Celebrating the memes the 2018 soccer World Cup has created

Abstract: Japan’s surprising success at the 2018 World Cup in Russia has dominated headlines and morning shows domestically. News organizations abroad, however, honed in on a very different topic — trash. It was a virtual replay of one of the last World Cup’s most viral stories : Japanese supporters stuck around after the national team’s matches and cleaned up their own garbage . Western websites gushed over the practice, with numerous outlets devoting space to explaining why this was part of Japanese culture at large . Upping the ante from 2014, fans of other countries joined in , leading to more uplifting stories and speculation that Japan kick-started this tidying-up trend . Perhaps it’s the latest incarnation of some people’s fascination with “ nice Japan ,” or just a smear of marshmallow cream on a particularly depressing online news cycle. However, it’s defined Japan’s World Cup in English-language media (and served as a wake-up call for some Chinese media ). Japanese news outlets, meanwhile, haven’t latched onto it quite as hard — the squad’s performance leads — but plenty of reports and tweets have celebrated this shared interest in collecting rubbish. It tiptoes toward Japanese exceptionalism, but for the most part is taken as feel-good content for Facebook. That said, Japan’s web-centric publications and netizens found plenty of other juicy stories around the games. The first big viral post of the competition actually focused on something negative, a rarity at a gathering like the World Cup. Buzzfeed Japan reported on a video of a Colombia fan asking two Japanese women to repeat a phrase that essentially meant “I’m a prostitute” (in more vulgar terms) in Spanish, without them realizing it. Many Colombians denounced his actions. The end result of the June 19 match — a 2-1 win for Japan — prompted a different sort of meme. Colombia fan @stephyayy tweeted “F— sushi forever” out of frustration. Japanese fans found it, and proceeded to flood her mentions with sushi, in emoji and photo form , much to netizens’ delight . Buzzfeed, meanwhile, highlighted how many outside Japan reacted to the win — by comparing the players to anime . It was the Senegal game on June 24 that got netizens buzzing the most, however. While Japan charmed with good manners, the Senegalese team attracted viral attention for their joyous dancing , which one Japanese Twitter user found goes well with bubbly idol pop . The match itself provided a stadium’s-worth of moments to be transformed into memes. Goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima’s boneheaded decision to punch the ball right into the leg of an opposing player (causing it to ricochet into the goal) led to a lot of digital groans, and one creative effort to fix it . Offside traps wowed viewers at home and around the world . A guy in the stands delivered a solid header , and he’s already selling merch . And the game ended in a draw, though Keisuke Honda’s face after scoring the equalizer feels like a win for … well, the whole internet. The aftermath of that result gave the web one more viral hit, as actor John Sulo sang the theme song to “One Piece” with several Japan fans (and people say Cool Japan doesn’t work?). Japanese netizens also developed a fascination with Senegalese head coach Aliou Cisse. A popular hashtag imagined the 42-year-old manager as a school band teacher, with all sorts of riffs using photos of him . Interest in Cisse remained strong even ahead of the Poland game, with users imagining him in other situations, like buying cigarettes . Later, Japanese netizens expressed sympathy and respect for him after Senegal went out due to fair-play points (online, reaction to Japan’s pass-a-thon to close out the loss to Poland ranged from “ boring ” to people joking about how casual fans don’t get how the World Cup works). Most of the stuff coming out of Russia during the World Cup is fun and vaguely upbeat, which is fitting for a large-scale sporting event. Yet one final online trend in Japan subverts the narrative built around the good manners of the Samurai Blue’s supporters. Following all group games, fans took to the streets of Shibuya for some revelry . Plenty of YouTubers made videos reacting to the win, but it was Hikakin, the nation’s most popular creator, who came up with a different twist. He went to Shibuya the morning after the first victory — and cleaned up trash left by fans the night before . Others started making similar clips . The Shibuya scramble crossing didn’t look like “Mad Max” or anything — it wasn’t even close to being as grungy as it gets after Halloween — but after all the English-language praise about Japan’s “culture of cleaning up,” it was nice to be reminded that such blanket generalizations simply aren’t true. Turns out Japanese fans are like any other sports fan in the world — they want to go nuts when their team does well and maybe abandon some beer cans in the street accidentally.


Implementation of minpaku laws lambasted

Abstract: One year ago, the Kasumigaseki Watch column in the monthly business magazine Keizaikai (August 2017) noted that while the government has set an annual target of 40 million foreign visitors by 2020, the tourism ministry was unable to formulate an effective strategy due to “insufficient” staistical data. Keizaikai cited a survey by the Tourism Agency in which hotel statistics suggested a decline in the number of foreign visitors — which contradicted port-of-entry data that showed record-breaking arrivals. The inconsistency, it was supposed, could be attributed to the increase in stays at “residences offering lodgings” — commonly referred to in Japanese as minpaku — of which as many as 40,000 may have existed up to last month. The report was careful not to blame minpaku entirely for the discrepancy, as visitors might also spend their nights sleeping aboard cruise ships, overnighting on long-distance buses, in internet cafes and other places excluded from the tally. More to the point, a government ministry was openly expressing displeasure with the status quo. And when that happens, some sort of crackdown usually follows. That’s what occurred on June 15 of this year, when a new law went into effect that will require minpaku to maintain a registry of guests, a certain level of hygiene and respond promptly to any complaints from neighbors. It also restricted the offering of accommodations in private homes to a maximum of 180 days a year, with violators subject to fines of up to ¥1 million. Nikkei Business (June 18) reported the reaction to the new law with the headline “Bureaucratic clumsiness invokes chaos.” The law’s good intentions aside, the magazine lambasted what was happening on the front lines of the business as resembling a “slapstick comedy.” In condominiums and other large buildings, when used for nonresidential purposes, the law makes it obligatory for owners to install a sprinkler system, but few minpaku operators have bothered to do so, mainly because the costs were prohibitive. With the new law, however, local fire inspectors must visit and issue their stamp of approval. Previously they’d been willing to overlook the ordinances if a site was equipped with other safety features, such as flame-retardant walls. Waste disposal also figures in the equation. In the past, guests would just discard their waste in the same manner as other residents. But now minpaku operators are being pressured to pay for their rubbish pickup, which requires them to deal with a private contractor. But few such contractors are set up to deal with minpaku clients. While the operators were attempting to negotiate the new obstacle course erected by the bureaucracy, online booking service Airbnb cancelled some 30,000 minpaku reservations during June. “Airbee,” as it’s popularly called in Japanese, is said to have incurred considerable losses. On its morning program on June 15, NHK Radio chimed in with its own justification for the crackdown on minpaku. Citing the Nov. 13, 2015, attacks by IS terrorists in Paris in which 130 people were killed and another 413 injured, the broadcast implied that minpaku might serve as a base for terrorists — despite there being no evidence that the attackers in France had availed themselves of online booking services. Nevertheless, at the urging of the Metropolitan Police Department ahead of the 2020 Olympics, minpaku hosts will be encouraged to report any “suspicious behavior” on the part of guests, including refusing to allow their passport to be photocopied, referring to a memo or other separate document when transcribing their own name or address, or when the actual number of staying guests turns out to vary from what was initially reserved. “It’s possible terrorists will choose to stay at minpaku, where identification checks are vague,” explained Isao Itabashi, head of the Research Center at the Council for Public Policy, during the broadcast, adding, “So it’s important that along with sharing data on suspicious guests, the minpaku operators liaise closely with the police.” Meanwhile, Shukan Shincho (June 21) reported that — of all places — a five-story sumo stable in Tokyo’s Sumida Ward has become involved in the current minpaku kerfuffle. A member of the Takasago Ichimon group, the Nishikido stable occupies the building’s basement and first two floors. To supplement its revenues, 10 rooms on the three upper floors, named Mitoizumi using the stablemaster’s former name, were intended from the get-go to be rented out. The rooms were advertised on an unnamed booking service’s website with the description: “Super rare! Famous sumo stablemaster on ground floor! Just three minutes from JR Ryogoku Station. Relatively new; auto-lock.” Some displeased residents of the neighborhood were heard to remark, “Recently lots of foreign guests with rucksacks and luggage have been coming and going … so we supposed the place was being operated as a minpaku.” The stablemaster’s excuse was that he had entrusted two realtors to rent out the rooms, and one, unbeknown to him, had hooked up with the minpaku booking service. For a charge of just ¥5,539 per night, sojourners could stay in a conveniently located room furnished with a microwave oven and refrigerator. Stablemaster Nishikido insisted he only became aware of the situation after receiving complaints about noise late at night. “I feel like I’ve been swindled,” he told the magazine. Nacio Cronin, the Imperial Hotel’s director of international public relations, says: “Aside from obvious safety concerns such as fires, injuries and property damages resulting from usage of unsupervised, unfamiliar facilities, the mere idea of unmonitored foreign guests on holiday evidently raises concerns among some less internationally oriented natives.” As such, he says, minpaku may be “incompatible with the Japanese national character.” Asked if he thought the new restrictions might lead to a pinch on hotel rooms, Cronin echoed predictions already voiced by numerous others that in July and August of 2020, many visitors not acclimated to the intense heat and oppressive tropical humidity of Tokyo “will likely seek out more than just a small air-conditioned cubicle.” “Two summers from now, Tokyo may be facing a severe shortage of accommodation options,” he warned.


Shinzo Abe's Kake Gakuen scandal refuses to lie down and die

Abstract: Most people believe politicians lie, though the reflexive skepticism with which the current U.S. president’s pronouncements are met is probably exceptional. The secret to successful lying is to never admit to it in the slightest way. That rule of thumb has been challenged by a development in the neverending scandal associated with an Ehime Prefecture veterinary school the government approved last year. The school is run by Kake Gakuen, a company whose chairman, Kotaro Kake, is suspected of having used his friendship with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to get the school opened. Both men insist their relationship had no impact on Kake’s approval, but then, in May, officials of Ehime Prefecture said that an employee of Kake Gakuen told them prior to their acceptance of the school that Abe had discussed the matter with Kake in a meeting that took place on Feb. 25, 2015. Abe, however, claims he only learned about the project in January 2017. The school official, Yoshihito Watanabe, then backtracked and said there was no meeting and that he lied to Ehime officials, without really explaining why (something about his “mood” at the moment). As Masao Yora pointed out in his May 30 Mainichi Shimbun column , Watanabe’s confession set up an interesting conundrum. He admits to lying and yet the general feeling, at least among the press, is that he is lying about the lie. In order to protect his boss and the prime minister, he falls on his sword, hoping that by doing so the scandal will finally draw to a close. However, what’s significant about Watanabe’s admission, says Yora, is that eventual approval of the veterinary school may have been based on his lie. If that’s the case, shouldn’t the approval be reviewed? More to the point — and something even Yora doesn’t mention — is that the lie implies that the prime minister’s interest affected the approval process, even though, ethically speaking, it shouldn’t have. The fact that Kotaro Kake himself held a news conference on June 19 to reinforce the story that there was never a meeting between him and Abe regarding the school only proves that the matter still isn’t settled. The ostensible reason for the event was for Kake to announce his company’s in-house punishment of not only Watanabe, but also himself as Watanabe’s superior, to take responsibility for the lie. However, the news conference simply exacerbated existing doubts about the veracity of Kake’s story. The timing alone raised eyebrows. Kake called the news conference two hours before it was to take place at the company’s headquarters in Okayama, a day after a major earthquake struck Osaka, thus assuring that any coverage would be buried inside newspapers and on nightly news broadcasts. More significantly, only members of the local press club were invited to attend, locking out major media outlets. Nevertheless, when TV Asahi heard about the news conference it diverted a crew covering the quake to Okayama. They didn’t get in, but they did make a report that was broadcast on TV Asahi’s Hodo Station that night, showing them standing at the gates of Kake Gakuen asking the school’s PR representative why they couldn’t enter. The person cited time and space limitations, although later in the broadcast TV Asahi aired footage showing that there was plenty of room during the news conference. The event lasted 25 minutes, and consisted mostly of an explanation of the veterinary school, but during the Q&A session, Kake was visibly uncomfortable. Several times he seemed incapable of maintaining his story, which was that there was “no record” of his discussing the school with Abe on Feb. 25, 2015. One reporter asked him when he talked about the school with the prime minister “for the first time.” Flustered, Kake said he didn’t think he talked about it, and then corrected himself, saying it was after approval. This admission led to a flurry of questions about the details of that discussion, with Kake repeatedly saying, “I can’t remember.” This exchange was similar to one that took place in the Diet on May 25 between opposition lawmaker Yuko Mori and Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Kotaro Nogami regarding visitor logs that would have indicated if Kake had visited Abe at the prime minister’s residence on the date in question. Officially, these logs don’t exist because apparently they are immediately thrown away for reasons that make no sense to anyone. Mori pointed out that on May 22, Abe told the Diet that he “confirmed” he hadn’t met Kake on that date, but if there are no logs, how could he confirm such a thing? Nogami replied that they “confirmed there was no log.” The conversation turned even more slapstick when Mori and Nogami sparred over a YouTube video showing Abe being interviewed on a 2012 TV variety show and “bragging” about the detailed records of visitors to the residence. Did the policy change? asked Mori. Nogami said Abe was talking about something else. Regardless of whether there was a meeting between Abe and Kake three years ago, attempts by the Liberal Democratic Party and Kake to shut the matter down have been inept. During a June 22 Bunka Hoso radio discussion , writer Isao Mori explained how Kake demanded he retract something he wrote about a meeting between Kake officials and the education minister in 2014, providing him with an authorized itinerary of the day he cited in the article as proof. Mori made the correction, but now he wonders why, if Kake keeps such meticulous records, they can’t provide the press with Kotaro Kake’s schedule for Feb. 25, 2015. If they did that, the scandal would be over in a minute, but all they do is “confirm” that there is no record. Following its report, Hodo Station commentator Kenji Goto explained that the news conference was probably called to convince the public that the matter has been resolved, but the only thing it verifiably did was further inflame the opposition’s and the media’s suspicions. What the public thinks is anybody’s guess.


Japan Times 1918: Captain Yoshita Masaki saved after insisting on going down with his ship

Abstract: 100 YEARS AGO Thursday, July 18 1918 Nothing definite has yet been ascertained as to the cause of the explosion on the Kawachi. It is supposed that the disaster was due to the ignition of powder or heavy oil. An eyewitness states that at the time of the explosion the thick yellow fumes of powder and the black smoke of the oil were both noticeable. The vessel is lying at a depth of nine fathoms and there is some hope that she may be refloated and once more take her place among the floating castles of the Japanese Navy as was the case of the Mikasa, which met with a similar fate several years ago at Sasebo. Capt. Yoshita Masaki is said to have remained aboard his ship until the last moment, apparently determined to share her fate, and paying no heed to the officers and men who besought him to leave while there was yet time. It was necessary to take him by the arms and positively force him into the boat, and then he told those accompanying him that he would only survive so long as the cause of the disaster remained unknown. When everything had been cleared up, he said he would take proper steps to discharge his responsibilities. 75 YEARS AGO Wednesday, July 14, 1943 First library for blind to hold opening rites The building to house the first library for the blind in Japan has been completed at Suwa-cho, Yodobashi-ku, and the opening ceremonies will take place there on July 18. The project was started through the efforts of Kazuo Homma 20, who lost his eyesight when 6 years old, to start a library for the blind. Realizing that very few facilities for cultural development were accessible to the blind, Homma had determined on the occasion of the 2600th year celebration of the founding of the Japanese Empire to dedicate his life to the construction of a library for the blind. His privately operated Braille library has been utilized by 1,200 persons up to the present and the average monthly circulation of the books amounted to 1,000 volumes. “The library work cannot be done by the blind people alone, as the braille books must be produced for us by people who can see and, therefore I would earnestly ask for the cooperation and assistance of all,” Homma said. 50 YEARS AGO Friday, July 5, 1968 Monkeys roam free in the streets of Osaka Two monkeys hopped from roof to roof and roamed around busy shopping streets Thursday in Tennoji, Osaka, evading 30 zoo officials and 15 policemen. They escaped from Tennoji Zoo at around 6:50 p.m. Wednesday after climbing over a 3.5-meter-tall fence of the popular Monkey Island, along with three others. Out of the five animals, one was caught and two others returned to the zoo early Thursday morning. A search for them was resumed at 3:30 a.m. under the direction of Tatsumi Wada, superintendent of the zoo’s southern gate during the search. They did no harm to residents but one of them turned up at Shitennoji Gakuen, a girls’ school near the zoo at around 10 a.m. causing the classes to be suspended for 15 minutes. The animal romped around the school grounds and then entered a few classrooms braving the shrieks of panicky high school students. It retreated into nearby streets when zoo officials came to the school with nets. The two runaway monkeys were still at large by late afternoon. 25 YEARS AGO Sunday, July 18, 1993 The honeymoon ends when the baby arrives One of the new phenomena surrounding child rearing in Japan is an increasing number of young mothers who seem to find little joy in raising their babies. One such mother was described in a letter from her parents who were asked to take care of her baby while she took an eight-day holiday with her husband to Hokkaido. The baby was just over 3 months old and according to the letter the grandparents were kept busy for 24 hours a day. The letter ended by noticing that when the mother came home the baby refused to breastfeed. “It looked like the baby was retaliating,” the grandmother wrote. The letter drew an avalanche of responses, according to the paper. Those criticizing the young mother’s action outnumbered those supporting her, the paper said and printed partial quotes of representative ones. Here are some of them. “I can’t think of leaving my baby for any length of time because I’m so fond of him. While taking care of my son, I thought of the toils and troubles my mother must have had in raising me in the northern part of Japan in the severe winter. To ask for an eight-day holiday because she had taken care of her baby for three months is outrageous” — Housewife, 33, Sendai “I always tell my daughter I won’t take care of her crying baby. A grandmother is helpless when faced with a baby crying in search of her mother’s milk. I’ve told her I would give whatever help I could but I wouldn’t allow her to take advantage of my sympathy.” — Housewife, 59, Ibaraki Prefecture “Raising a kid of 3 years and a 1-year old baby, I am keeping quite active taking aerobics and sign language lessons and enjoying my time with my baby and small child. I don’t think I’m being sacrificed for the little ones nor am I sacrificing them for my sake. If you have to depend on someone to help every time you have a trying time then you should not have had a baby.” — Housewife, 26, Nagano “If your husband is not cooperative, your stress from child raising could become unbearable. There are all kinds of babies — some quite gentle and others hard to control. I think it’s better to seek the help of your friends and parents and get some time to breathe than to handle the baby with meanness as a result of accumulated stress.” — Housewife, 26, Fukuoka

osaka marriage blind shipping monkeys honeymoons


Okinawa car rental agencies wary of Chinese tourists with improperly obtained licenses

Abstract: Believing it would be convenient to get around by car in Okinawa, a 30-something Chinese woman decided to access a major online shopping site before her 2016 trip to obtain a driving permit that would be valid in Japan, since Chinese licenses aren’t permitted in Japan. The license was issued in the Philippines and obtained through an agent listed on the website for about ¥40,000. The woman was worried about the legality of the process, but she was reassured by her friend that she wouldn’t have any issues. After sending her photo and a copy of her Chinese driver’s license to the agent, an international driving permit was sent by mail about a month later to the woman’s accommodations in Okinawa in December 2016. With the permit, she rented a sports car and drove around the prefecture’s main island, where public transportation services are scarce. But she realized she should no longer use the permit after seeing Japanese media reports in January that highlighted the problem of international licenses obtained by Chinese tourists in a similar fashion. Chinese driver’s licenses cannot be used here because, unlike Japan, China is not a party to the 1949 Geneva Convention on Road Traffic. The treaty is designed to facilitate international road traffic and increase road safety by establishing standard rules among the signatories. Japan’s road traffic law states that foreign drivers need to have: a license issued in Japan, or an international driving permit based on the Geneva Convention or a license from countries or regions recognized by Tokyo to have similar systems for driving permits, such as Germany, Switzerland and Taiwan. The Philippines is a party to the convention. Holders of forged licenses could be charged with driving without a permit, according to police. Such license dealers couldn’t be found when a reporter from the Okinawa Times searched the Chinese online shopping website on May 18 for agents offering international driving permits issued in the Philippines. A Chinese tourism industry worker in Okinawa said the number of such dealers sharply dropped after the January media reports. According to a fiscal 2016 survey on foreign tourists conducted by Okinawa Prefecture, 11.1 percent of 349 Chinese visitors surveyed said in a multiple-choice question that they traveled around by rental car. Car rental companies in the prefecture have been concerned that international driving permits presented by Chinese tourists could have been illegally obtained online. But they say it is difficult to find out about those licenses because Chinese drivers can legitimately acquire international permits if they stay in countries that are parties to the Geneva pact, including South Korea and the Philippines. The National Police Agency said it is aware of the problem and has been investigating the situation in cooperation with other central government agencies and the All Japan Rent-a-Car Association. At an outlet of Luft Travel Rent-a-Car Co. near Naha airport, several Chinese customers have presented international driving permits issued in the Philippines since last September, but the company has refused to rent cars to them. When staff asked whether they have been to the Philippines, some gave answers that couldn’t be understood and others said they did not directly go through procedures to obtain the licenses. Others appeared to be shocked to learn they were deceived , according to the company. Times Mobility Networks Co., which runs Times Car Rental offices across Japan, enhanced its system in late April to check for licenses obtained improperly, requiring staff to confirm whether holders of international driving permits issued in countries different from theirs have actually traveled to the place of issuance. In March, the Okinawa Rent-a-Car Association distributed leaflets to member companies that state they could refuse to rent cars to customers if international driving permits are suspected to have been obtained illegally. But an official of the association said, “There is no way we can verify the authenticity of (international) licenses.” As some Chinese passport holders may have legitimately obtained local and international driving permits during their stays in Geneva Convention member countries, the official said the association cannot tell companies to question all Chinese customers about how they obtained their permits. An official of the All Japan Rent-a-Car Association also said companies are not required to make a judgment on the authenticity of international driving permits. Yasushi Nakamura, vice president of Okinawa Tourist Service Inc., a major travel agency in the prefecture, suggested that Japan and China sign a bilateral accord to allow Chinese tourists to drive rented cars in Japan. But he added, “We will aim to set up an environment in which tourists can enjoy Okinawa without renting cars,” noting that more traffic jams and crashes could occur if there are more drivers of rental cars on the road.

okinawa
chinese
drivers ' license
car rental


Pope promises 'never again' to sex abuse in Chile, reopens investigation

Abstract: VATICAN, CITY/SANTIAGO - Pope Francis on Thursday promised Chilean Catholics scarred by a culture of clergy sexual abuse that “never again” would the Church ignore them or the coverup of abuse in their country, where a widespread scandal has devastated its credibility. The pope issued the comments in a letter to all Chilean Catholics as the Vatican announced that Francis was sending his two top sexual abuse investigators back to the country to gather more information about the crisis there. The Vatican’s most experienced sexual abuse investigator, Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta, and Father Jordi Bertomeu, a Spaniard, had visited Chile earlier this year. In the letter released by Chilean bishops, Francis also praised the victims of sexual abuse in the country for persevering in bringing the truth to light despite attempts by Church officials to discredit them. “The ‘never again’ to a culture of abuse, and the system of cover-up that allowed it to perpetuate, calls on all of us to work towards a culture of carefulness in our relationships,” he said in the eight-page letter. He described the Chilean scandal as a “painful open wound.” Hours before the letter was released in Chile, the Vatican said Scicluna and Bertomeu would concentrate on the diocese of Osorno in southern Chile, seat of a bishop who has been most caught up in the scandal. A Vatican statement said the purpose of the trip, due to start in the next few days, was to “move forward in the process of reparation, and healing for victims of abuse. The two prepared a 2,300-page report for the pope after speaking to victims, witnesses and other Church members earlier this year. On May 18, all of Chile’s 34 bishops offered to resign en masse after attending a crisis meeting with the pope in the Vatican about the coverup of sexual abuse in the south American nation. Francis has not yet said which resignations he will accept, if any. In his letter, the pope said the renewal of the Church hierarchy on its own would not bring the transformation needed in Chile, calling for unity in a time of crisis and a deepening of faith. The scandal revolves around Father Fernando Karadima, who was found guilty in a Vatican investigation in 2011 of abusing boys in Santiago in the 1970s and 1980s. Now 87 and living in a nursing home in Chile, he has always denied any wrongdoing. Victims accused Bishop Juan Barros of Osorno of having witnessed the abuse but doing nothing to stop it. Barros, who was one of those who offered to stand down, has denied the allegations. During a visit to Chile in January, Francis staunchly defended Barros, denouncing accusations against him as “slander.” But days after returning to Rome, the pope, citing new information, dispatched Scicluna and Bertomeu to Chile. Some of their findings were included in a damning 10-page document that was presented to the bishops when they came to Rome. In April, the pope hosted three non-clerical victims who said they were abused by Karadima, and this weekend he will be meeting with priests who said they were abused by Karadima when they were young.

vatican
catholic church
chile
pope francis
sex abuse
fernando karadima


Breaking down the Kake Gakuen scandal: Who's lying, Abe or his political opponents?

Abstract: Opposition camp lawmakers roared in anger. Stenographers were ordered to stop transcribing. The prime minister accused an opposition leader of lying. This was the chaotic scene Monday at the Diet during an Upper House Budget Committee session. The scandal The issue in question was a familiar one: The opposition was protesting Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s denial that he favored school operator Kake Gakuen — run by his longtime friend Kotaro Kake — for a special deregulation project in Imabari, Ehime Prefecture. While Abe has repeatedly rebutted claims of favoritism toward Kake during Diet sessions over the past year, Monday’s denial struck a particular nerve with the opposition. Tetsuro Fukuyama, secretary-general of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, presented a display board to the audience in the chamber that summarized key points of five documents separately produced in 2015 and 2016 by the Ehime Prefectural Government and the education ministry, plus two testimonies from former education vice minister Kihei Maekawa. The documents and testimony quoted at least five senior government officials — some of whom are very close to the prime minister — all separately saying they were pushing for the Kake Gakuen project on behalf of Abe. “The prime minister has said he learned (of Kake Gakuen’s application for deregulation) for the first time on Jan. 20 last year. But did all these people voluntarily take action without first reporting to the prime minister? It’s unrealistic,” Fukuyama said during the session. “Voters won’t believe it,” he added, prompting Abe to start accusing Fukuyama of fabricating a story and throwing the session into chaos. “That’s a story you just made up,” Abe told Fukuyama. Evidently, someone was lying. So who fabricated the story: Fukuyama or Abe? The Japan Times looked into the contents of the documents, testimony from officials close to the matter, and counterarguments by Abe after the fact. The documents A 2015 memo produced by Ehime Prefecture officials that quoted Kake Gakuen officials as saying Abe told Kake in a meeting on Feb. 25 of that year that the opening of a veterinarian department at one of Kake’s universities would be “a good idea.” Kake Gakuen later issued a statement saying one of its officials lied about Abe’s remarks during the meeting with Ehime officials. Records from Ehime Prefecture, produced in April 2015, quoted Tadao Yanase, then an executive assistant to Abe, as telling Ehime officials that the Kake Gakuen project is “the prime minister’s matter.” Ehime officials and Yanase met at the Prime Minister’s Office on April 2 that year, according to the file. According to parliamentary testimony by Maekawa on July 24 of last year, Hiroto Izumi, a special adviser to Abe, urged him to “quickly promote” the deregulation project, adding he was making the request “on behalf of the prime minister because (Abe) cannot say this.” The meeting took place in September 2016, according to Maekawa. Izumi denied he made the remark. An undated memo produced by education ministry officials quoted Cabinet Office officials during a meeting on Sept. 26, 2016, as saying, “the highest-level” officials in the Prime Minister’s Office want the education ministry to create the “shortest possible schedule” to open the new veterinarian department in April 2018. Another education ministry memo quoted Cabinet Office officials as saying “the prime minister’s intent” is to allow the new veterinarian department to be opened as quickly as possible in Imabari — an apparent reference to the university’s proposal. A third ministry memo quoted Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Koichi Hagiuda as saying during a meeting on Oct. 21, 2016, that “the prime minister set the deadline at April 2018” for opening the department in the deregulation project. During the Upper House session, Fukuyama argued that, without instructions from the prime minister, it is unlikely so many different officials would promote the Kake Gakuen project, acting solely on estimations of Abe’s intent. The rebuttal In response, Abe emphasized that he was promoting deregulation projects in general and not looking to help Kake Gakuen in particular. The prime minister also pointed out that members of the panel in charge of deregulation projects, including those from the private sector, have said they were not affected by any intention of the prime minister or his aides, and all the processes were transparent. The polls Opinion polls have suggested most voters don’t buy Abe’s repeated denials over the Kake Gakuen scandal, a fact that Fukuyama pointed out during the session. Recent polls by major news outlets, including the Mainichi Shimbun, Asahi Shimbun and Kyodo News, found around 70 to 80 percent of respondents said they don’t trust or are not convinced by Abe’s explanation over his alleged favoritism toward Kake Gakuen.

shinzo abe
koichi hagiuda
kihei maekawa
kotaro kake
kake gakuen
cronyism


English bulldog crowned world's ugliest dog

Abstract: PETALUMA, CALIFORNIA - A 9-year-old English bulldog was named the winner of the 2018 World’s Ugliest Dog contest in the San Francisco Bay Area. Zsa Zsa won the title Saturday night at the Sonoma-Marin Fairgrounds in Petaluma. The dog’s owner, Megan Brainard of Anoka, Minnesota, will receive $1,500 for Zsa Zsa’s win. Brainard found Zsa Zsa on a pet-finding site, according to the contest bio. Dogs in the annual competition flaunt their imperfections — some have hairless bodies, others have lolling tongues. The dogs and their handlers walk down a red carpet. The dogs are evaluated by a panel of judges. The contestants included a blackhead-covered Chinese Crested-Dachshund mutt, a bulldog mix with excess wrinkly skin and a Pekingese named Wild Thang. Last year’s winner was a 125-pound (57-kilogram) gentle giant named Martha — a Neopolitan mastiff with gas and a droopy face. The contest is in its 30th year. It is usually held on Friday nights, but organizers moved the competition to Saturday in an effort to draw a bigger audience.


India speeds up environmental approval process for major industrial projects

Abstract: PEDAVEEDU, INDIA - India is fast-tracking environmental clearances for projects like power plants and coal mines in a bid to boost growth, setting off alarm bells among environmentalists and affected residents who say the decisions are being made too quickly. In a country where state machinery typically moves slowly, the Environment Ministry under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has slashed the average time taken to grant clearances to 170 days from 600 days, said two government sources with direct knowledge of the matter. “We’re standardizing processes and taking decisions swiftly,” said one of the officials, who did not want to be named, citing government policy. “We know the basic issues, and merely taking more time for approvals does not mean much.” The ministry did not respond to requests for comment. The push appears to be similar to U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to speed up infrastructure approvals — his administration has said it wants environmental reviews for major projects to take no longer than 21 months, instead of years. India’s industrial sector grew at 4.3 percent last year but growth slowed from 4.6 percent a year ago. The speedier approvals come as some big-ticket infrastructure projects face delays, including the proposed $100 billion Delhi-Mumbai industrial corridor and the Japan-backed $17 billion bullet train. Any loss of jobs from slowing growth could hurt Modi as he seeks a second term in 2019. Environmental group Greenpeace says India’s construction sector and coal-fired power plants are major contributors to rising levels of particulate matter in the air. The World Health Organization says India is home to the world’s 14 most polluted cities. The PM10 index, which measures the concentration of particulate matter of 10 microns in diameter or less in the air, hit 999 in New Delhi last week, the highest measure on monitoring devices. This coarse particulate matter is mostly dust, which attaches to toxic material from other emissions. A level of 500 is considered “hazardous” and people are advised to remain indoors. The government halted construction activities in the capital and nearby cities to ease the pollution and by Friday afternoon it was at 124, although that is still considered unhealthy. “The way in which in the last 10 years government has allowed power plants to come up in the periphery of Delhi and its surrounding region is a major contributor to pollution,” said Sunil Dahiya, senior campaigner with Greenpeace. Tribal protests Projects across the country cleared by the Environment Ministry this year include three new thermal power plants, a carbon black manufacturing facility, two cement plants and the expansion of four coal mines, according to government data. “Faster clearances can certainly compromise the quality of evaluation,” said Srestha Banerjee, program manager at the private Centre for Science and Environment. “By standardizing terms of references for various sectors the government has tried to reduce time in the environment clearance process. This is not a bad step. But in order to reduce time, it has exempted public hearings for some important sectors. This is extremely problematic.” In India’s villages and smaller towns, protests are mounting against rapid industrialization because of the environmental damage. The Lambada, a tribe in the southern state of Telangana, is opposing a 200-megawatt coal-fired power plant near the village of Pedaveedu that the Environment Ministry cleared in 78 days this year. Environmentalists say it usually takes at least six months to clear such projects. The ministry did not respond to questions on the time taken for the approval. “I won’t let this power plant be constructed,” said Mudavath Vui, a 60-year old Lambada woman dressed in a bright blue embroidered top with clinking bells and coins and colorful beads around her neck. “I have seen my husband die from cancer and I don’t want this plant to increase our suffering.” Her community, which forms a major chunk of the population in three villages around the proposed site of the power plant to be built by privately held MG Power Projects, has also been opposing two large cement plants in the area that they accuse of triggering respiratory and other problems. Groups of Lambada villagers frequently gather around Pedaveedu to shout slogans against the power plant. They and activists said they plan to intensify protests against MG Power’s plant when construction starts. An MG official said the company has yet to firm up plans on starting construction. Protests by villagers and local tribesmen have also erupted at Vedanta’s copper smelter in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, where 13 activists were killed in a protest last month, and at its bauxite mine in the state of Odisha. Fixed time frame Securing faster environment clearances has become crucial for businesses that have struggled to overcome the chaotic implementation of a nationwide sales tax last year. This year the Environment Ministry has cleared 38 percent of total projects within 100 days, compared with 16 percent in the same period a year ago, government data showed. The number of projects cleared has jumped 37 percent in the first five months of the year compared with the same period a year ago. Gujarat Agrochem Pvt. Ltd., an insecticides, chemical and herbicide manufacturer in the western state of Gujarat, secured approval in April to expand a plant after submitting its proposal at the end of January. The speed surprised the company itself, said its regional head, Sunish Nair. Earlier this decade, the company had to wait two years to get the go-ahead to build a herbicide plant in Gujarat. By the time the approval came, in 2013, the project’s estimated cost had jumped 28 percent and demand for the particular product had waned, Nair said. “It seems they are now adhering to a fixed time frame,” Nair said, welcoming the faster clearance process under the current government. In Pedaveedu, however, the fast clearances have led to even more entrenched opposition. “We will pour kerosene onto ourselves and die, but not let the power plant be set up,” said V. Koteshwar Rao, a resident and vice president of the Jana Chaitanya Society, a local activist group.

pollution india energy utilities electricity environment


Kansai entities team up on U.N. development goals as Japan angles for World Expo

Abstract: KOBE - When the Group of 20 summit takes place in Osaka a year from now, the bulk of media reporting and commentary will no doubt emphasize what the presidents and prime ministers say about the international financial or geopolitical crisis of the moment, and what dramas are taking place among world leaders behind the scenes. Possibly lost in the blizzard of reports and tweets will be what the G20 says about meeting the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The goals might not sound sexy to some editors and producers. But they are far more important to the future of our planet than pointing out which world leader behaved boorishly over dinner. Over the past few months in the Kansai region at least, official recognition of the SDGs’ importance has increased dramatically. Osaka’s bid for the 2025 World Expo relies heavily on a message that holding an expo in the city would provide solutions to meeting the 17 U.N. goals adopted in 2015, which include ending extreme poverty, achieving food security, ensuring healthy lives, achieving gender equality, and ensuring the availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, among others. Last December, before Osaka was awarded the G20 summit but after it had presented its expo bid in Paris, Kansai-based industry associations, universities, government leaders, the local bureau of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, as well as the Japan International Cooperation Agency, met to launch the Kansai SDGs Platform. Its 10-member steering committee includes senior members of the Kansai Economic Federation and Osaka Chamber of Commerce, a representative from the Union of Kansai Governments, academics and NGO representatives. The platform is based in the JICA Kansai office in Kobe. “There is a lot of great technology in the Kansai region that can offer solutions to SDG issues, and bringing people from different sectors together can lead to innovative solutions to realize the SDGs,” says Masahiro Tawa, deputy director-general of JICA Kansai. “At the same time, there are a lot of people in Kansai who wonder what the SDGs are. One of the platform’s goals is to expand local knowledge of them through workshops, symposiums and other events.” Osaka Prefecture has also set up an office to address how it might contribute to SDGs, especially in the context of its 2025 Expo bid. Osaka Gov. Ichiro Matsui has said that next year’s G20 summit offers a chance for Osaka and the region to show it can contribute to specific SDG goals as well. For example, he has suggested the region’s firms and technology can make a strong contribution to the SDG goal of ensuring everyone has access to safe and affordable drinking water. The official agenda for Osaka’s G20 summit will not be decided by the central government until December, after this year’s summit in Buenos Aires wraps up. But Tawa said the Japanese government will likely seek G20 support for SDG goals that are also areas of special interest to firms and scientific researchers in the Kansai region. “In Kansai, we have Kyoto, home of the Kyoto Protocol (on global warming), so environmental issues will be raised, especially the problem of garbage disposal, as well as ensuring clean water,” he said. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also spoke on the SDGs and Japan’s efforts over the next year to promote them at the G20 and elsewhere. “As we move toward the 2019 G20 summit and the TICAD conference (in Yokohama), we’ll strengthen efforts to meet the health and education goals, and promote the growth of green businesses as part of a long-term strategy to deal with climate change,” Abe said. The Tokyo International Conference on African Development was launched by the government in 1993. The SDGs are sometimes assumed by the general public in developed countries to be goals in developing countries that are being met through national and international organizations. But the Kansai SDGs Platform also aims to focus attention on regional contributions, including technological innovations by local businesses and local expertise, as a way to meet the U.N. targets. So whatever happens at the G20 next year, Kansai’s interest in regional solutions to the ambitious 2030 SDG goals appears set to continue long after the summit’s final photo op and news conference.

health
u.n .
poverty
g20
world expo
sdgs


Osaka gears up for final stage of 2025 World Expo bid

Abstract: OSAKA - With less than five months to go until the host of the 2025 World Expo is decided, Osaka is gearing up for a final push that will include efforts to raise local enthusiasm and draw international attention with financial incentives for countries that can’t afford to attend the event. But with strong bids by rivals Baku, Azerbaijan, and Ekaterinburg, Russia, and questions growing about why Japan should host a third World Expo following the Osaka and Aichi expos in 1970 and 2005, respectively, the Kansai bid no longer looks like a sure bet. Earlier this month, the three candidates made their final presentations to the 170-member Bureau International des Expositions in Paris. Osaka officials remain concerned about Ekaterinburg, which is pitching an expo that will emphasize technological innovations for younger generations, and has promised to turn its site into a “smart city” once the event finishes. The oil-rich city of Baku is proposing to showcase ways of developing human capital and meeting several United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, including those related to improving global health, education and labor standards. Baku’s efforts come across as less focused on new technologies compared with Osaka and Ekaterinburg, and more focused on nontechnological methods of addressing common social issues. Ekaterinburg, which lost its bid for the 2020 Expo to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, is believed to have the support of many European delegates. Osaka Gov. Ichiro Matsui and Mayor Hirofumi Yoshimura were joined in Paris earlier this month by industry minister Hiroshige Seko, senior business leaders and Nobel laureate Shinya Yamanaka. Seko announced that Japan would provide $218 million to 100 countries, or $2.2 million each, so they can travel to Osaka and build their own pavilions. “You should have absolutely no worry about the cost,” he said. Osaka officials also used the Paris presentation to lobby directly with BIE members. Delegates from Africa as well as Central and South America are the key to obtaining the majority of the votes, and Osaka announced it would offer its own support. Matsui said the city and prefecture were both prepared to provide public housing to delegates from developing countries during the course of the Expo, which would take place from May to November. In addition, shuttle bus services between the public housing units and the expo site on Yumeshima, a man-made island in Osaka Bay, are being considered. “We want to offer assistance, as a local government, that doesn’t burden the delegates,” Matsui told reporters in Paris. Whether that will be enough to convince the BIE members, who are not scheduled to visit Osaka between now and November, when the winner will be decided, is unclear. Osaka is selling its bid as the safest choice financially, and, implicitly, as the safest choice in terms of security. Azerbaijan Prime Minister Novruz Mammadov is directly involved in international lobbying efforts for Baku’s bid and led the city’s delegation in Paris earlier this month. The former Soviet republic hosted a reception at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January and its presentation in Paris hinted at the question Osaka is now most concerned about — why award Japan a third World Expo? “Baku is a strong rival. The prime minister touched on aid to developing countries and said that because the city had no experience hosting an Expo, there was potential and that it needed to be given a chance,” Yoshimura tweeted after Baku’s presentation. The Osaka mayor added that the city’s “air war” for the 2025 Expo had gone well so far, meaning that official, public events to promote the bid had succeeded. Now, he said, it was time to step up the “ground war,” the direct, face-to-face, personalized lobbying that would be required to win. But it’s there where Osaka faces a geographic hurdle. It is much easier and cheaper for delegates from Baku and Ekaterinburg to meet with BIE delegates or their representatives at the organization’s headquarters in Paris or, in Ekaterinburg’s case, Russia during the World Cup. Osaka, by contrast, must figure out how to promote its bid effectively from a distance while also relying on the central government and business representatives to lobby on its behalf, since extended overseas tours are beyond the budgets of Matsui and Yoshimura. The good news for Osaka is that BIE has given high marks to the technical aspects of its bid, and the governor and mayor are satisfied the theatrical production they staged in Paris earlier this month received rave reviews. But now that the spotlight has dimmed, Osaka’s leaders have to work the backstage over the summer and autumn effectively and, along with the central government, use financial incentives and other means to convince individual BIE members to return once again to Japan rather than take the event to a new country. As Yoshimura hinted, a superior strategy is required to win the ground war.


Struggling to stay on top of fake social media posts in a disaster

Abstract: Shortly after the Kansai region was rattled by a magnitude 6.1 earthquake on June 18, photos of the damage started popping up on social media. Tweets showed a bookstore that looked as if it had been turned upside-down , a damaged electronic sign at a train station and shattered glass in front of a ticket booth at Universal Studio Japan . These were shared quickly on the platform, as were countless other shots and videos from Osaka and the surrounding area. In the hyper-speed media landscape of 2018, Twitter has become many people’s go-to stop for updates on breaking news, whether from established outlets or regular people caught up in the situation. Many in Japan watched last week’s earthquake unfold online, with many posts going viral. These included user @satnfc2, who claimed that a zebra was on the loose following the shake , and @happyura12, who shared a photo of what appeared to be a crack in the city’s Kyocera Dome . Others alleged a train had derailed. Scattered across some sites were posts that accused non-Japanese residents of Osaka of looting convenience stores or poisoning the water supply . These were all fake. Posts spreading misinformation following the earthquake became so problematic that the Osaka prefectural government told people to beware of baseless information and avoid spreading it further. Other politicians shared similar messages, including Kumamoto Mayor Kazufumi Onishi . And he should know — his city’s 2016 earthquake inspired claims of a lion escaping a zoo along with the same xenophobic rumors that have cropped up in the past seven days. The spread of misinformation — “fake news” if that’s more your speed — has long been an issue, but social media has accelerated it significantly. It’s no more glaring than in the early hours of a developing story, where facts are scarce but the Twitter timeline moves at a rapid pace. Mistruth can occur in the rush to find out who committed a crime ( see the Boston Marathon bombing ) or to assign ideological blame (see every terrorist attack or mass shooting in the United States and Europe). In Japan, major breaking news such as natural disasters bring out a combination of internet trolls who engage in it for a laugh and those with more sinister intentions aimed at non-Japanese residents of the country, specifically those from China and the Korean Peninsula. It also extends beyond specific happenings and can just pop up randomly in feeds — one much-shared but inaccurate post from a few years ago purportedly showed a South Korean woman spitting into kimchi bound for Japan. While plenty of netizens on 2ch and Twitter spread outright lies, Japan’s online media tries to work swiftly to counter falsehoods. In the case of the Kansai earthquake, sites such as Buzzfeed Japan and Huffington Post Japan posted articles pointing out the inaccuracy of these tweets (while also sharing helpful “earthquake safety” pieces ). Other online destinations picked up on it, too, as did more classically mainstream outlets such as NHK . Yet speed is important in countering claims, and digital-first publications manage to move at the same tempo as the people creating mistruths. It helps that the fragmentation found in U.S. media has yet to really take hold in Japan. A Journalism Research News report from April found that no major ideological divide between readers has emerged in the country, with people on the left and right reading the same news sources. Compare that to the United States, where a distrust of mainstream media has prompted many to embrace more politically slanted sources of information, at its most extreme resulting in many following “ false flag ” conspiracies and whatever the hell radio show host Alex Jones is talking about . Japanese netizens have also become far better at sniffing out fakeries over the years. Chalk it up to frequent exposure — “matome” (summary) sites have tags dedicated to disproving social-media lies , while some Twitter users run accounts focused on debunking viral posts. On June 18, many users reminded folks to be careful about spreading information , and called out those posting lies . They also reminded others of just what happened to the Kanagawa resident who posted the Kumamoto lion tweet — he was subsequently arrested, although no charges were filed . The biggest obstacle to fighting fake news might be Twitter itself, as the platform suspended accounts of people who berated those spreading falsehoods. They got called out on that, too . Importantly, many of them online understand the harm that slander and libel can lead to. A goofy post about a zebra might not cause too much damage, but accusations leveled at non-Japanese have resulted in deaths before — Koreans in Tokyo were killed by mobs after rumors circulated that they had poisoned the wells in the wake of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake. Many on Twitter referenced this specific incident , a reminder that misinformation can have serious consequences. Plenty of Japanese online users use disasters as a way to promote hate, but fortunately many more take the lessons from the past to heart and counter the haters before they can cause real, lasting damage.

osaka
social media
earthquakes
twitter
fake news


Public remains ignorant of the hazards associated with smoking

Abstract: “Secondhand smoke” describes the fumes in the air that result from someone smoking tobacco. “Sidestream smoke” ( fukuryūen ) comes off the tip of the cigarette itself rather than out of the mouth of the person smoking it. Since sidestream smoke is estimated to make up about 85 percent of environmental tobacco smoke, it is the main component of secondhand smoke and, therefore, deserves greater scrutiny. Such scrutiny has been lacking in Japan, as suggested by freelance reporter Tetsuo Jimbo’s reaction to health ministry findings he produced during a recent installment of his web program, “ Video News .” The health ministry says that sidestream smoke contains 1.27 milligrams of nicotine, 34.5 milligrams of tar and 148 milligrams of carbon monoxide — the harmful substances in tobacco smoke. In contrast, mainstream smoke, which people inhale when they smoke a cigarette, contains 0.46 milligrams of nicotine, 10.2 milligrams of tar and 31.4 milligrams of carbon monoxide. Jimbo said he was shocked by these differences. If one of Japan’s most knowledgeable journalists admits he wasn’t aware of the greater dangers of sidestream smoke, which informs other countries’ public smoking bans, then it’s likely the average Japanese person isn’t aware of them either. Keeping the public ignorant of these hazards appears to be the strategy of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party in its quest to weaken smoking restrictions, a key component of proposed revisions to the Health Promotion Law. The health ministry, which estimates that 15,000 Japanese a year die from the effects of secondhand smoke , had wanted to prohibit smoking in all public places by 2020 in accordance with International Olympic Committee guidelines, but the pro-tobacco faction of the LDP has successfully stymied those intentions. The final plan released by the ministry on June 1 allows restaurants and bars to permit smoking as long as it’s done in separate smoking sections. As the World Health Organization has stated , separate smoking sections do nothing to prevent patrons — smokers and nonsmokers alike — from passively inhaling sidestream smoke. Anti-smoking activists, however, have been encouraged by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which is considering draft legislation that prohibits smoking in most restaurants and drinking establishments in order to protect employees, who, unlike customers, cannot choose to avoid a smoke-filled environment in businesses that allow smoking. Tokyo will likely pass such an ordinance because the LDP is a minority force in the assembly. The contrast between measures taken nationally and those passed in the capital lies at the crux of the vernacular coverage of the issue, rather than the health promotion idea at its core. The nominally liberal Asahi Shimbun’s reporting of the Diet bill focuses on how the LDP is complicating discussion of smoking matters by splitting hairs with regard to restaurant or bar size and the implementation of an indefinite interim period , during which businesses can decide how to address a possible smoking ban. In its coverage of the Tokyo bill, the newspaper talks about party politics . The country’s main financial newspaper, the Nikkei Shimbun, focuses on the economic ramifications of a smoking ban , in particular how much money the relevant leisure industries will lose (about ¥840 billion). And while the Nikkei does mention the WHO and antismoking groups, it’s in the context of smoking bans in other countries that have not seen a net negative economic impact as a result. One of the few recent articles about smoking regulations that touches on the dangers of secondhand smoke appeared in the May 31 Asahi Shimbun , which surveyed policies in local government facilities. In most cases, smoking is banned in areas open to the general public, but allowed in areas that are accessed only by government officials, thus implying that civil servants and politicians have the right to ruin their own health but not that of other people. That should be the central point in any discussion of smoking regulations, but as Shigefumi Matsuzawa, a member of the Upper House who represents Kanagawa Prefecture, told Jimbo during a different Video News program , the government and major media have too much at stake to allow such a discussion to reach the ears of the public. Matsuzawa, a vocal antismoking advocate in the government, said that the revised Health Promotion Bill will do nothing to curb secondhand smoke in public places. At the forefront of the movement to weaken regulations are commercial interests — restaurants, bars, cigarette retailers — who say their livelihoods will be ruined by smoking prohibitions. However, the real force behind the movement is the Finance Ministry, which holds one-third of the stock in Japan Tobacco Ltd. Corp. The public thinks that the company, formerly a government organ, was privatized in the ’80s, but Japan Tobacco is still dependent on the Finance Ministry, which regulates tobacco farmers, buys all their produce and controls all cigarette distribution, even that of imported brands. The Finance Ministry earns up to ¥70 billion a year in dividends. More importantly, the tobacco tax is used to keep local governments in line because they rely on handouts from the tax. Anyone who has read foreign coverage of Japan’s smoking issue knows this, because practically every article mentions the Japan Tobacco stock connection. But as Matsuzawa points out, the Japanese media outlets don’t. More significantly, Japan Tobacco still buys ads from publications and broadcasters. It’s not allowed to mention cigarette brands, but the content isn’t important (though Japan Tobacco currently pushes “heated tobacco” products because, among other things, they’re perceived to be safer ). What’s important is that media outlets depend on them for revenue and so don’t report on matters that might bother Japan Tobacco. For his efforts, Matsuzawa says he has received death threats from criminal groups with ties to leisure industries. The government ignores his plight because supporting him would hurt their interests. “In Japan,” he says, “there are just too many beneficiaries of tobacco.”


Japanese dancer Hyuma Kiyosawa, 17, wins silver medal at prestigious U.S. ballet contest

Abstract: JACKSON, MISSISSIPPI - A Japanese dancer won the silver medal Friday in the junior male division of an international ballet competition held in Jackson, Mississippi. The winner, 17-year-old Hyuma Kiyosawa, who lives in San Francisco, was happy with his achievement at the USA International Ballet Competition. No gold medal was awarded. “While I am frustrated at failing to have won the top prize, I am happy with the good result at the contest,” Kiyosawa, who hails from Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, said. It was his first time dancing to live orchestra music. “It just felt wonderful. It was such a great experience,” Kiyosawa said. Kiyosawa’s father, Hidehiko, said he was surprised by his son’s performance. “I am very honored, and I am happy for him,” he said in Matsumoto. “We made him take ballet lessons to gain physical strength, but I’m surprised that he actually achieved this.” Chisako Oga, a 21-year-old dancer born in Dallas who represented the United States in the senior women’s category, won the bronze medal. Oga, who lives in Cincinnati, said she was surprised as she did not expect to win any medal. The two-week-long event began on June 10. Eighteen dancers from eight nations were given awards or medals, organizers said. Held once every four years, it is known as one of the three most prestigious ballet competitions in the world. At the Jackson contest, dancers aged 14 to 18 compete as juniors and those 19 to 28 as seniors in three stages.


Mt. Gox creditors get new avenue in years-long attempt to recover bitcoin losses

Abstract: NEW YORK - Things may be looking up for creditors of Mt. Gox, which was the world’s biggest bitcoin exchange before going in flames after saying thousands of bitcoins had disappeared. The Tokyo District Court on Friday approved the start of civil rehabilitation proceedings, meaning the bankruptcy process that has been underway since 2014 will be put on hold, according to a document posted on mtgox.com . This may mean traders will finally get their bitcoins back. In Japanese bankruptcy proceedings, nonmonetary claims such as bitcoin are converted into traditional money based on the value of the asset at the start of the proceedings, the statement said. That means creditors will not reap the rewards of the token’s price appreciation in recent years. But the document indicates that in the case of Mt. Gox’s civil rehabilitation process, the bitcoins will not be turned into monetary claims, indicating creditors could be reimbursed in bitcoins at current prices. Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy protection four years ago after disclosing it lost 850,000 bitcoins, then worth about $500 million, or around $5 billion at today’s price levels. The now-defunct company, which later said it recovered about 200,000 bitcoins, blamed hackers for the loss. The Friday statement appeared to be written by attorney Nobuaki Kobayashi, the bankruptcy trustee who has been liquidating cryptocurrency on behalf of Mt. Gox creditors. Many have blamed bitcoin’s recent plunge on Kobayashi, known in the industry as the Tokyo “whale.” The trustee, who hasn’t previously provided much detail on his selling strategy, attempted to offer some clarity: “Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash were sold in a manner that had no effect on market price and not by ordinary sale on an exchange,” the statement said. “At present, nothing has been determined regarding the sale of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies split from bitcoin (collectively, ‘bitcoin, etc.’) in the future.” Some traders interpreted the latter excerpt as confirmation the trustee will stop dumping bitcoins, though the statement didn’t explicitly say that. Kobayashi reminded creditors that he is still in control. “The power and authority to administer and dispose of Mtgox’s assets is still vested exclusively in me,” he said. Traders who filed proof of claims in the proceedings will need to refile for the civil rehabilitation, the document said. Those who missed out on the bankruptcy process will be allowed to file claims in the new process, and the deadline for submissions is Oct. 22. Mt. Gox must submit a proposed rehabilitation plan by next Feb. 14.

courts
scandals
theft
bitcoin
currency
mt . gox
cryptocurrency


Governor lays down $40 as New Jersey kicks off era of legalized sports betting

Abstract: OCEANPORT, NEW JERSEY - With two $20 bets and a rambunctious crowd awaiting their turn, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy placed the state’s very first legal sports bets on Thursday, capping a years-long battle to end the ban on sports betting in the Garden State. “This is a huge step forward for gaming, for the tracks, for the economy of this state,” Murphy said before placing his bets, with a crowd of media swarming him as he stepped to the counter at Monmouth Park Racetrack. Murphy’s wagers — that Germany will win the World Cup and the New Jersey Devils will take home hockey’s Stanley Cup next year — may not seem monumental. But the beginning of legal sports betting in New Jersey likely paves the way for much of the rest of the United States to eventually regulate and tax it. While sports betting is legal in many other countries, a 1992 U.S. law barred it in the United States except for a limited number of states, such as Nevada, where casinos have long included sports betting. New Jersey voters agreed in 2011 to change the state’s constitution to legalize sports betting, in part as an economic and revenue boost to the state’s ailing horse racetracks and gambling hub Atlantic City. State lawmakers quickly passed bills to legalize it, but professional sports leagues pushed back in court, arguing that it was illegal under the old federal law and that sports could be more easily corrupted due to increased money at stake. But in May, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with New Jersey and overturned the 1992 law. Now West Virginia, Connecticut, Mississippi and New York are looking to bring sports wagering out of the shadows, with other states are likely to follow. As Murphy placed the first official wagers, a crowd of hundreds, energized by finally being able to bet on their favorite teams, lined up eagerly at Monmouth Park. They picked up forms listing the day’s games for various sports and placed bets with clerks at one of at least a dozen counters at the $2 million sports betting parlor built by William Hill PLC’s U.S. division. In an adjacent bar, the mostly male crowd that could place bets and grab a beer watched and cheered at televisions streaming golf, horse racing, baseball and soccer. Larry Cook, 47, was there to bet on baseball’s New York Yankees. He said he already likes to gamble in Atlantic City, and enjoys sports, so being able to wager on the sports he already watches is a perfect melding of two worlds. Plus, he appreciates that some of the betting money will make its way to his state, an unusual refrain from heavily taxed New Jerseyans. “If I’m gonna lose, at least it’s going to a good cause,” he said. He drove an hour to place his bet. But once sports betting launches at the Meadowlands Racetrack closer to home, he said he will go there instead. Joseph Correnti, 30, also drove an hour from his home the night before to stay with a friend nearby. He was among the first to place bets. Clutching cash and a betting form, he too bet $20 on the Yankees to win Thursday’s game against the Tampa Bay Rays and another $20 that the New York Mets will prevail over the Arizona Diamondbacks. And he bet $10 that Russia will win the World Cup opening match against Saudi Arabia — a winning wager after Russia prevailed 5-0. “I’ve been waiting for sports betting in New Jersey for the longest,” he said.

u.s. supreme court
new jersey
nevada
atlantic city
sports betting


Hong Kong scientists say new research points to universal antibody drug for HIV

Abstract: HONG KONG - A team of AIDS researchers in Hong Kong says its new research, tested on mice, indicates a functional cure for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, eventually leading to a new antibody that could be used for both prevention and treatment. The findings, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, come as China faces a growing epidemic among high-risk groups, such as sex workers and men who have sex with men. The U.N.-supported AIDS Data Hub says about 850,000 people in China are infected with HIV, which disables the immune system and makes people far more vulnerable to infections and disease. A team led by Professor Chen Zhiwei at Hong Kong University’s AIDS Institute says its discovery shows the new antibody can help control the virus and eliminate infected cells. The antibody would be able to treat all varieties of HIV— a first, Chen said — as there is no one vaccine to treat the many different types of HIV viruses. “For our newly discovered bispecific antibody, it works for all of them, so that’s the major difference,” Chen said. Chen and his team say they aim to bring the antibody into clinical trials within three to five years. Chen said a “functional cure” meant the virus level would be so low as to be undetectable in the body, as long as patients kept taking injections of the antibody, perhaps on a quarterly basis, or less frequently. Those infected with HIV can keep the virus under control with antiretroviral drugs that stop it from infecting new cells. However, treatments must be taken daily and do not eliminate the infected cells from the body. So the virus can still exist, and symptoms return, if patients stop taking medication properly. Promising results did not mean the treatment would be readily available soon, said Andrew Chidgey, chief executive of the charity group AIDS Concern in Hong Kong. “Governments are being very slow to implement programs here,” he added. “So just because a treatment becomes available, doesn’t mean that people will get it, or that it will have an impact.”


Indigenous Taiwanese, seeking rights to ancestral lands, set up camp in Taipei city park

Abstract: TAIPEI - Taipei’s Peace Memorial Park is an oasis of calm in the bustling city, home to morning walkers and lunchtime strollers — along with a camp of indigenous protesters demanding justice. For several months, the small group has lived in tents in a corner of the park, with a makeshift kitchen and a cluster of painted rocks, photographs and posters tracing the history of Taiwan’s indigenous people and their fight for land rights. They want the repeal of regulation, announced last year, that they say denies their right to ancestral land. The guidelines are on the delineation of traditional territory and its return to indigenous people. But they are limited to state-owned land and do not include private land — which the group says denies them a sizable piece of territory. “We have been betrayed by the government,” said Panai Kusui, an indigenous leader and singer. “We are the original inhabitants of this island, the collective custodians of all land before the concept of public land and private land. This regulation denies us what is rightfully ours.” Taiwan’s indigenous people make up about 2 percent of its 23.5 million people, and they have long suffered marginalization that has left them poorer, less educated and with a higher percentage without jobs than their Chinese counterparts. In an unprecedented move, newly elected President Tsai Ing-wen in 2016 apologized to the indigenous people for “centuries of pain and mistreatment” and promised to improve their lives. One step was to recognize their ancestral land. The government’s Council of Indigenous Peoples (CIP) in February 2017 declared 1.8 million hectares (4.4 million acres) — about half of Taiwan’s total land area — to be traditional territory. About 90 percent of this is public land that indigenous people can claim and to whose development they can consent, said Kolas Yotaka, a legislator with the ruling Democratic Progressive Party who belongs to the Amis tribe. The remainder is privately owned and cannot be claimed. “The legislation allows us to take back control of most of our ancestral land. It’s a big deal,” Kolas said during an interview in her office. “No one is disputing that we are the original owners of the land. But today, 98 percent of the population is non-indigenous, and we cannot go back to how it was 400 years ago.” Taiwan’s first inhabitants are believed to be Austronesian tribes who hunted and farmed on the island thousands of years before Han settlers from mainland China arrived in the 17th century. With the arrival of settlers, indigenous people faced violence and loss of land. Their marginalization continued at the hands of Japanese colonizers in the 19th century. After the Kuomintang took control in 1945, indigenous people’s access to traditional lands was further limited as authorities built modern cities and high-speed rail lines and created national parks and tourist facilities. The Indigenous Peoples’ Basic Law, passed in 2005, granted a wide range of rights to Taiwan’s tribal people. But its implementation was stalled, said Panai, who was joined at the protest site last year by English singer Joss Stone on his tour of Taiwan. “Indigenous leaders would like to see a return of all traditional territories,” said Scott Simon, co-chair in Taiwan studies at the University of Ottawa. “But any legislation is always subject to negotiation and compromise.” Tsai has acknowledged past failures to implement the Indigenous Peoples law and has promised a justice commission, as well as better education, health care and economic opportunities. The CIP has asked the nearly 750 indigenous communities in Taiwan to apply for recognition of their traditional territory under the 2017 legislation. More than 250 have already submitted claims, said Kolas. “There are divisions even between the indigenous people over the legislation, but a majority have welcomed it,” she said. “We’ve been neglected for so long — we are losing our language, our tradition. But at least there is now a process for us to define our land and get it back.” Indigenous land rights are contentious the world over. In poorer countries in Asia and Latin America, tribal people lack property rights and face violence from state officials, miners and loggers eyeing their land. In wealthy nations such as Australia and Canada, indigenous people are negotiating with governments for a greater say over land and resources. In Taiwan, which China claims as its sacred territory, focusing on indigenous people may also be a way to establish a cultural identity that is different from China’s, analysts say. But the challenge is exacerbated by the island’s small size: just over 36,000 sq. km (14,000 sq. miles). Kolas has drafted the Indigenous Land and Seabed Act, which comprehensively defines land and sea rights. It passed its first reading on May 25. “We need jobs, we need opportunities to improve our economic status,” she said. “If we kick out the hotel or the mining company without negotiating for better terms, what’s the option? We have to demand more rights, but we have to do it smartly,” she said. But activists say they must have rights over all traditional territory to ensure “environmentally friendly and culturally sensitive” developments that also create opportunities for them. “The deterioration of our culture and economic status are tied to the loss of our land. We will not stop protesting until the regulation is repealed,” said Panai.


Disaster-hit Fukushima struggles to secure forest industry workers but efforts slowly bearing fruit

Abstract: In a mountainous area in Fukushima Prefecture, junior high school students saw at trees as professional forest workers give them instructions and pointers. “I can smell and feel the warmth of the trees,” says one of the students participating in the field trip to Iwaki’s Tabito district. The trip is one of several local efforts to nurture a dwindling number of potential successors to conserve one of Fukushima’s most important resources. While dealing with an aging population and restricted zones set after an earthquake and tsunami triggered reactor meltdowns in March 2011, the prefecture has been struggling to secure younger workers to sustain and revive its forests. “We hope more and more children will be interested in working in the forest industry,” said Hirataka Midorikawa, 46, a forester and member of a local timber group that for 10 years has organized classes to give students experience in forestry. The Tabito district is known for rich forests which occupy 90 percent of its land and a once-thriving timber industry. Although more than 14,000 people worked in Fukushima Prefecture’s forest industry in 1960, the number had dropped to 2,183 by 2015, primarily due to a graying population. Many forest owners are also believed to have left the industry due to declines in timber prices. In Tabito, the number of foresters has plunged below half of its peak level. Midorikawa, who studied forestry at the Tokyo University of Agriculture, returned to his hometown to “keep the local industry running.” Inheriting mountain forests that were originally taken care of by his great-grandfather, he now produces cedar and cypress timber to be mainly used as building materials. Midorikawa joined the local timber group in 1995 and worked on branding locally produced timber in Tabito. His group’s effort to familiarize children with the industry through the classes and public displays of handmade Christmas trees and kadomatsu (New Year’s decorative pine branches) has been a success, as some young forest workers have joined the group. But with entry into some forests restricted following the 2011 meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, the number of new workers to join the prefecture’s forest industry in fiscal 2016 fell to 84, about one-third of the pre-disaster level. With thinning operations stalled in some areas, young successors are “urgently needed to revive forests,” an industry worker said. A forest industry association in Fukushima has been helping young workers improve their skills through training in logging or other tasks. The prefectural government also subsidizes incomes for timber workers and allows local high school students to inspect professionals’ jobs on-site. “We’d like to change the notion that (the forest industry) requires grueling work, since mechanization has progressed,” said a Fukushima government official in charge of promoting the local timber industry. In the town of Minamiaizu, loggers are trying to boost the business by branding their lumber as environmentally friendly. At a local timber company, certified cedar logs are marked in green to show they meet the criteria set out by the Sustainable Green Ecosystem Council. The SGEC is a third-party group in Japan that certifies timber from forests which clear specific criteria, including those where measurements are taken to maintain soil and water resources when trees are cut. As of April, about 13,000 hectares of forests in 11 municipalities in the prefecture have been certified by the council. “If we encourage a greater use of SGEC-certified lumber, consumers will have greater awareness of environmental sustainability,” said Shun Matsuzawa, 30, an executive at a Minamiaizu-based nonprofit organization of 20 forestry companies which promotes member companies’ SGEC-certified lumber. The group’s effort is beginning to pay off. One of the member’s SGEC-certified cedar timber has been shipped to Tokyo to be used in the construction of facilities for the 2020 Games. Minamiaizu used to be well-known for forestry, with many locals working in the industry. But as the market shifted to imported lumber and the industry shrank nationwide, the number of timber businesses in the town declined to less than a third of the 70 companies it boasted in its heyday. That’s when the certification system caught the attention of Matsuzawa and others in the town. In 2015, the Forestry Agency designated the organization as a role model to promote the usage of certified timber. “Our effort is bearing fruit,” Matsuzawa said. But hurdles remain. Since the SGEC certification system isn’t widely recognized, it hasn’t triggered a large number of shipments so far. “The central and prefectural governments should create a system that would promote the use of certified timber,” said an official who works in Minamiaizu’s lumber business.


Germany: 774,000 Mercedes cars have unauthorized software defeat devices

Abstract: BERLIN - Germany’s Transport Ministry said on Monday that 774,000 Mercedes-Benz vehicles in Europe had been found to contain unauthorized software defeat devices and ordered Daimler to recall more than 200,000 cars in Germany. Mercedes-Benz C-Class and Vito models with diesel engines and a sports utility variant of the sedan, known as the GLC, were the main cars found to be at fault, the ministry said. “The government will order 238,000 Daimler vehicles to be immediately recalled Germany-wide because of unauthorized defeat devices,” the ministry said in a statement. Germany can only order the recall of vehicles within its own borders, or of those vehicles issued with a pan-European road-worthiness certification via German authorities. Daimler has pledged to work on removing the software and to cooperate with authorities, the ministry said. Daimler Chief Executive Dieter Zetsche said on Monday that the carmaker had found a technical solution for updating the software on its vehicles, and he therefore expected the company would avoid a fine. In a separate statement, Daimler confirmed the recall and said the question over the legality of the software would still need to be clarified. Evercore ISI analyst Arndt Ellinghorst predicted the costs for the required software update for Daimler would be less than €100 million ($118 million). “We don’t see any evidence that Daimler was designing software to deliberately cheat on emission testing,” he said. “Overall, this outcome should de-risk the stock.”

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Takeda CEO talks about Shire acquisition and the future integration of the firms after Japan's biggest outbound takeover

Abstract: Christophe Weber says growth and innovation are the metrics for success in Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.’s $62 billion purchase of Shire PLC. The first order of business is bringing global shareholders around to Japan’s biggest-ever outbound takeover. The Takeda CEO is facing a 21 percent drop in the stock price since the company disclosed its interest in March, while Shire is trading £9 ($12) below the offer price of roughly £49 a share. He’s also contending with some domestic shareholders who are averse to expansion as Weber looks to create a global pharmaceutical giant. In an interview at Takeda’s new Tokyo headquarters, the French-born CEO discussed his push to sell the deal overseas — and in Japan — and plans to integrate the 237-year-old drugmaker with a London-listed company with mostly U.S.-based operations. The following excerpt has been edited for clarity and brevity. Is there a difference dealing with investors in Japan versus the U.S.? They all want to better understand our vision for the combined company — what the new business will look like, when it will be combined. I think investors are starting from very different points. In Japan, many didn’t know Shire at all; it’s more difficult for them to understand the combination of the two. In the U.S., many people in the health care investment sector know about Shire; some of them know about both companies. Shire still trades below the offer price. What is the market missing? It’s not that they don’t see the benefit of the combination, it’s that there is no precedent. And so people don’t know exactly how it will happen. For example, there is no precedent for a Japanese company buying a foreign company with its own shares. There is no precedent for delisting, so U.K. shareholders will have to exchange its shares with either Japanese shares or an ADR (American depositary receipt) in New York. How are you approaching the issue of integration? This is an area we’re quite comfortable with, otherwise we wouldn’t have done the deal. My team is truly global. There are eight nationalities and a majority of my team is not based in Japan. The other element is that Shire’s operational headquarters are in Boston and in Zurich, where we have our two hubs outside of Tokyo. So I think this proximity will help greatly. It will not be easy but we really analyze that, because most mergers are not super successful because of integration. What will be the hardest part of integration? I think M&A (mergers and acquisitions) or integration in the pharmaceutical industry is often highly disruptive for R&D (research and development). And this is where we have a big advantage because Shire has not invested strongly in research. We don’t have to go through the disruption of closing a research site or merging a research site, which takes a long time and has some impact on the pipeline and is so complicated. The R&D integration is relatively simple because of that. What do you need to do to bridge the cultural gaps? We’ll have to build a new business organization and we’re actively starting to work on that. Takeda has a much longer history and stronger culture in terms of value system. We are very patient-centric — it’s do the right thing for the patient, reinforce trust with society, develop the reputation of the company and develop the business, in that order. I think Shire is also patient-centric because in rare diseases you need to have this mindset. I think their business organization is not too dissimilar from Takeda’s. How will you determine if integration has been a success? In three years we will have to look at Takeda and where it is positioned in the global pharma market. We’ll look at what type of pipeline and science it is generating, the type of resilience the company has, its growth and its ability to innovate. … We will design a new company which will be very R&D driven, very very science driven. But also very fit for the future environment that we will face. Many say your legacy will hinge on the success of the Shire deal. I don’t have any personal agenda. I don’t have any ego to feed. I’m doing this deal because I think this is a unique opportunity for Takeda to be much more competitive. And this is a unique opportunity for Japan, because Japan doesn’t have a global champion and might never have one if we don’t do this deal. The countries that have one, they all built it by M&A — GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi. It’s easy to say their M&A has been bumpy along the way, but what would those companies be if they had not done it?


American Indians fear U.S.-Mexico border wall will destroy ancient culture

Abstract: EL PASO, TEXAS - To the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo Indians, the water of the Rio Grande that divides the United States and Mexico sanctifies religious rites and purifies their hunts. Indian communities living miles away use the river to send messages to fellow tribes downstream, said tribal chief Jose Sierra. “They go to the river and talk to the river, and the river sends it down,” said Sierra, a barrel-chested man with long, graying hair and thick turquoise bracelets at his wrists. “They put messages in the river that come to us through the water.” But now tribal leaders fear a proposed border wall as envisioned by U.S. President Donald Trump will sever access to the river, spoiling traditions and ruining ancient culture. The Ysleta and more than two dozen American Indian tribes — designated by U.S. law as sovereign nations governing themselves — live along the 1,900 mile (3,060 km) border with Mexico, with some vowing to fight the wall to defend tribal culture. Rene Lopez, a member of the Ysleta Traditional Council, said if the chief asked tribal members to knock down the wall, “we’ll do it. That’s how deeply it means to us.” For while Trump and his supporters say a security wall is necessary to stop drug smuggling and illegal immigrants from Mexico, Indian leaders say otherwise. “Back off, Trump. Let us be,” said Sierra, whose ancestors settled in Texas in 1682 after being forced out of New Mexico during violent conflicts with Spanish settlers. But experts say the likelihood of stopping the wall with claims of Indian sovereignty or freedom of religion is unlikely, even though for some its impact could be dramatic. The Tohono O’odham people in southern Arizona live on a reservation that straddles the border and would be cut in two. “It would be just devastating,” said Verlon Jose, vice chairman of the Tohono O’odham. “Walls are not the answer to the issues that we face. … Walls have never solved problems, whether that’s in terms of immigration, in terms of militarization.” Border security could be boosted with more hi-tech tower systems that provide long-range surveillance, tracking and detection and by immigration reform allowing more migrants to work temporarily in the United States without having to sneak in, Jose said. Native people globally have been blocked from sacred grounds, burial places and ancestral migration routes by borders and walls, said Christopher McLeod, director of the California-based Sacred Land Film Project who has documented sacred sites. A study by U.S. geographer Reece Jones from the University of Hawaii found that in 1990 there were 15 border walls in the world — but now there are almost 70. “When people are cut off from their land, from their sacred lands and their ceremonies, then the culture dies. Their spiritual vitality is weakened,” McLeod said. “A border and a wall are not just symbols. They’re very physical insults.” Many Ysleta, a tribe of about 4,200 members, live in low mud-brick houses on a dusty west Texas reservation, already rankled at needing the U.S. government’s permission to visit the river. Fencing guarded by U.S. Border Patrol agents divides Ysleta land from Mexico and from the river bed, and agents must unlock secured gates to let tribal members through. The fencing dates back to a previous U.S. border security effort in 2006. “We’ve been doing that for 350 years, and now they want us to ask for permission? It’s like you asking permission to go to church,” said Sierra. But arguments of religious and cultural freedom are not likely to hold much weight against the wall, said Gerald Torres, an expert on federal Indian law and a professor at Cornell Law School in Ithaca, New York. A 1988 Supreme Court ruling allowed the U.S. Forest Service to build a paved road on land that had historically been used by American Indians for religious rituals, Torres said. The ruling said the government could not operate if it had to “satisfy every citizen’s religious needs and desires.” “Tribes’ interest in religious ceremonies can’t be used to stop the federal government from pursuing its objectives,” Torres said. Some advocates have argued that Indian tribal rights under the 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples would be violated. Members of other border-area tribes — such as the Cocopah, the Fort Mojave and the Pasqua Yaqui in Arizona and the Kickapoo who run a casino in Eagle Pass, Texas — have also spoken out against the wall. Even the Carrizo/Comecrudo tribe, which has neither a reservation nor official recognition, says it would be harmed. Carrizo/Comecrudo members lived at the river centuries ago before they were dispersed by war and forced migration, Tribal Chairman Juan Mancias said. “We have songs we sing to that river,” said Mancias, who lives 200 miles northeast of the river in Floresville, Texas. “With the border wall, they’re disrespecting who we are.” About 700 miles of fencing and wall exist, built as part of the 2006 Secure Fence Act under former President George W. Bush. But so far no funding for the entire wall is in place. A measure by Congress two months ago provided $1.6 billion for six months work on the wall. Trump asked for $25 billion. The Trump administration has waived two laws concerning American Indians so it can build part of the wall in California. One law protects the rights of tribes to human remains, sacred burial objects and other historic items, and the other law protects their religious and cultural practices. Javier Loera, who holds the title of Ysleta War Captain, said the river has sustained his people for centuries. “The river is like the veins of our mother earth. Sever those veins, and it’s catastrophic,” he said.

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