U.S. retail sales post largest drop since 2009 as jobless claims surge

Abstract: WASHINGTON - U.S. retail sales recorded their biggest drop in more than nine years in December as receipts fell across the board, suggesting a sharp slowdown in economic activity at the end of 2018. The economy’s outlook was further dimmed by other data on Thursday showing an unexpected increase in the number of Americans filing claims for unemployment benefits last week. That pushed the four-week moving average of claims to a one-year high, an indication that job growth was moderating. There was also little sign of inflation in the economy, with producer prices dropping in January for a second straight month. Moderate inflation and softening domestic demand support the Federal Reserve’s pledge to be “patient” before raising interest rates further this year. “This suggests that the word ‘patience’ will be in the Fed’s vernacular for some time,” said Jennifer Lee, a senior economist at BMO Capital Markets in Toronto. The Commerce Department said retail sales tumbled 1.2 percent, the largest decline since September 2009, when the economy was emerging from recession. Data for November were revised slightly down to show retail sales edging up 0.1 percent instead of gaining 0.2 percent as previously reported. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast retail sales increasing 0.2 percent in December. Retail sales in December rose 2.3 percent from a year ago. The December retail sales report was delayed by a 35-day partial shutdown of the federal government that ended on Jan. 25. No date has been set for the release of the January retail sales report, which was scheduled for publication on Friday. The plunge in retail sales came amid a sharp stock market sell-off and drop in consumer confidence in December. The longest government shutdown could also have undercut sales. Some economists questioned the credibility of the report, arguing that the shutdown could have impacted on the collection of data. But the Commerce Department said the “processing and data quality were monitored throughout and response rates were at or above normal levels for this release.” Excluding automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services, retail sales dropped 1.7 percent last month after an upwardly revised 1.0 percent surge in November. These so-called core retail sales correspond most closely with the consumer spending component of gross domestic product. They were previously reported to have jumped 0.9 percent in November. December’s sharp drop in core retail sales suggested a moderation in the pace of consumer spending in the fourth quarter. Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of the U.S. economy, increased at a 3.5 percent annualized rate in the July-September quarter. As result of the weak retail sales report, economists slashed their fourth-quarter gross domestic product growth estimates by as much as seven-tenths of a percentage point to as low as a 2.0 percent rate. Growth estimates could be trimmed further after another report from the Commerce Department showed retail inventories excluding automobiles tumbled 1.0 percent in November, the most since December 2008. The economy grew at a 3.4 percent pace in the July-September period. U.S. Treasury prices rose on the data, while the dollar fell to session lows against a basket of currencies. Stocks were trading lower. In December, online and mail-order retail sales dropped 3.9 percent, the biggest drop since November 2008. Receipts at service stations dived 5.1 percent, the biggest fall since February 2016, reflecting cheaper gasoline prices. There were also declines in receipts at clothing and furniture stores. Americans also cut spending at restaurants and bars. Sales at hobby, musical instrument and book stores plunged 4.9 percent, the biggest drop since September 2008. But sales at auto dealerships rose 1.0 percent in December and receipts at building material stores gained 0.3 percent. The outlook for consumer spending, which has been underpinned by a strong labor market and cheaper gasoline, is not encouraging. A report this week from the New York Fed showed the overall debt shouldered by Americans edged up to a record $13.5 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2018. In a separate report on Thursday, the Labor Department said initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 4,000 to a seasonally adjusted 239,000 for the week ended Feb. 9. Economists had forecast claims falling to 225,000 in the latest week. Claims surged to a near 1½-year high of 253,000 in the week that ended Jan. 26 and last week’s surprise increase suggested some ebbing in labor market conditions. The four-week moving average of initial claims, considered a better measure of labor market trends as it irons out week-to-week volatility, rose 6,750 to 231,750 last week, the highest level since January 2018. In another report on Thursday, the Labor Department said its producer price index for final demand dipped 0.1 percent last month as the cost of energy products and food fell. The PPI dipped 0.1 percent in December. In the 12 months through January, the PPI rose 2.0 percent. That was the smallest gain since July 2017 and followed a 2.5 percent rise in December. Economists had forecast the PPI edging up 0.1 percent in January and increasing 2.1 percent on a year-on-year basis. The PPI report came on the heels of data on Wednesday showing consumer prices were unchanged in January for a third straight month.

unemployment
inflation
jobs
u.s. retail sales


Goldman sees a bargain in resilient Japanese cram school with focus on private tuition

Abstract: Noriko Mori, 47, paid about ¥700,000 ($6,300) to a cram school to help her daughter prepare for a school entrance exam in Tokyo. Her daughter was six, and the entrance exam was for an elementary school. “It was expensive,” Mori said. But “she passed the test for the school she wanted, so it was a choice well made.” The cram school in question was Riso Kyoiku Co., which provides private lessons to children of all ages whose parents can afford to pay. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. thinks it’s a winning strategy, and has initiated coverage on the stock. For parents like Mori, this is just the start of a yearslong journey toward ultimately getting their children into one of Japan’s top universities. For a medical school, Riso offers courses that cost ¥3 million to ¥4 million a year. On average, their courses cost ¥1.2 million to ¥1.5 million annually. In a society where more women are working, the courses are in high demand. And the fact that they have fewer children means they have more money to spend on them. Through its flagship program called Tomas, which provides only one-on-one tutoring, Riso has been capturing the education fever among wealthier Japanese that’s also seen in countries such as China and South Korea. “More people are able to pay for good education — we’re riding that trend,” Mitsugu Iwasa, Riso Kyoiku’s founder who is now an adviser to the company, said in an interview in Tokyo. “There’s a deep-rooted culture in Japan that it’s fine even if it’s expensive as long as it allows you to get into the school you want.” Goldman Sachs initiated coverage of Riso Kyoiku in December with a buy rating, saying the company is “benefiting from the demand shift from group to individual tutoring.” Despite a decline in the number of students, the market for preparatory schools providing individual tutoring expanded from ¥374 billion in revenue to an estimated ¥442 billion in 2018, the brokerage said, citing Yano Research Institute Ltd. “We expect education spend per child to continue increasing in line with the trend toward fewer children per household,” Goldman analyst Yukiko Nonami wrote in a note. The “growth potential of the early childhood education business is not adequately priced into the shares.” The stock surged to its highest in almost 14 years in January, before paring some of its gains. It still trades at 41 times estimated earnings, a multiple more than three times higher than the average for companies in the Topix index. Its peer Waseda Academy Co. trades at 18 times expected profits, while Meiko Network Japan Co. trades at 28 times. Riso Kyoiku is recovering after an accounting scandal that dealt a blow to its reputation. In 2014, the company was found to have inflated sales over a period of many years. In February that year, the president of the company and two other executives resigned. “The damage was huge,” Iwasa recalled. “We adopted very strict compliance rules. I now think there were things we gained from the experience. We became stronger.” Riso posted a 34 percent year-on-year increase in operating profit to ¥1.5 billion for the nine-month period ended November. Goldman forecast the company’s operating profit will grow at an annual pace of 23 percent for the next five years, as demand for individual tutoring grows and Riso expands into day care services that will serve as new growth drivers. Iwasa prides himself on pioneering the industry of one-on-one private tutoring and is confident the business model is sustainable. Riso started in 1985 with a model like those of its peers, where groups of students learned from the same teacher. But by the 1990s the cram school industry was saturated amid a declining birthrate. “I thought about what we’d have to do to survive,” said Iwasa, who estimates roughly 70 to 80 percent of cram schools from the 1990s have disappeared. “China gave me a hint.” China then had fostered a culture of concentrating a family’s wealth into a single child. Iwasa thought a similar approach could be applied to Japan’s private schooling system. “We narrowed our target,” Iwasa said. “We’d provide thorough preparation for each student in getting into the school they want. But it would be expensive.” Riso built its reputation by helping to get students into a number of prestige universities. The method has grown so popular that it has caught the attention of schools. While cram schools and the public education system have long had a fraught relationship, schools in Japan are now looking for ways to differentiate themselves. One of those ways was to form partnerships with Riso Kyoiku to provide their tutoring services on school premises. That was the start of what Riso calls School Tomas, dispatching tutors to schools such as Nishiyamato Gakuen, a middle and high school located in Nara Prefecture. The company has partnered with 40 schools so far, and aims to increase this to 70 over the next year. Riso operates about 80 branches for Tomas, which account for almost half of the company’s sales. A service for dispatching tutors to households accounts for about one-fifth, and a service for preschool children accounts for another fifth. School Tomas makes up about 6 percent. Iwasa has no overseas ambitions, because he sees enough room for growth in Japan. Riso aims to boost annual revenue by more than 20 percent to ¥30 billion in two years from an estimated ¥24.7 billion for the year ending February, he said. “We’re just starting to bloom,” Iwasa said.

education
investment
goldman sachs
cram school


Greenback slips to around ¥110.30 in Tokyo on weak U.S. and Chinese economic data

Abstract: The dollar weakened to around ¥110.30 in Tokyo trading late Friday after being battered by downbeat U.S. economic data. At 5 p.m., the dollar stood at ¥110.31-32, down from ¥111.06-07 at the same time Thursday. The euro was at $1.1278-1279, down from $1.1286-1286, and at ¥124.42-43, down from ¥125.35-36. Data that on Thursday showed U.S. retail sales posted their worst drop in nine years in December, fueled concerns about slowing U.S. growth. The retail sales data “put downward pressure on the dollar against the yen during Tokyo trading hours as a big negative surprise,” an official at a Japanese bank said. The dollar was also pressured by falling Japanese stock prices and weak Chinese economic data. The currency briefly fell below ¥110.30. In afternoon trading, dollar-yen movements lacked direction due to crosscurrents of buying and selling to adjust positions ahead of the weekend, traders said. Market players retreated to the sidelines to await U.S. data due out Friday, including the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Empire State manufacturing index. They want to “see the course of the U.S. economy,” an official of a major securities firm said. Traders are also awaiting the outcome of high-level trade talks between the United States and China, an official at a foreign-exchange brokerage house said.


Nikkei falls further on yen's rise against the dollar

Abstract: The benchmark Nikkei average lost further ground on the Tokyo Stock Exchange on Friday, bruised by the yen’s rise against the dollar. The 225-issue Nikkei average sagged 239.08 points, or 1.13 percent, to end at 20,900.63. On Thursday, the index inched down 4.77 points. The Topix index of all first-section issues was down 12.52 points, or 0.79 percent, at 1,577.29. It edged up 0.48 point the previous day. The U.S. Dow Jones industrial average’s retreat on Thursday also battered investor sentiment, sending the Nikkei below 21,000 soon after the opening bell, market sources said. The yen’s strength prompted futures-linked selling of Japanese stocks, said Hiroaki Kuramochi, chief market analyst at Saxo Bank Securities Ltd. “It’s difficult to recover 21,000” unless the dollar rises above ¥111 again, Kuramochi said of the Nikkei. “A sense of achievement spread” among investors after the stock market’s sharp advance earlier this week, an official of an asset management firm said. Ryuta Otsuka, strategist at the investment information department of Toyo Securities Co., indicated that position-adjustment selling ahead of the weekend partly contributed to Friday’s drop. Falling issues outnumbered rising ones 1,311 to 726 in the TSE’s first section, while 92 issues were unchanged. Volume fell to 1.277 billion shares from Thursday’s 1.345 billion shares. Insurer Dai-ichi Life closed 4.66 percent lower on its dismal April-December earnings, brokers said. Yokohama Rubber was downbeat as its operating profit forecast for the year through December 2019 fell short of market consensus, brokers said. Other major losers included clothing retailer Fast Retailing and technology conglomerate SoftBank Group. By contrast, drugmaker Shionogi, daily goods manufacturer Kao and oil company Showa Shell attracted purchases. In index futures trading on the Osaka Exchange, the key March contract on the Nikkei average tumbled 290 points to 20,900.

stocks
nikkei
tokyo stock exchange
topix


JPMorgan Chase unveils cryptocurrency prototype

Abstract: NEW YORK - JPMorgan Chase on Thursday unveiled a prototype for a digital coin system using blockchain, a first among major banks as disruption accelerates change in financial services. The system, called JPM Coin, which for now is only at the prototype stage and for business-to-business deals, would permit institutional clients to make instantaneous payments to other bank clients. The announcement gives a jolt to a leading financial technology that has been praised for boosting efficiency in payments and other bank processes but which is still seen as at least a few years away from widespread application, in part because of the need for regulations. Lou Kerner, a venture capitalist who invests in cryptoventures, predicted the blockchain technology would affect all industries, much like the internet. “Clearly banking and the monetary system is one of the first areas to feel the disruption,” Kerner said. “Every major bank in the world is assessing the situation and developing a crypto/blockchain strategy. Either the banks disrupt themselves or they let others disrupt them.” “The cryptogenie is out of the bottle,” he added. Large banks face increased competition from smaller financial tech companies, as well as credit card companies and even retailers like Amazon and Apple who are jostling in with new payment systems. Banking giants such as JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Citigroup are steering a fifth or more of their overall spending to technology, according to a report from S&P Global Ratings. “We believe it will be crucial for banks to maintain their market position in payments, because payments are often central to the client relationship, generating substantial revenues from credit and debit card fees, deposit account fees, cross-border transaction fees and net internet income,” S&P said. Business-to-business volumes are well over $100 trillion, the report added. Under the system announced Thursday, customers would receive JPM Coins that could be transferred to other customers, who would then be free to redeem the sum. The system is based on U.S. dollars but could be expanded to other currencies, the bank said. The framework employs the digital ledger technology known as blockchain and is being tested with a small number of institutional clients, with plans to expanded it into a pilot program later this year, the company said on its website. “JPM Coin is currently a prototype,” the bank said. “As we move towards production we will actively engage our regulators to explain its design and solicit their feedback and any necessary approvals.” Just last month, equity analysts at JPMorgan said blockchain could reduce transaction settlement time to minutes, lower transaction costs and provide parties with more clarity on payment cycles. But many of the key advances “are still at the work-in-progress stage as they require legal and regulatory progress, operational adaption and coordination between different stakeholders,” the report said. “Hence, we see wide-spread blockchain adoption with scalable solutions at least three to five years away.” In announcing the system, JPMorgan becomes the first major bank with concrete plans to permit clients to transact in crypto currencies. JPMorgan Chief Executive Jamie Dimon has famously dismissed the cryptocurrency bitcoin as a “fraud,” and prices of the digital currency have plunged over the last year. At the same time, the bank has continued to work on blockchain technology, which is the founding mechanism for bitcoin. “We have always believed in the potential of blockchain technology and we are supportive of cryptocurrencies as long as they are properly controlled and regulated,” the bank said. “Ultimately, we believe that JPM Coin can yield significant benefits for blockchain applications by reducing clients’ counterparty and settlement risk, decreasing capital requirements and enabling instant value transfer.”


Panasonic to release high-end mirrorless cameras in March

Abstract: Panasonic Corp. said Thursday that it will release its first high-end mirrorless cameras, equipped with a large image sensor, on March 23. The high-end mirrorless camera market in Japan had been dominated by Sony Corp., which launched such products in 2013 ahead of its rivals, until Nikon Corp. and Canon Inc. joined the market last autumn. Panasonic’s entry is expected to make the competition fiercer, observers said. The S1R and S1 models from Panasonic’s Lumix S high-end mirrorless camera series are priced at around ¥500,000 and ¥340,000, respectively. They can also take 4K ultrahigh-definition videos. A mirrorless camera with a large image sensor offers delicate color contrast. Mainstay products from the companies are priced at more than ¥200,000 but have enjoyed robust demand, mostly from people switching from single-lens reflex cameras and those wishing to take more detailed pictures to post on social media. “(The cameras can) meet the demand from professionals,” Hideshi Fuchiue, executive officer at Panasonic, said. Competition among the four companies may help activate the high-end mirrorless camera market and lead to price drops, said Ichiro Michikoshi, chief executive analyst at research firm BCN Inc. While low-priced cameras have been losing customers to smartphones, the market for mirrorless cameras has been expanding.


IPO of Japanese jewelry retailer Primo weighed by its owner

Abstract: Longreach Group, the buyout firm founded by former UBS Group AG investment banker Mark Chiba, is considering an initial public offering of its jewelry business Primo Japan Inc., people familiar with the matter said. The owner has been working with Nomura Holdings Inc. to explore options that could also include a sale of the Tokyo-based diamond ring seller, the people said. Any deal could value the business at more than $200 million, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the details are private. Primo, which makes and sells semicustomized bridal jewelry, has been expanding outside its Japanese market. Last month, it opened its first store in Beijing, and eighth in China, located on the capital’s popular Wangfujing shopping street, its website shows. Established in Japan two decades ago, Primo now has about 111 stores in Asia, including locations in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Longreach bought Primo in 2015 from a Baring Private Equity Asia affiliate, the buyout firm’s website shows. While an IPO is currently the preferred option, Longreach could still opt to sell the business to another private equity firm or a rival retailer, the people said. Deliberations are at an early stage and no final decisions have been made about a sale, they said. A representative for Longreach couldn’t be reached for comment, while representatives for Nomura and Primo declined to comment.

jewelry
longreach group
ubs group ag
primo japan inc .


Japan's H2O Retailing expands push into Taiwan bread market with joint venture

Abstract: TAIPEI - Japanese department store operator H2O Retailing Corp. will set up a joint venture in Taiwan to meet growing consumer demand for freshly baked bread. H2O will upgrade its partnership with PX Mart Co., a local supermarket chain, to sell more freshly made bread in Taiwan. The companies said Wednesday that Chuan-lian Hankyu Bakery Co. will be formed in mid-May, with H2O owning 49 percent of its 260 million New Taiwan dollar ($8.4 million) capital and PX 51 percent. They will increase the number of bread-baking outlets from the current 61 to 255 this year and to 880 by the end of 2021. In late 2016, PX began importing frozen bread dough from Hankyu B&C Planning Co., H2O’s wholly owned bread manufacturer and store operator. PX subsequently started selling freshly baked bread at its supermarkets at a price of around NT$30, or about ¥107, the same price as a similar quantity of bread sells for at Hankyu Bakery in Japan. The Taiwan retailer expects to cut shipping and duty costs by about 30 percent by producing dough locally. PX sold about 850,000 buns worth NT$23 million at its stores last year. Taiwan’s total annual bread consumption is estimated at just over NT$60 billion, according to a local media report quoting government data.

taiwan
department stores
retailers
h2o retailing corp .


Struggling furniture retailer Otsuka Kagu forms tie-up with Yamada Denki

Abstract: Otsuka Kagu Ltd. said Friday the struggling furniture retailer has reached a basic agreement to form a business tie-up with major electronics retailer Yamada Denki Co. The two companies will provide each other with know-how on selling furniture and home appliances while cooperating on human resources development, Otsuka Kagu said. They will also explore the possibility of working together on sales to corporate customers. Otsuka Kagu will also raise some ¥3.8 billion in fresh capital by issuing new shares to third parties, including an investment fund. The struggling furniture vender will sell 13.11 million new shares for ¥290.11 apiece, with payment set for between March 4 and June 30. On the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s Jasdaq market for startups on Thursday, the company’s shares closed at ¥460. Otsuka Kagu will use the proceeds to promote warehouse automation and store changes designed to reinforce its e-commerce operations. The decision to receive an injection of outside capital came because its cash flow has dropped sharply from sluggish sales. President Kumiko Otsuka has expressed her intention to remain at the company’s helm. Otsuka Kagu said it incurred a net loss of ¥3.24 billion in the year ended in December, marking a third consecutive year of net loss, although the size of loss was down from the ¥7.26 billion logged the previous year. Sales fell 9.0 percent to ¥37.39 billion. Although the company offered discounts of up to 80 percent between October and December, the strategy failed to boost sales. The company did not provide its sales and profit forecasts for the year ending in December 2019, saying it is difficult to offer reasonable projections at the moment. Behind its dismal performance was a high-profile family feud that has continued for over a decade. Kumiko, the eldest daughter of company founder Katsuhisa Otsuka, drew attention from the business community in 2009 when she became Otsuka Kagu’s president for the first time, offering a new strategy to shore up stagnant sales. Traditionally, Otsuka Kagu had offered high-class imported furniture aimed at wealthy consumers. With experience in banking, Kumiko brought certain success by offering more casual product lines targeting younger generations. Her strategy led the company to increase the number of customers per outlet. But Katsuhisa Otsuka didn’t like the way his daughter changed his furniture empire. He ousted her from the top post and installed himself as both chairman and president in 2014. As the feud escalated over the following months, Kumiko Otsuka eventually returned to the helm by winning a majority of votes at a shareholders meeting in March 2015. But her second stint as president failed to steer the ailing firm in a new direction to fend off the growing presence of rivals both at home and abroad, including Ryohin Keikaku Co., which sells everything from furniture to kitchenware under the Muji brand, as well as Swedish furniture giant Ikea.

retailers
furniture
yamada denki
otsuka kagu ltd .


How Amazon scrapped its plans for a New York headquarters

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO/WASHINGTON/ NEW YORK - More than a year of work to bring Amazon.com Inc.’s headquarters and tens of thousands of jobs to New York City ended on Thursday with a couple of phone calls. Jay Carney, the company’s top policy executive, told New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo that the world’s biggest online retailer would not go ahead with plans to invest $2.5 billion (about ¥276 billion) to build a second head office in the borough of Queens. Carney, a former press secretary for President Barack Obama, told New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio the same shortly after. Abruptly scuttling its Big Apple plans blindsided Amazon’s allies and opponents alike. The company said the decision came together only in the last 48 hours, made by its senior leadership team and Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder, chief executive and the richest person in the world. Yet by some measures the decision was months in the making, as community opposition signaled to the company that it was not entirely welcome. Seattle-based Amazon captivated elected officials across North America in September 2017 when it announced it would create more than 50,000 jobs in a second headquarters dubbed HQ2. Cities and states vied desperately for the economic stimulus, with New Jersey offering $7 billion in potential credits and the mayor of an Atlanta suburb promising to make Bezos mayor for life of a new city called “Amazon.” A backlash began in earnest when Amazon announced two winners to split the offices last November: Arlington, Virginia, and New York’s Long Island City neighborhood, with New York offering incentives worth $1.53 billion to Amazon. The company could apply for $900 million more, too. New York State Sen. Michael Gianaris and City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer said that day that it was “unfathomable that we would sign a $3 billion check” to one of the world’s most valuable companies, considering the city’s crumbling subways and overcrowded schools. City Council meetings in December and January indicated to the Amazon executives who showed up the stern opposition they could expect from some elected officials and labor organizers. Protesters interrupted the meetings. A television report showed people unfurling signs saying, “Amazon delivers lies,” and “Amazon fuels ICE deportations” — a reference to the company’s cooperation with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Amazon felt that a small number of local and state officials had no desire to collaborate on a path forward, the company later said, despite what it said was strong popular support for its project. Relatively painless exit Tension ratcheted up earlier this month, when Gianaris was nominated to a state panel set to vote in 2020 on whether to approve the financial terms for Amazon. Days later, Amazon executives weighed the pros and cons of whether to follow through with its New York headquarters, two people briefed on talks inside the company said. Concerned that Amazon could be in limbo for more than a year ahead of the state panel’s vote, the growing consensus within the company was that it did not make sense to move ahead in the face of persistent opposition to a headquarters in New York City, where it already has 5,000 employees. Amazon had no binding legal contracts to acquire or lease the land for the project. It could exit with relatively little pain, the people said. Company officials also concluded Amazon could shift the jobs that would have been created in New York to other corporate centers it has across the United States, from the San Francisco Bay Area to Boston. Reopening talks with former HQ2 contestants did not make sense, the people said. Gianaris blamed Amazon for the reversal. “Amazon never showed willingness to look seriously at the concerns that were raised,” he said. Still, up to the moment of the announcement, there were signs that the parties could work together. One union leader said he and other labor organizers met on Wednesday with Cuomo and four Amazon officials, including Brian Huseman, its vice president of public policy. “We had such a productive meeting yesterday. Everyone left happy,” said Stuart Appelbaum, head of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. The group is trying to organize workers at an Amazon facility in Staten Island, another New York City borough, despite the company’s past opposition to unionization. “It was a complete surprise that they would say they look forward to working with us, and we talked about next steps, and then they call it all off the next morning,” said Appelbaum.


Seven Ikinari Steak restaurants in New York to close due to poor profitability

Abstract: NEW YORK - Seven of the 11 Ikinari Steak restaurants in New York operated by Pepper Food Service Co. will close, the Japanese company’s U.S. unit announced. The operator of the stand-up steakhouse chain has judged it would be difficult to improve the loss-making outlets’ profitability. Of the four remaining Ikinari Steaks in New York, two will be turned into Pepper Lunch outlets run by the same company. Pepper Food Service opened its first overseas Ikinari Steak in New York’s East Village in February 2017 and quickly increased the number of outlets in the city. Aiming to enhance the chain’s name recognition in the United States, Pepper Food Service debuted on the Nasdaq stock exchange in September last year. In the following month, however, Pepper Food President Kunio Ichinose told a news conference that the Ikinari Steak restaurants were facing sluggish sales in the U.S. “We’re struggling very much,” Ichinose said, indicating a plan was being formed to review the chain’s U.S. business strategies. On Thursday, Pepper Food Service said it incurred a consolidated net loss of ¥121 million in the year through last December, dragging its net balance into the red for the first time in eight years. It booked a special loss of some ¥2.5 billion due to the U.S. unit’s poor earnings.

restaurants
ikinari steak
pepper food service co .


Airbus A380 production halt to fuel transatlantic trade spat amid subsidy row

Abstract: TOULOUSE, FRANCE - Airbus’s decision to end production of the A380 looks set to reignite a transatlantic trade row over mutual claims of illegal aircraft subsidies, even as Airbus implements a two-year plan to stop making the world’s largest airliner. The plane-maker announced the shutdown on Thursday due to weak sales, eliminating a model at the heart of a record trade dispute between the European Union and United States over government support for Airbus and its U.S. rival Boeing. After 15 years and thousands of pages of arguments, the two sides are locked in arbitration proceedings at the Geneva-based World Trade Organization to determine the amount of harm each has caused through support, a possible precursor to sanctions. The WTO’s appeals body last year said the EU had failed to remove subsidized government development loans for the world’s largest airliner, the A380, and Europe’s newest long-haul jet, the A350, causing losses for Boeing and U.S. workers. Now, the EU is preparing to argue to the WTO that A380 subsidies no longer exist because the aircraft is being taken off the market, said a European source familiar with the case. It will argue that the A380 part of the case should be halted because it will not be built after 2021, citing an earlier decision to drop charges on the now defunct A340, two European sources said. The United States argues that subsidies paid to the A380 in the form of government loans have irreparably caused lost sales to Boeing and that this should be remedied through sanctions. Airbus and Boeing declined comment. Last year’s appeals ruling was part of a two-way battle between the EU and the United States over aircraft subsidies that could spark tit-for-tat reprisals between the two trade superpowers. The Trump administration last year said the United States would slap countermeasures on European goods unless the EU stopped “harming U.S. interests.” WTO rules allow it to target any industry since all goods fall into one category. Boeing has predicted such tariffs could reach billions of dollars a year starting as early as 2019. The EU has highlighted wins in a parallel case against U.S. subsidies for Boeing, and Airbus says this could in turn spark EU sanctions against the United States. Airbus said on Thursday it would no longer need to repay state loans on the A380 because governments had agreed to share some risk in the roughly 15-billion-euro project. It is estimated to have €1 billion in remaining unpaid government loans tied to the A380. The United States has consistently called on Airbus to forego the European loans or pay them back at market rates.

u.s .
boeing
eu
airbus
subsidies
a380
donald trump


Venezuela opposition urges international community to help aid get in as Cuba alleges U.S. prepping to intervene

Abstract: WASHINGTON/CARACAS - The Venezuelan opposition envoy to Washington urged the international community to help let assistance into the crisis-stricken country on Thursday, as Cuba accused the United States of flying military transport close to the area. Carlos Vecchio, opposition leader Juan Guaido’s representative, spoke to an international aid conference hosted at the Organization of American States (OAS) headquarters in Washington as a deadlock persisted in delivering aid. Elliott Abrams, Washington’s special representative on Venezuela, said the United States was looking for ways to send in aid as he reiterated U.S. support for Guaido. Guaido invoked constitutional provisions last month to assume an interim presidency and challenge socialist President Nicolas Maduro’s rule, arguing that Maduro’s re-election last year was a sham. Most Western countries, including the United States and many of Venezuela’s neighbors, have recognized Guaido as the country’s legitimate head of state, but Maduro retains the backing of Russia and China as well as control of Venezuelan state institutions including the military. Guaido has said humanitarian aid will enter the country on Feb. 23, setting the stage for a showdown with Maduro, who has said it is not needed and should not be let in. “They are blocking humanitarian aid that’s being sent,” Vecchio told the conference, which was attended by diplomats and representatives from dozens of countries. “We must open thousands of windows to bring humanitarian aid to Venezuela. … Here we are creating an international coalition to bring in food and medicine.” The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has said it wants a peaceful resolution to the crisis but has refused to rule out military intervention. Cuba accused the United States on Thursday of moving special forces closer to Venezuela as part of a covert plan to intervene. Military aircraft from the United States had flown to strategically located Caribbean islands last week, Cuba said. “It’s a new lie,” Abrams said when asked about it at the event. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request to comment. Abrams said the U.S. government had stockpiled food supplies in warehouses on Colombia’s border with its neighbor. Officials from Germany, the Netherlands, Britain, Canada and Taiwan also pledged humanitarian support to the Venezuelan opposition. Maduro, who accuses Guaido of leading a U.S.-directed coup attempt, has called the aid a show and denies there is an economic crisis, despite a widespread lack of food and medicine and hyperinflation. Gustavo Tarre, the opposition’s OAS representative, insisted the only objective was “to relieve the suffering of Venezuelans” and that there was no political, economic or military motives. An aid convoy supplied by the United States and Colombia arrived in the Colombian border town of Cucuta last week. n an effort to wrest vital oil revenue from Maduro, Venezuela’s opposition-controlled congress named new temporary boards to state-run oil firm PDVSA and its U.S. refiner Citgo, Venezuela’s most valuable foreign asset, on Wednesday. The government has opened an investigation into the new directors, the chief state prosecutor said on Thursday. Tarek Saab said Guaido had “grotesquely made circus-style appointments” in order to please foreign interests and destabilize the country. “The only directors legitimately appointed to the boards of PDVSA and its subsidiaries are those … who have been appointed by the executive government, as the constitution stipulates,” Saab said, according to his office’s Twitter account. He also said his office would investigate foreign ambassadors named by Guaido. It is unclear what action the Maduro administration could take, although it has previously jailed opposition leaders in Venezuela. In an effort to guarantee stability for new elections, Guaido’s transitional government should include members of the ruling “Chavismo” movement and military leadership, a top opposition lawmaker told Reuters. That interim government would have 13 months to hold fresh presidential elections from the date Maduro officially steps down as president, said Stalin Gonzalez, the second vice president of the congress. Chavismo is the movement founded by the late President Hugo Chavez, who Maduro succeeded in 2013. “We need to give space to the Chavismo that is not Maduro because we need political stability,” Gonzalez said. The opposition, made up a coalition of parties, plans to hold primaries in order to put forward a sole candidate to the presidential elections, he added.

u.s .
venezuela
cuba
colombia
nicolas maduro
humanitarian aid
oas
citgo
juan guaido


NASA heading back to moon soon, and this time to stay

Abstract: WASHINGTON - NASA is accelerating plans to return Americans to the moon — and this time, the space agency says, it will be there to stay. Jim Bridenstine, NASA’s administrator, told reporters Thursday that the agency plans to speed up plans backed by President Donald Trump to return to the moon, using private companies. “It’s important that we get back to the moon as fast as possible,” said Bridenstine in a meeting at NASA’s Washington headquarters, adding he hoped to have astronauts back there by 2028. “This time, when we go to the moon, we’re actually going to stay. We’re not going to leave flags and footprints and then come home to not go back for another 50 years” he said. “We’re doing it entirely different than every other country in the world. What we’re doing is, we’re making it sustainable so you can go back and forth regularly with humans.” The last person to walk on the moon was Eugene Cernan in December 1972, during the Apollo 17 mission. Before humans set foot on the lunar surface again, NASA aims to land an unmanned vehicle on the moon by 2024, and is already inviting bids from the burgeoning private sector to build the probe. The deadline for bids is March 25, with a first selection due in May — a tight timeline for an agency whose past projects have run years behind schedule and billions over budget. “For us, if we had any wish, I would like to fly this calendar year. We want to go fast,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. However, he admitted that “we may not be able to.” NASA’s accelerated plans, flesh out the Space Policy Directive that Trump signed in December 2017, envisage a return to the moon before a manned mission to Mars, possibly in the 2030s. NASA plans to build a small space station, dubbed Gateway, in the moon’s orbit by 2026. It will serve as a way station for trips to and from the lunar surface but will not be permanently crewed like the International Space Station. As with the ISS, NASA would seek the participation of other countries, which could provide some of the necessary items needed, such as modules for the moon station or vehicles to allow landings on the surface. “We want numerous providers competing on cost and innovation,” Bridenstine said. Before this manned program, NASA is also pushing to send scientific instruments and other technological tools to the moon in 2020 or even before the end of this year. The agency is also calling for quick-turnaround bids to manufacture and launch such instruments, offering financial incentives to make it happen fast. “We care about speed,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “We do not expect that every one of those launches or every one of those landings will be successful. We are taking risks.”

nasa space history astronomy planets moon


Canadian teacher convicted of 'pen camera' voyeurism

Abstract: OTTAWA - Canada’s top court on Thursday effectively broadened people’s legal right to privacy protections by convicting a teacher of voyeurism for secretly filming female students at school. Ryan Jarvis, 41, had been charged for using a camera concealed inside a pen to make of video recordings of 27 female students from 14 to 18 years old at a high school in London, Ontario, where he taught. The 35 “pen camera” videos seized by police were recorded between January 2010 and June 2011. They showed students wearing low-cut or close-fitting tops, and were taken from above or beside them seated in classrooms, computer labs or in school hallways, capturing “more of their breasts than would be visible if the students were recorded head on,” said court documents. A trial judge had found that students had a reasonable expectation of privacy under the circumstances but acquitted Jarvis, citing insufficient evidence that he had made the recordings for a sexual purpose. An appeals court had concluded the exact opposite on both points but upheld the acquittal. The top court’s ruling was eagerly awaited due its implications for privacy protections in an era of new technologies such as mobile phones with cameras permeating public spheres. In overturning the appeals court decision, the Supreme Court said “there is no doubt” that the students had a “reasonable expectations of privacy.” “A student attending class, walking down a school hallway or speaking to her teacher certainly expects that she will not be singled out by the teacher and made the subject of a secretive, minutes-long recording or series of recordings focusing on her body,” said the ruling. “The use of a cell phone to capture upskirt images of women on public transit, the use of a drone to take high-resolution photographs of unsuspecting sunbathers at a public swimming pool and the surreptitious video recording of a woman breast-feeding in a quiet corner of a coffee shop would all raise similar privacy concerns.” The top court, in sending the case back to a lower court for sentencing, also noted that the accused’s role as a teacher put him in a position of trust with the students. He faces up to five years in prison for voyeurism.


Bellwether for stumbling African democracy: Nigeria goes to the polls

Abstract: CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA/JOHANNESBURG - When Nigerians go to the polls on Saturday, there’ll be much more at stake than the presidency and seats in the parliament of Africa’s most populous nation. Democracy is on the back foot in Africa, and a credible and widely accepted outcome will go some way toward offsetting negative perceptions of the world’s poorest continent. While most Nigerian elections since military rule ended in 1999 concluded acrimoniously, the last contest four years ago saw the first-ever transfer of power via the ballot box and was hailed as a watershed moment for the nation’s almost 200 million people. “The significance of the Nigerian elections for Africa is tremendous,” said Nic Cheeseman, a professor of democracy and international development at the University of Birmingham in the U.K. “A flawed election and the political instability that this could generate would not only undermine confidence in the feasibility of democracy in one of Africa’s most important states, but also slow economic growth in West Africa and the wider region.” Recent setbacks in Africa include disputed votes in Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya, an attempted coup in Gabon and the violent suppression of anti-government protests in Sudan and Zimbabwe. A study Cheeseman did of 44 African nations showed almost every criterion used to evaluate the state of democracy slipped between 2015 and 2017. Many states pay lip service to staging elections, but have made little headway in giving their citizens a real stake in their economies, he said. The legitimacy of Nigeria’s election has already been called into question by President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision to suspend the chief justice for allegedly failing to declare his assets correctly, just weeks before the vote. The Supreme Court may have to rule on disputes in the vote, which is widely seen as a tight two-horse race between the 76-year-old Buhari, a one-time military ruler, and Atiku Abubakar, 72, a wealthy businessman and former vice president. Repressive African governments are facing little international pressure because global powers are preoccupied with the U.S. trade war with China, the U.K.’s exit from the European Union and Venezuela’s political crisis, according to Moeletsi Mbeki, deputy chairman of the Johannesburg-based South African Institute of International Affairs. “They are aware that the rest of the world is busy with bigger issues,” Mbeki said. “In Africa, things are most likely to get worse before they get better.” Half the 44 nations evaluated by Cheeseman, who analyzed the results of a transformation index compiled by German research institute Bertelsmann Stiftung, have autocratic governments. Mauritius and Botswana were the only two classified as consolidating democracies, while South Africa, which has an election in May, and Kenya were among 15 considered “defective democracies.” Nigeria was described as a “highly defective democracy.” An analysis of data from 35 independent sources by a foundation started by Sudanese billionaire Mo Ibrahim paints a somewhat rosier picture. It showed an overall African governance index reaching a decade-high in 2017, with 34 of the 54 countries registering gains since 2008. But another index that measured sustainable economic opportunities on the continent barely changed over the period, despite a 40 percent surge in the region’s gross domestic product. “Old institutions that have remained undemocratic need to be reformed and the political space needs to be opened for people to participate meaningfully,” said Ntsikelelo Breakfast, a lecturer at the University of Stellenbosch’s School of Security and African Studies. “That could take a long time, depending on how long the political elite continue ignoring the growing voices of discontent.”

africa
elections
nigeria
democracy
muhammadu buhari


More Brexit humiliation for May as Parliament defeats her again

Abstract: LONDON - British lawmakers defeated Prime Minister Theresa May in a symbolic vote over her Brexit strategy on Thursday, undermining her pledge to European Union leaders that she can get the unpopular divorce deal approved if they grant her concessions. Lawmakers defeated the government 303-258 on the main motion asking them to reaffirm support for her plan to seek changes. While the vote does not force the government to change tack, the numbers will undermine EU leaders’ confidence that May can win parliament’s support for a revised agreement. The latest twist in the two-year negotiation to leave the EU underlines the deep divisions in Parliament over how, or even whether, Britain should leave the bloc in its biggest political and trade policy shift in more than 40 years. It also increases the possibility of Britain leaving without a deal, a nightmare scenario for many businesses, but also of Brexit being delayed or potentially never happening at all. Up until the last minute before the votes, ministers and May’s chief whip, her enforcer in the House of Commons, tried to convince a group of Brexit supporters favoring a radical break with the EU that leaving without an agreement was still the legal default position. The group, several dozen strong, had said they would abstain in Thursday’s vote. Some Conservative and many opposition lawmakers accuse May of “running down the clock,” edging Britain closer to the exit date to try to force Parliament into a choice between backing her deal or leaving without an agreement. To try to prevent a no-deal exit, several lawmakers put down alternative proposals. The real crunch date for the government looks set to come on Feb. 27, when May has promised the next round of votes. Lawmakers seeking to force the government to delay Brexit say that will be moment they make their move.


Colorado runner recounts killing mountain lion in 'fight for survival'

Abstract: SAN, FRANCISCO/DENVER - A Colorado trail runner who survived a mountain lion attack by suffocating the animal said on Thursday that the encounter, which has made him the stuff of legend, was “a fight for survival.” “One of the thoughts that I was having was, ‘Well, this would be a pretty crappy way to die,'” Travis Kauffman told reporters in his first public comments about the Feb. 4 attack. “It very much turned into just a full-on fight for survival,” added the 31-year-old, who had to have more than two dozen stitches to close wounds on his cheeks and nose. Kauffman said he had gone out for a run when he was ambushed by the 80-pound (36-kg) cat. “I heard some pine needles rustling behind me and I stopped and turned,” he recalled. Kauffman, who is of slight build, said he felt his heart sink as he processed the situation. He raised his hands and began screaming to try to scare the animal as it rushed toward him. “Unfortunately, it kept running, and then it eventually just lunged at me and . . . its jaws locked into my hand and wrist,” he said. Kauffman said that as he and the mountain lion were locked in battle, they tumbled down a trail. He managed to get the upper hand as the cat ended up on its back. He was able to pin the animal’s hind legs with his feet and hit it with a rock over the head before stepping on its neck and suffocating it. “I stepped on its neck with my right foot, and just slowly after a few minutes I thought I would be getting close, and then it would start thrashing again,” he said. “And I had a few more scratches that resulted from those thrashes at that point, and I’d say another couple minutes later it finally stopped moving.” The whole episode lasted about 10 minutes, after which Kauffman said he ran off, terrified that other mountain lions may be lurking about. He said he eventually linked up with another runner and some hikers who gave him water and drove him to a hospital. Kauffman said that although an adrenaline rush and survival instinct helped him overcome the encounter, the fact that he chose not to use his earphones to listen to music that day also played a part. “For the most part, I don’t feel any residual trauma,” he told KUNC radio. “I tend to move forward — this is my personality.” Authorities have praised his quick thinking, saying he handled the situation just right. “We all feel extremely lucky that this attack was made by a young mountain lion on a knowledgeable runner, otherwise we may have been hosting a very different press conference,” said Mark Leslie, a Colorado Parks and Wildlife manager. “These animals are ambush predators, and are trained to take quick and lethal action whenever possible.” Mountain lions, also known as pumas or panthers, are native to the Americas. Their range extends from the Canadian Yukon to the tip of South America, according to the National Wildlife Federation. Cougar attacks on humans are rare, with fewer than 20 reported fatalities in North America over the last 100 years, according to the Colorado Parks and Wildlife website. There are between 4,500 and 5,500 mountain lions in Colorado, and since 1990 the state has seen 16 people injured and three killed from mountain lion attacks, the agency said.


Canada closes Haiti embassy as violence traps hundreds of tourists

Abstract: OTTAWA - Canada on Thursday temporarily closed its embassy in Haiti as violent protests against President Jovenel Moise’s government trapped hundreds of Canadian tourists in the Caribbean island nation. “Due to the current volatility, the Port-au-Prince embassy is closed today and we will continue to assess the situation in the coming days to ensure that our diplomats and their families are safe,” Canada’s foreign ministry said in a statement. Clashes between police and protesters left at least one dead on Wednesday in Port-au-Prince, bringing to at least seven the number of people killed since protests began a week earlier. The protesters, angry about skyrocketing inflation and the alleged theft of nearly $2 billion in Venezuelan oil relief to the island, are demanding Moise’s resignation. Gun violence and blocked roads prevented about 100 Canadian tourists staying at the all-inclusive Royal Decameron Indigo Beach resort to get to the airport on Sunday. “At present, it is not safe to organize a trip to the airport, so for the moment our customers are at the hotel, they are perfectly safe,” said Christophe Hennebelle, vice president of tour operator Transat. “We are in constant contact with the Canadian embassy in Haiti and with the government authorities to assess the situation,” he said, adding that he hoped that “in the coming days” the Canadians would be repatriated. An airplane remains on standby in Canada to go pick them up. Ottawa, meanwhile, is urging Canadians to avoid all nonessential travel to Haiti.

conflict
canada
tourists
haiti
jovenel moise


Syria Islamic State jihadis trapped in last square kilometer of Baghouz, take to tunnels

Abstract: OMAR OIL FIELD, SYRIA - Islamic State group jihadis using tunnels and suicide bombers were mounting a desperate defense Thursday of their last square kilometer in eastern Syria. Kurdish-led forces closed in on the small town of Baghouz where IS fighters and their relatives were hunkered down and met famished and disheveled people turning themselves in. “The fighting is fierce,” said Adnan Afrin, a spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces, the Kurdish-Arab outfit that has spearheaded the campaign against IS with backing from a US-led coalition. “There is significant resistance,” he told AFP in Al-Omar oil field, the main staging base for the SDF’s offensive against the very last shred of the original IS “caliphate.” The few hundred fighters of various nationalities holding out in their last bastion by the Iraqi border have launched bruising counterattacks in recent days, Afrin said. The jihadis are clinging to about 1 sq. km in the town’s built-up area, as well as to an adjacent camp, where a number of civilians are believed to be gathered. Afrin said it was impossible to provide accurate figures but he estimated the total number of fighters, men and women, at around 1,000. “There are many tunnels in Baghouz now. This is why the operation is dragging on. There are many suicide bombers attacking our positions, with explosives-laden cars and motorbikes,” he said. Afrin said two such suicide attacks were carried out by women on Tuesday but he would not provide any figures on casualties among SDF ranks. People continued to trickle out of the last IS redoubt every day, trudging up a dirt road to a collection point where SDF fighters and volunteers provide first aid and carry out a first screening. The major influx of the past few days slowed to a trickle on Thursday but it was unclear how many civilians remained trapped inside the jihadis’ last redoubt. David Eubank from the Free Burma Rangers volunteer medical group said he saw around 60 to 70 civilians exiting the last IS pocket on Thursday, one of the lowest numbers since December. Many of those who crept out had to sleep outside in the cold to reach the SDF, where a lucky few get tents while the rest were spread out on cheap blankets. “The kids were crying all night from the cold,” said Fatima, an Iraqi woman from Baghdad who fled Baghouz with her four children, all under 15. “This is the second night we sleep outside. There was so much bombing in Baghouz that it was safer for us to sleep in the open,” she told AFP. The SDF has restricted media access to the front line since an Italian journalist was wounded earlier this week. The U.S.-led coalition is carrying out air strikes on the area while its forces are also present on the ground, sifting through the displaced for wanted jihadis. Afrin said SDF forces tuning their walkie-talkies on the jihadis’ frequencies “can hear them speak in Arabic but also in Turkish, French and English.” Once the adult men have been separated from their families, foreign and SDF officers thumb through pictures on smart phones to ask new arrivals about wanted IS leaders. Islamic State’s elusive Iraqi-born supremo, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is not believed to be among the last jihadi leaders holed up in Baghouz. Several known jihadi figures have emerged from the dregs of the “caliphate” in recent days however, including German Martin Lemke and Frenchman Quentin Le Brun. A rift appears to have grown between foreign members of IS who have nowhere to hide and local fighters who are attempting to blend back into the population as the organization goes underground again. The “caliphate” Baghdadi proclaimed in mid-2014 once spanned territory the size of the United Kingdom and administered millions of people. It printed its own schoolbooks, produced oil, collected taxes and minted its own currency, in a brief but unprecedented experiment in jihadi statehood. Successive offensives in Iraq and Syria have shattered the proto-state, which lost its key cities one after the other and had since late 2017 been confined to its traditional strongholds in the Euphrates River valley. An official declaration of victory against IS is expected in the coming days, a move of mostly symbolic value that will go down as the death certificate of the “caliphate.” While surviving IS fighters on both sides of the border will no longer hold fixed positions, the jihadi organization will remain a threat. The United States is due to pull its troops out of Syria within weeks, creating a vacuum that risks allowing IS to rebuild and project new ambitions. The Kurds are also afraid they will have to squander the autonomy they acquired and be left exposed to a military offensive by their arch-foe Turkey.

conflict
u.s .
terrorism
syria
islamic state
syrian democratic forces
baghouz


Tasmania fires may wipe out ancient species

Abstract: TASMANIA - Tasmania’s ancient rainforest and alpine flora species face an uncertain future, scientists have warned, after out-of-control bush fires consumed vast tracts of wild bush land. As authorities downgraded emergency warnings Friday, with wetter weather — and even some snow — bringing respite from more than a month of rolling fires, scientists warned they are still assessing the damage to the island’s unique environment. Wildfires have scorched over 205,000 hectares (500,000 acres) in the southwest, center and northwest of the island — fueled, scientists believe, by climate change. Most of the native eucalypt forests have adapted to frequent burning, but Tasmania is a refuge for ancient species, whose presence dates back millions of years to when Australia was part of a supercontinent called Gondwana. Located in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, these species are more accustomed to ice ages than bush fires, and include the slow-growing pencil pine, King billy pine and cushion plant. They require a “cool, very permanently wet and fire-proof” environment, David Bowman, professor of environmental change biology at the University of Tasmania, said after a trip to inspect the burned wilderness. “It’s like a bonsai garden gone berserk” he said describing the species. “Some of the trunks of these pencil pines are 1,000 years old, but they’re clonal, so they have been there for 10,000 years.” “They’re resilient to ice ages, but when you warm the climate they are completely toast.” While scientists remain hopeful that rainforests were wet enough to repel the worst fire damage, climate models show a trend towards greater drying of western Tasmania and an increase in the dry lightning thunderstorms responsible for sparking the recent blaze. Nick Earl, climate research fellow at the University of Tasmania, and his colleagues warned in a recent paper that climate change may permanently alter the viability of these ecosystems. “Some regions of the west coast of Tasmania used to have very little to no risk of bush fires as they were always damp. However, this is no longer the case, resulting in species coming under threat,” they wrote. “Endemic species like pencil pine, Huon pine and deciduous beech may be wiped out by one fire.” This risk has prompted calls for more resources to be made available for remote area firefighting to safeguard irreplaceable ecosystems. “Pencil pines are really the plant equivalent of the Tasmanian tiger or the Tasmanian devil,” Bowman said. “They’re serious business for us culturally.”

australia
fires
forests
climate change
conservation
tasmania


In Myanmar, new parties challenge Suu Kyi's grip on power

Abstract: YANGON - New political groups are emerging to contest Myanmar’s next election in 2020, aiming to challenge the hegemony of national civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi after she has been weakened by escalating ethnic conflicts and slowing economic growth. Those factors were blamed by party officials for the poor performance of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy in by-elections in November, when it won only seven of the 13 seats up for grabs as regional and army-linked parties made gains. “Now that ethnic parties have allied with one another and prepared, we can’t fully rely on the power of the party. We must try harder than before to win the trust of the people,” said Dashi La Seng, an NLD lawmaker from the northern state of Kachin, where the party lost a seat in November. At stake is the future of Myanmar’s transition to democracy. The NLD swept to power in a landslide in 2015, winning a comfortable majority in parliament despite 25 percent of the seats being reserved for the army. While the NLD is still expected to do better than other parties in 2020, its majority could suffer severe losses, say analysts. “It’s questionable whether the NLD will win enough seats to form the government. If they don’t, they’ll have to form a coalition or negotiate with other parties,” said Ye Myo Hein, an analyst at the Tagaung Institute of Political Studies. Suu Kyi has responded to recent setbacks with a flurry of activity. The Nobel laureate has faced criticism from ethnic leaders that her government is high-handed and lacks understanding of the political demands of the country’s myriad minorities. Investors have long complained about the slow pace of reform. In the space of one week in January, Suu Kyi — often seen as aloof in style — popped in to a school in a Muslim neighborhood of Yangon and launched an investment conference in the commercial capital touting the country’s plentiful resources and youthful population, and her party floated changes to the military-drafted constitution. The burst of activity was interpreted as an attempt by Suu Kyi to more actively push the government’s message to constituents and investors. But rivals have been busy, too. Former junta No. 3 Shwe Mann, the influential former lower house speaker who has been Suu Kyi’s ally, last week announced the formation of a new political force, the Union Betterment Party. Shwe Mann was ousted as the head of the army-linked Union Solidarity and Development Party in 2015 and has surrounded himself with moderates from the previous regime. Ko Ko Gyi, one of the legendary leaders of the student protests in 1988 against junta rule, has also started a party called the People’s Party. He has tempted other groups, including ethnic parties, to launch a joint bid for power. “Even if one party can’t win, we can combine in parliament as an alliance. We can stand as one and avoid having our votes split,” said Ko Ko Gyi. Nowhere are the headaches for the NLD bigger than in the western state of Rakhine, where it is dealing with the fallout from an army offensive that in 2017 forced around 730,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh. The European Union is considering trade sanctions on the country over the crisis, potentially stripping it of tariff-free access to the world’s largest trading bloc. The measures could include Myanmar’s lucrative textile industry and potentially put hundreds of thousands of jobs at risk — many in the areas that overwhelmingly voted NLD in 2015, such as Yangon and Mandalay. Suu Kyi is also facing a fresh threat from the Arakan Army, a Rakhine rebel group that wants greater autonomy for the state, where the mainly Buddhist Rakhine ethnic group makes up the majority. The International Crisis Group said in a report from January that the fighting signified “a dangerous shift from politics to insurgency as the means of addressing ethnic Rakhine grievances.” The Rakhine ethnic party, Arakan National Party, had a strong showing in the 2015 polls, but it has been denied major roles in the local administration, fueling resentment against the NLD government in the state. Oo Aung Than, who runs Thazin Community Development Institute, an organization that works on equal rights and development in Rakhine, has complained that the NLD ignored the political will of the Rakhine people in 2015. “We, ethnic people, can see how they value ethnic people,” said Oo Aung Than. “The landslide victory will not happen again in 2020.”


South Korean TV station apologizes over celebrity spycam controversy

Abstract: SEOUL - A major South Korean TV station was forced to apologize after airing a performance by a well-known rapper in which he appeared to endorse secretly filmed pornography, as the country battles a growing epidemic of so-called spycam videos. The show by San E, who performed at the Pyeongchang Olympics last year, sparked outrage when the words “I love spycam” flashed up on a screen that was part of his background set. The 34-year-old rapper — who has a track record of controversial remarks — has refused to respond to the criticism, while broadcaster MBC has taken two weeks to say sorry following the Jan. 31 broadcast. “We apologize for having aired the concerned segment without proper filtering,” MBC said in a statement Thursday. South Korea has been fighting a growing tide of molka , or spycam videos, which largely involve men secretly filming women in schools, offices, trains, toilets, changing rooms and on the street. Spycam crimes reported to police surged from around 1,100 in 2010 to more than 6,500 in 2017, and many offenders share or sell photos and videos online. According to official statistics about 98 percent of offenders are men — ranging from school teachers and college professors to church pastors and police officers — while more than 80 percent of victims are women. San E, who has made a number of hit songs and has more than 460,000 followers on Instagram, is no stranger to controversy. During a concert in December local media reported he called feminists “mentally ill” and the lyrics of one song “Feminist” read: “You say blah blah blah about South Korea’s unequal gender pay … fake fact.” South Korean women make 63 percent of what men make in earnings, the highest pay gap among members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Paris-based group said in a 2017 report. Bae Bog-joo, a women’s rights activist, said if the rapper was unaware of the implications of his actions, it showed his “lack of gender sensitivity” and “profound male-centred views.” “Spycam videos bring tremendous suffering to victims, not to mention they are illegal,” she told AFP. One Instagram user wrote on his page: “So you like spycam that much? Hope you get filmed then.” Smartphones sold in the South are required to make a loud shutter noise when taking pictures, but many offenders use special apps that mute the sound, or turn to high-tech spy cameras hidden inside eye glasses, lighters, watches, car keys and even neckties. The crimes have become so prevalent that the South’s female police officers inspect women’s toilets in public venues including subway stations on a regular basis with special detectors for spycam videos that may be hidden inside stalls. The rapper was not immediately reachable for comment.

celebrities
privacy
south korea
scandals
spycams


Nature-short Bangkok debates whether to turn 'last' big green space into park or mall

Abstract: BANGKOK - The fate of a large green space in the middle of one of the world’s most built-up cities is pitting communities and conservationists against developers and cash-strapped authorities — a type of battle that is increasingly common in Asia. The Makkasan area in central Bangkok, measuring about 80 hectares — roughly 80 rugby fields — houses a train station, a workshop, warehouses and some homes in a green expanse that stands in contrast to the sleek high-rise buildings all around. Debates around the Makkasan land — owned by the State Railway of Thailand — have raged for years because it is the final remaining open space in a city with too few parks. “It is the last big space we have in Bangkok, and our last opportunity to create a big green space for the people. We must not waste it,” said Pongkwan Lassus, an architect and designer. “Besides the space, many of the buildings have historic and architectural value. We must conserve this heritage for future generations, not knock it all down for malls,” she said. Across booming Asian cities, open spaces and older buildings are making way for expressways and modern office and apartment towers. Critics say the new buildings rob cities of their character, widen inequality and magnify the harmful effects of urban sprawl. Last year, a community of more than 300 people living next to an old fort in Bangkok were evicted and their traditional wooden buildings were razed to make way for a public park that critics say is meant only to impress tourists. Authorities are also clearing vendors and food stalls from the sidewalks and removing shops and shanties along the Chao Phraya River in a bid to modernize Bangkok. Civic groups say the evictions and redevelopment plans mostly target poor communities who have no formal rights over the land or spaces they occupy in the congested city. Authorities say they are removing encroachers to improve accessibility and livability for residents. That promise is being tested as a plan for Makkasan’s redevelopment is finalized. “We have asked a consultant to study the best use of the land, and we will decide accordingly,” said Siriphong Preutthipan, a deputy governor of SRT. “We are aware of the various demands for green space, a museum and commercial developments. We will consider all of them and see what makes best sense, the best use of the land,” he said. Traffic snarls With 20 million visitors last year, Bangkok was the world’s most visited city, beating London, Paris and New York, according to the Mastercard Index. Yet the Thai capital was ranked a lowly 132 of 231 on a survey of livable cities, which measures factors such as public transportation, natural environment and air pollution. Bangkok also has one of the lowest ratios of green space: just 3.3 square meters (35.5 square feet) per person, compared with 23.1 square meters in New York City and 66 in Singapore, the Siemens-sponsored Green City Index showed. Everywhere, space is at a premium. Singapore is clearing cemeteries for highways and apartments, and planners in other Asian cities are converting “dead spaces” underneath bridges and flyovers into walkways and bike trails. The Makkasan land provides a unique opportunity, said Yossapon Boonsom at the Bangkok landscape architecture firm Shma. “It is prime area in the middle of the city, so it has high economic value. But we have to decide: Do we need yet another mall — or a park?” he said. “We get so few chances to develop a large space like this in the center of the city. It is a chance for us to imagine and plan a better outcome. Can we combine the need for greenery and open spaces with the need to monetize the land?” A 2005 plan proposed twin 99-story towers for offices and apartments, along with malls and conference facilities. There was even talk of locating Thailand’s first casino there. But the plan was shelved due to concerns about increased congestion in a city already notorious for traffic snarls. In 2015, the military government asked SRT to lease the Makkasan land to the finance ministry to clear some of its debt, part of a plan to get better returns from state land. The finance ministry said two-thirds of the land would be used for roads and commercial developments, with the remainder reserved for a rail museum and a green zone. But a year later, SRT said it would redevelop Makkasan by itself. A plan will be finalized this year, said Siriphong. Train cemetery It is an unusual conundrum for SRT, said Ruth Banomyong, head of the logistics and transport department at Thammasat University in Bangkok. “Public agencies, especially land-owning agencies, are something of an oxymoron: They do not always consider the public need for sustainable and responsible development versus the need for monetization,” he said. The Makkasan land was given to the railway authority by revered King Chulalongkorn more than 100 years ago. The country’s first railway line was inaugurated during his reign. Today, Makkasan Station connects to the airport rail line and is one of the stops on the proposed high-speed railway that will link three major airports in one of the country’s biggest infrastructure projects. At the large workshop, a few hundred people build, paint and repair coaches. The facility might be relocated when the land is redeveloped, said Siriphong. Much of the rest of the land is largely abandoned, except for several rusting wagons, which have earned the area the nickname “train cemetery.” A group of Bangkok residents has launched a social media campaign called the Makkasan Hope project to push for a park, a rail museum and the preservation of many of the old buildings. If developed as a park, it would be Bangkok’s biggest. “The land was intended for public purpose and public good; we cannot subvert that and make it all for commercial gain, especially when we have no open spaces left,” said Pongkwan. “This could be Bangkok’s own Central Park. What can be a better use of the land?”


Hong Kong snares record haul of rhino horns from South Africa

Abstract: HONG KONG - Hong Kong customs seized a record 40 kg (88 pounds) of rhino horns worth around 8 million Hong Kong dollars ($1 million) from Johannesburg en route to Vietnam, the latest bust for authorities trying to tackle the rising volume of endangered species trafficked through the Chinese territory. The seizure came less than two weeks after customs busted a massive smuggling operation from Africa, seizing a record quantity of pangolin scales, along with more than 1,000 ivory tusks. Customs said the rhino horns were found in two check-in carton boxes, destined for Ho Chi Minh City. Two men were arrested, they said in a statement on Thursday, adding it was a record haul for airline passengers. “It’s shocking to us that today’s 40 kg rhino horn seizure equates to about 20 percent of the total amount of rhino horn seized in Hong Kong from 2013 to the end of October 2019,” conservation group WildAid said. The former British colony on China’s southern coast is one of the world’s primary wildlife trafficking transit points, supplying an array of wildlife products including shark’s fin and rhino horn across Asia and particularly mainland China. Much of the trade supplies the traditional Chinese medicine sector. Highly valued rhino horn for instance, is believed to treat issues from cancer to clearing toxins and curing hangovers. The city remains a global black spot with organized criminal gangs taking advantage of the special administrative region’s geographic location, logistics network and relatively lax enforcement. All species of rhino are listed under CITES Appendix 1 which means it is illegal to trade them internationally. There are under 29,000 rhinos alive in the wild and in captivity. China has made significant strides in wildlife protection in recent years but it also has formidable profit driven wildlife business interests. After pressure from some breeders, China’s State Council said in October that it would replace a 1993 ban on the trade of tiger bones and rhino horn, opening up exceptions under “special circumstances,” including medical research. But in November, Beijing postponed the move following widespread protest from conservation groups. Hong Kong authorities last year raised penalties for smuggling endangered species to a maximum fine of HK$10 million and a 10 year prison sentence. However conservation groups say wildlife crime is treated less seriously with prosecutions still paltry. ADM Capital Foundation, which focuses on environmental challenges across Asia, wrote in a January report that wildlife trafficking should be incorporated under Hong Kong’s Organised and Serious Crime Ordinance (OSCO). Doing so would provide “a powerful disincentive to wildlife criminals, and importantly, would prevent reinvestment of profits into further criminal activities,” the report said.


From manga to news articles: Japanese civic groups create 'barrier-free' publications for people with mental disabilities

Abstract: While there has been tangible progress toward achieving full barrier-free access for people with physical disabilities through the installation of ramps, elevators and other pieces of infrastructure at public facilities, measures to clear obstacles for people with mental disabilities have been sorely lacking in Japan. But that is slowly changing and civic groups have begun to pursue such projects and rewrite newspaper articles, government documents — and even manga — to better accommodate readers that have mental disabilities. One of the organizations spearheading the movement is Yokohama-based Slow Communication, which publishes easy-to-understand news articles on its website. Every sentence is short and kanji characters are printed alongside smaller kana to assist with comprehension. A recent article reads in part, “On Jan. 26, 2019, tennis player Naomi Osaka won a tennis championship. The championship won by Osaka was the Australian Open.” As a rule, double negatives and metaphors are not used in constructing sentences, and the text contains many line breaks. Readers can also listen to an audio recording of the article being read at a slow pace. Slow Communication was founded three years ago by university faculty members and newspaper reporters with the purpose of “providing the necessary information so that mentally disabled persons can be included in society and make their own decisions.” It also conducts other projects such as drafting simple contracts for people with mental disabilities as part of its welfare service. “Regular news and newspaper articles are too difficult for me to understand,” says Miki Koike, 46, a member of the organization who has a mental disability. “When people around me say, ‘Did you hear about this news?’ I’m sad because I can’t follow what they’re talking about. It helps to have more simple information.” The Yokohama Municipal Government cooperates with the group and produces documents for people with mental disabilities. For example, it has published a pamphlet that explains in plain language the city’s welfare program for persons with disabilities, and is also considering creating application forms for local government administrative procedures written in a way that is more easily understood. “Following the 2016 law banning discrimination against persons with disabilities, we would like to continue to enhance our efforts,” said a city official. There is even an undertaking to remodel manga. Manga is traditionally read right to left, starting in the upper-right corner of the upper-right panel, and is written in a style that uses plenty of onomatopoeia. “The thinking is, since they’re manga they’re probably easy to understand — but this is actually not the case,” says Kazuma Yoshimura, a professor of manga studies at Kyoto Seika University. For example, vertical lines etched down the face of manga characters, which are used to express bewilderment, or the order in which the panels are to be read, are drawn on the assumption that the reader has the ability to imply what they mean, Yoshimura points out. The professor and a group of other researchers have begun to create two comic scripts: a regular one that includes onomatopoeia, and another one with a simplified panel layout and few symbols. Last year Japanese publisher Jusonbo released a book called “An Invitation to LL Manga,” which explains how to produce easy-to-understand manga for people with mental disabilities. LL is an abbreviation of the Swedish for “easy to read.” “This is even easy for non-Japanese to read, so it can help contribute to the realization of an inclusive society,” Yoshimura says. Even so, more help is needed, he says. “Publishing on a commercial basis is difficult, so we need public financial support to cultivate such cartoonists.”

books
disability
newspapers
mental health
ebooks


Bullet train ticket machines fail across Japan

Abstract: NAGOYA - Ticket machines were out of service at some stations Friday on bullet train lines across Japan due to a technical glitch. The machines went offline in the morning at stations including Shin-Yokohama and Nagoya. Railway Information Systems Co. said the problems occurred following a system upgrade. The company, founded by shinkansen operators, said machines froze each time passengers tried to buy round-trip tickets for unreserved seats. The cause is still under investigation and some machines remained out of order as of Friday afternoon. A woman in her 50s who was on her way back to Nagoya from Shin-Yokohama said, “I had to wait in line for 30 minutes at a ticket counter. It was very inconvenient.”

nagoya
shinkansen
ticket machines
shin-yokohama


Taro Kono looks to visit China in late March to enhance economic ties

Abstract: Foreign Minister Taro Kono is planning to visit China, possibly in late March, to discuss bilateral cooperation on economic and other issues, diplomatic sources said Thursday, in a sign of improving relations between the two countries. Kono is expected to meet with Foreign Minister Wang Yi and other Chinese officials during a trip that could accelerate preparations for reciprocal visits by their leaders, the sources said. The two governments are looking to hold a fresh round of high-level economic talks on the occasion of Kono’s visit. Tokyo hopes Chinese President Xi Jinping will visit Japan twice this year — first for the Group of 20 summit in Osaka in June and then as a state guest in the fall. Last year Prime Minister Shinzo Abe became the first Japanese leader to make an official visit to China in nearly seven years. He is expected to visit the country again by the end of the year, for a trilateral summit with South Korea that will be hosted by Beijing. While remaining at loggerheads over a territorial row and wartime history issues, Japan and China have seen an improvement in their relations recently as Beijing’s ties with the United States have deteriorated over trade issues. Kono and Wang are expected to discuss issues of bilateral and regional concerns, including the joint development of a gas field in the East China Sea and the full implementation of U.N. sanctions against North Korea to ensure Pyongyang denuclearizes. Tokyo and Beijing have been at odds over the Japan-administered Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, which are claimed by Beijing. Japan has protested to China over its dispatch of drilling ships to the sea and unilateral development activity in the area. At the economic dialogue, ministers and officials from the two countries will likely discuss ways to promote free trade, protect intellectual property rights and strengthen cooperation in advanced technology, the sources said. Kono is also planning to meet with Yang Jiechi, a member of the politburo of the Communist Party of China, and Premier Li Keqiang, the sources said. At the end of last year, China sounded out Japan on the possibility of Kono making a visit and holding the economic talks. The two nations have been seeking to set Kono’s visit between late March and early April.

shinzo abe
china-japan relations
xi jinping
wang yi
taro kono


Abe's attacks on local governments yields backlash against his push to revise pacifist Constitution

Abstract: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been attempting to find more allies in his bid to revise the pacifist Article 9 of the Constitution, but instead has found himself facing a barrage of criticism, which could make his long-held ambition a more difficult task to achieve. During the annual convention of his Liberal Democratic Party on Sunday, Abe reiterated his mantra calling for constitutional revision to formalize the legal status of the Self-Defense Forces and thereby put an end to the academic debate over its constitutionality. In delivering the speech, Abe claimed that “more than 60 percent” of the 1,741 local governments across the country “have refused to cooperate in recruiting” new young members for the SDF. Abe said this is “a sad reality,” and that “we need to change this situation” by revising the Constitution to formalize the SDF’s legal status. But the prime minister’s allegation was met with an immediate backlash from the media and opposition lawmakers, claiming that the figure cited by Abe is inaccurate. They also pointed out that no law obliges local governments to abide by the request from the Defense Ministry, which every year urges them to submit a list of the names and addresses of all local residents aged 18 or 22. Using that information, the ministry directly sends such individuals a brochure inviting them to join the SDF. Local governments “may want to cooperate, but it’s rather difficult because that’s not written in any law,” said Hiranao Honda, an opposition lawmaker of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, the largest opposition force. “Local residents would raise (privacy) issues because it is personal information,” he added. Only 632, or 36 percent of the total, gave the information to the Defense Ministry in fiscal 2017. Abe’s argument is based on that figure. But 931 local municipalities — or 53 percent of the total — didn’t provide the information to the ministry but did allow it to browse their resident registration databases and write down the names and addresses of qualifying residents by hand. If this is seen as “cooperation,” about 90 percent of the municipalities could be seen as having gone along with the ministry’s efforts to recruit young people, opposition lawmakers have argued. Defense Minister Takeshi Iwaya countered that browsing the database and writing down a “vast amount of information by hand” takes great effort and thus the minister does not consider those municipalities to be “cooperating” with the ministry. Abe also insisted that many activist groups and local assembly members put pressure on municipalities not to cooperate with the Defense Ministry in general. Abe was apparently referring to left-leaning pacifist groups and assembly members. “You can presume an atmosphere like this” has discouraged municipal governments from fully cooperating with the ministry’s recruitment work, he said. Many municipalities, however, likely won’t give away copies of their database because the residential registration law only allows the central government to “browse” the database, and there is no law that permits local governments to hand over paper or electronic copies to Tokyo. Norikazu Takeshi, who oversees thehandling of inquiries at the registration department of the Yokohama Municipal Government, pointed out that the names and addresses of local residents are not supposed to be given to an outside party without any legal basis. He flatly denied that any public debate over the constitutionality of the SDF would’ve had an effect on the city’s decision, as Abe claimed. “No. This is just a matter of clerical work based on the law,” he told The Japan Times. Opposition lawmakers argue that if the central government wants a copy of the database of young residents, a revision of relevant laws would be enough and the constitutional revision that Abe argues is needed would be unnecessary. Even some key members of Abe’s ruling bloc sided with the opposition, saying Abe’s proposal to revise Article 9 has little to do with this database issue. “We probably don’t need to (revise the Constitution) to deal with this matter,” said Kazuo Kitagawa, the head of the constitutional affairs panel of Komeito, the LDP’s junior coalition partner. Komeito’s cooperation is considered a must if Abe is to initiate a national referendum on constitutional revision. To initiate a national referendum to revise any article of the Constitution, support of more than two-thirds of lawmakers in both the Upper and Lower Houses is legally required

shinzo abe
constitution
self defense forces
defense ministry


Abductee Minoru Tanaka and missing coworker Tatsumitsu Kaneda alive in Pyongyang: report

Abstract: North Korea has informed Japan that Minoru Tanaka, a Hyogo Prefecture native who vanished in 1978, is living in Pyongyang with his wife and children, Kyodo News reported Friday, quoting an unnamed source in the Japanese government. The government claims Tanaka was kidnapped by North Korean agents while staying in Europe. Since 2014, North Korea has told Japan about Tanaka’s situation several times, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. Pyongyang also reportedly told Tokyo that Tatsumitsu Kaneda, one of his coworkers at a noodle shop, is also living in Pyongyang with his wife and children. Japanese officials were told that neither Tanaka nor Kaneda intends to return to Japan, according to Kyodo News. The government has long suspected that Kaneda, who was 26 when he disappeared, was whisked away by North Korean agents. Pyongyang maintains that all issues related to the abduction issue have already been resolved. Tanaka was 28 when he vanished. The government added him to the official list of 17 abductees in April 2005. Pyongyang had claimed it could not confirm whether he ever entered North Korea. Tanaka’s case came to light in 1997 after a now-deceased man believed to be a spy for the North confessed that Tanaka was taken to North Korea via Vienna at the invitation of the noodle shop owner, who was also a spy for Pyongyang. The last record of Tanaka’s existence was his departure from Narita Airport in June 1978. He has not been heard from since. Japanese officials have not met with either man, and a senior Foreign Ministry official declined to comment. Japan officially lists 17 citizens as having been kidnapped by North Korean agents and suspects the North’s involvement in many more abductions. Of the 17, five were repatriated in 2002. The bizarre and tragic stories of Japan’s abductees have caught the attention of the public, and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has pledged that resolving the abduction issue is one of his top priorities. It was in 2014 when North Korea first told Japan that the two men had entered the country, the official said. It was before the two countries, which have never had diplomatic ties, reached an important agreement on the issue in Stockholm in May that year. Under the deal, North Korea promised to conduct a comprehensive survey of all Japanese in its territory in return for the lifting of some of Tokyo’s unilateral sanctions on Pyongyang. The probe, however, yielded few results, and bilateral relations soon soured as North Korea restarted its nuclear and missile tests. In 2016, North Korea disbanded a special committee tasked with looking into the whereabouts of missing Japanese. Among leaders of major countries dealing with the North Korean nuclear issue, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is the only one having difficulty setting up a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un since he began a string of diplomatic engagements in early 2018. But Japan’s behind-the-scenes communications with North Korea have nevertheless continued. In October last year, a top Japanese intelligence official close to Abe had a secret meeting with North Korean officials in Mongolia, during which they discussed the abduction issue, sources with knowledge of the situation said earlier. The Japanese government has publicly withheld information both about Tanaka’s entry into North Korea and the secret meeting. Tanaka went missing in 1978 after departing from Narita for Vienna. According to a man believed to be a former North Korean agent, the proprietor of the ramen restaurant Tanaka worked at, also secretly an operative, helped lure him abroad to be abducted. The following year, Kaneda disappeared after telling people around him that he would go to Tokyo to meet with Tanaka. Kaneda had received a letter in Tanaka’s name encouraging his former co-worker to join him in Austria. There are no records of Kaneda leaving the country.

north korea
abductions
north korea-japan relations
minoru tanaka
tatsumitsu kaneda


Abe and Austria's Sebastian Kurz agree to expand tourism and economic cooperation

Abstract: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz agreed Friday to expand tourism cooperation, with Kurz welcoming the start of daily direct flights between Tokyo and Vienna from this weekend. Abe and Kurz also agreed in Tokyo to promote trade between the two countries, following the implementation of an economic partnership agreement between Japan and the European Union on Feb. 1, creating a free trade area covering about a third of the global economy. “We’ve been able to set an example to the world as the flag bearers of free trade amid growing moves toward protectionism,” Abe said during the talks. Kurz noted at a press briefing after the meeting that Japan is a partner that supports free trade. As this year marks the 150th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic relations, Abe is hoping to strengthen mutual trust with 32-year-old Kurz, the youngest serving head of a European government. It is Kurz’s first visit to Japan since assuming office in December 2017, though he once backpacked in Japan as a student. Kurz plans to visit Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima on Saturday and lay flowers at the cenotaph for atomic bomb victims, before returning to Austria on Sunday.

trade
tourism
sebastian kurz
austria-japan relations


Fifth-generation bonsai cultivator asks thieves to take good care of tiny trees they stole from him

Abstract: A Japanese cultivator of bonsai trees has appealed for the thieves who made off with his expensive potted plants to take good care of them. Seiji Iimura, a fifth-generation bonsai cultivator who runs the Kirakuen garden store in Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture, said Tuesday the seven tiny trees stolen from his premises were his “family treasures.” “It’s something I would never sell even if I got ¥10 million ($90,000),” he said. “Of course I hate the thief who stole them, but I want to tell him or her: please pour water on them and please take care of them,” Iimura said. “I would feel sad if they die.” Iimura reported to police last month that seven bonsai trees, worth more than ¥7 million in total — including a 400-year-old gnarled juniper priced at some ¥6 million — had been stolen from his garden. His wife Fuyumi wrote in a recent Facebook entry that the couple had raised the bonsai trees “like our children.” “I am filled with sadness and heartache,” she wrote. Iimura keeps some 3,000 miniature trees on display at the 5,000 square-meter (6,000 square-yard) garden, with only some available for sale, so that visitors can appreciate bonsai art. Since the theft he has installed security cameras. “You know, bonsai is nature in miniature. Looking at a bonsai tree is like walking into a deep mountain while staying at home,” Iimura said. Bonsai is an Asian art form where small trees are sculpted. Bonsai trees often appear as if shaped by wind or the weight of snow. Sculpting them requires a delicate technique of chiselling branches to twist and pull them into shape, all the while battling to keep the tree alive. Exported Japanese bonsai trees have become a hit overseas. In 2018, Japan exported trees, bonsai and potted flowers worth about ¥12 billion, up from ¥4.5 billion about a decade ago, according to data published by the agriculture ministry.