto were very frequent. Among the ministers of state who were assassinated may be mentioned Okubo Toshimichi, who was waylaid and slashed by a band of hot-headed young men near Kioizaka, Kojimachi. Close by the spot where he was murdered, a park has been built and on the grounds stands a monument erected in his memory. While statesmen in all countries are not immune from attacks at the hands of misguided or disgruntled men, the practice of attaching a bodyguard must be regarded as essentially an institution of a bygone age. The abolition of the practice by Mr. Hara and other members of his Cabinet will no doubt be hailed with satisfaction by the public at large. Then again, if the guards are abolished hereafter, the Metropolitan Police can save at least 60 policemen who can be utilized for more useful service. 75 YEARS AGO Friday, Oct. 1, 1943 New substitute for soy sauce discovered A delicious sauce, comparable to shōyu , made by a process of properly mixed coconut milk sugar and salt has been discovered by a Japanese school teacher in Davao, Philippines. Yoshiaki Yoshida, the discoverer, succeeded in concocting this palatable sauce in which coconut milk is left to ferment for about three or four days and, at the right stage, coconut shell and charcoal are thrown in. The mixture is then boiled and the undesirable odor removed. The liquid is later strained to remove all solid matters, and, after melted sugar and salt have been added, the sauce is complete. The ratio of ingredients — 1 liter of fermented coconut milk, 200 grams of sugar paste and 500 grams of salt — makes an excellent shoyu substitute, which even the most exacting epicure described with a tasty smack of the lips: “Not bad at all.” 50 YEARS AGO Saturday, Oct. 5, 1968 Afflicted Nagoya man climbs Tokyo Tower A 20-year-old Nagoya man, who said he wanted to publicize his hardships, climbed Tokyo Tower to a precarious perch on a steel frame 130 meters above ground, repeatedly threatened to jump and then came down after six hours. The man used an elevator to reach the fifth story of the hall inside the tower at about 1:40 p.m. He then started scaling the steel frame, braving strong rain and winds. He reached a height of 130 meters or 20 meters below the first observation platform and perched there. The man, wearing rubber sandals, walked nimbly about on 7-cm-wide steel girders and threatened to jump as about 40 police officers tried to persuade him to come down. At about 3 p.m., the man grudgingly accepted a safety belt from a tower employee and fastened himself to a girder. He finally descended at 8:05 p.m. The youth, identified as Iwataro Kazui of Yajie-cho, Minami Ward, Nagoya, told police that he had almost given up hope for his future because of hardships he suffered after his father lost his job as a coal mine worker in Kyushu. He said he had got a job at an iron works factory in Nagoya but that his life had been as hard as ever. 25 YEARS AGO Friday, Oct. 8, 1993 Whiskey-and-water drinks a mixed success Neither consumers nor beverage makers are convinced that whiskey-and-water drinks will become the industry’s new hit product. Suntory Ltd. reports a good start since it launched Japan’s first ready-made whiskey-and-water drinks in April along with Nikka Whisky Distilling Co. The launch followed a change in liquor taxation that month which reduced taxes for products with alcoholic content of 4 percent to 6.5 percent. The whiskey industry had pressed hard for the tax change in hopes of coming up with new product lines that could compete with popular low-alcohol drinks such as beer. Sales of domestic whiskey have been on the decline since 1989, according to the Japan Spirits and Liquor Makers Association. In 1992, whiskey sales were down roughly 40 percent from 1988. Whiskey-and-water drinks have the potential to usher in a new era for Japan’s whiskey industry, says Suntory Managing Director Shigeru Inuoe. Suntory shipped a cumulative 1.6 million cases by the end of July. A company spokeswoman says the results were within the range of expectations. One case consists of 24 cans. Nikka is not so hasty. Its cumulative shipments of 530,000 cases as of the end of August were below target, a company spokeswoman says.

security
suntory
tokyo tower
soy sauce
nikka
bodyguards


Tokyo stocks, helped by buying on dips, rebound after Tuesday's rout

Abstract: Stocks rebounded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Wednesday, helped by dip buying after the previous day’s rout. But some investors refrained from active buying ahead of the full-fledged start of an earnings reporting season, brokers said. The 225-issue Nikkei average rose 80.40 points, or 0.37 percent, to end at 22,091.18, after tumbling 604.04 points Tuesday. The Topix index of all first-section issues closed up 1.35 points, or 0.08 percent, at 1,652.07. It plunged 44.59 points the previous day. The Tokyo market saw crosscurrents of buying on dips in anticipation of a rally and selling of mainstay issues in the morning, with the Nikkei and Topix moving without direction, the brokers said. The closely watched indexes firmed in the afternoon, backed by continuing dip buying amid an upturn in Shanghai stocks, they said. “Considering the plunge the previous day, Wednesday’s rebound was weak,” an official of a major securities firm said. “Concerns over earnings reports are growing on a global scale” following downward revisions to business outlooks and earnings released this week by some major Japanese and U.S. companies, an official of a bank-affiliated securities firm said. Active buying was held in check as investors were selective, mainly buying back shares with brisk earnings, said Yoshihiko Tabei, chief analyst at Naito Securities Co. Investors also worried about external factors, including developments related to the alleged murder of a Saudi journalist, elevated U.S. interest rates, Italy’s budget and talks on Britain’s planned exit from the European Union, Tabei said. Rising issues outnumbered falling ones 1,283 to 729 in the TSE’s first section, while 96 issues were unchanged. Volume increased to 1.417 billion shares from 1.405 billion shares Tuesday. Nidec gained 1.60 percent as investors were cheered by the electronic parts maker’s consolidated earnings for April-September released Tuesday, brokers said. Oki Electric Industry jumped 9.51 percent a day after the company revised up its consolidated earnings forecasts for April-September. Other major winners included clothing retailer Fast Retailing and mobile phone carrier KDDI. Lower crude oil prices hurt oil names, among them JXTG and Idemitsu. Subaru plunged 7.02 percent after the automaker lowered its consolidated earnings forecasts for April to September on Tuesday. Also lower were game-maker Nintendo and semiconductor-related Sumco and Shin-Etsu Chemical. In index futures trading on the Osaka Exchange, the key December contract on the Nikkei average advanced 110 points to end at 22,030.


Dollar supported by higher Tokyo stocks, firmer around ¥112.50

Abstract: The dollar was firmer around ¥112.50 in late Tokyo trading Wednesday, supported by higher Tokyo stocks. At 5 p.m., the dollar stood at ¥112.50-50, up from ¥112.32-32 at the same time Tuesday. The euro was at $1.1429-1429, down from $1.1467-1468, and at ¥128.58-59, down from ¥128.80-81. After moving around ¥112.40 in early trading, the dollar climbed above ¥112.50 in midmorning trading after Chinese stocks opened higher. The greenback rose near ¥112.60 in the afternoon as the benchmark Nikkei stock average gained steam in line with a further rise in Chinese stocks. The dollar rose as “concerns over further falls in stock prices were dispelled,” a think tank official said. A currency market broker said the greenback was also supported by media reports that U.S. President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping are expected to hold talks at the end of next month.


Category 3 Hurricane Willa makes landfall on Mexico's Sinaloa coast

Abstract: MAZATLAN, MEXICO - Hurricane Willa swept onto Mexico’s Pacific mainland with 120 mph (195 kph) winds Tuesday night, hitting an area of fishing villages and farms after roaring over an offshore penal colony. The U.S. National Hurricane Center said the dangerous Category 3 storm hit near the town of Isla del Bosque in Sinaloa state. There were no early reports on damage. The storm was moving inland at 10 mph (17 kph) and was forecast to quickly begin losing power. Willa came ashore about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of Mazatlan, a resort city that is home to high-rise hotels and about 500,000 people, including many U.S. and Canadian expatriates. Although hotels, restaurants and stores were boarded over, people ventured onto Mazatlan’s coastal boulevard to watch a spectacular sunset as the hurricane obscured the sky to the south. Alberto Hernandez, a hotel worker in the town of Teacapan, close to where the storm made landfall, expressed confidence before it hit that the building would hold up. He and his son, who also works at the hotel, were staying on the job, though the rest of his family had left the area. “We’ve had rain all day. There is nobody in the streets. Everything is closed,” Hernandez said. “But not everyone wanted to leave, even though authorities made it clear that he who stays does so at his own peril.” Torrential rains began in the afternoon, and emergency officials said they evacuated more than 4,250 people in coastal towns and set up 58 shelters ahead of the dangerous storm. The storm also battered the Islas Marias, a group of Mexican islands about 60 miles (100 kilometers) off the mainland that include a nature preserve and a federal prison. Federal authorities declined to comment on precautions that were taken at the prison, citing security concerns, but said the safety of prisoners was a priority. As Willa closed in, the beach in Mazatlan almost disappeared, with waves slamming against the coastal boulevard under looming black clouds. A few surfers took advantage of the high waves even as workers boarded up windows on hotels, shops and homes. Schools were closed and the streets nearly empty. Some families went to a Mazatlan convention center, which opened its doors as a shelter. They spread out blankets along the walls and waited for the storm. “The house we’re living in is not well built,” said Sergio Ernesto Meri Franco, who rents a studio apartment. The federal government issued a decree of “extraordinary emergency” for 19 municipalities in Nayarit and Sinaloa states. Bob Swanson, who is from Saskatchewan, Canada, and spends two to six months of the year in his house in the Cerritos neighborhood near the shore in Mazatlan, said he filled his washing machine with water, topped up his home fuel tank and gassed up his car in case he needs to head into the mountains for safety. “I’m kind of waiting with bated breath,” he said over the phone, adding that he was sitting on his porch and smoking a cigarette. Forecasters said the hurricane could bring 6 to 12 inches (15 to 30 centimeters) of rain — with up to 18 inches (45 centimeters) in some places — to parts of Jalisco, Nayarit and Sinaloa states, with flash flooding and landslides possible in mountainous areas. Farther to the south, the remnants of Tropical Storm Vicente brought heavy rain that caused deadly flooding and mudslides. Federal disaster agency chief Luis Felipe Puente said 11 people had died as a result of Vicente. Local officials earlier put the figure at 12.

mexico
disasters
hurricanes
hurricane willa
mazatlan


Meghan Markle takes spotlight in Fiji to back female education

Abstract: SUVA - British royal Meghan Markle recounted her own struggles to afford university as she passionately promoted female education to Fijian students in her first speech of the Oceania royal tour Wednesday. The pregnant American-born wife of Britain’s Prince Harry took center stage at the University of the South Pacific to push the case for open access to education, particularly for women. “For women and girls in developing countries this is vital,” she said. “Providing them with access to education is the key to economic and social development. “When girls are given the right tools to succeed they can create incredible futures, not only for themselves, but for all of those around them.” Meghan, 37, graduated with a communications degree from Northwestern University in Illinois before becoming an actress then marrying Harry earlier this year. Announcing two grants to encourage female empowerment in Pacific academia, she said higher education for her was “incredible, impactful and pivotal,” despite the challenge of paying for it. “It was through scholarships, financial aid programs and work-study — where my earnings from a job on campus went directly towards my tuition — that I was able to attend university,” she said. “And, without question, it was worth every effort.” Harry, who attended the elite Eton school and Sandhurst military academy, looked on admiringly as his American spouse spoke. “No way I can follow my wife after that,” he said, to laughter from the assembled students. The prince acknowledged the Pacific’s concerns about climate change, announcing four scholarships to study the issue. “All of you living here are confronted with this threat in your daily lives,” he said. “You’re actually experiencing changing weather patterns, ferocious cyclones and rising sea levels, particularly in Tuvalu and Kiribati. “You’ve been living with this for many years, way before the world started talking about it.” The royal couple, who arrived in Fiji on Tuesday evening after a week in Australia, appeared relaxed touring the campus, meeting students and pre-school children. Meghan wore a pink floral print maxi-dress and flowers in her hair, while Harry sported a blue Hawaiian shirt. Harry is due to tour a rain forest project on Wednesday afternoon with Meghan visiting Suva markets. The royals will travel to Tonga on Thursday before returning briefly to Australia then wrapping up the tour with a visit to New Zealand.

u.k .
prince harry
women
education
fiji
meghan markle


U.S. CDC warns pregnant women against traveling to Japan amid rubella outbreak

Abstract: WASHINGTON - A U.S. national health organization is warning that pregnant women should not travel to Japan during the current outbreak of rubella unless protected against the disease through either vaccination or previous infection. The warning came from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday when the Washington-based institute raised its alert level for the rubella outbreak in Japan to “Level 2,” the second-highest of 3 levels. In Japan, more than 1,100 rubella cases have been reported this year, raising concern about serious health impacts on unborn babies who could be infected with the disease by their mothers during pregnancy. The contagious disease is often transmitted through coughing and sneezing. Infection in the early stages of pregnancy can cause birth defects, such as hearing impairment, cataracts and heart disorders.


Nikkei tumbles to two-month closing low on earnings concerns

Abstract: Stocks nose-dived Tuesday on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, hurt by position-adjustment selling and growing concerns over corporate earnings, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 average closing at its lowest level in more than two months. The Nikkei tumbled 604.04 points, or 2.67 percent, to end at 22,010.78, the lowest closing level since Aug. 13, after briefly falling below the 22,000 line. On Monday, the key market gauge gained 82.74 points. The Topix, which covers all first-section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, closed 44.59 points, or 2.63 percent, lower at 1,650.72, the lowest finish since Sept. 15 last year. It rose 2.46 points Monday. Selling outpaced buying from the outset of Tuesday’s session on the heels of weak U.S. and European equities, brokers said. The market accelerated its downswing later, with investor sentiment dampened by lower U.S. stock index futures in off-hours trading and the sluggish performance of Shanghai stocks. “Concerns over earnings reports rapidly grew among investors,” an official of a bank-affiliated securities firm said, noting weaker than expected business results released this week by some major companies, including Kawasaki Heavy. Selling by major funds may have hit the market, said Mitsuo Shimizu, chief strategist at Aizawa Securities Co. On top of the earnings worries, uncertainties over external factors, including the U.S.-China trade friction and developments related to the alleged murder of a Saudi journalist, left investors increasingly risk-averse, brokers said. “Earnings releases will be the key” for the course of the Tokyo market, the official of the bank-affiliated securities firm said. Falling issues far outnumbered rising ones 2,015 to 79 in the first section, while 14 issues were unchanged. Volume increased to 1.405 billion shares from 1.135 billion Monday. Lixil plunged 15.76 percent after the housing equipment maker announced Monday a downward revision to its consolidated operating profit forecast for the year through March 2019. Hitachi Chemical met with selling after the company’s April-September earnings, released Monday, failed to impress investors, brokers said. Other major losers included mobile phone carrier SoftBank Group and game maker Nintendo. On the other hand, electric appliance maker Casio and beverage producer Kirin Holdings were buoyant.


Tokyo stocks tumble amid fears over geopolitical risks

Abstract: Tokyo stocks tumbled Tuesday, with the benchmark Nikkei 225 average sliding to a two-month low amid lingering worries over geopolitical risks and ahead of the corporate earnings report season. The Nikkei ended down 604.04 points, or 2.67 percent, from Monday at 22,010.78. The Topix, which covers all first-section issues on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, finished 44.59 points, or 2.63 percent, lower at 1,650.72. “Geopolitical risks linked to the EU and the Middle East dragged down share prices, extending falls on New York’s Dow,” Okasan Online Securities said in a commentary. The falls in Tokyo came after another volatile day of trading on Wall Street, in which major indices extended losses, with the looming U.S. congressional elections also making for rough seas. “Selling hit financial stocks in New York, dampening sentiment,” said Mutsumi Kagawa, chief global strategist at Rakuten Securities. “Caution has also risen due to recent rising volatility after New York stocks powered to their highest-ever levels and the Nikkei hit its 27-year high,” he said. Market players are waiting for Japanese corporate results while watching U.S. earnings results coming out now, he said. Every industry category in the main section lost ground, led by metal product, construction, and glass and ceramics product issues. Housing equipment producer Lixil Group plunged ¥325, or 15.8 percent, to ¥1,737 after the company on Monday lowered its group net profit outlook for the current business year through March. “Sluggish corporate earnings reports including Lixil Group dented investors’ risk appetite as they had expected good earnings results and outlooks from Japanese firms,” Shimizu added. The yen’s advance against the dollar also capped the upside of export-related issues, brokers said. On the first section, 2,015 issues (over 95 percent of the total) lost ground, while only 79 advanced and 14 ended the day unchanged. Companies dependent on business in China met heavy selling following a drop in Chinese equities, with Hitachi Construction Machinery falling ¥170, or 5.0 percent, to ¥3,235 and Yaskawa Electric dropping ¥125, or 3.8 percent, to ¥3,185. Trading volume on the main section rose to 1.405 billion shares from 1.135 billion Monday.


Australia issues sanctions against five Myanmar generals

Abstract: SYDNEY - Australia’s government on Tuesday unveiled sanctions against five officers in Myanmar’s powerful military who are accused of overseeing barbaric violence against members of the Rohingya ethnic group. Following similar actions by the United States and the European Union, Australia announced it would freeze the assets of officers including a lieutenant general who commanded a special operations group believed to be behind atrocities. Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne said the officers — Aung Kyaw Zaw, Maung Maung Soe, Aung Aung, Than Oo and Khin Maung Soe were “responsible for human rights violations committed by units under their command.” The five, some of whom are since believed to have stepped down from their posts, will also be banned from traveling to Australia. Around 700,000 Rohingya have been driven from their homes in Rakhine state, in southwest Myanmar, since 2016. The campaign has been marked by numerous extrajudicial killings, mass rape and the burning of villages by security forces.

war
human rights
australia
myanmar
genocide
rohingya
ethnic cleansing


South Korea joins Japan in warning citizens over smoking pot in Canada

Abstract: SEOUL - South Korea has followed Japan in warning its citizens against smoking marijuana in Canada, telling them that even though the country legalized weed last week, using it there was still an offense under Seoul’s own laws. Consumption, possession or sale of illegal substances are criminal offenses under South Korea’s tough drugs legislation. Last Wednesday, Canada became the world’s first major economy to fully legalize cannabis, including for recreational use, sparking celebrations as the nation embarked on the controversial policy experiment. But South Korea’s criminal laws apply both territorially and personally, officials said, meaning that its citizens would still face punishment for smoking weed even if they did so in Canada. “South Korean individuals who use marijuana (including purchase, possession and transport) — even in regions where such acts are legal — are violating the law and will be punished accordingly,” the South Korean Embassy in Canada tweeted last week. “So please beware,” it said. Last week, the Japanese government also issued warnings that Japan’s law on cannabis use may apply to its nationals even when they are abroad. In South Korea, prominent figures or celebrities have often made headlines for smoking marijuana at home or abroad, with offenses in foreign countries revealed by tip-offs to police. Some spent years in jail during the 1970s or ’80s when the country was under military rule, but in recent years many were merely fined or given suspended terms. South Korea is not the only country that punishes people for foreign narcotics use. In Singapore, which has some of the toughest drugs laws in the world, citizens and permanent residents face up to 10 years in prison if found to have consumed illegal substances outside the city-state. Random urine checks are carried out at Changi Airport and other entry points.


More Japanese medical universities seen rigging entrance exams: education ministry report

Abstract: More medical universities in Japan are likely to have manipulated entrance exam results against female applicants and favored particular individuals, the education ministry said in its midterm report Tuesday, without disclosing the names of the institutions. The ministry has been probing 81 medical schools in Japan since Tokyo Medical University admitted in August it had deducted exam scores to curb female enrollment and avoid a shortage of doctors at its hospitals, on the grounds that female doctors tend to resign or take long leave after getting married or giving birth. In its midterm report on the probe, the ministry gave four examples, including a similar bias against female applicants and applicants who have failed the exams many times in the past, as well as the padding of scores for applicants who are children of alumni. Other misconduct includes boosting the scores of first-time exam takers and accepting applicants from a waiting-list in an order that wasn’t based on their scores. “I find it deeply disappointing that applicants have been betrayed and social trust in universities has been undermined,” said education minister Masahiko Shibayama, while urging all universities nationwide to review their selection process before their entrance exams next year. The Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry did not disclose the names of the universities involved, saying it told the universities that it is important for them to make it public. Last week, Showa University revealed it had padded scores for applicants, while Juntendo University also announced it will set up a panel to investigate allegations of bias against female prospective students. The ministry report also listed other practices, including making applicants give their family members’ names, occupations and which schools they have graduated from, and asking applicants about their family and financial situation in detail. The report said it should be deemed inappropriate to decide acceptance or rejection without rational grounds or prior explanations and to discriminate based on gender, age, and how many times prospective students have applied. Among the 81 universities being probed, the ministry has conducted on-site surveys at 30, including those in which the pass rate of female applicants was notably lower than that of male applicants. Last month, the ministry’s preliminary results of a survey, conducted following the Tokyo Medical University scandal, showed men passed entrance exams more than women at 78 percent of medical schools. The ministry now plans to check the remaining 51 schools and compile a final report by the end of the year, it said.

discrimination
exams
medical schools
female applicants


Nobel laureate Tasuku Honjo calls for a better environment in Japan for life science research

Abstract: Nobel laureate and immunologist Tasuku Honjo on Tuesday called for a better environment in Japan for conducting research in the life sciences, saying more efforts are needed by both the private and public sectors in enabling researchers to come up with medical cures for illnesses such as cancer. The Kyoto University professor, who was awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in medicine for his studies on cancer therapy that focus on controlling the immune system, told a meeting of ruling lawmakers at the Liberal Democratic Party headquarters in Tokyo about difficulties in the process that led to the development of the immunotherapeutic drug Opdivo. He spoke of his partnership with a Japanese pharmaceutical firm that didn’t always work, his cooperation with a U.S. company that led to clinical trials for the drug and his recollection that the favorable results of the tests that came out in 2012 were not covered by the Japanese media. “Researchers around the world were surprised by the results because at the time people didn’t think immunotherapy was effective in treating cancer,” Honjo said. “Most of the patients who took part in the clinical trials were terminal cancer patients and the drug was effective for 20 to 30 percent of those patients. In addition, the effect continued even after administering of the medicine was stopped after half a year,” he said. “This was unthinkable based on conventional cancer treatment then and newspapers around the world including The Wall Street Journal reported on it as the top story on their front page, but none of the media organizations in Japan reported on it and that left quite an impression on me,” he added. Honjo and his colleagues identified what is called programmed cell death protein 1, also known as PD-1, in 1992 and discovered later that the substance works like a brake on the immune system. As applying the brakes means lowering immunity and making the body susceptible to infectious diseases and cancer, they experimented with removing PD-1 in mice, leading to an activation of their immune systems, which in turn resulted in almost no tumor growth. Honjo said a small-scale clinical test he conducted at Kyoto University among ovarian cancer patients found that treatment was effective for about half of the human subjects, and particularly for one of them who had clear cell carcinoma, an extremely malignant type of cancer, with the tumor completely disappearing after four months of treatment. The drug is believed to be effective for cancer in any part of the body, he noted. With many trials conducted around the world in combination with other treatment methods such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy, the 76-year-old Kyoto native expressed hope that the new treatment would eventually become the No. 1 choice for cancer patients. But he noted that a lot of work lies ahead, including improving its efficacy rate and training cancer specialists, many of whom are not well-versed on immunology. Amid the promising prospects, Honjo noted that Japanese pharmaceutical companies are expected to lag far behind those overseas, especially American firms, in handling antibodies targeting PD-1. “The number of clinical trials in Japan using Opdivo is one-ninth of that in the United States and even smaller than in China,” he said, referring to the drug developed by Japanese firm Ono Pharmaceutical Co. and U.S. company Medarex. “This is the situation of Japan, even though this is where the treatment originated.” He said many Japanese pharmaceuticals are run by businessmen, whereas their counterparts in American firms often have medical degrees and have a better understanding of the products they handle. He also called for more government assistance toward basic research, which would support the crucial starting point in the process for a medical product to come into existence. Honjo was chosen as a joint recipient of this year’s Nobel prize for physiology or medicine along with American immunologist James Allison.

awards
medicine
cancer
nobel prize
tasuku honjo


Setouchi sets ¥500 million goal to bring renowned Japanese sword back 'home'

Abstract: The city of Setouchi in Okayama Prefecture, which once flourished as a major producer of swords, said Tuesday it will use crowdfunding as part of an attempt to raise a total of ¥500 million from in and outside the country to bring back “home” a renowned sword called Yamatorige. The sword, whose name literally translates as mountain bird plumage, measures 79.5 centimeters in length and weighs 1.06 kilograms. The antique sword was made in the Kamakura Period (1185-1333) by a smith from the Ichimonji school in an area called Bizen-Osafune — what is now Setouchi — and was owned by Uesugi Kenshin, one of the country’s most famous warlords. “This sword has a special meaning for our region, for Okayama and the whole country, and we want to draw more interest in bladesmithing culture,” Setouchi Mayor Akinari Takehisa told a news conference in Tokyo. The city is concerned that the national treasure, which is currently held by a private collector at a museum in the city of Okayama run by the prefecture, may be sold to owners outside the prefecture or even to another country. To secure funds matching the request of the private collector, who lives in Okayama, the city will start accepting donations from individuals under the furusato nōzei (hometown tax donation system) for three months starting Nov. 1, as well as contributions from people overseas via a crowdfunding website for two months . In return, contributors will receive various items related to the famous blade, such as paper knives, tapestries and T-shirts. People who donate about ¥28.8 million could receive a replica of Yamatorige worth ¥8.6 million, the city said. Takehisa believes that returning the sword to the place of its origin could also help restore the city’s profile as a center of bladesmithing culture and support efforts to pass down swordsmithing skills and knowledge in the city, where only seven smiths are left. It also hopes that the item will also attract tourists and reinvigorate the economy. “We want to spread this amazing culture throughout the world through documentation, videos and items we’re going to offer in return for donations,” the mayor said. In addition to praising the sword’s value, Paul Martin, a British expert on Japanese swords, said at the news conference that he hopes this project will enable people outside Japan to learn about the wider context of the sword, its creation and its significance.

crowdfunding
swords
japanese swords
warlords


150 years on, Abe calls for 'emulation' of Meiji Era bravery to overcome Japan's modern crises

Abstract: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tuesday that Japan should “emulate” ancestors from the Meiji Era (1868-1912) in its ongoing attempt to combat the various difficulties it faces today. His comments came as the nation marked the 150th anniversary of the start of the era credited with its shift toward modernization. At a government-organized event in Tokyo commemorating the anniversary, Abe praised the steps ancestors took toward reinventing Japan after years of feudal rule and likened their “brave” fight against the sweeping rise of Western powers to his own effort today to overcome national challenges, including a rapidly shrinking population. But he did not directly refer to Japan’s wars in the past 150 years or its colonization of the Korean Peninsula between 1910 and 1945 . “As we head toward an era beyond the (current) Heisei period, we will emulate people in the Meiji Era and carve out a future without balking at any challenges,” Abe said. Japan is set to undergo a historic transition in April next year with Emperor Akihito’s abdication, which will bring end the Heisei era to an end. At the event, attended by about 300 representatives from the political, judicial and business communities, Abe compared Japan’s situation today to the “crisis” from 150 years ago, when Western powers began making forays into Asia in what he characterized as a “wave of colonialism.” “Having lagged behind them in terms of national strength, we faced a crisis that threatened our survival,” Abe said, noting the “bravery” of those in the Meiji Era who “literally risked their lives” to protect Japan’s independence against the threat of Western powers. “Today, we experience a rapidly shrinking and graying population internally, while at the same time finding ourselves in the throes of turmoil amid the drastically changing landscape of the international community. This means we’re going through an era of national crises,” Abe said. Japan, he said, has to rise above these challenges just as the Meiji predecessors successfully adapted to a new era with “bravery and bold decisions.” The closest Abe came to acknowledging Japan’s past wars was when he encouraged a younger generation to learn from both the “bright and dark sides” of what took place in the process of modernization. He did not, however, elaborate on what these darker aspects were. This lack of reference to Japan’s past wars prompted the Japanese Communist Party to boycott the ceremony. Akira Koike, head of the party’s secretariat, told a news conference Monday that the JCP cannot attend what it regards as an event that seeks to “glorify” the whole of Japan’s past 150 years. In the speech, Abe credited the Meiji Era with “laying the foundation for Japan’s modern-day political, economic and social systems,” noting the era brought about an industrial revolution, initiated railway services and developed postal, financial and educational systems. “Feeling proud of (these accomplishments), we need to stride ahead with resolution today,” he said. The government hosted a similar commemorative ceremony on Oct. 23, 1968, when the nation marked the centennial anniversary of the imperial edict declaring the transition to the Meiji Era from the previous Keio period.

shinzo abe
meiji era
ceremony
150th anniversary


Jun Ashida, former personal designer for Empress Michiko, dies at age 88

Abstract: Jun Ashida, founder of the eponymous brand and a former personal designer for Empress Michiko, died Saturday of pneumonia at his home in Tokyo. He was 88. The youngest of eight children in a doctor’s family, Ashida decided to become a fashion designer after experiencing culture shock when he saw the clothes of one of his elder brothers and his wife when they returned from the United States before World War II. He studied under Junichi Nakahara, an artist with influence over a wide range of areas at the time, including magazines, fashion and interior design. In 1960, Ashida became a consulting designer for the Takashimaya Co. department store chain, and in 1963 he launched a clothing brand, the predecessor of his own Jun Ashida brand. Specializing in a traditional and sophisticated style of clothing, Ashida long worked on the front lines of the fashion industry, including presenting his work on Tokyo Collection runways from 1964 onwards. For 10 years from 1966, he worked as exclusive designer for Empress Michiko, who was the Crown Princess at the time. He was also responsible for designing the dresses worn by Crown Princess Masako on her wedding day in 1993. Ashida designed the official uniforms of the Japanese national team at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. He also designed uniforms for many companies, including All Nippon Airways. Ashida was awarded the Medal with Purple Ribbon in 1991 and the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon in 2006. His second daughter, Tae Ashida, is also a designer.


Alcohol business looks at a new golden goose for profits: pot

Abstract: NEW YORK - The world’s major alcohol producers can no longer ignore the pot phenomenon, as young consumers may increasingly swap beer and cocktails for joints and cannabis-infused drinks. Some have decisively seized the moment. Constellation Brands, maker of Corona beer and Svedka vodka, has poured $4 billion into the Canadian marijuana firm Canopy Growth. The coming market is “potentially one of the most significant global growth opportunities of the next decade,” said Constellation Chief Executive Robert Sands. Sales of legal marijuana and related products should reach $200 billion within 15 years and the market is opening “much more rapidly than originally anticipated,” he said. Following in Uruguay’s footsteps, Canada on Wednesday will become the second country in the world to legalize recreational marijuana. Cannabis is still banned under U.S. federal law for any purpose but nine states so far have legalized its recreational use under their own laws, while others have moved toward softening its prohibition in recent years. As a result newer methods of consumption are proliferating: edibles in the form of candies, baked goods and ice creams as well as vaporizers and ointments. And then there are drinks. Diageo, the world’s largest producer of spirits, including Smirnoff vodka and Johnny Walker whisky, is in talks with Canadian producers. In response to a question, the company said only that it is closely watching the market. Beer producer Molson Coors has also announced a joint venture with Canada’s Hydropothecary Corp. Others are more reluctant. Alexandre Ricard, CEO of Pernod Ricard, explained at the end of August that his company is keeping an eye on the market, especially to determine whether it is likely to “cannibalize” consumption of high-end liquors. And for now, the signals are mixed. Researchers at the University of Connecticut and Georgia State University last year found sales of alcohol dipped 12.4 percent in U.S. counties where medical marijuana was legalized. But others, including the Distilled Spirits Council, an industry body representing liquor makers in the United States, say sales have not been hurt. “It is still too soon to say one way or the other,” said Keith Villa, a Colorado brewmaster. Creator of the popular Belgian-style “Blue Moon” wheat beer, Villa plans to market a nonalcoholic brew containing THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana. “As with a regular beer, you get a buzz that is similar to the alcohol buzz,” he said. “But the next morning you should not have a hangover.” While it is possible to mix alcohol and cannabis, he has not gone down that road. Doing so is illegal and the two substances can compound each other’s effects, he said. Hemp beers and those containing cannabidiol, a cannabis component that is not psychoactive, are already available. There also are drinks with added THC. In California this summer, Lagunitas, a property of Holland’s Heineken, began marketing Hi-Fi Hops, a non-alcoholic concoction that makes drinkers feel high. Southern Glazer, North America’s largest wine and liquor distributor, has created a subsidiary specifically devoted to distributing cannabis in Canada. Soft drink makers, which have seen sales suffer as consumers turn away from high-sugar sodas, can’t afford to ignore rising demand either. Coca-Cola has reportedly discussed producing cannabis-infused drinks with Canada’s Aurora Cannabis. And while PepsiCo. said this month it has no plans to develop a similar drink, Chief Financial Officer Hugh Johnston told CNBC the company will still “look at it critically.” Canaccord Genuity analysts forecast sales of THC-infused and CBC-infused drinks could reach $600 million by 2022. Brewers have all the more reason to get involved, they say, since craft beers sales are no longer growing as briskly as they once were. The Distilled Spirits Council has avoided taking a position on legalizing recreational marijuana but it does say cannabis regulations — on taxation, age limits and consumption prior to driving — should be as strict as those for alcohol.