Malaysia warns of threat after alleged Islamic State-linked video vows attacks

Abstract: KUALA LUMPUR - Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said the Islamic State group is a “very real” threat to the country, hours after a video claiming to be from the militants’ regional wing warned of attacks in the Muslim-majority nation for arresting its supporters. Police said the video, believed to feature operatives from the extremist group Katibah Nusantara speaking under the IS logo, was significant because, if confirmed, it was the first from the Islamic State in Malay. “This threat is very real and my government takes it very seriously,” Najib told a conference on extremism. “This is a challenge that faces us all around the world. We are far from immune to this danger in Malaysia.” Police said on Sunday they had arrested seven members of an Islamic State cell who were planning attacks across the country. The suspected militants — including one linked to Bahrom Naim, the alleged mastermind of the recent terrorist attacks in Indonesia — were carrying bullets, books on jihad, Islamic State flags and propaganda videos. Katibah Nusantara is believed to be led by Naim, an Indonesian who police have said is pulling strings from Raqqa, the Islamic State’s de facto capital in Syria. Ten days ago, Malaysia also arrested a suspected militant believed to have been planning a suicide attack in Kuala Lumpur. The video that surfaced online warned Malaysia against the crackdown on Islamic State supporters and featured two Malaysians based in Syria, said Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, director of the police counterterrorism unit. “They threatened to carry out an attack if police did not stop the arrests and release detainees immediately,” said Ayob, adding that the video showed militants in the country were becoming more organized. “Perhaps they didn’t have a direct link with IS before, but now they do, so they can use the IS logo on their videos.” The video could not be independently verified. “If you catch us, we will only increase in number but if you let us be, we will be closer to our goal of bringing back the rule of the Khalifah (caliph),” said a message on the video, according to Malaysian newspaper the Star. Security experts in the region believe the Islamic State group’s footprint is still light in Southeast Asia because militants are jostling to be its regional leader. Like Indonesia, Malaysia is grappling with the rising influence of the Islamic State group, as scores from the countries have found their way into Syria and Iraq to fight for the extremists. Authorities noted that at least 17 of them have died there, including six who perished in suicide bombing missions. Since February 2013, the Malaysian police have arrested more than 150 suspected Islamic State followers.

malaysia
terrorism
islamic state
insurgencies


Changes in store for TOEIC, but test still not total gauge of fluency: experts

Abstract: In Japan, having high English proficiency can be a strong advantage for students wishing to get into prestigious universities and companies and for businesspeople seeking a promotion. As such, obtaining high scores in the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC), an internationally standardized English test, has become a must-have for people to prove their language ability. Some people even take a week or two off from work and fly to countries such as Malaysia and the Philippines to attend English courses specifically designed to raise their TOEIC score. However, some experts say that relying only on this score is not the best way to assess a person’s English proficiency. Meanwhile, the U.S.-based organizer of the TOEIC said it was remodeling the test in May for the first time in a decade to reflect changes in English communication. Following are questions and answers about the current situation surrounding the TOEIC. What is the TOEIC? The TOEIC is an international English proficiency exam taken in 150 countries. It is made up of 200 multiple-choice questions and the score ranges from 10 to 990. It was developed in 1977 by U.S.-based Educational Testing Service (ETS) at the request of Japan to develop a standard test to measure English language ability. Since the test was launched in 1979, it has become perhaps the most popular measure of English proficiency in Japan, with about 2.4 million people taking the test in fiscal 2014. ETS also created the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), another well-known English exam that is used widely for applications to academic and other professional institutions. The TOEIC is particularly popular for business use. According to the Institute for International Business Communication (IIBC), which organizes the TOEIC in Japan, test participants are classified into five levels based on their scores, with those who score 860 and above graded as level A, meaning they can fluently communicate in English. According to ETS statistics for 2014, the average score in Japan was 512 — ranking 35th out of 44 countries with more than 500 test takers in a year and lagging behind other Asian countries such as South Korea (646), China (671) and India (769). How will the test be changed? According to the IIBC, the new format will include questions about English communication via text messaging. It will also include elisions, such as using “gonna” instead of “going to,” and fragmented sentences in a dialogue. The new format will also feature new types of questions that require test takers to use several sources, including visual representations such as maps and graphs, and relate them to a dialogue. A dialogue involving three people will also be included in the listening section. Will the changes affect the test’s difficulty? Despite some changes, IIBC claims the quality and difficulty of the TOEIC will remain the same, with the score derived in a manner comparable with the previous format. But experts warn the change could make the test considerably more difficult for many people. Sumiko Nakamura, who has been teaching TOEIC-related studies for 12 years, said the new test will require the ability to read faster and more precisely in a short amount of time. Many questions in the new format will take a considerable amount of time to answer, as their structure is more complicated, she said. Nakamura also said the dialogue comprising three people could be troublesome for those not used to communicating with native English speakers, because it may be difficult for them to tell who is speaking if there is more than one person of the same sex. How are TOEIC scores used in Japan? A TOEIC score has been indispensable to university students who want to stand out from other job-seekers during the shukatsu (job-hunting) season. According to an IICB survey conducted in 2013, about 70 percent of personnel management officials from 228 companies that use English in their business said they looked at applicants’ TOEIC scores when hiring. The survey also showed they expected an average score of 565 for new employees. Also, some universities use TOEIC scores as part of their requirements for admission. The department of English at Tokyo’s Aoyama Gakuin University, for example, set TOEIC score of 730 or more as one of qualifications for applying to its so-called self-recommendation admission. Many universities are also starting to offer English education courses focused on raising students’ TOEIC scores so as to attract more students in what is a declining youth pool in aging Japan. Is relying on TOEIC scores problematic? Some experts say TOEIC scores don’t always reflect true English proficiency. Yukio Otsu, a professor of language education at Meikai University in Chiba Prefecture, said there were strategies for achieving good TOEIC scores that focus on patterns in test questions. “It is possible to teach people how to choose the correct answers just by reading the pattern,” Otsu said. “A high score achieved as such doesn’t reflect one’s real English proficiency.” As a result, “some companies complain their new employees can’t speak English fluently, even though they score high in TOEIC,” Otsu said, adding that the revision would not really help to change the situation so long as there remained patterns in questions and answers. Otsu also said that although TOEIC is recognized worldwide, it has actually been taken mostly by people in Japan and South Korea. “I’m not saying TOEIC is meaningless; the test itself is well-developed and it can help people improve their English if used effectively,” Otsu said. But he warned that people were concentrating too much on achieving a good score. “It is not realistic to believe one kind of test can measure one’s English ability for every situation. I don’t think it is right for everyone to depend on TOEIC,” he said.


Police to step up patrols in Okinawa after woman's murder

Abstract: The government pledged Friday to bolster patrols in Okinawa Prefecture as it works to allay ongoing fears about crimes by U.S. military personnel, following the alleged rape and murder of a local woman by an ex-marine. According to the plan that was hammered out in a government meeting the same day, Okinawa police will deploy an additional 100 officers to local police stations as well as 20 extra patrol cars by the end of this year to enhance security. The plan also provides for the creation of the so-called Okinawa community security patrol unit comprising 100 patrol cars. “It’s the government’s job to protect the lives and assets of Japanese citizens,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference. The announcement comes amid renewed anti-base sentiment in the prefecture after Kenneth Franklin Shinzato, 32, a civilian worker at Kadena Air Base, allegedly raped and murdered Rina Shimabukuro, 20. A large rally against the U.S. base is also scheduled for later this month. Tokyo apparently hammered out the countermeasures to mitigate an expected backlash against Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party from locals in the Okinawa Prefectural Assembly election on Sunday. Ahead of Tokyo’s announcement, the U.S. military on May 28 imposed a 30-day midnight curfew on all Okinawa-based service members, as well as a ban on consuming alcohol outside bases. The new rules also prohibit festivals, celebrations and concerts. Yet, Okinawans are reportedly not satisfied by the action, given that similar countermeasures imposed by the U.S. military in the past have failed to prevent the reoccurrence of such crimes. This sentiment was highlighted in a opinion poll this week by local newspaper Ryukyu Shimpo and Okinawa Television Broadcasting Co. According to the survey results, 42.9 percent of respondents said a full withdrawal of the U.S. military from Okinawa is the best solution to prevent crimes by U.S. military service members and base workers. The poll also found that 79.2 percent of respondents supported the revision or abolition of the U.S.-Japan Status of Forces Agreement, which currently gives jurisdiction to the U.S. if service members or base workers violate Japanese laws while on duty. Even though Shinzato was not on duty when he is alleged to have murdered the Okinawan woman, the SOFA has still been stoking anger among Okinawans. U.S. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter on Thursday said he was considering possible changes to how the SOFA is implemented. But he stopped short of saying the U.S. would revise the agreement. Carter, who is in Singapore attending the International Institute for Strategic Studies’ Shangri La Dialogue, is scheduled to have bilateral talks with Defense Minister Gen Nakatani on Saturday on the sidelines of the Asian security summit. Tokyo and Washington have previously agreed to some leeway in their enforcement of the almost 60-year-old agreement. For example, under Article 17 of the SOFA, custody of a base worker or service member over whom Japan will exercise jurisdiction remains with the U.S. until the person is charged by Japan. However, after the 1995 rape of a 12-year-old girl by three American service members, the U.S. agreed to give “sympathetic consideration” to any request to transfer custody in specific cases of “heinous crimes of murder or rape.”


Following the 'Girls' to Japan

Abstract: Two episodes of the fifth season of HBO’s hit show “Girls” turned its lens to Japan. While the show focuses on four millennials trying to make it in New York, season five takes plucky Shoshanna Shapiro out of the Big Apple and sends her to Tokyo for a new marketing position. Here, she experiences both real and surreal aspects of life in Japan. At times, her itinerary feels like Buzzfeed clickbait (think “10 crayzee things to do in Tokyo!”), including highlights such as feet-eating fish, cat cafes and S&M bars. In its defense, the show also highlights normal points of life in Japan, including buying onigiri snacks for work, slurping ramen after drinks and chilling at an urban hot spring with friends. And even Shoshanna, who is essentially kawaii incarnate, can get bogged down by the realities of expat life in Tokyo. She’s not exactly fluent in Japanese, her friends constantly remind her about her foreigner status and she has to deal with cultural differences in the dating scene. But during her stay in Japan, Shoshanna visits a variety of classic tourist spots and experiences traditional pastimes. Now that season five is finally airing in Japan on Star Channel, we’ve mapped out her time abroad so you can see where the Tokyo adventures took place. Mitaka house Since Shoshanna is the quirkiest character on the show, it’s only natural that she stays in one of the quirkiest condos complexes in Japan, titled “ Reversible Destiny Lofts Mitaka in Memory of Helen Keller. ” Located in Mitaka, less than an hour from inner Tokyo, Shusaku Arakawa’s famous complex features a brightly colored facade and ball-shaped rooms. The architect has said he designed the building, which was completed in 2005, to keep tenants alert and forestall the inevitable: death. Shibuya Crossing This sight will be familiar to anyone who has been to Tokyo, and even those who haven’t. Millions of people brave the Shibuya “scramble crossing” every year. Surrounded by giant video billboards evoking scenes out of “Blade Runner,” the crossing is the city’s top selfie spot. Naturally, Shosh, wearing Hello Kitty headphones, navigates the five-way intersection with aplomb. Taketori-no-Yu Spa Shoshanna takes like a fish to water by embracing Japan’s bathing tradition. This “super sento ” in the Tokyo suburb of Tama, which has giant baths, massages and dining halls, is not exactly your typical neighborhood bath. For Shoshanna’s second visit, she and her former boss Abigail (played by “Saturday Night Live” cast member Aidy Bryant) indulge in “Doctor Fish” foot baths, where little fish actually nibble the dead skin on your feet (for ¥500). Actress Zosia Mamet (Shoshanna) said that “it doesn’t just tickle, it kinda really hurts.” Moon Romantic Shoshanna makes her move on shy work colleague Yoshi at the aptly named Moon Romantic (青山 月見ル君想フ) while her and her friends see the Japanese band Flip . The venue features a variety of performers throughout the year, ranging from piano players to up-and-coming rock stars. Unlike the more famous and slightly grungier “live houses” in the city, Moon Romantic, located in the up-market Minami Aoyama, is decidedly more clean-cut. Trump Room Shoshanna gets a first-hand taste of S&M at Shibuya’s Trump Room, a nexus for trendy scenesters that boasts dozens of chintzy chandeliers and mirrors. As the bar has a revolving door of DJs and themed nights, don’t show up looking for latex-clad dominatrixes on any night of the week. Golden Gai After a long day, Shoshanna and her gal pals go out for drinks in a small hole-in-the-wall izakaya in what looks like the Golden Gai area, a sliver of Shinjuku that is jam-packed with tiny bars and has been a magnet for tipplers since the 1960s. Pro tip: Most places have only a few counter seats each, so don’t bring a large group of friends along for your pub crawl. Takeshita Dori One location that should be obvious to any visitor of Japan is Harajuku’s Takeshita Dori, where Shoshanna takes Abigail on a trek through what she calls “Katy Perry’s vagina.” The street’s pink-centric fashion shops and creperies attract hordes of young people and tourists. Pro tip: If you’re allergic to crowds, squeals and pink, steer clear. Temari no Ouchi Cat Cafe After being laid off from her marketing job, Shoshanna does the responsible thing and becomes an assistant manager at Temari no Ouchi Cat Cafe. Located in Kichijoi, this cat cafe is one of the most elaborate in the city with its Ghibli-like decor. And while other cat cafes simply serve tea or coffee, Temari no Ouchi has full meal sets along with cat-shaped cookies. Afuri Ramen Ebisu If the ramen at Afuri looked delicious, the good news is that you can go ahead and try it yourself. Not your average fat-laden ramen, the noodles here are on the lighter end of the spectrum. The signature bowl of yuzu shio ramen is not be missed. You can slurp on Afuri’s ramen at seven locations, but we’re impressed that Shoshanna chose the flagship shop in Ebisu. Nishi Shinjuku Shoshanna’s final moments in Japan have her walking in the early morning hours through Nishi Shinjuku. The street has all of the things you’d expect from a jaunt through Tokyo, except people. And if you want to peer even further behind the camera, you can view these behind-the-scenes videos the first Japan episode and the second Japan episode of “Girls.” Bonus: Are you jealous of Shoshanna’s talking alarm clock? Well, you can now buy it on Amazon .

girls
hbo
lena dunham
zosia mamet
japan pulse


The struggles of a local sumo hero

Abstract: An oft-repeated question these days, and one not necessarily confined to sports media, is whether 29-year-old wrestler Kisenosato will make it to sumo’s highest rank. Or is he destined to remain a perennial bridesmaid? Clearly at the peak of his career, the ozeki (champion) and Ibaraki Prefecture native finished the previous tournament in March in Osaka as runner-up, with a strong 13-2 record. A tournament victory would have guaranteed his promotion to yokozuna (grand champion). It matters to many fans, because sumo, the quintessential Japanese sport, hasn’t had a native-born grand champion since Takanohana retired in 2003. The last five to be promoted to the top rank — one born in American Samoa; all others, Mongolia — were Musashimaru (promoted in 1999), Asashoryu (2003), Hakuho (2007), Harumafuji (2012), and Kakuryu (2014). The latter three are still active. Sumo being Japan’s native sport, it goes without saying that many fans are becoming impatient to see this insufficiency addressed — and soon. That’s why the media’s attention had been directed at Kisenosato, who got off to a brilliant start in the May tournament. He defeated all comers up to the 13th day, when he was solidly trounced by Hakuho. His hopes of tournament victory and possible promotion were then dashed beyond redemption when he lost to yokozuna Kakuryu the following day. Hakuho, meanwhile, went on to achieve a perfect score of 15 wins, while also extending his all-time record to 37 tournament victories. Though disappointing to many, Kisenosato’s failure to win the tournament, and thereby gain promotion, should not diminish the fact that his rivalry with Hakuho has become legendary. Flash magazine (June 7) noted that on the second day of the 2010 Kyushu tournament, it was Kisenosato who ended Hakuho’s string of consecutive victories at 63 — just six wins short of sumo’s all-time record set in the 1930s by the late Futabayama. Kisenosato also halted another string of Hakuho’s consecutive victories at 23 in the January 2011 tournament and again, in July 2013, at 43. If Kisenosato was devastated by his failure to win the Emperor’s trophy in the May tournament, at least he didn’t let on in public. On the night the tournament ended, May 22, Friday magazine (June 10) reported that about 120 of Kisenosato’s supporters gathered to fete his runner-up performance at a hotel in the city of Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture. Mounting the stage, he crooned a practiced version of “Shimanchu nu Takara,” a song recorded by the Okinawan trio Begin. But later that evening in the privacy of Tagonoura stable, his home base in Tokyo, he reportedly cast off his typically stoic mien. According to an unnamed source at the stable, “After Kisenosato came back, we heard noises from his room during the night that sounded like things were being kicked around.” Friday noted that after Kisenosato narrowly missed a tournament victory at the Kyushu competition in November 2013, he cut back on his alcohol consumption and trained even more rigorously, while refraining from extracurricular activities such as TV variety show performances. In his 27 tournaments at the rank of ozeki, his win-to-loss percentage is an outstanding .701 — said to be highest of all the ozeki during the postwar period. Yet up to now, he still hasn’t managed to win a single tournament. “Each tournament, Kisenosato feels ‘This is going to be the one,’ but then suffers a letdown,” sumo critic Kiyoshi Nakazawa told Friday. “He goes all-out during practice, but the workouts are mostly with lower-ranked wrestlers in his own stable, which is no good. He won’t be able to defeat yokozuna unless he works out with stronger wrestlers. He needs to work out with stronger partners, to give him the self-assurance and mental strength; otherwise, he’s not going to win a tournament.” While sumo deserves credit for its remarkable achievements in assimilating foreigners into its ranks, nationalistic sentiments surface as occasional irritants. Shukan Bunshun (June 2) noted that in “Nippon Kaigi no Kenkyu” (“Study of the Japan Conference”), a current best-seller about a nonpartisan conservative group, author Tamotsu Sugano quoted remarks by former komusubi (sumo’s fourth-highest rank) Mainoumi, who appears frequently as a sumo commentator on NHK. In the Feb. 2015 issue of Nippon no Ibuki (Breath of Japan), a monthly publication produced by nationalist political organization Nippon Kaigi, Mainoumi had supposedly said, “Japan’s complacency toward peace and disinclination to fight is also demonstrated in sumo.” Such weakness, he suggested, stemmed from “Japan’s masochistic education system and brainwashing by the postwar military occupation.” But when the magazine asked, “In the tournament that just ended, it was too bad about Kisenosato (not winning), wasn’t it?” Mainoumi — perhaps out of deference to NHK’s policy of political neutrality — did a 180-degree flip-flop, replying: “Yes, that’s right. Foreign wrestlers harness know-how and techniques when they fight. I’d like to see Japanese follow their example.” Tokyo resident David Shapiro, a long-time sumo commentator and author of “Sumo: A Pocket Guide,” disputes the notion that the powers that be in sumo are under that much pressure to bend the rules on the basis of nationality. “They’re not all that concerned with the birth of a Japanese-born yokozuna,” Shapiro told The Japan Times. “The gate at all of the annual tournaments is once again quite strong. Daily TV ratings during said tournaments are equally so. Applications to host the jungyo (provincial tours that take place between the tournaments) are coming in left, right and center. “A Japanese-born yokozuna would be nice, but one is not absolutely essential as far as the greater good goes,” Shapiro said. “Is Kisenosato close to promotion? Absolutely. Will he make it? As improved as he is over the past two tournaments, it still remains a 50-50 proposition. As yokozuna Hakuho so aptly put it, ‘Those who are strong, become ozeki. Those who are destined, become yokozuna.’ “


Legal reform may start rooting out gangsters

Abstract: Lawmakers in the Diet approved reform to the country’s criminal justice system last month, mandating the recording of police interrogations in certain circumstances, revamping the existing wiretap law and introducing a plea bargain system for the first time. While it’s hard to imagine the reform will prevent the miscarriages of justice that spurred the legislation in the first place, it could play a role in helping to dismantle organized crime. The National Police Agency’s Academic Journal noted as far back as 2008 that Japan lacked the enforcement tools needed to deal with organized crime: wiretaps, legal undercover work and, of course, plea bargains. In essence, a plea bargain allows suspects to plead guilty to a lesser criminal offense in exchange for a concession from prosecutors, such as dismissal of more serious charges. The revised legislation now allows prosecutors to use this tool as they see fit when seeking guilty verdicts of syndicates’ leadership. Many police investigations on organized crime ultimately don’t go very far because underlings in a criminal case are quick to take the rap. Why does this happen? Imagine you are a low-ranking gangster who has been caught trying to set fire to a property after its owners refused to pay protection money. What would you do: confess to the crime or snitch on the people who ordered you to do it? It’s worth remembering that your lawyer is likely to be provided by the syndicate, with any statements you make being reported back to headquarters. Should you talk, the possibility of retaliation is very real. If, however, you keep your mouth shut and complete your sentence, the organization is more likely to look after your family, and reward you with a bonus and promotion upon your release. It’s a fairly straightforward choice. Crime syndicates have allegedly been connected to several high-profile cases over the years, although prosecutors have only been able to acquire guilty verdicts on the individuals involved. On April 17, 2007, Tetsuya Shiro, a senior member of the Yamaguchi-gumi, shot Nagasaki Mayor Itcho Ito near his campaign office in front of JR Nagasaki Station. Ito died the following morning. Shiro claimed to have acted alone but police suspected he was acting on orders from higher up. Police officially claimed Ito was assassinated because of a grudge over an insurance claim, but there were also rumors that it was related to city construction projects. In 1995, Hideo Murai, a member of the Aum Shinrikyo cult, was stabbed repeatedly in front of reporters. The assailant, Hiroyuki Jo, first claimed to be a right-wing activist but was later revealed to be a member of the Yamaguchi-gumi crime syndicate. His boss, Kenji Kamimine, a former leader of the Mie Prefecture-based Hane-gumi, was charged with ordering the hit but was later cleared by the courts. In April 2006, real-estate agent Kazuo Nozaki was stabbed to death after being embroiled in a legal dispute with a Goto-gumi front company over the property rights to a building in Tokyo’s Shibuya district. Between 2010 and 2013, a Metropolitan Police Department investigation resulted in the conviction of two members of the Goto-gumi syndicate for the murder. However, criminal charges have never been filed against Tadamasa Goto, the syndicate’s leader at the time. While the killings described above would probably not have been prevented if prosecutors were able to dangle a plea bargain in front of the suspects that sat in police cells at the time, the ultimate outcome might have been different. It is expected to take another two years or so for police to formally introduce a system of plea bargains that they might find helpful. Once this is in place, however, prosecutors may adopt a different approach to organized crime. Police officers sometimes say, “We are like bonsai gardeners — we trim the branches but never pull up the roots.” The latest changes to the country’s criminal justice system are at least a step in the right direction.

aum shinrikyo
yakuza
organized crime
wiretaps
plea bargains
itcho ito
police


Aviator dazzles Emperor; Poets inaugurate new national association; Beatles face press; Mount Unzen erupts

Abstract: 100 YEARS AGO Wednesday, June 7, 1916 Aviation ace dazzles with flight over palace Aviator Art Smith carried out another flight yesterday afternoon. He flew from Aoyama at about 3 o’clock and steered his machine in the direction of the Imperial Palace flying at an altitude of 1,000 meters. When Mr. Smith came over the Sakurada Gate he rose to the height of about 1,300 meters and after encircling the Imperial Palace grounds looped the loop eight times in succession over Fukiage garden in the palace compound. Following a dead dive he descended about 200 meters in a spiral flight and then, crossing over the palace in the direction of the Hanzo Gate, he changed his course and returned to Aoyama after about 10 minutes. The day’s flight was carried out to enable Mr. Smith to pay his respects to the Imperial Palace, and was an unqualified success. From the palace grounds H.I.M. the Emperor was pleased to witness Mr. Smith’s flight. His Majesty was attended by chamberlains, Viscount Kaneko and Lt. Gen. Nagaoka, who explained the art of flying to His Majesty. His Majesty, it is understood, admires the dexterous flight and aeronautical feats of the visiting American aviator, remaining in the garden watching the course of the aircraft with keen interest. 75 YEARS AGO Monday, June 2, 1941 Poets inaugurate new national association Falling in step with the new national structure, the Japan Poets’ Association held its inaugural ceremony Sunday afternoon at the Kyoiku Kaikan in Tokyo’s Kanda Ward. The new association is composed of more than 700 persons including such leaders of the Japanese poet circles as Hakushu Kitahara, Saishu Onoye, Nobutsuna Sasaki, Utsuho Kubota, Yugure Mayeda, Mokichi Saito and Akiko Yosano. It is recalled that the former Poets’ Association of Japan was forced to disband last October, because it was thought that it had too much individualistic and liberalistic tendency. The members of the new association have been selected on the condition that not only should they be excellent as poets but at the same time, they should have thorough knowledge of the current national situation. The chief aim of the association is to promote knowledge and thought, as well as practical activities of poets in line with new national structure. As for the practical program, the association intends to send its members throughout the country to give lectures on Japanese poetry, to help disabled soldiers in composing poems and to compile poems to be sent to the soldiers on the fronts. 50 YEARS AGO Thursday, June 30, 1966 Beatles field questions at press conference About 500 Japanese and foreign reporters and photographers sat in on the Beatles’ initial press conference Wednesday in the Pearl Ballroom of the Tokyo Hilton Hotel. The four Liverpool entertainers, in appearance at least, were somewhat startling. John Lennon wore a baby pink two-piece suit. Drummer Ringo Starr wore a yellow jacket with dark pinstripes. Paul McCartney and George Harrison were somewhat more conservative in dark green and maroon jackets, respectively. As the battery of photographers clicked away from a distance, the Beatles deftly fielded questions from reporters that ranged from simple to one, at least, that was put forward by a member of the foreign press contingent, that caused most people present who understood it to look at each other with raised eyebrows. The Beatles answered the questions put to them politely and, in most cases, humorously. Paul McCartney and John Lennon did most of the talking with Ringo and George apparently content to sit back and listen. Sample questions: (From Japanese press, literal translation) “How do you understand Japan?” Answer: (From Paul McCartney) “We don’t know much about Japan, except what we’ve read.” Q. “An old man in England was recently quoted saying that there were two things he didn’t like: The Rolls-Royce changing models and the Beatles receiving medals. What do you think about that?” A. (From John Lennon) “We don’t like old men. However, we do tolerate them. But they don’t tolerate us.” Other Beatle reactions included their opinion of the war in Vietnam. From John Lennon: “We don’t like the war in Vietnam. But that’s about all we can do about it. Just not like it.” Paul McCartney, soft-spoken and pensive, told the press: “We’re not very good musicians. We consider ourselves only adequate. However, we’re happy if we can bring happiness to some people.” 25 YEARS AGO Thursday, June 6, 1991 Mount Unzen eruption damage ‘a view of hell’ The nation was jolted from its complacency by the violence with which long-dormant Mount Unzen in Nagasaki Prefecture, which first stirred to renewed life last November, forcefully erupted on Monday. It spewed forth a pyroclastic flow, a combination of superhot rocks, gas, lava and ash that roared down the slopes at thunderous speeds of 100 kph, leaving death and destruction in its wake. To one dazed resident of the stricken city of Shimabara, site of the worst damage, the fiery devastation was like a view of hell. The horror he witnessed — and luckily escaped — is only partly conveyed by news photographs and television footage. Yet the scenes of the bleak, ash-covered landscape dotted with burned and burning buildings, twisted and abandoned vehicles and the bodies of trapped victims offer evidence of humanity’s helplessness in the face of nature’s destructive force.

john lennon
nagasaki
poetry
beatles
paul mccartney
ringo starr
george harrison
mount unzen
art smith


Beer pipeline sought to help protect medieval Belgian city of Bruges

Abstract: BRUGES, BELGIUM - The idea may have seemed mad, but after all, the beer is called the Madman of Bruges — or Brugse Zot in Dutch. With the help of crowdfunding efforts among some 400 Madman fans, the dream of building a beer pipeline through the Belgian city of Bruges is becoming real. “You have to be a bit crazy — like the beer — to do such a project. I just had the money for that, and I liked it. So I went crazy and gave the money to the brewery,” said restaurant owner Philippe Le Loup, who poured $11,000 into the pipeline. Brewer Xavier Vanneste got the idea four years ago to pump beer from his Bruges brewery to a bottling plant outside of town in a pipeline instead of having hundreds of trucks blighting the cobblestoned streets of the UNESCO-protected medieval city. What at first seemed like an outrageous dream, began to seem possible when Vanneste started talking to local beer enthusiasts. Jokes were coming in fast, with people saying “we are willing to invest as long as we can have a tapping point on the pipeline,” Vanneste said. “That gave us the idea to crowdfund the project.” Thanks to Le Loup and others, he is now staring at the one end of the pipeline, which beginning in the fall will start pumping some 4,000 liters (1,060 gallons) of beer an hour toward the bottling plant, 3 kilometers (2 miles) away in an industrial zone. “That is a lot of beer, more than you can drink in a lifetime,” said the owner of De Halve Maan brewery, which in addition to Brugse Zot is also famous for its Straffe Hendrik beer brand. Sending the pipeline along streets where customers could siphon off their favorite suds was too utopian even for Vanneste, but he came up with the next best thing: IOUs with a lifelong drinking guarantee. “We have several formulas: bronze, silver and gold,” he said. “If you put in €7,500 ($8,350), you will receive for the rest of your days, every day one bottle of Brugse Zot.” For many, that offer was hard to refuse. About 10 percent of the total €4 million ($4.5 million) investment for the pipeline has been financed through crowdfunding. With it came a popular surge of support that has stood Vanneste in good stead. With a warren of municipal, regional and federal laws governing the picturesque city, building approvals are often laborious to get. Not, however, for a beer pipeline as authorities realized the whole community was backing it. The city also stood to gain. In between the city’s beguinage houses and Our Lady’s Cathedral, the De Halve Maan brewery has given the sometimes overly touristy city a sense of real life. Vanneste could have done what so many others have — moved out of the city with its canals, gabled Gothic houses, horse-drawn carriages and restaurants with menus in six languages. Now, he looks forward to the best of both worlds — a historic brewery in a gorgeous location and an environmentally friendly way of transporting his brews out to the bottling plant, which will allow him to continue to grow without damaging the city. But it’s not only Vanneste’s family business that is growing. The generous contributor to the project, Le Loup, sighed as he glanced at his own paunch. In broken English, he said, “You can see that in my belly, I am a bit more beer fan.”


U.S. sailor held on suspicion of drunk driving after collision in Okinawa

Abstract: NAHA, OKINAWA PREF. - A U.S. sailor was arrested Sunday on suspicion of drunk driving in Okinawa, where a U.S. base worker’s alleged involvement in the death of a local woman last month has reignited anger among residents. The three-vehicle accident, which injured two people, prompted the Defense Ministry to lodge a protest with Lt. Gen. Lawrence Nicholson, the U.S. military commander in Okinawa, and occurred on the same day as the prefectural assembly election. Arrested by the Okinawa Prefectural Police was Petty Officer 2nd Class Aimee Mejia, 21, who is stationed at Kadena Air Base. Mejia is suspected of driving under the influence in the town of Kadena late Saturday, crossing into the opposite lane and colliding with two vehicles at around 11:40 p.m., the police said. A 35-year-old woman in one of the vehicles struck by the suspect’s car suffered a broken breast bone, while a 30-year-old man in the other vehicle was left with a bruised arm. The suspect was unhurt. According to a breath test, Mejia’s blood alcohol reading was six times the legal limit, the police said. The incident took place after U.S. forces in Okinawa imposed a midnight curfew and off-base drinking ban last month following the arrest of Kenneth Franklin Shinzato, a former marine who worked as a civilian at the base, on suspicion of dumping the body of a 20-year-old Japanese woman he has reportedly admitted to raping and killing. The ban is to be in place for roughly a month. In light of the slaying, Gov. Takeshi Onaga has called for revising the Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement, which grants virtual extraterritorial rights to U.S. military service members. Defense Minister Gen Nakatani, who is currently visiting Singapore, told reporters that the drunken driving incident, coming despite the measures to tighten discipline among U.S. military personnel in Okinawa, is “extremely regrettable.” Japan will continue to urge U.S. forces to ensure that all personnel stationed in Japan abide by Japanese laws, Nakatani said.


Foreign Ministry's deputy chief Sugiyama to become new top bureaucrat

Abstract: The government plans to appoint Deputy Foreign Minister Shinsuke Sugiyama as new vice foreign minister, the top bureaucrat at the Foreign Ministry, a government source said Thursday. Sugiyama, 63, who will replace Akitaka Saiki, 63, formerly served as director-general of the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau and is known for his negotiating skills and expertise in international law. Deputy Vice Minister for Foreign Policy Takeo Akiba, 57, is likely to succeed Sugiyama in the personnel change, which is soon to be made official, the source said. As deputy minister in charge of political affairs, Sugiyama helped organize the Group of Seven foreign ministers’ meeting in Hiroshima in April and the G-7 leaders’ summit in Mie Prefecture in May. He was credited with realizing the first visit by a U.S. secretary of state to the atomic-bombed city of Hiroshima. In a symbolic gesture, John Kerry offered flowers at the cenotaph in Peace Memorial Park. Sugiyama will be the first person to reach the ministry’s top bureaucratic post from a private university; the others attended the elite University of Tokyo or other national universities. Sugiyama passed the Foreign Ministry’s exam in October 1976 while at Waseda University and joined the ministry the following April before graduation. Among other achievements that apparently led him to win the trust of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida was the registration on the U.N. World Cultural Heritage list in July 2015 of sites commemorating Japan’s industrial revolution in the Meiji Era, which began in the late 1800s. Sugiyama, who formerly served as a minister at the Japanese Embassy in South Korea, conducted negotiations on the issue with Seoul, which was opposed to adding the sites to the World Heritage list because Koreans were forced to work at some of them when the Korean Peninsula was under Japanese colonial rule between 1910 and 1945. Since entering the ministry in 1977, Sugiyama has worked as director of the Treaties Division and director-general for global issues before becoming deputy foreign minister in charge of political affairs in June 2013.

shinzo abe
foreign ministry
akitaka saiki
shinsuke sugiyama


Latest base-linked crime drags SOFA pact back into spotlight

Abstract: NAHA, OKINAWA PREF. - A pact governing the legal status and conduct of U.S. military and nonmilitary personnel in Japan is back under the spotlight following last month’s arrest of an American civilian base worker in Okinawa Prefecture suspected of raping and killing a local Japanese woman. Fueled by the murder of the 20-year-old woman, tens of thousands of protesters in Okinawa rallied Sunday to vent their frustration at the way the Japanese and U.S. governments have dealt with crimes committed by U.S. service personnel and base workers. Rather than revising the 1960 Japan-U.S. Status of Forces Agreement to better deal with such crimes, the two governments have just tinkered with its implementation, Okinawa officials say. When the gang rape of a 12-year-old schoolgirl by three U.S. servicemen in 1995 set off a firestorm of protest in Okinawa, an agreement was struck the following year to return land occupied by one of the U.S. bases in the prefecture to Japanese control. The United States also said it would give “sympathetic consideration” to Japanese requests to hand over suspects in heinous crimes such as murder and rape. But Sueko Yamauchi, an Okinawa Prefectural Assembly member from the city of Uruma, where the murdered woman lived, says taking a case-by-case approach to how crimes are handled gives too much discretion to the U.S. military. In last month’s case, Japanese police were able to arrest Kenneth Franklin Shinzato, a Kadena Air Base worker who was off-duty when the murder of Rina Shimabukuro allegedly occurred. But if the U.S. had taken custody of him, his handover to Japanese authorities could have been delayed until after his indictment. “It is absurd to completely entrust (decisions) to the U.S. military as if Japan is a subordinate or Okinawa is still under military occupation. Revising the pact, which has never been done, is naturally our right,” she said. Yamauchi said her city, which hosts such U.S. bases as Camp Courtney, is no stranger to incidents and crimes involving U.S. service personnel. Uruma’s history includes a tragic incident in 1959 when a U.S. fighter jet crashed into Miyamori Elementary School, killing some of its pupils. “Every time an incident occurs, the U.S. side talks about enforcing stricter discipline and re-educating personnel, but then another incident happens,” she said. Residents have complained that the accord gives undue protection to U.S. service personnel and can create a “sense of privilege” that makes offenders believe they can get away with crimes if they make it back to their bases, Yamauchi said. Toru Aketagawa, a lecturer at Hosei University’s faculty of law who is knowledgeable about SOFA, said there are limits to the effectiveness of the pact and to the current changes in the way it is implemented. He proposed that the agreement stipulate that the United States is “required” to hand over suspects to Japanese authorities, rather than just allowing for “sympathetic consideration.” Every time a U.S. military-linked crime occurs, Tokyo and Washington issue documents including new guidelines to refine SOFA in terms of operational arrangements. But while the United States and Japan have not rewritten their accord, Washington has done so with South Korea, where it also has bases. Apart from reworking SOFA’s contentious Article 17, which gives the U.S. military the right to jurisdiction over personnel and civilian employees if they break Japanese laws while engaged in official duties, experts say Japanese authorities should be allowed more access to U.S. bases. Experts also say there is a need to make U.S. forces subject to stricter immigration controls because the exact number of service personnel stationed in Japan and whether any are previous criminal offenders is often unclear. The murder case became an issue just before President Barack Obama visited Japan to attend the Group of Seven summit in Mie Prefecture in May. During summit talks with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Obama said the incident was “inexcusable” and vowed to do “everything that we can to prevent any crimes of this sort from taking place.” Abe, however, did not raise the issue of revising SOFA, stirring a protest from Okinawa Gov. Takeshi Onaga, who was denied a requested meeting with Obama. Tokyo and Washington have begun working out details to clarify the scope of civilians working at bases under the accord, which defines the legal status of U.S. service members and nonmilitary personnel at bases in the country. Aketagawa and Yamauchi stress that revision alone is not a silver bullet and will only be effective if undertaken in tandem with steps to prevent recurrences, such as re-education of U.S. personnel. Citing Okinawa police data, a resolution of protest adopted at Sunday’s massive rally in Naha stated that since the 1972 reversion of Okinawa to Japan from U.S. control, there have been 5,862 criminal incidents involving U.S. military personnel, with 571 classified as heinous crimes. “I do not feel safe walking outside, knowing there are incidents like the recent one,” said a woman in her 40s from Ginowan, the city that hosts unpopular U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma. Okinawa International University professor Hiromori Maedomari, an expert on SOFA and U.S. base issue, says even getting rid of the agreement altogether should be considered. “In the context of SOFA, why not put in a clause about imposing penalties for violations? Or why not simply enforce Japanese laws on all incidents and cases, regardless of their status?” Maedomari said it is counterproductive to continue seeking revisions, calling it unrealistic given the positions of the Japanese and U.S. governments. “There are obstacles as to why it is hard to revise SOFA. One is disinterest and lack of knowledge among the public and officials in Japan about the accord. There is also a lack of political will to carry out changes to SOFA, which is a complex issue linked to Japan-U.S. security. Until these and other hurdles are cleared, changing SOFA has a long way to go,” Maedomari said. He also pointed to the double standard Japan would face if it pushed to impose its laws on U.S. servicemen when it has similar agreements protecting Self-Defense Forces personnel operating outside of Japan. For instance, in Djibouti in East Africa, Japan has the primary right to exercise jurisdiction, whether its personnel are on or off duty.


Regional papers reach out to voters in fight to stay relevant, solvent

Abstract: OSAKA - With the July 10 Upper House election just around the corner, politics is once again in the air as Diet members head back to their local constituencies to campaign and promote their party platforms. In the process, they have to deal with local views on local, national and even international issues. Such attitudes are often shaped less by the national, Tokyo-based media and more by community or regional reporting. What are Japan’s major influential community and regional newspapers? In Hokkaido, there’s the Hokkaido Shimbun, while major newspapers serving the Tohoku region include the To-o Nippo, the Kahoku Shimpo and the Fukushima Minpo. The Tokyo region has the Tokyo Shimbun, which is actually part of the Nagoya-based Chunichi Shimbun newspaper. The Kyoto Shimbun and Kobe Shimbun newspapers serve those major cities, while the Chugoku Shimbun covers the Hiroshima area. In Kyushu, the Nishinippon Shimbun covers the island, while Okinawa has the Ryukyu Shimpo and the Okinawa Times. How big are they in terms of circulation and market share? According to Japan Audit Bureau of Circulations data for April, while major national newspapers sell a large number of copies each day — 9 million for the Yomiuri Shimbun and 6.6 million for the Asahi Shimbun — the regional newspaper with the largest daily circulation was the Chunichi Shimbun, selling around 2.4 million copies, followed by the Hokkaido Shimbun’s circulation of just over 1 million. However, in terms of market share, a Yomiuri Shimbun report, based on JABC figures, said local newspapers held the top share in 37 of the 47 prefectures nationwide in the first half of 2015. The Chunichi Shimbun had a 50 percent share in Aichi Prefecture, and the Fukui Shimbun and the Tokushima Shimbun each held a more than 70 percent share within their prefectures, respectively. The Nihonkai Shimbun had a 69 percent share in Tottori Prefecture, while the Yamanashi Nichinichi Shimbun held a 58 percent share in Yamanashi Prefecture. In Okinawa, the Ryukyu Shimpo and the Okinawa Times are virtually tied, together occupying more than 50 percent of the local market. Although their shares have declined in the past decade, the figures indicate locally produced newspapers remain the most widely read in most prefectures excluding the Tokyo and Osaka metropolitan areas. What sets regional and metro daily newspapers apart? Although local-level newspapers depend largely on wire services for national and international news, their depth of reporting, and often the tone, on issues related to their regions is often different from that of national newspapers. After Japan entered negotiations for the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement, the Hokkaido Shimbun researched in great detail the projected impact the TPP would have on Hokkaido’s agriculture and economy. The end result was a broader, more nuanced and often skeptical picture than the one often painted by purely pro- or anti-TPP national media reports. On the other end of Japan, the Ryukyu Shimpo and Okinawa Times have long been praised by traditional left-wing parties and supporters as feisty, truly independent voices for Okinawa, and attacked by right-wing and pro-U.S. military advocates as being anti-American for the critical way they report on local base issues and the U.S.-Japan security alliance. Last summer, editor-in-chiefs of the two newspapers said freedom of the press and democracy itself may be at stake after verbal attacks on their work and on that of other media at a meeting of Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers. At the gathering of junior LDP lawmakers close to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, guest speaker Naoki Hyakuta, a novelist and former NHK governor, reportedly said local newspapers in Okinawa that were critical of the government “must be destroyed.” How do regional newspapers view the coming Upper House election? Editorials recently published by some of the larger regional block papers suggest the general issues of the economy and collective self-defense are still very much on the minds of voters. In a June 18 editorial, the Hokkaido Shimbun noted next month’s election takes place just over nine months after the new security legislation went into effect. It warned that if the Self-Defense Forces, which have a large presence in Hokkaido, are sent abroad for peacekeeping duties, they could quickly find themselves under fire, and pondered whether a purely Japanese peacekeeping effort could somehow turn into a full-fledged battle to protect U.S. forces, resulting in SDF casualties. A June 10 Chunichi Shimbun editorial on the election also talked about the security legislation, and the way Prime Minister Abe’s government forced it through the Diet by claiming it did not violate the Constitution. The paper added that voters would have to judge if Abe made a wise decision in postponing until 2019 the consumption tax rise to 10 percent. Meanwhile, the Nishinippon Shimbun editorialized that the election would be a referendum on public trust in Abe and the increased power of the Prime Minister’s Office in decision-making, but that it should not be forgotten that recent media polls show more than half of Japanese oppose his attempt to revise the Constitution. What is the major challenge facing community and regional newspapers? In a nutshell, it’s ensuring their own survival at a time when Japan’s regions face depopulation and as fewer young people read traditional newspapers. Surveys of public attitudes toward the media, such as one conducted last August by the Press and Telecommunications Association, show that people who read printed newspapers read community news articles most, but that those who check the internet for news read mostly sports and celebrity news. That makes a coordinated, and profitable, strategy between “hard” print and softer online news difficult for smaller regional newspapers. In response, they are increasingly banding together and offering a variety of package deals, sharing resources, and entering into joint marketing efforts that target a set of readers in different regions that they believe share common interests. For example, the Okinawa Times and the Fukui Shimbun have teamed up to offer “Fukunawa,” a free website that offers readers news from both papers, in the hope of increasing subscriptions. As local advertising revenue shrinks, more online tie-ups between various regional news outlets are expected, offering local readers a mixture of hometown news and news from other regions for one price. And in some cases, the print editions of local newspapers are becoming available in other parts of the country. The Tokyo Shimbun is now available at Naha airport.

media
local newspapers
2016 upper house election


Autism may not be confined to the brain

Abstract: Thirteen-year-old Naoki Higashida describes his own personal feelings about having autism as follows: “I feel a deep envy of people who can know what their own minds are saying, and who have the power to act accordingly. My brain is always sending me off on little missions, whether or not I want to do them. And if I don’t obey, then I have to fight a feeling of horror. Really, it’s like I’m being pushed over the brink into a kind of hell. For people with autism, living itself is a battle.” Naoki’s book, “The Reason I Jump,” was published in Japanese in 2007. The book, a memoir and personal insight into what life is like with autism, came to international attention when it was published in English in 2013, having been translated by Keiko Yoshida, the wife of English novelist David Mitchell. The book has been successful, deservedly so, because it offers “neurotypicals” — that is, people not on the autism spectrum — a flavor of what it is like to be on the spectrum. However, it has also changed perceptions of what it means to have autism. If you’ve ever read the book or have personal experience with autism, you may assume that the condition is entirely connected with how the brain is wired. Certainly that was my assumption. However, a new study suggests that autism may be more complex. It turns out that some aspects of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) — notably, how the sensation of touch is perceived, how anxiety is generated and certain aspects of social interaction — seem to be linked to defects not in central but in the peripheral nervous system. The peripheral nervous system contains nerves outside of the brain — in our hands and feet, in our limbs, and in all the regions that communicate sensory data to the brain. The new work has been done at Harvard Medical School, using a mouse model for autism. This method is used to study diseases and disorders that have genetic elements. A mouse strain is made with gene mutations known to be associated with ASD in people, and researchers then study the effects of the genes. “Advances in mouse genetics have made it possible for us to study genes linked to ASD by altering them only in certain types of nerve cells and studying the effects,” says David Ginty, a professor of neurobiology at Harvard Medical School. Autism is a complex condition and the causes are not completely understood. There are several genes that have been linked to ASD, however, including one called “Mecp2,” and another called “Gabrb3.” These, as well as a couple more the study looked at, are important for the normal function of nerve cells. The scientists knew from previous work that mutations in these genes prevent neurons from properly communicating with each other. “Although we know about several genes associated with ASD, a challenge and a major goal has been to find where in the nervous system the problems occur,” Ginty says. “By engineering mice that have these mutations only in their peripheral sensory neurons, which detect light touch stimuli acting on the skin, we’ve shown that mutations there are both necessary and sufficient for creating mice with an abnormal hypersensitivity to touch.” People with autism and their friends and families will be well aware of this. People with ASD often report discomfort with certain textures. Simon Baron-Cohen, an autism researcher at Cambridge University in Britain calls this “sensory hypersensitivity.” For children with autism, their bodies are on constant red alert for irritations, which can be triggered by touch and the feeling of clothes that neurotypicals tolerate without a thought. Ginty and his colleagues measured how the mice reacted to different stimuli, such as a light puff of air on their backs, and they tested whether the mice could discriminate between objects with different textures. Mice with the gene mutations in only their sensory neurons showed heightened sensitivity to touch and weren’t able to discriminate between textures. Another thing that is commonly commented on about people with autism is their anxiety with social interactions. “What we’re anxious about is that we’re causing trouble for the rest of you, or even getting on your nerves,” Naoki says. The Harvard team examined anxiety in the mice by looking at how much mice avoided being out in the open and how much they interacted with mice they’d never seen before. An unexpected result was that the mice with the gene mutations only in peripheral neurons were more anxious and interacted less with other mice. Of course, all these results come with the not inconsiderable caveat that they apply to mice. “How closely these behaviors mimic anxiety seen in ASD in humans is up for debate,” says Ginty, “but in our field, these are well-established measures of what we consider to be anxiety-like behavior and social interaction deficits.” One way of thinking about what is causing this behavior in the mice is that they have a problem with the “volume control” in their peripheral sensory neurons. What this means, says Lauren Orefice, a colleague of Ginty’s, is that the volume is turned up all the way in these neurons, leading the animals to feel touch at an exaggerated, heightened level. Again, this will be familiar to parents of children with autism, who are often extremely sensitive to noise. “We think it works the same way in humans with ASD,” Ginty says. If they are right, they could look for ways to turn the volume switch back down to normal levels, perhaps through drugs. Naoki is now 23 and the author of more than 20 books of poetry, fiction and nonfiction. It seems fitting to close this month’s column with another extract from his memoir: “Criticizing people, winding them up, making idiots of them or fooling them doesn’t make people with autism laugh. What makes us smile from the inside is seeing something beautiful or a memory that makes us laugh.”

autism
naoki higashida
the reason i jump
nervous system


Absolutism: an acceptable price to pay for order

Abstract: His contemporaries hardly knew what to make of him. Their bewilderment is reflected in the name by which he is best known to us: the “dog shogun.” Tokugawa Tsunayoshi, born in 1646, became shogun by accident. He ruled from 1680 until his death in 1709. If global politics in his day had been what they are in ours, he would no doubt have met and conferred with his contemporary, King Louis XIV of France — and found, though professing Confucianism as against Louis’ Christianity, that they had much in common: absolutism, most notably. But there were no global politics back then — Japan was 40 years into a self-imposed isolation that was to last deep into the 19th century — and neither is likely to have known of the other’s existence. Absolutism is much damned today. It’s undemocratic — damnable for that reason alone, even if its modern exemplars did not include genocidal tyrants the likes of Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin. But Tsunayoshi and Louis were shaped by different times. A danger more dreadful than oppression loomed — anarchy. Absolutism, to many, seemed an acceptable price to pay for order. There are strange parallels between early modern Europe and early modern Japan. Both had been slaughterhouses. Europeans slaughtered each other for God, Japanese for territory. The 17th century in both places marks the beginning of the end of the carnage as, from its ashes, there arose absolute states powerful enough to impose peace. Louis tamed his unruly nobles, Tsunayoshi his unruly samurai. Little loved in his own day, Tsunayoshi is not fondly remembered in ours either. His lasting fame rests mainly on his “Laws of Compassion” — “the worst laws in the feudal history of mankind,” wrote historian Shinzaburo Oishi in 1970, summing up the general consensus. How bad in fact were they? The legend has Tsunayoshi following to perverse extremes the advice of a Buddhist monk named Ryuko, who attributed the shogun’s failure to beget an heir to killings committed in past lives. Atonement, said Ryuko, should take the form of compassion towards all living things — dogs especially, Tsunayoshi having been born in the Chinese Year of the Dog. Thus the notorious laws — good news for dogs, who subsequently ran wild and unmolested, but disastrous for human beings, prohibited on pain of death from taking measures to protect their persons and harvests from the proliferating and ravenous beasts. “Men were killed for the sake of dogs,” is a characteristic complaint of the time. Nonsense, protests historian Beatrice Bodart-Bailey in “The Dog Shogun: The Personality and Policies of Tokugawa Tsunayoshi.” The contemporary documents on which subsequent historians based their biased judgments, she argues, were written by the very samurai whose power Tsunayoshi curbed; they pursued such revenge as malicious chronicling affords. In fact, Bodart-Bailey asserts, the Laws of Compassion, grounded in Confucianism, amounted to Japan’s first ever recognition that what we today call “human rights” extended even to commoners. Dogs were protected, and living things generally, but the prime beneficiaries of the unprecedented official “compassion” were low-status human beings whom custom had left utterly at the mercy of the 7-odd percent of the population constituting the samurai class — as cruel and unrestrained a breed, in early 17th century Japan, as ever roamed a civilized nation in peacetime. “The people,” decreed Tsunayoshi, “are the foundation of the state. Each and every one of the (officials) must be attentive to the hardships of the people, and is hereby ordered to see that they do not suffer misfortunes such as hunger or cold.” He’d had an unusual childhood. His father was the ineffectual third Tokugawa shogun, Iemitsu; his mother, a Kyoto grocer’s daughter who entered the shogun’s castle as a servant and rose to concubine. Not destined for power but more gifted than the elder brother who was, Tsunayoshi, to keep him harmlessly occupied, was fed on Confucian studies as a child. His elder brother succeeded to the shogunate but died young, clearing the way for the unintended reign of a Confucian ruler who took his Confucianism seriously. Confucianism is a richly ambiguous doctrine that down the centuries has spawned a vast body of interpretive literature — but the basic prescription for Confucian-style government boils down to: absolutism plus benevolence. Citing a contemporary chronicle, Bodart-Bailey tells the story of a high official who, seeing two wretched street urchins, wanted to help them but repressed the impulse — “it not being the duty of the shogun’s highest minister to attend to such a trifling matter.” Tsunayoshi rebuked him: “Why should a truly benevolent man ask whether a matter is great or small? The rays of the sun and moon light up even the smallest object.” At Tsunayoshi’s instigation, signboards were posted throughout the land, admonishing the people to “diligently practice loyalty and filial piety. Be close to your husbands and wives, siblings, and relatives and show compassion and forgiveness even toward your servants. Those who are disloyal and unfilial,” he added ominously — benevolent absolutism baring its absolute fangs — “should be severely punished.” And so they were. Tsunayoshi was an autocrat; his rule would not pass muster among us, educated as we are to despise autocracy of all stripes, even benevolent autocracy. But then, we don’t live with the conditions that had prevailed in Tsunayoshi’s childhood, conditions portrayed — idealized — in the “Hagakure,” an early 18th-century military treatise by a samurai named Yamamoto Tsunetomo, who was far from alone in regarding peace as spiritual death. “A real man,” he wrote, “does not think of victory or defeat. He plunges recklessly towards an irrational death.” That’s the spirit against which Tsunayoshi, for better and/or worse, brought his autocracy to bear.

tokugawa tsunayoshi
absolutism
yamamoto tsunetomo


Calabrian mob boss captured in sleep after 20-year flight, faces life term

Abstract: ROME/MILAN, ITALY - Italy’s second most sought-after fugitive, a convicted, ruthless ‘ndrangheta crime syndicate boss, was captured Sunday as he slept in his bed in a hideout in the rugged Calabrian mountains, police and prosecutors said. Ernesto Fazzalari “went from his sleep to the handcuffs of the Carabinieri” paramilitary police after 20 years on the run, Col. Lorenzo Falferi told reporters in Reggio Calabria. Reggio Calabria Prosecutor Federico Cafiero De Raho described Fazzalari as “a merciless killer” and a protagonist of the 1991-1992 turf feud between ‘ndrangheta clans that bloodied the Taurianova town area of Calabria in the “toe” of the Italian peninsula. In one macabre episode in the feud, a victim’s head was tossed into the air and shot at as a target. Falferi called Fazzalari, 46, one of Italy’s most dangerous fugitives from the ‘ndrangheta. One of the world’s most powerful crime syndicates, the ‘ndrangheta has spread its tentacles from its Calabria base up through northern Italy. Investigators say it also has clansmen and logistics bases in much of Europe, as well as in South America, where it protects its interests in international cocaine trafficking rings. Hanging over Fazzalari’s head is a life sentence. He has been convicted of two murders, attempted murder, extortion and being a member of a Mafia-like organization. He went into hiding when an arrest warrant was issued as part of an investigation that ultimately led to his conviction. Interior Minister Angelino Alfano noted that Fazzalari was also wanted for drug trafficking and robbery. Authorities said Fazzalari was sleeping alongside his companion, a 41-year-old woman. He had a pistol and two loaded magazines but didn’t get a chance to use them, said Lt. Col. Alessandro Mucci. The woman was arrested for investigation of weapons possession, authorities said. The No. 1 wanted fugitive in Italy is Matteo Messina Denaro, a Sicilian Cosa Nostra chieftain whose power base is in Trapani in western Sicily. In the Italian organized crime world, the expression “on the run,” has limited meaning. Many fugitives when captured are still living and conducting business in their own turf. Two of Messina Denaro’s predecessors at the top of the most-wanted list were nabbed smack in their power bases: Salvatore “Toto” Riina, captured in 1993 in Palermo after 23 years as a fugitive, and Bernardo Provenzano, arrested in 2006 near his Corleone stronghold after some 43 years on the lam. Fazzalari’s two decades spent eluding capture were aided by a combination of a widely followed code of silence known as “omerta” and complicity from local citizens, authorities said. He and his ‘ndrangheta allies “controlled every clod of dirt,” Prosecutor Cafiero De Raho said. “He was feeling protected in his territory, by his people.” Fazzalari, 46, faces a life sentence, having already been tried in absentia and found guilty of murder, Mafia crimes, drug trafficking, robbery and illegal possession of weapons. Fazzalari was at the head of one of the many family-based groups that control much of Calabrian society and make vast profits through the import and sale of drugs. Federico Cafiero de Raho, of the DDA national organization of anti-Mafia prosecutors, described the arrest as “historic.” He said Fazzalari was found close to his last known home, indicating that he relied on an extensive network of local contacts to protect him. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi thanked the police and prosecutors involved, tweeting “Hurrah for Italy #Happy Sunday.” Interior Minister Angelino Alfano said: “These are the victories that comfort and support us in the difficult path against organized crime … There is no fleeing from justice.”


Nursing care workers hard to find but in demand in aging Japan

Abstract: As the nation’s population rapidly grays, ensuring there are enough nursing care workers to meet growing demand has become a pressing issue. In 2025, 1 in 5 people will be aged over 75, and 1 in 5 seniors aged over 65 will have dementia, according to Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry estimates. Given the urgency of the situation, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration released an action plan earlier this month outlining measures to secure enough nursing care workers for Japan. Here are questions and answers about the current nursing care industry and the worker shortage: Is the number of nursing care workers on the decline? No. It has actually tripled to 1.71 million in 2013 from 550,000 in 2000, according to welfare ministry statistics. The increase, however, has failed to keep pace with the rapidly growing demand, resulting in a nursing care industry with a chronic shortage of manpower. The ratio of job openings to job-seekers in care services stood at 2.69 in April, while it was 1.12 for all industries, according to the ministry. The ratio means there were 269 positions available for every 100 job-seekers. Considering Japan’s declining workforce, the labor shortage in the industry is expected to worsen over time. According to the ministry’s estimate, Japan will need 2.53 million care workers in fiscal 2025, but the number will fall short of demand by 377,000. Why is there a shortage of care workers? The job is generally low-paying and physically demanding. A government survey released last year said the average monthly wage of full-time care workers was around ¥220,000, roughly ¥110,000 lower than the all-industry average. A care worker job can be physically and mentally tough. Such workers have to provide physical support to the elderly and be on alert throughout their working hours, especially when looking after senile dementia patients. Care workers also cover overnight shifts about four to six times a month, when there are even fewer workers on hand, said Shinichi Nakatani, a care worker at Yushima no Sato, an intensive nursing home for the elderly in Tokyo’s Bunkyo Ward. “Overnight shifts are nerve-wracking because you basically have to look after about 14 to 25 people all by yourself,” Nakatani said. “You never know what trouble or emergencies will occur during those hours. It’s psychologically draining.” According to the welfare ministry, care workers who applied for worker compensation due to mental illness more than doubled in five years to 140 in fiscal 2014 from 66 in fiscal 2009, marking the largest increase among industrial sectors. If demand is growing, why do wages remain low? The government reduced the nursing care benefits — the subsidies for services provided by care facilities — because the ballooning costs were taking a toll on national finances. The welfare ministry announced earlier this month that the cost of nursing care in fiscal 2014 more than doubled from ¥3.6 trillion in 2000 to a record ¥8.9 trillion. The rise reflected the increase in those receiving nursing care services. The subsidies, coming from tax revenue and nursing care insurance premiums, cover 90 percent of the payments while those in need of such services pay the remaining 10 percent. The government reviews the benefit rates once every three years. In the latest review, which took effect in April last year, the government lowered its overall payments by 2.27 percent while raising the basic salary for care workers by 1.65 percent — an average monthly hike of ¥12,000 per worker. After the benefits were cut, 57.6 percent of nursing care companies said their earnings fell and over 40 percent were in the red, according to a survey conducted in October by the Japan Finance Corp. Research Institute. Experts said such subsidy cuts will force care facilities to potentially cut wages, possibly by reducing overtime pay or paring bonuses. How does the government plan to turn the situation around? The government seeks to add 250,000 more nursing care workers to the system by improving their working conditions and increasing their average monthly pay by ¥10,000 from fiscal 2017. But the state has not made clear how it will finance this. The government also plans to create new nursing care facilities to accommodate 500,000 more users by the beginning of 2020. This, however, has been questioned by industry experts who argue that in densely populated urban areas, the lack of workers is more acute than the shortage of facilities. The increasing difficulty in finding enough workers has led more facilities to rely on temporary staff dispatched from agencies, and some have reduced services. Are there other remedial measures in the pipeline? To lessen the burden on staff, some nursing care facilities are starting to use robotics, including wearable units for elderly people and care workers. The government is also eyeing an increase in non-Japanese nursing care workers by creating a new resident status category for those who graduated from schools in Japan and passed the national care worker license exam. Japan has also accepted candidates from Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam under economic partnership agreements. Under the EPA program, people who passed the national exam to qualify as nurses and caregivers can continue working in Japan. By the end of fiscal 2015, Japan had accepted 2,069, out of which 317 passed the exam.


Seagull masala? Bird falls in vat of curry, turns orange

Abstract: LONDON - Officials at a wildlife hospital say a seagull turned bright orange after falling into a vat of chicken tikka masala in Wales. The gull was likely scavenging for food when it became stuck in the thick sauce on Monday. The bird was rescued and taken to Vale Wildlife Hospital near Tewkesbury, a town in the country of Gloucestershire, about 110 miles (177 km) west of London. Staffers cleaned the seagull until it returned to its original color, but said it still smelled spicy the following day. Caroline Gould, who founded the wildlife hospital, has nicknamed the gull David Dickinson, after a British TV presenter known for his tanned complexion.


Rancher on horseback lassos bike thief in Oregon

Abstract: EAGLE POINT, OREGON - A rancher jumped on his horse Friday morning and lassoed a man who was trying to steal a bicycle in the parking lot of an Oregon Wal-Mart, police said. Robert Borba was at the Eagle Point store loading dog food and a camping tent into his truck when he heard a woman screaming that someone was trying to steal her bike, the Medford Mail Tribune reported. The 28-year-old said he quickly got his horse, Long John, out of its trailer. He grabbed a rope, rode over to the man who was reportedly struggling with the bike gears and attempting to flee on foot. Borba lassoed the man around the legs and when he dropped, Borba dragged him to one end of the parking lot. “I seen this fella trying to get up to speed on a bicycle,” Borba told the Tribune. “I wasn’t going to catch him on foot. I just don’t run very fast.” Borba said the man tried to grab a tree and get away, but he kept the rope tight and the man in place. “I use a rope every day, that’s how I make my living,” Borba said. “If it catches cattle pretty good, it catches a bandit pretty good.” Eagle Point police Sgt. Darin May said officers arrived and found the lassoed man and bike on the ground in the parking lot. “We’ve never had anyone lassoed and held until we got there,” May said. “That’s a first for me.” Police arrested Victorino Arellano-Sanchez, whom they described as a transient from the Seattle area, on a theft charge.


Chiba municipality to offer young women subsidies to freeze their eggs

Abstract: CHIBA - A city in Chiba Prefecture plans to help young women freeze their eggs in the largest publicly funded project of its kind and one of the first aimed at healthy women rather than those facing sterility from chemotherapy. The Urayasu Municipal Government will cooperate with Juntendo University Urayasu Hospital to extract eggs and freeze them to help address the nation’s declining birth rate. The two organizations will formally announce the initiative on Thursday, sources said Friday. In March, the hospital’s ethics committee approved freezing eggs from four women who are the first to take part. Explorative work began last July to determine how such a program might work, and whether a publicly funded campaign might help address Japan’s low birthrate. It is rare for a government body to subsidize the freezing of women’s eggs. Urayasu is budgeting ¥90 million over the three years to March 2018 to help potential mothers preserve eggs for future use. The subsidies are available to female residents of the city aged 20 to 34, and the frozen eggs are intended to be used by the time they are 45. A woman would typically pay ¥500,000 to ¥600,000 to have her eggs removed, frozen and preserved. The city will subsidize most of that sum, leaving women to cover about ¥100,000 of the total, a sum that includes the costs of injections and medication. Since last July, the hospital has been conducting monthly sessions for potential mothers to explain what is involved. More than 40 women have attended the meetings. Participants cite the fear that they will find themselves unable to conceive after spending years focused on their careers. “I have been prioritizing my work until now. But I want to prepare myself if I won’t be able to become pregnant,” said one woman in her 30s. Meanwhile, the women are not just those with age-related worries. Women with potential infertility-causing diseases of the uterus, including endometriosis, have also attended. “People who are concerned about their health are worried about whether they can become pregnant. I came here because my older sister has suffered from infertility,” said a woman at one session. “I want the government to create an environment where I will be able to give birth to a baby.” Egg freezing began as a way to help women at risk of permanent sterility for reasons such as cancer treatment. It has since been seen as a way for all women to preserve ova at a young age, when they are typically healthy and at peak fertility. The Urayasu program is seen as an aggressive approach to population decline, but Japan already has public subsidy programs for fertility treatment. The central government offers ¥300,000 for the first treatment and ¥150,000 for subsequent rounds, up to a maximum of six sessions. Women are eligible to apply up to the age of 42.

birthrate
chiba
urayasu
juntendo university
ova


G-strings on the menu at Amrita’s naked dining pop-up

Abstract: Following in the shoeless footsteps of restaurants in London and Melbourne , the pop-up Amrita has a simple premise: diners must be naked before they are seated. Well, almost naked. Unlike other such pop-ups, guests in Tokyo will be provided with “paper underwear.” Whether this fig leaf is to satisfy patrons’ modesty or satisfy local hygiene laws is yet to be seen. It’s also worth mentioning that Amrita isn’t the first restaurant made for the senses. Dark Dinner events involved blindfolded patrons trying food and having no idea what they are eating. But where Dark Dinner makes you dine blind, Amrita is truly an eyeful. There are a couple of other rules as well. No phones or cameras, no tattoos (oh, Japan), and people can’t be “15 kg overweight.” Exactly what is the tipping point on the scale though is unclear. So yes, Amrita wants to celebrate the human body — as long as the body looks in shape. Oh, and nobody over 60 years old, please. The restaurant’s website says that Amrita wants guests to have an au naturel experience where they can focus on the food, which happens to be organic, and nothing else — except maybe the waiters. According the event’s website, the pop-up is bringing in “top class” male dancers, dressed only in G-strings, who will be serving up meals and muscles. If naked dining doesn’t seem intimidating, the prices may shock you. There are several different meals ranging from ¥12,000-80,000. Sadly for those emperors with no clothes, the ¥80K seats are all sold out during its three-day run from July 29-31. No details on what the top-drawer plans entail, however. And if that wasn’t clear enough, Amrita’s website breaks down the process in eight simple steps, liberally translated here: 1. Show up, your heart pounding 2. ID check (making sure you are over 18 but under 60) 3. Strip — but don’t forget the paper undies 4. Hand over all cameras and cell phones 5. Strut to your table 6. Eat, or that is try to eat 7. Change back into your clothes 8. Go back into the sad, clothed world


AKB48 spends summer vacation at USJ

Abstract: Osaka’s Universal Studios Japan is getting a new attraction this summer. It’s not a new roller coaster — instead it’s the members of everyone’s favorite J-pop cluster, AKB48. During a special show on June 2 at USJ, the band announced that certain members will be performing not for one day, not for two days, but for over a month straight. #USJ にこの夏、 #AKB48 グループが常駐！ https://t.co/vBIvqyU5x0 を更新。本日開催されたステージ「やり過ぎ！サマーLIVE」の写真を追加！ pic.twitter.com/gb8Z118Es1 — コンフェティ(conфetti) (@conpetti) June 2, 2016 Visitors will be able to see the girls in the flesh from July 21 through Sept. 4, just in time for summer vacation for students. (No word on whether or not middle-age salarymen will be able to take off work to cheer on their favorite members.) The daily show will feature 16 girls from its gaggle of singers, including Mayu Watanabe and Haruna Kojima , as they form the limited-time only “USJ48.” If that isn’t enough, concerts will also share the stage with members from sister groups from around Japan, including NMB48, HKT48 and NGT48. Make sure to line up early this summer as groups of fans will surely make the trip from Akihabara to Osaka.


Shigaraki potters' hand-made ceramic tubs brimming with interest

Abstract: OTSU, SHIGA PREFECTURE - Owners of lodging facilities aiming to attract more visitors amid the tourist boom and preparations for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics have been attracting people from Japan and overseas with a new cultural draw — ceramic bathtubs made with traditional Shigaraki pottery. The tubs, which have become not only a local attraction but also hot-selling items, are made by ceramics companies in and around Shigaraki, an area in southern Shiga Prefecture centered on the city of Koka, the home of the traditional ware. Shigaraki ware is one of Japan’s six oldest potteries, according to the Japan National Tourist Organization. Two potters at Marumoto Co., based in Koka, were preparing a new product this month that had just gone through a week-long firing process in a high-temperature kiln for further treatment. Since all bathtubs are hand-made, customers need to patiently wait for over a month until the process of molding, drying, firing and glazing is completed. The business isn’t new. Marumoto has been producing the bathtubs for about two decades. Following the collapse of the bubble economy in the early 1990s, bathtubs made of Japanese cypress grew popular and became a standard feature in inns and spas. So Marumoto decided to take a shot at ceramic bathtubs. As the clay of Shigaraki, known for its fire-resistance and elastic properties, is believed to be well-suited for large items, the company figured the technique would also be suited for bathtubs. The tubs are expensive. As the price for one tub ranges from ¥300,000 to ¥2.5 million, Marumoto got only 60 to 70 orders a year in the first few years after development. But orders have gradually grown and the firm now gets more than 10 times the initial figure. In one recent year, the firm received as many as 1,300 orders. “I never expected the tubs would become such hot sellers,” Marumoto President Ikuo Muraki, 52, said. It is often the case that orders are placed when ryokan (traditional inns) and hotels refurbish their facilities for the 2020 Olympics. The most popular type is the round tub 60 cm high and 1.2 meters in diameter. The bathtubs became so popular with foreign travelers that some even ordered them after going home, Muraki said. Compared with cypress tubs, Shigaraki ceramic bathtubs are much heavier but can be easily installed and cleaned. The ceramics also keep the water warm much longer, also lending to the tubs’ popularity. “It’s really good you can make orders in various shapes and colors to match it with an interior design,” said Shuichi Kawahara, 62, manager of Kotohira Grand Hotel Sakuranosho in Kagawa Prefecture. Kawahara bought eight Shigaraki bathtubs for the hotel’s private rooms and said they have been well received. Marumoto’s Kimura said the company has been producing bathtubs so that people can feel bathing is worthwhile. “We would like to pass down this Japanese tradition of using tubs for relaxation,” he said.


Atomic safety, shinkansen issues complicate Upper House equation for Kansai voters

Abstract: OSAKA - Nuclear safety, route plans for new shinkansen and maglev lines, and the ruling coalition’s economic policies are some of the top local issues on the minds of Kansai voters as they head into the pivotal Upper House election next month. With last week’s announcement that the Nuclear Regulation Authority approved restarting reactors 1 and 2 at the Takahama nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture, both of which are over 40 years old, Kansai voters face the prospect of choosing pro-nuclear politicians from the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito who are pushing the restart of the region’s reactors — or opposition party candidates who are against restarts and seeking a fundamental change in the government’s energy policy, which calls for atomic power to provide 20 to 22 percent of Japan’s electricity by 2030. To restart the Takahama reactors, Kansai Electric Power Co. needs political permission from Fukui, and, most likely, neighboring Kyoto and Shiga prefectures. But the Kepco predicts it won’t be until autumn 2019 at the earliest before the units could go back online. Politically, this means that over the next few years the Kansai-area winners in the election will likely have to deal with pressure from pro-nuclear governors, mayors and business leaders to approve funds for various pet projects in Fukui and surrounding areas in return for permission to restart the aging reactors, which just received 20-year extensions. “There are still issues related to the procedures (for running the two Takahama reactors) and other problems that must be clearly addressed,” said Fukui Gov. Issei Nishikawa after the NRA’s approval last week, signaling that his consent for restarts, which he has never withheld, would not be automatic. Other Kansai-region nuclear issues that Upper House candidates face include clarifying policy and central government funding for three other 40-year-old reactors in Fukui that are destined to be scrapped instead of restarted. That includes figuring out where to permanently store all of the nuclear waste that decommissioning will generate. On other fronts, political and local economic attention in Kansai is increasingly focusing on finalizing the routes for the Hokuriku Shinkansen Line extension and a high-speed line for magnetically levitated trains. By the end of October, Tokyo is expected to announce the results of its feasibility study on three proposals to guide the Hokuriku Shinkansen Line from Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, to Osaka. The line, which currently runs from Nagano to Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, is scheduled to be extended to Tsuruga by 2023. Fukui LDP politicians, including the governor, want the route to run southwest through the prefecture to Obama and then turn south and head to Kyoto, rather than going from Tsuruga to Kyoto via Maibara in Shiga Prefecture on the eastern shore of Lake Biwa. Needless to say, ruling party members in Shiga favor routing it through Maibara. And Kyoto Prefecture has its own plan, put forward by LDP Upper House Diet member Shoji Nishida, who is not up for election this time, and backed by the governor and many Kyoto LDP members. This plan would extend the shinkansen past Obama, through all the towns hosting Fukui’s 11 commercial nuclear reactors, and to the port of Maizuru in Kyoto, just over the Fukui border. Then it would head south-southeast to Kyoto before terminating in Osaka. The Hokuriku shinkansen thus means contracts for local construction companies, jobs and a guaranteed revenue stream for all governments along the route. The other train-related subject of a local political drama is the final route between Nagoya and Osaka for the maglev line, which Kansai leaders also hope will be finished by midcentury, speeding residents between Tokyo and Osaka in just an hour, rather than the current 2½ hours. The announced route, one originally favored years ago by the central government, takes the maglev through northern Nara Prefecture, bypassing Kyoto entirely. But in recent years, as political efforts to finalize the route grew, Kyoto’s municipal and prefectural officials, and the business community, began pushing the rest of Kansai to urge Tokyo to consider a new route that would take it through their city. Last month, municipal governments in Kyoto petitioned Tokyo officials to alter the route, drawing the wrath of Nara Gov. Shogo Arai, a former transport ministry bureaucrat with deep connections to the railway industry. “Kyoto continues to battle for the maglev, while the city, the prefecture and other Kansai local governments are challenging the central government’s plans,” Arai, supported by the LDP, warned a group of Nara politicians in late May. Finally, as with the rest of the nation, the Upper House election is something of a verdict on the Abenomics program and its impact on the Kansai economy, especially the recent decision by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to again postpone the second stage of the consumption tax hike to 10 percent until October 2019 instead of next year. Kansai business leaders and politicians are worried the ruling coalition is playing politics with the region’s, and the country’s, financial security at a time when voter concerns about the aging population are stronger than ever, and that postponing the tax hike means less money to deal with the rising demand for elderly care. For example, in Osaka Prefecture, official predictions state that over a third of residents will be at least 65 years old in 2040 (compared with about 22 percent in 2010), while 20 percent will be at least 75 (just 10 percent in 2010). Less-urbanized parts of the region will have even high ratios. “Politicians shouldn’t just undertake scattered measures because of an election, and, with a view toward the next generation, things that need to be done now should not be put off,” said Shuichi Kageyama, an executive member of the Kansai Association of Corporate Executives, after Abe announced he was postponing the tax hike.

nuclear power
kansai
nuclear energy
shinkansen
takahama
maglev
2016 upper house election


Cities take cutesy tack to get youths to go to the polls

Abstract: OSAKA - For town, city and prefectural government offices around Japan, the key issue in next month’s Upper House election is not constitutional revision or the economy. It’s persuading 18-year-olds to go to the polls. While political pundits pointedly pontificate about the 2.4 million new youth votes, local election commissions are making efforts to explain to 18- and 19-year-olds why casting a ballot is critical to Japan’s future, especially now that some candidates are as old as their grandparents and taking up unfamiliar topics. To this end, a couple of Kansai regional governments have wisely dispensed with the bureaucratic discourse to produce manga and anime that promote the election process. Although they might appear amusing at times, they carry a serious message. The city of Nara’s website offers a five-minute anime about three women (voiced by what sound like men) celebrating their 18th birthdays. When one says she now wants to vote, the other two reply they have no interest or don’t know anything about voting. After threatened by a character who warns of the dangers of voting in ignorance, a character named Naranara appears, telling the teens that, yes, many younger Japanese don’t vote , perhaps because they don’t know much about politics. But with Japan facing a declining birthrate and rapidly graying population, Naranara adds that it’s more critical than ever for 18-year-olds to vote. The video then breaks into a musical number in which the three ladies sing a perky, off-key song about being 18, on the edge of adulthood, and the need to think about politics and for themselves. It ends by urging viewers to do their homework. Nearby, the city of Ikoma has made a more serious four-page flier that includes a two-page manga of its mascot Takemaru-kun. Takemaru-kun tells a group of 18-year-olds that because they didn’t have the right to vote before now, it was difficult for society to reflect their views. But if young people vote, even older politicians will be forced to listen, the mascot adds. The other two pages explain that voting is important because you pay tax whenever you buy something or earn income. It’s money the Diet members decide how to use, and how they do so directly impacts your lifestyle, the flier says. Whether such efforts will attract younger voters to the July 10 poll remains to be seen. But the Nara and Ikoma examples show that some local governments are at least trying to get out the youth vote.


Hokkaido eatery encourages diners to treat the needy

Abstract: A small restaurant in the city of Obihiro, Hokkaido, boasts an eye-catching sign out front that says “Eat here for free.” It’s not that the restaurant pays for the meal. The other customers do. Inspired by an Italian movement known as “suspended coffee,” which offers pre-paid drinks for those in need, soba restaurant Yui offers noodles, curry rice dishes and other fare on the menu paid in advance by other customers willing to cover the cost. A sign shows what food is available free of charge on any one day. “I’m urging young people, mainly students, to use the service. Roughly 20 to 30 people a month are eating at no charge,” said Tatsuo Honma, the owner of Yui. “I wish there had been such a service when I was a student.” Honma calls the service gochi meshi , which means a meal treated by someone else. The donors are customers who are offered the option of paying only for their own meal or paying extra, to treat an unknown beneficiary. Honma opened in March 2014. It kicked off the service that November to promote local products. Obihiro is known for dairy products, including milk, cheese and butter, but many local farmers also grow organic vegetables and cereals such as buckwheat. “Being a farmer myself, I wanted to offer an opportunity for young people to eat the vegetables that are grown in their own hometown,” he said. “Since supermarkets are selling cheap food, it’s becoming rare for them to consume local products.” He said recent media coverage has resulted in a rise in donations, and other restaurants have been asking for advice on starting such a service. “It used to be the regulars who donated, but now, many tourists are eating here and doing it after reading about us,” he said. He added: “It’s hard to say that this shopping street is becoming a busy thoroughfare, but at least I can say I was able to contribute a little to promoting local products.”