Secret science of 'Lenin lab' keeps dead communist leaders looking fresh in North Korea and Vietnam

Abstract: SEOUL - Perhaps none of the communist legacies shared by Vietnam and North Korea highlighted during Kim Jong Un’s “goodwill visit” to Hanoi is stranger than the embalmed leaders on display in their capitals — and the secretive team of Russian technicians who keep the bodies looking ageless. Kim laid a wreath outside Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum on Saturday, after his summit with U.S. President Donald Trump. Inside the dark interior of the mausoleum, the embalmed corpse of Vietnam’s founding father lies displayed in a glass coffin for a stream of tourists who silently shuffle by. In Pyongyang, Kim Jong Un’s grandfather and father are on similar display in the loftily named Kumsusan Palace of the Sun, a monument to the cult of personality that surrounds North Korea’s ruling family. All three leaders were originally preserved by a team of specialists from the “Lenin Lab” in Moscow, which first embalmed and displayed Vladimir Lenin’s body in 1924. The Soviet Union has collapsed, and socialism in Vietnam and North Korea has taken on forms barely recognizable to the ideology’s first thinkers, but that lab still performs annual maintenance on Ho and, according to at least one researcher, helps North Korea keep the Kims looking fresh. “The original embalming and the regular re-embalmings have always been conducted by the scientists of the Moscow lab,” said Alexei Yurchak, a professor of anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, who is writing a book about the embalmed leaders. “Over the years they trained local scientists in some techniques — but not all, maintaining the core of the know-how secret.” Unlike earlier preservation processes such as mummification, the permanent embalming pioneered by Soviet scientists kept the bodies flexible, with unblemished skin and a lifelike — if rather waxy — pallor. With North Vietnam under regular attack by American warplanes at the time of Ho’s death in 1969, the Soviet Union airlifted chemicals and equipment outside Hanoi to a cave that the Soviet experts turned into a sterile lab, Yurchak said. When the Soviet Union collapsed in the 1990s, the government lab faced a funding crisis, leading it to rely more heavily on offering services to foreign clients, Yurchak said. Among those customers was North Korea, where Russian specialists embalmed both Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il at a laboratory built into the mausoleum in Pyongyang. The original embalming takes several months, and the bodies need regular upkeep. “Every 1½ to two years, these bodies are re-embalmed by the Moscow scientists,” Yurchak said, citing interviews he conducted with lab scientists and his own field research. The website for the committee that manages Ho’s mausoleum says Russia started charging for the chemicals after the Soviet Union collapsed, prompting Hanoi to ask that the supplies be produced in Vietnam. Vietnam has also sent technicians to study in Russia and can now handle the operations of the mausoleum by itself, the website says. A source with committee confirmed that the monument is closed every year for two months and that Russian technicians help with annual maintenance of the body. The mausoleum lab in Moscow, which since 1992 has been known as the Center for Scientific Research and Teaching Methods in Biochemical Technologies, declined to comment on any aspect of its work. The North Korean delegation at the United Nations did not respond to a request for comment. Researcher Tom Fowdy, who founded a group promoting tourism and cultural engagements in North Korea, said he has seen the Kumsusan Palace closed for unexplained “renovations,” but maintenance of the bodies is a mystery. “While it is obvious the methodology was derived from Russia, it will be a closely kept secret,” he said. Some experts say that China, which relied on its own scientists to embalmed Mao Zedong because of tension between Beijing and Moscow at the time, may have taught or helped North Korea. Visitors to Pyongyang’s Kumsusan Palace pass displays that include Kim Jong Il’s personal yacht and an Apple computer the dictator had once owned, before being required to bow three times to the bodies. “The personality politics of the Kims exceeds all others,” Fowdy said, noting that maintaining the memorial will continue to “receive overwhelming priority” in North Korea’s government budgeting. It is not clear how much impoverished North Korea spends on maintaining the Kims’ bodies. When Moscow released preservation costs for the first time in 2016, it reported spending nearly $200,000 that year to maintain Lenin. Originally the embalming was seen as a way of joining the various countries to international communism, as embodied in Lenin. But as Vietnam and North Korea developed in their different political ways, so has the meaning attached to preserving the leaders’ bodies. “Today this original meaning of these bodies has changed — in Vietnam the body of Ho today stands for anti-colonial struggles for independence and even for new nationalism, much more than for communism,” Yurchak said. “In North Korea the two Kims’ bodies stand for a self-sufficient country organized around one leader and existing in the face of the ‘imperialist surroundings.'”

north korea
vietnam
history
russia
kim jong un
soviet union
kim il sung
ho chi minh
kim jong il


Trump warns Kim he would be 'very disappointed' if North Korea is really rebuilding rocket site

Abstract: Washington - President Donald Trump said Wednesday he’d be “very, very disappointed” with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un if reports that work is underway to rebuild a long-range rocket site are confirmed. Speaking to reporters, Trump said “it’s too early to see” if the information about work at the North Korean site is true. Warning he’d be disappointed, he added: “I don’t think I will be, but we’ll see what happens.” Trump and Kim met last week in Vietnam to negotiate on getting rid of North Korea’s nuclear arsenal, but the summit broke up early with no progress. Researchers say that rebuilding of the facility in question has been underway since the summit and may have started before the Vietnam meeting. “This facility had been dormant since August 2018, indicating the current activity is deliberate and purposeful,” said researchers at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Researchers said that the activity may be intended to “demonstrate resolve in the face of US rejection” of the North’s request for an easing of sanctions in return for some dismantlement of nuclear weapons infrastructure. Kim had agreed to shutter the Sohae missile-testing site at a summit with the South’s President Moon Jae-in in Pyongyang, as part of confidence-building measures, and satellite pictures in August had suggested workers were already dismantling an engine test stand at the facility. But CSIS said building activity is now “evident” at the Sohae Satellite Launching Station, from where Pyongyang launched satellites in 2012 and 2016. North Korea was later banned by the U.N. security council from carrying out the space launches, as some of its technology was similar to that used for intercontinental ballistic missiles, or ICBMs. The respected Washington-based 38 North project, another independent research website specializing in North Korea, also reported building work at the Sohae facility, based on commercial satellite imagery. According to 38 North, the efforts to rebuild structures at the Sohae facility started sometime between Feb. 16 and March 2. The pictures show a moving structure that had been used to carry launch vehicles to a launch pad on rails has been restored, it said. “Two support cranes are observed at the building, the walls have been erected and a new roof added. At the engine test stand, it appears that the engine support structure is being reassembled,” the 38 North reported. In a briefing to parliamentarians this week, Seoul’s spy agency said it had detected signs of work at the site. Joel Wit, the director of the 38 North project, cautioned that the evidence was not necessarily “consistent with preparations for an ICBM test.” “Aside from the fact that (North Korea) has never tested an ICBM from Sohae — it’s a space vehicle launch site — preparation for any launch would require a wide range of activities not observed in the imagery,” Wit said. However, a rocket engine test could be performed there and that would send “a really strong signal” to Washington, Wit said. “A lot depends on how the U.S. reacts to what’s going on,” Wit said. “The danger here is that we could start spiraling downward as each side takes steps and undermine the process that’s been in place since last spring.” Impoverished and isolated North Korea conducted its first successful nuclear test in 2006 followed by a string of increasingly successful ICBM launches. In 2017, it claimed it had become capable of fitting a viable nuclear weapon on an ICBM that could reach as far as the United States’ eastern seaboard. In response, the U.N. Security Council later banned the North’s main exports — coal and other mineral resources, fisheries and textile products — to cut off its access to hard currency. At their groundbreaking first summit in Singapore last year, Kim and Trump produced a vague statement on the “denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.” There were high expectations for Kim and Trump’s second meeting in Hanoi, but no agreement was reached. Despite the stalemate, both sides said they were open to further talks. John Bolton, the U.S. national security adviser, however, said on Tuesday that the U.S. would look at “ramping those sanctions up” if Pyongyang did not give up its nuclear weapons program.

u.s .
north korea
kim jong un
nuclear weapons
north korea nuclear crisis
donald trump
csis
38 north
kim-trump summit


Japan drafts guidelines for alerting public about Ebola patients' travel routes in case of outbreak

Abstract: The health ministry has compiled draft guidelines on the release of information about Ebola patients, including the routes they took in or outside the country, in the event the first domestic outbreak of the deadly viral disease occurs. The ministry also drew up a basic policy on the release of information related to potential first-time outbreaks of other serious infectious diseases. The basic policy was approved during a meeting of an expert panel on Wednesday, and the ministry plans to make it formal as early as April after holding consultations with other government bodies including the transport ministry. The policy calls for providing the public with information about outbreaks including on places where patients are believed to have contracted the diseases, records of their activities during periods when transmission to other people is possible and contacts the patients have had with others. Information about patients would likely be made public when infections are confirmed, but it could be released before confirmation is made in some situations due to the need to act swiftly. In the event of an outbreak, the government will release details about patients including their approximate age, sex and home prefecture. In addition, it will announce the estimated location where the infection took place, the date and time when symptoms began to appear, overseas travel routes and any use of domestic transportation systems. The nationalities and occupations of patients will not be released in principle. Prefectures with hospitals treating patients will be made public, but the names of individual hospitals will be kept private. The health ministry also plans to draw up guidelines for the release of information related to such diseases as Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and a new strain of influenza. In November, the National Institute of Infectious Diseases said it plans to import strains of Ebola and four other deadly viruses to improve detection processes amid a rise in the number of foreign visitors. The pathogens do not exist in Japan and have never been deliberately brought into the country. The institute says that having access to the pathogens would increase the speed and accuracy with which it could identify an infected person and would give it the ability to conduct tests to assess recovery. The pathogens would be kept at the institute’s laboratory in the city of Musashimurayama, western Tokyo. The lab is the only one in Japan classified as having the maximum biosafety level of BSL-4.


No Japan-wide minimum wage planned to tackle urban-rural gap ahead of foreign influx, says Suga

Abstract: Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga denied a media report Thursday that the government is considering introducing a minimum wage for specific industrial sectors that would apply to workers nationwide, regardless of where they live. Earlier in the day, labor ministry officials had explained the idea to ruling lawmakers, but Suga said the ministry isn’t considering the move at this time. The government is set to loosen restrictions on the entry of foreign workers from April to tackle serious labor shortages resulting from an aging population and falling birthrate, and the idea for the minimum wage regulation is seen as an effort to address the urban-rural wage gap that could result in the concentration of laborers in large cities. Currently, hourly minimum wages are decided by each prefectural government based on the region’s economic situation. The figures are revised every fiscal year after a ministry advisory panel comes up with a rough target for wage hikes sometime in the summer. In the current fiscal year ending March 31, the national average of the hourly minimum wage stood at ¥874, with Tokyo logging the highest at ¥985 and Kagoshima Prefecture marking the lowest at ¥761. Some critics say that rural areas could continue to struggle with labor shortages unless the urban-rural minimum wage gap is properly managed. Any system would likely cover the 14 sectors, including construction and nursing care, that are expected to see an influx of foreign workers under the new visas. The revised immigration control law passed the Diet in December to create two new types of visas, which will be applicable to foreign workers aged 18 or older. To apply for the No. 1 type, valid for up to five years, people will have to pass Japanese-language and technical exams. Those who have spent more than three years in the existing technical intern program will be able to obtain the status without taking the tests. But those visa holders will not be allowed to bring family members into the country. The No. 2 type sets a higher hurdle, with applicants required to pass a high-level skill test. But workers will be allowed to bring family members and the number of visa renewals will not be limited, opening up the possibility for them to live permanently in Japan. By creating the new visas, the government will formally open its doors to foreign blue-collar workers for the first time. In the past, it has granted working visas only to highly skilled professionals with experience such as doctors, lawyers and teachers. The government is estimating that the country will accept up to around 345,000 foreign workers over five years.

immigration
ldp
jobs
wages
foreign workers
rural life
mhlw


Japan provides ¥500 million for water and farm projects in Philippines' conflict-hit Mindanao

Abstract: MANILA - Japan provided ¥500 million (around $4.4 million) in grants on Wednesday for water and agriculture projects in conflict-affected areas on the southern Philippine island of Mindanao. The projects, to be implemented by the International Labor Organization and the Food and Agriculture Organization, are “follow-through instruments of peace” as the Philippines’ predominantly Muslim region transitions into an autonomous region with more self-governing powers, said Japanese Ambassador to the Philippines Koji Haneda. The ¥300 million ILO project aims to provide a safe and reliable water supply, while the ¥200 million FAO project intends to provide vocational skills training for agriculture and fisheries, as well as literacy and entrepreneurship training. The Bangsamoro Transition Authority was launched last month, five years after a 2014 peace agreement was reached between the government and the country’s largest Muslim rebel group to end decades of insurgency in the restive region. The transition authority will eventually give way to a more powerful Bangsamoro government in 2022 with its own parliament, as well as more executive and economic powers. It is estimated there are more than 3 million people in the Bangsamoro region, which covers nearly 1.5 million hectares, mainly in central-to-western Mindanao.

conflict philippines aid mindanao bangsamoro


Even Mount Fuji climbers who don't plan to push for the summit will be asked to pay up

Abstract: SHIZUOKA - Even hikers who have no intention of reaching the summit of Mount Fuji will be asked to make a donation of ¥1,000 for stepping foot on the country’s highest mountain from this summer, local prefectures said Thursday. Shizuoka and Yamanashi prefectures, which the 3,776-meter-high volcanic mountain straddles, will aim to secure more income to help preserve the environment and fund trail safety measures at the UNESCO World Heritage site. At present, adult climbers aiming to reach the top of the mountain from the various fifth stations, which are mostly halfway to the summit and are accessible by car, are asked to contribute. Under the new plan, donation points will be set up on the mountain near the fifth stations. But tourists who just want to enjoy the view and shop and eat at those stages will not be asked for a donation. The new policy will be finalized at a March 19 meeting including the two prefectures, as well as municipalities and central government agencies concerned. The two prefectures began collecting the voluntary admission fee in 2014, a year after the mountain was registered on the UNESCO list. In 2018, Shizuoka Prefecture collected about ¥56.55 million from 50 percent of the climbers aiming for the top, while Yamanashi Prefecture took in around ¥87.79 million from some 60 percent, according to the Shizuoka Prefectural Government.

mount fuji
tourism
mountaineering
shizuoka
yamanashi
mountains


LDP secretary-general may visit China to pave the way for Xi's trip to Japan

Abstract: Liberal Democratic Party Secretary-General Toshihiro Nikai may visit China as early as next month to lay the groundwork for Chinese President Xi Jinping’s anticipated visit to Japan later this year, according to ruling party sources. During a Monday meeting with Chinese Ambassador to Japan Cheng Yonghua at the LDP headquarters in Tokyo, Nikai was informed of Beijing’s plan to formally invite him to attend the second summit-level international conference on China’s “Belt and Road” regional development initiative, slated to be held in April. Nikai told Cheng that he would consider participating in the event, and they agreed to begin detailed talks on the matter, the sources said Wednesday. The ambassador’s visit to the LDP headquarters to convey the invitation plan directly to the ruling party heavyweight “represented the Chinese government’s eagerness,” a person close to Nikai said. During the possible China visit, Nikai is expected to meet with key Chinese figures while attending the conference. Momentum for dialogue between the two Asian neighbors grew after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed his government’s willingness to cooperate with the Belt and Road initiative in June 2017. Prior to that move, Nikai, who has strong connections in China, visited the country to attend the first Belt and Road conference in May that year.


Abe says he is willing to meet Kim Jong Un to settle issue of Japanese abducted to North Korea

Abstract: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Wednesday he is willing to hold direct talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to break a deadlock over the abduction issue. “I have to meet face-to-face with Chairman Kim Jong Un to resolve this issue,” Abe said at the outset of a meeting with the abductees’ family members. The meeting comes a week after U.S. President Donald Trump took up the topic during the second U.S.-North Korean summit in Hanoi, relaying Japan’s stance on the issue to Kim at Abe’s request. Trump also raised the issue with Kim in their first summit, last June in Singapore. “I want to settle the issue in accordance with our basic policy that we will not miss any chance,” Abe said. Trump briefed Abe on what was discussed during the Hanoi summit over the phone hours after the meeting ended without tangible progress toward the North’s denuclearization. Tokyo and Pyongyang have not normalized diplomatic ties due to the issue, which involves Japanese citizens who were kidnapped by North Korean agents in the 1970s and 1980s. Abe has made the issue one of his administration’s top priorities. “We have high hopes for the meeting (between Abe and Kim) happening,” 80-year-old Shigeo Iizuka, who heads a group of family members of the missing people, said during the meeting with the prime minister. Japan officially recognizes 17 citizens, including Iizuka’s younger sister Yaeko Taguchi, as having been kidnapped by North Korea and suspects the country’s involvement in many more disappearances. Five of the 17 returned home in 2002, and Pyongyang claims that eight have died and the other four were never in the country. However, last month it was reported that Minoru Tanaka, one of the 17 abductees, is living in Pyongyang with his wife and children. Speaking at a news conference after meeting with Abe, Sakie Yokota, the 83-year-old mother of Megumi Yokota, who was abducted at age 13 in 1977, said she is hoping an “exchange of words between the Japanese and North Korean leaders” will take place. The family members declined to disclose what Abe told them during the meeting.

shinzo abe
north korea
kim jong un
abductions
north korea-japan relations


78% of older teenagers in Japan anxious about natural disasters, survey says

Abstract: Some 77.6 percent of people in Japan aged 17 to 19 feel “anxious” about natural hazards and major disasters, according to findings in a recent online survey of 800 young people. In February, Tokyo-based think tank The Nippon Foundation asked teenagers across the nation how they feel about natural disasters, ahead of the eighth anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis that killed at least 15,897 and left more than 2,500 unaccounted for in March 2011. “Now that Japan is preparing to lower the (legal) age of adulthood from 20 to 18 in 2022, 18-year-olds will be expected to play more active roles in society, and we wanted to find out whether they’re aware of various issues, including disaster preparedness,” Orie Sakamoto, a researcher at the think tank, said in a phone interview. Of the 621 respondents who said they feel anxious over disasters, 68.9 percent cited the country’s susceptibility to calamities as a factor. Sakamoto said that last year’s string of large-scale natural disasters has further fueled that fear, with 38.5 percent of respondents citing the fact that natural disasters have hit Japan more often recently as the cause of their anxiety. Multiple answers were allowed. However, Sakamoto, who is in charge of the project, said the results showed that young people lack critical knowledge about how to protect their lives in the event of a disaster. In the survey, just 42.3 percent of the teenagers had an emergency kit prepared and only 41.4 percent of respondents knew that in an emergency they could use the Dial 171 disaster message board. A majority of the respondents found education about disaster preparedness and related risks helpful in times of disaster. Of the 376 who had experienced disasters firsthand, 71 percent said that what they had learned at school was useful. Some respondents, for instance, cited their evacuation following the Tohoku quake on March 11, 2011, as a time when they put that knowledge into practice. The survey also asked respondents to offer comments. Several suggested that drills don’t prepare them for all scenarios, such as what to do if a disaster occurs while they are commuting. Others said their schools did not conduct emergency drills at all. Sakamoto said the results show that young people believe there is still much to be done to improve disaster response. “Around 80 percent of the respondents said they believed the country was not well prepared to handle massive disasters, and in comments they suggested that such disaster management policies aren’t working,” Sakamoto said. “It appears that even 18-year-olds think that there’s room for improvement in response to disasters. The teenagers’ responses may be reflecting their thoughts on Japan’s handling of disasters that battered” the country last year, she said, referring to strong earthquakes in Osaka and Hokkaido, torrential rain in western Japan and a powerful typhoon that triggered floods in Kansai, along with record-high temperatures over the summer.

teens
disasters
3.11
anniversaries
surveys
nippon foundation


Namahage demon festival of northern Japan grapples with blessing and curse of UNESCO listing

Abstract: OGA, AKITA PREF. - As a child, Tatsuo Sato was terrified when the Namahage demons roared into his house every year, but in adulthood he mourned as the centuries-old tradition faded away. “The kids disappeared, the young people disappeared. We had to give it up,” Sato, 78, said of the New Year’s Eve visits by men in horned masks and straw capes, all shouting “Are there any bad kids here?” UNESCO’s registering Namahage as a cultural property late last year has given new life to the colorful tradition. But experts say the recognition, which included several similar traditions in which costumed “gods” visit villages, doesn’t automatically guarantee survival. In some cases, it could even stifle changes that help keep the groups going, such as including outsiders or women. “Within this UNESCO designation, there are several groups that I believe may not be able to continue — or not be able to continue in their present form,” said Satoru Hyoki, a professor of cultural history at Seijo University in Tokyo. On the Oga Peninsula in Akita Prefecture, the Masukawa district in the city of Oga revived its traditional New Year’s Eve ritual last year after 12 years, thanks partly to a group of young transplants to the area, whose population has dwindled to just 130 in the last two decades. Oga had 120 Namahage troupes in 1989 but just 85 in 2015; that only young men were allowed to take part didn’t help matters. Some hamlets have raised the age limit, while others welcomed young outsiders. One of those transplants, Haruki Ito, came up with the idea of inviting young men from around Japan to take part alongside the local residents in Masukawa. “If Namahage aren’t young men, it’s no good, everyone agrees,” said Sato, who took his turn as a demon when he was younger. “Maybe if women did it we’d have enough people, but I don’t think we have to go that far.” Local officials hope the long-sought UNESCO designation stirs a tourism-based economic boost badly needed in places like Oga, a remote peninsula jutting into the Sea of Japan, and the Masukawa district where Sato lives. Economically, the attention has already helped. Oga’s Namahage Sedo Festival in early February drew 7,600 people, compared with 6,100 in 2018. The festival, in which a parade of torch-bearing demons makes its way down a snow-covered mountain, swells Oga’s population by nearly 30 percent as tourists pour in, hoping straw from the demons’ capes — believed to be lucky — will fall near them during the smoky procession. Masukawa’s decision to revive its New Year’s Eve tradition, buoyed by the UNESCO registration, led to a scramble for everything from straw to makeshift sword materials foraged from local discount stores. The flurry of activity made people “really happy,” said Ito, 27, adding that some elderly residents told him the revival literally gave them reason to live. “Many people feel ‘the gods must really care about me,'” he said. Hyoki said the UNESCO designation has no money attached to it and carries the risk of unsustainable tourism or even a loss of autonomy. UNESCO recognizes that traditions change, but the Japanese registration required to apply for the listing does not, which he said creates misunderstandings. “Some people worry that if they got the UNESCO listing, they’d just be forced to continue in the traditional ways, that if they try to change things people will say, ‘That’s not the way it was done in the old days,'” he said. For now, Oga has parlayed growing interest into a year-round promotion of everything Namahage, including demon-themed biscuits, rubber stamps and even a facial skin mask. Many are designed by Kokoro Ohtani, a 24-year-old from southern Japan who moved north for university and fell in love with the Namahage. She now works at Oga City Hall. Ohtani, who is close to one troupe of Namahage performers, said respect for her friends and their reverence of traditional ways has deterred her from pressing to take part. “There’s a bit of a clash within me, but it isn’t discrimination or chauvinism,” she said. “It’s more like feeling I want to keep trying so that, one day when they let women take part, I will be the one they choose.”

akita festivals unesco heritage namahage


12.5% of Japanese city-dwellers still hesitant about buying food from nuclear disaster-hit Fukushima

Abstract: The proportion of people in metropolitan areas in Japan who hesitate to buy food products from Fukushima Prefecture due to concerns over radiation contamination has hit a record low of 12.5 percent, a government survey showed Wednesday. The share fell 0.2 percentage point from the previous survey, carried out in February last year, the Consumer Affairs Agency said. The latest survey, the 12th of its kind, was conducted last month with participation by 5,176 people aged from their 20s to their 60s. The online survey was first performed in February 2013, less than two years after the March 2011 triple meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant operated by Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. The proportion of people who reported that they were holding back on purchases of Fukushima food products has been on the decline since the fourth survey, which was conducted in August 2014. In the latest survey, the proportion of respondents who said that they did not know that tests for radioactive substances were being conducted on food products marked a record high of 44.8 percent. Speaking at a news conference, Kazumi Okamura, agency commissioner, said that people’s “hesitation about Fukushima-made products is fading.” “We will continue to work on spreading accurate information,” Okamura said.

fukushima
fukushima no . 1
food
radiation
survey


Hong Kong protesters plead not guilty to trespassing at Tokyo's war-linked Yasukuni Shrine

Abstract: A man and woman from Hong Kong charged with trespassing on the grounds of the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo in December pleaded not guilty Thursday in the first hearing of their case at the Tokyo District Court. Kwok Siu-kit, 55, and Yim Man-wa, 26, claimed they had a “legitimate reason” to enter the Shinto shrine, which honors millions of war dead along with convicted war criminals, saying they intended to “urge the Japanese government to reflect on (Japan’s) wartime past.” According to the Tokyo police, the two entered the shrine, often seen as a symbol of the country’s militarist past by neighboring countries including China and South Korea, at around 7 a.m. on Dec. 12. Kwok allegedly set fire to a piece of cardboard and held a flag protesting the 1937-38 Nanking Massacre, while Yim is suspected of filming the scene. Video uploaded by a Hong Kong-based activist group appeared to show Kwok burning a makeshift memorial tablet with the name of wartime Prime Minister Hideki Tojo, who is enshrined at Yasukuni, written on it, and shouting out, “Down with militarism! Don’t forget the Nanjing Massacre! Japan must apologize!” before being subdued by security guards. The city of Nanjing was known as Nanking at the time of the massacre. The group identified Kwok as a state-employed lifeguard and Yim as a journalist. China claims over 300,000 people were killed in the Nanking Massacre, while Japan disputes the numbers, citing estimates from historians that vary between tens of thousands and 200,000. Visits by Japanese leaders to Yasukuni routinely draw angry responses from those that suffered under the Japanese occupation before and during World War II.

china
tokyo
wwii
hong kong
yasukuni shrine
history
courts
nanking massacre
hideki tojo


Japanese electronics makers agree on ¥1,000 pay-scale hike

Abstract: Six major Japanese electronics makers and their labor unions have effectively agreed on a pay-scale increase of ¥1,000 per month this year, sources said Saturday. In their shuntō spring wage negotiations, the labor unions are calling on the management side to increase the pay scale by at least ¥1,000 in order to avoid a strike. The management side is expected to accept the demand, the sources said. This marks the sixth straight year of pay scale increase by major electronics makers, though the pace of rise slows from last year’s ¥1,500. In this year’s talks, the labor side initially demanded an increase of ¥3,000 for the fourth consecutive year. Amid growing concerns over earnings, the management side was cautious about meeting the demand after the cumulative increase reached ¥9,000 over the past five years. Of the six companies, Mitsubishi Electric Corp. and Panasonic Corp. lowered their earnings projections for the business year through the end of this month amid slowing economic growth in China. The six electronics makers, also including Hitachi Ltd., Fujitsu Ltd., Toshiba Corp. and NEC Corp., plan to give their formal answers to their labor unions on Wednesday.


Warren unveils breakup plan for Big Tech firms

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Elizabeth Warren unveiled a proposal to break up Big Tech on Friday, saying firms such as Amazon, Google and Facebook hold “too much power” in society. Warren said that as president, she would press for legislation to designate big online companies with revenues of $25 billion or more as “platform utilities” barred from owning “any participants on that platform.” The Massachusetts senator, seeking her party’s nomination for 2020, said she would also appoint antitrust enforcers “committed to reversing illegal and anti-competitive tech mergers,” including acquisitions in recent years by Amazon, Facebook and Google. “Today’s big tech companies have too much power — too much power over our economy, our society and our democracy,” she wrote in a blog post on Medium ahead of a New York rally where she later spoke about the plan. “They’ve bulldozed competition, used our private information for profit, and tilted the playing field against everyone else.” The proposal comes amid a growing “techlash” movement in the United States against the firms, which have grown to become the world’s most valuable, amid concerns on handling of private user data and dominance of certain sectors such as online retail and internet search, and a series of antitrust investigations in Europe. Warren specifically said she would seek to unwind Amazon’s acquisition of the Whole Foods grocery chain and shoe retailer Zappos, Facebook’s WhatsApp and Instagram, and Google’s integration of the ad tech firm DoubleClick, “internet of things” maker Nest and mobile navigation application Waze. “Unwinding these mergers will promote healthy competition in the market — which will put pressure on big tech companies to be more responsive to user concerns, including about privacy,” she wrote. Warren said that as part of her proposal, Amazon Marketplace, Google’s ad exchange and Google Search would be considered platform utilities. By doing this, she said, “small businesses would have a fair shot to sell their products on Amazon without the fear of Amazon pushing them out of business.” Tech companies have come under fire because of their role in displacing existing businesses. Amazon has replaced many brick-and-mortar stores and has been criticized for poorly paying its warehouse workers. Facebook has angered lawmakers for losing track of users’ data and for not doing more to stop foreign meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Google has clashed with smaller companies, like Yelp, over search placements and has raised concerns it would comply with China’s internet censorship and surveillance policies if it re-enters the search engine market there. Congress held a series of hearings last year looking at the dominance of major tech companies. It is rare for the government to seek to undo a consummated deal. The most famous case in recent memory is the government’s effort to break up Microsoft. The Justice Department won a preliminary victory in 2000 but was reversed on appeal. The case settled with Microsoft intact. Warren also proposed legislation that would require tech companies like Google and Amazon that offer an online marketplace or exchange to refrain from competing on their own platform. This would, for example, forbid Amazon itself from selling on its Amazon Marketplace platform. Warren’s plan sparked swift reaction from both sides of the issue. “It’s not pro-consumer,” said Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, a think tank that follows the sector. Atkinson said the plan “reflects a ‘big is bad, small is beautiful’ ideology run amok. The proposal ignores the fact that many of the services big tech companies now provide free used to cost consumers money. Breaking up large internet companies just because they are large won’t help consumers.” But Matt Stoller of the Open Markets Institute, a group focused on competition in the tech sector, said the plan is long overdue. “The @ewarren plan to undo mergers and conflicts of interest is the *moderate* approach. Keep in mind the Sherman Act is not just a civil statute but a criminal one. Monopolization is a crime,” he tweeted. Charlotte Slaiman of the consumer group Public Knowledge welcomed the proposal. “While digital platforms like Amazon, Google and Facebook have allowed some businesses to flourish, this has granted them significant power over how other companies do business,” she said. “We’re very concerned about situations where a company has free reign to control the playing field on which they compete.” Michael Carrier, a professor of antitrust law at Rutgers University, said the legal basis for taking on Big Tech would be shaky. “Under the antitrust laws, you can’t break up a company just because they’re big,” Carrier said, pointing out that the law requires monopolization and “exclusionary conduct.” “Being big is not exclusionary conduct. While big tech companies could present concern, that’s not enough for an antitrust case.”

congress
internet
google
elections
amazon.com
elizabeth warren


U.S. job creation screeched to a halt in February

Abstract: WASHINGTON - U.S. job creation ground to a virtual halt last month, the government reported Friday, a blow to President Donald Trump’s hopes for undiminished economic growth this year. But after the unusually dramatic swing in the critical monthly data, economists — whose forecasts missed badly — hastened to say that underlying employment trends remained strong, and they highlighted the hefty boost in worker pay. The figures also will be revised. Job creation was the slowest since September 2017, which adds to widespread reports from firms nationwide complaining that worker shortages are beginning to impede growth in their businesses. Despite the drop, the unemployment rate fell and hourly wages saw their biggest gains in nearly a decade, more evidence of the tight labor market. The sudden collapse in hiring — including deep job cuts in the construction retail and transportation sectors — is sure to revive worries about the dwindling supply of American workers. U.S. employers added just 20,000 net new positions for the month, only a fraction of what economists had been expecting, while unemployment fell two-tenths to 3.8 percent, its lowest level since October, according to the closely watched Labor Department report. Economists had been projecting a far stronger 173,000 gain. Over the last three months, job creation has averaged a slightly higher 186,000. Trump downplayed the decline, but February still marked a dizzying tumble from January’s 311,000 net new positions — a number the White House had held out as a sign that robust economic growth would continue. “I think you will find probably find out it averages out,” Trump told reporters on Friday. “The unemployment rate just went lower. … I think the big news, really, was that wages went up and that’s great for the American worker.” The decline in the unemployment rate may seem contradictory to the weak job creation, but the figure is derived from a different survey and reflects a shrinking labor force. The data can produce the occasional blip due to weather or other one-off factors and these numbers are subject to revision. Economists said the weakness may have been exaggerated after a big gain in the prior month or due to seasonal adjustment, meant to smooth out sharp swings due to weather or other expected elements. The hiring slowdown may weigh on first-quarter GDP calculations, threatening to take the shine off the economy’s in the first quarter. The U.S. unemployment rate has been hovering 50-year lows since last year, with a hot economy’s hunger for new employees seeming to turn up new pockets of available labor every month. But the construction, retail, mining and transportation sectors shed a combined 45,000 positions, while the education sector added only 4,000 workers, down from 64,000 the prior month. And there were no hires in February to work America’s in leisure and hospitality — a stunning halt after January’s gain of 89,000 jobs. The 94 percent drop in total net new hiring was the biggest since August 2010. Meanwhile, average hourly wages rose 11 cents for the month to $27.66, putting them up 3.4 percent over the same month last year — more than twice as fast as inflation. That is an indication that at long last firms are being forced to pay more to attract workers. The data present a mixed bag for the Federal Reserve, which has said it will hold off on additional rate increases amid signs economic growth is moderating and the absence of inflation. But if wage gains pick up speed, it could fuel concerns of inflation hawks at the central bank. The report was also unwelcome news on Wall Street, as U.S. stocks followed global equities lower, closing down for the fifth consecutive day to end the worst week of the year. Jim O’Sullivan of High Frequency Economics agreed with others that special factors may be to blame for the sharp drop in hiring. “The slowing may reflect some moderation in the trend but much of it was likely due to payback for exaggerated strength, due in part to weather effects,” he said. Others have said the five-week government shutdown — which delayed release of the jobs data — also played a role in the January spike, as idled government employees who found other jobs temporarily may have been double-counted.


Nissan and Mitsubishi consider closing Dutch joint venture after Ghosn drama

Abstract: Nissan Motor Co. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. are considering closing a Dutch joint venture from which some ¥1 billion in remuneration was allegedly paid to their ousted former chairman, Carlos Ghosn, in a nontransparent way, it has been learned. The automakers believe the scrapping of Nissan-Mitsubishi BV is inevitable in light of the allegations, informed sources said Friday. Ghosn has been indicted on the suspicion of financial misconduct. He was released on bail Wednesday after being detained for more than 100 days since his Nov. 19 arrest. Shortly after his arrest, he was dismissed as chairman of both companies. In January, Ghosn resigned as chairman and CEO of Renault SA, the French alliance partner of Nissan and Mitsubishi. Ghosn and his aides began considering setting up the Dutch joint venture around June 2016, soon after Nissan decided to invest in Mitsubishi to support the reconstruction of its troubled peer, which was under fire over a fuel-efficiency data manipulation scandal at the time, according to the sources. While some believe the establishment of the joint venture was intended to pay Ghosn remuneration that would not be subject to disclosure in Japan, Ghosn’s side had told Mitsubishi the joint company would draw up strategies to maximize the effects of its partnership with Nissan, the sources said. Nissan-Mitsubishi was formed in June 2017 as a fifty-fifty joint venture. The two companies injected about ¥2.1 billion into it last year to help cover its operating costs. But about half the amount was paid to Ghosn, one of its board directors, between April and November 2018, according to the sources. Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawa and Mitsubishi CEO Osamu Masuko, both also Nissan-Mitsubishi board members, have received no remuneration from the joint company. The two automakers plan to set up a new framework to strengthen their partnership, the sources said.


Carlos Ghosn case could spur Japan justice reform, Suntory CEO says

Abstract: TOKYO/NEW YORK - The arrest and lengthy detention of former auto titan Carlos Ghosn has drawn the eyes of the world to Tokyo and may finally bring reform to the nation’s criminal justice system, according to Takeshi Niinami, chief executive officer of Suntory Holdings Ltd. “In the history of the judicial system of Japan, even the prime minister could not challenge it,” Niinami said in an interview Thursday in New York. “The judicial system of Japan has to be reviewed. Now is the right timing.” The arrest of Nissan Motor Co. and Renault SA’s former chairman in November on allegations of filing false financial statements to regulators, and later on breach-of-trust charges, has put a spotlight on the country’s justice system. Human rights groups and heads of governments have openly criticized Ghosn’s 100-plus days in detention and failed attempts at bail. He was granted bail on his third attempt and left detention Wednesday. Niinami has weighed in on the Ghosn affair before, saying in January that it put a spotlight on weak corporate governance in the country. He said Thursday a company’s board needs to function well so “that kind of incident should not happen.” Niinami, who has been running the beverage giant since 2014, is also a member of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy. He said the Justice Ministry is too strict and is unchallenged, which is “a huge issue.” But he added the publicity around the case could kick-start a conversation among politicians about the country’s justice system. “Because of this case, the Cabinet can talk about it, can start to discuss to change how to detain, for how long,” he said. “And if the court doesn’t allow bail, in that case, the court has to say why.”

courts
scandals
nissan
suntory
carlos ghosn
takeshi niinami


Personal seals lose ground as big Japanese banks stop using 1800s technology

Abstract: It has taken more than a century, but Japanese banks are finally parting ways with a piece of technology that hasn’t felt cutting edge since the shogun reigned. Hanko , the personal stamps required for even simple transactions in the country since the 1800s, are getting phased out at some of the country’s biggest financial institutions. Lenders have begun allowing customers to transfer money or make payments with their smartphones or tablets, instead of pressing wood to ink and paper like their ancestors. For millennials in Japan, one of the most tech-obsessed places on Earth, the change is long overdue. “It’s too much work to bring hanko and do the paperwork just to withdraw money at branches,” said Tomoyuki Shiraishi, a 24-year-old construction worker in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture. After arriving late to the fintech revolution, Japanese banks are racing to catch up as they try to slash paperwork, boost efficiency and appeal to younger generations. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., the country’s biggest lender, is a case in point. The mega-bank has started offering accounts that don’t require hanko or passbooks and is overhauling its branch network to replace rows of tellers with tablet computers and video booths. The goal is to help customers adapt to digital platforms so they can eventually do more banking on their own devices. As many as 100 of MUFG’s 500-plus domestic outlets will convert to the new format by 2024. The Tokyo-based lender plans to halve the number of branches with traditional counters over the same period. MUFG isn’t alone. Resona Holdings Inc. last year started allowing customers to open accounts without hanko at about 600 branches. The shift to digital has support from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s administration, which has drafted a bill to make more government services available online. Winning over the country’s bureaucracy hasn’t been easy. It took MUFG two years to convince 450 local governments to begin processing tax payments electronically, said Takayuki Ogura, a director at the group’s main banking unit. In other areas of officialdom, hanko are firmly entrenched. Small businesses use them for many contracts, and they’re still required for things like marriage and home ownership. Parents often buy handcrafted hanko for their children when they come of age, and tourists take them home as souvenirs, said Keiichi Fukushima, a licensed carver and fourth-generation owner of a shop that sells the stamps in Tokyo’s historic Ueno district. Hanko-making is a roughly ¥165 billion-a-year industry, said Fukushima, who is vice chairman of the national trade group. “There are still lots of occasions where we need to use hanko in our lives,” Fukushima said. Minami Yoshida, a 26-year-old accounts clerk for a maker of industrial parts in Kawasaki, wishes there weren’t so many. Before she can pay suppliers, Yoshida has to stamp cash transfer forms with her company’s hanko and take them to the bank for processing. “I just feel it’s inefficient,” she said. Hanko were introduced to Japan from China during the Kamakura Period (1185-1333) for use by feudal lords and shogun. Also known as inkan , they became widespread during the Edo Period (1603-1868) and enshrined in law for use in official documents in 1873. These days, people usually carry three types: a registered jitsuin for major contracts such as buying a home; a ginkoin for bank transactions; and a mitomein for common tasks like signing for deliveries. The cheapest are rubber and can even be bought at ¥100 shops. Proper hanko are usually hand-carved from wood or cattle horns and can cost more than ¥20,000.


U.S. regulators clear path for genetically modified salmon

Abstract: NEW YORK - U.S. regulators on Friday gave the green light to salmon genetically modified to grow about twice as fast as normal, but the company behind it may face legal challenges before the fish can be sold domestically. The Food and Drug Administration said it had lifted an alert that prevented AquaBounty from importing its salmon eggs to its Indiana facility, where they would be grown before being sold as food. The agency noted that the salmon has already undergone safety reviews, and that it lifted its alert because the fish would be subject to a new regulation that will require companies to disclose when a food is bioengineered. The move comes despite a pending lawsuit filed by a coalition of consumer, environmental and fishing groups that challenged the FDA’s approval of the fish. AquaBounty was founded in 1991, and it has been working through years of safety reviews and regulatory hurdles to sell its fish in the United States. In 2015, its salmon became the first genetically modified animal approved by the FDA for human consumption. But the agency subsequently issued an alert that stopped the company from importing its fish eggs until disclosure guidelines for genetically modified foods were resolved. Called AquAdvantage, the fish is Atlantic salmon modified with DNA from other fish species to grow faster, which the company says will help feed the growing demand for animal protein while reducing costs. AquaBounty CEO Sylvia Wulf said the company expects to get a final certification for its Indiana growing facility in the coming weeks. Salmon eggs could then be sent from the company’s research and development facility in Canada, and would be harvested after about 18 months when they reach 10 pounds (4.5 kg), she said. Wulf said it has been difficult to engage companies in sales discussions because AquaBounty didn’t know when it could start growing the fish in the United States. She said the salmon already has been sold in limited quantities in Canada, where it doesn’t have to be labeled as genetically modified. Wulf said she doesn’t expect the pending lawsuit to affect the company’s U.S. plans. The genetically modified salmon are raised in tanks and bred to be female and sterile — measures designed to address fears that they might get into the environment and breed with wild fish. But the Center for Food Safety, one of the groups suing the FDA, said the company’s own tests have shown it is not 100 percent certain the fish would be sterile, and that concerns about it getting in the environment would grow if the company’s operations expand. It also noted that the disclosure regulation uses the term “bioengineered,” even though most people are more familiar with the term “genetically modified.” And it pointed out that companies can provide disclosure through codes that have to be scanned. Implementation of that regulation starts in 2020, though people may start seeing disclosures on packages sooner. Compliance becomes mandatory in 2022. The genetic modification for AquaBounty’s fish is different from gene-editing technology, which lets scientists snip out specific genes to bring about traits without introducing foreign DNA. Companies are also working to develop a variety of gene-edited crops and animals.


Unmanned SpaceX capsule returns to Earth after successful mission to ISS

Abstract: CAPE CANAVERAL, FLORIDA - An unmanned capsule from Elon Musk’s SpaceX splashed into the Atlantic Ocean on Friday, successfully completing a mission crucial to NASA’s long-delayed quest to resume human space flight from U.S. soil later this year. After a six-day mission to the International Space Station, Crew Dragon detached and sped back to Earth, reaching hypersonic speeds before an 8:45 a.m. splash-down about 200 miles (320 km) off the Florida coast. A SpaceX rocket launched the 16-foot-tall (4.9-meter) capsule from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 2. It was a crucial milestone in NASA’s Commercial Crew Program ahead of SpaceX’s first crewed test flight, which is slated to launch in July with U.S. astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken aboard. “This really is an American achievement that spans many generations of NASA administrators and over a decade of work,” said current Administrator Jim Bridenstine. Steve Stich, the crew program’s deputy manager with NASA, said the vehicle was doing well after the splash-down. The mission carried 400 pounds (180 kg) of test equipment to the space station, including a dummy named Ripley outfitted with sensors around its head, neck and spine to monitor how a flight would feel for a human. NASA has awarded SpaceX and Boeing Co. a total of $6.8 billion to build competing rocket and capsule systems to launch astronauts into orbit from American soil, something not possible since the U.S. space shuttle was retired from service in 2011. Results from this mission will determine whether SpaceX can stick to its test schedule following previous development delays for the company and Boeing. The launch systems are aimed at ending U.S. reliance on Russian Soyuz rockets for $80 million-per-seat rides to the $100 billion orbital research laboratory. NASA resumed talks with Russia’s space agency Roscosmos in February, seeking two additional Soyuz seats for 2020 to maintain a U.S. presence on the space station. The short-notice solicitation, posted on Feb. 13, “provides flexibility and back-up capability” as the companies build their rocket-and-capsule launch systems. Boeing’s Starliner crew capsule is poised to launch its maiden unmanned mission in April ahead of a manned August test flight. NASA said the cost on the Boeing or SpaceX systems would be lower than for either the shuttle or Soyuz.

nasa
space
international space station
elon musk
spacex


U.K. dismisses EU offer on Brexit backstop as 'disappointing'

Abstract: LONDON - U.K. Cabinet minister Andrea Leadsom rejected the European Union’s latest plan to break the Brexit deadlock, but said Parliament will be given more chances to vote on the deal if the bloc improves its “disappointing” offer before it’s too late. Leadsom, leader of the House of Commons, said Saturday she was “absolutely astonished” that EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier was simply rehashing old ideas that Prime Minister Theresa May has already thrown out, dismissing his new proposal for the Irish border backstop as a joke. “He seems to be on Twitter offering to go back to negotiations that were ruled out several months ago suggesting somehow that the United Kingdom should be split up and we should have a border down the Irish Sea,” Leadsom said in an interview. “That is disappointing. We are within a few days of the next meaningful vote.” If the EU comes back with a plan to address British concerns — even after Parliament votes on the withdrawal agreement next week — the Commons will be given a say, Leadsom said. “Certainly, in the event that we can get the changes that Parliament wants, then Parliament will be given opportunities to support the deal,” she said. “But we are focused on trying to win this vote on Tuesday.” It’s now “vital” for the EU to “take very seriously” the clear proposals the U.K. has put forward for resolving the dispute over the so called backstop plan for the Irish border, she added. The U.K. is on course to leave the EU on March 29 but there’s currently no deal in place to cushion the blow. The Commons will vote for a second time on whether to accept the divorce agreement on Tuesday, after rejecting it by an historic margin in January. Since that defeat, May has been trying to get changes to the Irish border backstop but there’s no sign of a breakthrough in the increasingly acrimonious negotiations in Brussels. Barnier told ambassadors on Friday the blame game had started, according to a person familiar with the situation. Barnier announced on Twitter a new package of concessions intended to resolve the contentious issue of the Irish border backstop, a policy intended to ensure there’s never a need for a “hard” land border between the U.K. and Ireland. Barnier’s most striking idea was to allow the backstop to apply just to Northern Ireland, rather than the whole of the U.K. But May has long said this would be unacceptable, and negotiators had already rejected it on Tuesday, according to another person familiar with the talks. The EU also offered to strengthen other provisions in the deal — on arbitration and good-faith clauses — but the U.K. side said it wasn’t enough. British politicians worry that the U.K. could be trapped against its will in the backstop and bound by EU trade rules potentially forever. “If the EU doesn’t enable us to resolve this issue issue about the permanent nature of the backstop, then in effect what the EU is pushing us towards is leaving the EU without a withdrawal agreement at all,” Leadsom said. A no-deal Brexit will be “a big problem” for Ireland, France, Poland and Germany, she added. “For particular nations amongst our EU friends and neighbors there would be very real issues.” May has promised that if Parliament rejects her withdrawal treaty, it will then get a vote on whether to take the country out of the EU into legal limbo — an option previous ballots have shown it will reject. Then there will be a vote on postponing the March 29 exit day. In the interview, Leadsom declined to speculate on whether Conservative members of Parliament should have a free vote on the issue leaving without a deal next week. Asked if she could ever imagine voting to leave without a deal, Leadsom indicated that it was possible: “I’m determined that we deliver on the decision of the people in 2016 so I am determined that we leave the EU.” She said she felt a “great responsibility” to help the prime minister deliver Brexit, as a leading pro-leave campaigner in the 2016 referendum. “I certainly see myself as a guardian of Brexit and I’m absolutely determined to make sure that we deliver on the decision by the United Kingdom.” The minister said she regretted the difficulties businesses are facing as the uncertainty over Brexit drags on. “I completely understand uncertainty is really bad for businesses,” she said. “Having spent a long time in the financial markets, I’m very well aware that in advance of a big event very often people sit on their hands and don’t do anything because they want to see how it pans out.” “So I totally understand that and deeply regret it,” she said. Leadsom said the U.K. economy remains successful and still offers a strong investment opportunity. “I would urge businesses to continue to stick with us and to hold out hope that once we’ve left the European Union, we will have that good relationship with our European neighbors but also huge opportunities to be doing free trade deals with other old friends and new around the world.”


U.S. Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson resignation latest vacancy in Trump administration

Abstract: WASHINGTON - U.S. Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson, who was considered a top candidate to become the next secretary of defense, said on Friday she has decided to resign and return to academia, leaving another vacant post at the top level of the Pentagon. Wilson confirmed the news in a tweet, saying she had informed President Donald Trump of her plans to become president of the University of Texas, El Paso. She plans to step down on May 31. The resignation leaves another senior Pentagon job open and follows the December departure of Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who quit over policy differences with Trump and who had hand-picked Wilson for the post. Like Mattis, Wilson was a staunch advocate of alliances like NATO and firmly supported Mattis’ push to refocus the U.S. military on higher-end competition with China and Russia after more than a decade-and-a-half of counterinsurgency campaigns. “It has been a privilege to serve alongside our Airmen over the past two years and I am proud of the progress that we have made in restoring our nation’s defenses,” Wilson, 58, said in her resignation letter to Trump. Trump congratulated Wilson and, in a tweet, thanked her for her service. A former Republican lawmaker who was close to Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence, Wilson would have been the first woman to take the Pentagon’s top job, if she had been nominated. By all accounts, her nomination would have had strong support in Congress. Mattis’ deputy, Patrick Shanahan, a former Boeing executive, is now performing the role in an acting capacity in what is widely seen as an audition for the position. Wilson’s resignation could add to speculation that Shanahan may remain in the post of defense secretary. Other top Pentagon positions, including the deputy defense secretary, are either being filled provisionally or are vacant. “Everyone she has talked to wants her to stay, but she thinks the time is right to take on this new challenge,” a U.S. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The official added Wilson was not resigning under pressure and had not been asked to step down. Wilson informed Pence of her decision earlier in the week and Air Force Chief of Staff David Goldfein on Thursday, the official said. The University of Texas Board of Regents still has to approve Wilson’s selection to head its El Paso campus, but she is the sole finalist. It is unclear who might succeed Wilson and inherit steep challenges facing the air force, which include the creation of Trump’s Space Force, a new branch of military service that will carve out some responsibilities current done by the air force. The air force is also reeling from a fresh scandal involving sexual assault. Wilson was the first Air Force Academy graduate to ever take the highest position in her service, and counted a robust resume that included a decade as a Republican lawmaker in Congress. She also served on the National Security Council staff during the administration of President George Bush, and as president of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. After joining the Pentagon, Wilson visited Iraq and Afghanistan and came away concerned about the wear and tear on an air force that she thought was too small, especially as the Pentagon shifted its focus to competition with Russia and China. Last fall, she predicted the air force would need to grow sharply over the next decade or so, boosting the number of operational squadrons by nearly a quarter to stay ahead of Moscow and Beijing. She told reporters at the time that the preliminary analysis drew partly from classified intelligence about possible future threats, showing that Air Force, at its current size, would be unable to preserve the United States’ edge. Wilson estimated the air force would need about more 40,000 personnel as part of the plan to have a total of 386 operational squadrons, compared with 312 today. The U.S. Air Force had 401 squadrons in 1987, at the peak of the Cold War.


Top Trump communications aide Bill Shine resigns, moves to re-election campaign

Abstract: WASHINGTON - White House communications director Bill Shine has resigned as President Donald Trump’s top White House communications aide and will move to work on the U.S. leader’s 2020 re-election campaign, the White House said on Friday. Shine, a former Fox News executive, resigned on Thursday and will serve as a senior campaign adviser ahead of the 2020 presidential election, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a statement. A source close to Trump, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the president had lost confidence in Shine and was relying heavily on Sanders to run the communications operation. Shine is the latest in a string of communications directors who have had short tenures in the Trump White House, where the president in many ways serves as his own communications chief. His is one of several high profile departures from the president’s staff during Trump’s two years in office. The president, who is traveling in Alabama and Florida on Friday, said that Shine had done an “outstanding” job. “We will miss him in the White House, but look forward to working together on the 2020 Presidential Campaign, where he will be totally involved,” Trump said in a statement released by Sanders that included quotes from others praising Shine. Shine said he was looking forward to spending more time with his family. “Serving President Trump and this country has been the most rewarding experience of my entire life. To be a small part of all this president has done for the American people has truly been an honor,” he said in the statement. Shine did not respond to an email requesting further comment. The former Fox News executive was named to the top White House communications job in July, 14 months after he left the network amid charges he failed to take effective steps to deal with sexual misconduct at the channel. Although not accused of harassment, Shine was named in a number of lawsuits alleging sexual misconduct and accused of not doing more to prevent it. Shine served as assistant to the president and deputy chief of staff for communications. The job had been vacant since Hope Hicks, the president’s campaign confidante, left in February 2018. Previous communications directors included Mike Dubke, who held the post for roughly three months, and Anthony Scaramucci, who lasted fewer than two weeks, getting fired after making obscene comments in an interview published by the New Yorker magazine. Trump’s first White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, also served in the role for a time. Close ties between the White House and Fox News drew additional scrutiny this week in a New Yorker piece that cited an expert on presidential studies saying the television network founded by Rupert Murdoch is the “closest we’ve come to having state TV.” The Hollywood Reporter reported that Shine received an $8.4 million severance package from Fox and was to get a bonus and options worth some $3.5 million from 21st Century Fox both in 2018 and 2019.


Russian trolls shift strategy to disrupt U.S. election in 2020

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO - Russian internet trolls appear to be shifting strategy in their efforts to disrupt the 2020 U.S. elections, promoting politically divisive messages through phony social media accounts instead of creating propaganda themselves, cybersecurity experts say. The Kremlin-linked Internet Research Agency may be among those trying to circumvent protections put in place by companies including Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. to find and remove fake content that hackers created to sow division among the American electorate in the 2016 presidential campaign. “Instead of creating content themselves, we see them amplifying content,” said John Hultquist, the director of intelligence analysis at FireEye Inc. “Then it’s not necessarily inauthentic, and that creates an opportunity for them to hide behind somebody else.” Other hackers are breaking into computing devices and using them to open large numbers of social media accounts, according to Candid Wueest, a senior threat researcher at Symantec Corp. The hacked devices are used to create many legitimate-looking users as well as believable followers and likes for those fake users. While covert efforts to amplify divisive content originated by others isn’t a new technique, hackers and trolls seem to be embracing it heavily in advance of the next U.S. presidential election. Wueest said he observed a decrease in the creation of new content by fake accounts from 2017 to 2018 and a shift toward building massive followings that could be used as platforms for divisive messages in 2020. FBI Director Christopher Wray, speaking at the RSA Conference in San Francisco on Tuesday, said social media remains a primary avenue for foreign actors to influence U.S. elections, and the bureau is working with companies on the problem. “What has continued virtually unabated and just intensifies during the election cycles is this malign foreign influence campaign, especially using social media,” Wray said. “That continues, and we’re gearing up for it to continue and grow again for 2020.” Yet removing foreign influence campaigns remains a slippery task for social media companies. Nathaniel Gleicher, the head of cybersecurity policy at Facebook, said policing those efforts is “an incredibly hard balance.” Companies must “identify ways to impose more friction on the bad actors and the behaviors that they’re using without simultaneously imposing friction on the meaningful public discussion,” Gleicher said.

russia
hacking
elections
2016 u.s. presidential election
2020 u.s. presidential election


U.S. clocks move an hour ahead this weekend as daylight saving time begins

Abstract: WASHINGTON - It is time again to abide by the old adage to spring forward and mark America’s shift from standard to daylight saving time. The change occurs at 2 a.m. local time Sunday across most of the United States and Canada, moving clocks an hour ahead. Daylight will begin to last longer into the evening, but the sun will take an hour longer to emerge in the morning. No time change is observed in Hawaii, most of Arizona, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Guam and the Northern Marianas. Standard time will return Nov. 3. In the European Union, countries switch to summer time on the last Sunday of March and back to standard time on the last Sunday of October. The European Union is considering scrapping the twice-yearly clock change altogether. A committee at the European Parliament on Monday approved the change, but with a two-year delay to 2021. Last year, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker kicked off the debate with his proposal to halt the decades-old practice of daylight savings time in 2019, garnering support from about 3.8 million Europeans. About 4.6 million EU citizens — out of 510 million — took part in the commission’s online survey. Of those, 84 percent were against putting clocks forward in spring and back in autumn every year. A majority of lawmakers on the European Parliament’s transport and tourism committee backed the Commission’s proposal. The plenary will now have to approve the proposal after which lawmakers will have to thrash out a common position with EU countries.


Goat beats dog to become 'mayor' of Vermont town

Abstract: WASHINGTON - In a divided America where politics seems increasingly to get people’s goat, a small town in Vermont has taken the concept to heart — electing one as mayor. He may be a political novice but the goat’s name, Lincoln, brings with it a storied pedigree. And the leading human official in Fair Haven — population about 2,500 — hopes the 3-year-old animal’s election can serve as a bit of a lesson in democracy. In Tuesday’s poll, Lincoln was victorious over 15 other candidates, including Crystal the gerbil and many dogs and cats. Fair Haven has no official mayor but the town manager, Joseph Gunter, holds similar functions. When Gunter read in a newspaper that the village of Omena, Michigan, had made Sweet Tart the cat its “top” official, he got the idea to organize a similar election to raise funds for building a playground. Lincoln’s 13 votes were enough for him to squeak past Sammie the dog. The goat, which belongs to a school math teacher, will get an education in the town’s major festivals, which it will represent during its one-year mandate: “Memorial Day parade, the Apple Fest and the events we organize every Friday in the summer,” Gunter says. Although the playground fundraising effort only generated about $100, at $5 per candidate, Gunter isn’t bleating because he says the animal election was also “a good way to get the kids involved in local government.” With 53 votes cast the turnout was low, Gunter admits, “but it was the first time, we expect it to be better next year.” That happens to be the year that U.S. voters will also elect a human president, in a contest expected to shake out like a barnyard brawl.


Australia admits failings in Pacific, but vows to make amends as China looms

Abstract: SYDNEY - Australia has admitted it had not focused enough attention on its Pacific backyard but vowed to make “long overdue” amends, amid growing Chinese influence in the region. “I think we would have to accept some criticism,” Anne Ruston, Australia’s minister for international development and the Pacific, said Friday. “We have perhaps not put as much attention and effort into our own region as we should of.” In recent months, Ruston has been at the sharp end of trying to fix that — jetting to-and-fro between Australia and far-flung Pacific Islands, as part of Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s “step-up” in the region. The policy includes more aid, more security assistance, more diplomats working in the region and, crucially, more face-to-face contacts. It is, in large part, a response to Beijing’s growing economic, political and military activity in the region. “I think we’ve had our focus gazed much further afield for a very long time,” said Ruston. “It has certainly, more recently, been forced to be refocused back onto our own region.” “That’s a good thing. And it was certainly long overdue.” While Australia was more focused on Fallujah than Fiji, China has been doling out loans and investment in the region and scooping up natural resources and telecoms contracts. Still, Ruston rejected suggestions that Australia, by moving to develop security facilities in Papua New Guinea and Fiji is causing the type of militarization many complain China is embarking on. “This is our region, this is our area, this is where we live,” she said. “However you see the security and sovereignty of our region the Pacific is extremely important to Australia.” Australian re-engagement has been hampered by deep disagreements with Pacific nations over the conservative government’s skeptical stance on climate change — an existential threat to many island nations. Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama has been among those accusing Australia of putting its coal industry “above the welfare of Pacific peoples.” “It is a very, very real issue for them,” Ruston acknowledged. In places like Kiribati — where the average height of the land is a few feet above sea level — it is “singularly the biggest issue that they have at the moment.” To square the circle, Canberra diplomats have tried to separate climate policy writ-large from day-to-day work to temper its impact. The mitigation and infrastructure needs are enormous, “we talking tens of billions of dollars to be able to get the Pacific up to the kind of development standard, that I think Pacific aspires to have for itself,” said the minister. Australia has committed to some ambitious projects, like helping Papua New Guinea bring electricity to 70 percent of the population by 2030. Today the percentage stands in the low double digits. But even that is another issue that has been complicated by Australian domestic politics — which sees Papua New Guinea almost exclusively as the location of a deeply controversial offshore detention facility. “I think it is the challenge of the job,” said Ruston of balancing domestic and international issues, admitting that Australians have not been totally won over by the idea of long-term development assistance. “I think one of the things that we’ve probably failed to do is to sell the message to the Australian public about why it is so important for Australia to assist, particularly our close neighbors in the Pacific.” Many Australians see Pacific aid as money being taken from drought-hit farmers at home, instead of seeing the “huge value and benefit it is to Australia to have strong economies around it, the benefit to Australia to have secure and sovereign nations around it” she said.


North's repression and political prison camps remain intact despite warm and fuzzy diplomacy: U.N. expert

Abstract: GENEVA - Despite actively pursuing diplomacy on its nuclear program, North Korea continues to quash basic freedoms, maintaining political prison camps and strict surveillance over its citizens, a United Nations human rights investigator said Friday. “With the positive developments in the past year 2018, it is all the more regrettable that the serious human rights situation on the ground in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea remains unchanged,” Tomas Ojea Quintana, U.N. special rapporteur for human rights in the DPRK, said in his latest report. North Korea has frozen its nuclear and missile testing since 2017 and held several summits with the United States and South Korea in the past year, emerging from decades of isolation. Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump held a second meeting last week, but their talks in Vietnam broke up with no agreement. Trump said on Friday he would be disappointed if North Korea were to resume weapons testing and reiterated his belief in his good relationship with Kim. Ojea Quintana said that he hoped the summit’s abrupt end “doesn’t compromise the peaceful environment for dialogue that all the parties have been working for during 2018.” The U.N. expert said he “continues to receive reports of the existence of the political prison camps where people are being sent without due process. Torture and ill-treatment reportedly remain widespread and systematic in detention facilities.” Surveillance and close monitoring of all citizens, and other severe restrictions such as on freedom of movement remain intact, Ojea Quintana said, adding the penal system denies due process and a guarantee of fair trials. He said he had contacted China last year about 18 North Koreans who had left the country and been detained there, amid concerns they would be forcibly returned to their homeland where other defectors have been allegedly subjected to torture and sexual violence. However, Ojea Quintana also called for an easing of sanctions imposed on North Korea for its nuclear activities, saying they had led to “significant delays and disruption” in the humanitarian aid effort. Some 10.3 million people or 41 percent of the population lack sufficient food, he said. In a landmark 2014 report, U.N. investigators said that 80,000 to 120,000 people were thought to be held in camps in North Korea. It documented torture and other violations, saying they could amount to crimes against humanity. Ojea Quintana said the restrictions and fear of authorities and surveillance is so deeply ingrained in North Korean society that one of the escapees whom he met in Seoul during a recent visit concluded: “The whole country is a prison.” Han Tae Song, North Korea’s ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva, told the Human Rights Council on Thursday that his country is “committed to genuine dialogue and cooperation for the promotion and protection of human rights.” “We also reject any groundless accusations parroted by some delegations as they are politically motivated in pursuit of ulterior purposes rather than human rights,” Han said.

u.s .
north korea
rights
kim jong un
u.n .
nuclear weapons
north korea nuclear crisis
donald trump
kim-trump summit


Malaysia jails man for 10 years for insulting Islam on social media

Abstract: KUALA LUMPUR - A Malaysian was sentenced to more than 10 years’ jail and three others were charged over insults against Islam and the Prophet Muhammad on social media, police said on Saturday. The sentence is believed to be the harshest such penalty on record in the Muslim-majority country, where concerns over racial and religious tensions have grown in recent months. Inspector-General of Police Mohamad Fuzi Harun said in a statement the person, who was not identified, had plead guilty to 10 charges of misusing communication networks. The offense carries a maximum penalty of one year in jail or a fine of up to 50,000 ringgit ($12,228) or both. The sentence was meted out consecutively, Mohamad Fuzi said. Another social media user had also plead guilty and a sentencing hearing would be held on Monday. Two others had plead not guilty and were being held without bail. All four were charged under laws against causing racial disharmony, incitement, and misusing communications networks. “The police advise the public not to abuse social media or communication networks by uploading or sharing any form of provocation that can affect religious or racial sensitivities, causing racial tensions within this country’s diverse community,” Mohamad Fuzi said. On Thursday, minister in charge of religious affairs Mujahid Yusof Rawa said the Islamic Affairs Department had set up a unit to monitor writings and communications insulting Islam and Muhammad. He said the ministry would not compromise on any acts insulting the religion and called for punishments against those found guilty of such.


India accuses Pakistan of hiding something by blocking access to bombing site

Abstract: NEW DELHI - India said on Saturday Pakistan had “plenty to hide” by preventing journalists from accessing the site of an airstrike by Indian fighter jets inside Pakistan. Citing “security concerns,” Pakistani security officials on Thursday barred a Reuters team from climbing a hill in northeastern Pakistan to the site of a madrassa, or religious school, and a group of surrounding buildings that was targeted by Indian warplanes last week. “The fact that Pakistan has now refused access to journalists from visiting the site means that they have plenty to hide,” Indian foreign ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar told reporters. He reiterated the government’s stand that India’s airstrikes were “successful and achieved the desired objectives,” after being asked about a Reuters report that said high-resolution satellite images reviewed by Reuters showed that the madrassa appeared to be still standing.

india kashmir pakistan terrorism military


80 injured aboard ferry after suspected collision with marine animal in Sea of Japan

Abstract: NIIGATA - Eighty people were injured Saturday after a jetfoil ferry apparently hit a marine animal off Sado Island in the Sea of Japan, according to the Japan Coast Guard. Thirteen people sustained serious injuries, the coast guard said. The collision at around 12:15 p.m. did not prevent the jetfoil from reaching its destination on Sado Island, according to ferry operator Sado Steam Ship Co. A 15-cm crack was found at the stern. Coast guard officials are investigating the cause of the incident. The vessel may have hit a whale or some other creature, they said. The vessel, carrying 121 passengers and four crew, had left Niigata Port at 11:30 a.m. It arrived at Ryotsu Port at around 1:30 p.m. Crew members call on passengers to wear seat belts before departure as well as when the vessel is sailing, Sado Steam Ship said. The boat, propelled by a high pressure jet of seawater, operates at a speed of 80 kph, connecting Niigata and Ryotsu ports in about an hour. Its hydrofoil wings were also damaged in the collision. “After the sound of a bang … my throat hit the seat in front of me. People around me were moaning (because of pain),” one of the passengers told reporters.

niigata
accidents
sea of japan
sado island


U.K. and Japan scientists probe radioactive particles from Fukushima meltdowns

Abstract: OXFORD, ENGLAND - Eight years after the Fukushima nuclear meltdown, radioactive particles collected from the site are undergoing new forensic investigation in Britain in an effort to understand the exact sequence of events. A 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck on March 11, 2011, off the Japanese coast, triggering tsunami that killed some 18,000 people and the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986. Meltdowns at three of the Fukushima No. 1 plant’s six reactors spewed radiation into the air, soil and ocean, forcing over 100,000 residents to flee. Many have still not returned. The Japan Atomic Energy Agency is currently collaborating with British researchers to learn more about the state of the radioactive particles created by the meltdown. Dr. Yukihiko Satou from the JAEA oversaw the transportation of particles collected from within the restricted zone, very close to the disaster site, to Britain. “The particles were fundamentally extracted from those attached to soil, dust and debris,” Satou said. Encased in protective tape, the samples were brought to the Diamond Light Source, Britain’s national synchrotron, or cyclic particle accelerator, near Oxford. Here electrons are accelerated to near light speed until they emit light 10 billion times brighter than the sun, then they are directed into laboratories in “beamlines” which allow scientists to study minute specimens in extreme detail. Researchers have created a 3D map of a radioactive sample using the synchrotron, allowing them to see the distribution of elements within the sample. Understanding the current state of these particles and how they behave in the environment could ultimately determine if and when the area could be declared safe for people to return. The head of the team leading the analysis, Tom Scott of Bristol University, said the particles have a structure like a pumice, a very light, porous volcanic rock. “Studying … this glassy matrix tells us how available within the environment they are,” he said. The British and Japanese governments have awarded funding to the research team to examine larger particles closer to the site of the meltdown at Fukushima to better define radiation risk in the surrounding area. The research could have significance beyond nuclear accidents, the team said, because the techniques employed could also be used to image particles in air pollution to better understand the risk they pose to human health.

fukushima
fukushima no . 1
energy
radiation
u.k .
nuclear energy
physics


Japan weighs hiking tariffs on South Korean products amid wartime labor dispute

Abstract: Japan is considering raising tariffs on some South Korean products in response to the seizure and possible sale of assets from two Japanese companies that were sued over the issue of wartime labor, sources said Saturday. If the assets are sold, Tokyo will take steps to inflict a corresponding amount of losses on the South Korean economy, according to the sources. At a Diet meeting Friday, Foreign Minister Taro Kono said Tokyo would launch such measures if Japanese companies suffer. If Japan actually triggers the countermeasures, its relations with South Korea look certain to deteriorate further. Tokyo has been calling on Seoul to hold talks based on a 1965 bilateral pact on war-related claims to address the South Korean court rulings that ordered Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. to pay compensation to South Korean plaintiffs over wartime labor. But Seoul has shown no signs of accepting Tokyo’s request. Japan has already listed about 100 items for possible retaliatory action, sources said. Those actions may include tariff hikes, a suspension in the supply of some Japanese products and restrictions on visa issuance. Tokyo is expected to decide a course of action after assessing whether the measures meet World Trade Organization rules and how much impact they would have on the Japanese economy, the sources said. Japan is also considering a plan to ask South Korea to establish an arbitration committee, which could include members from third countries, to discuss the wartime labor issues. South Korea’s Supreme Court last year rejected appeals by the two companies against lower court rulings that ordered them to pay the compensation. A South Korean court has already approved the seizure of assets held in South Korea by Nippon Steel. A similar process to seize Mitsubishi Heavy assets is under way.

tariffs
wartime labor
south korea-japan relations


Most evacuees under 50 from three Fukushima towns near nuclear disaster have no plan to return

Abstract: FUKUSHIMA - A majority of people under age 50 who had lived in three towns close to the site of the 2011 Fukushima No. 1 nuclear disaster have no plans to return, an official survey showed Saturday. Many former residents of Futaba, Namie and Tomioka say they have established new lives elsewhere and that their adopted hometowns are more convenient. The three towns were subject to government evacuation orders in the wake of the crisis at the plant, which was triggered by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and ensuing tsunami. The orders for Namie and Tomioka were partially lifted in 2017. But more than 60 percent of evacuees from the two towns in their 20s and 30s and more than 50 percent in their 40s said they would not return, with other major reasons cited including concerns over the lack of medical and commercial facilities. Regardless of age group, 49.9 percent of former Namie residents and 48.1 percent of former Tomioka residents said they would not return. As for Futaba, which hosts part of the crippled nuclear plant and remains off limits for residents, similar proportions of those in the 20s, 30s and 40s said they would not return, and the overall figure, regardless of age group, stood at 61.5 percent. The survey, conducted between August and November last year in cooperation with the Reconstruction Agency and Fukushima Prefecture, included answers from 7,500 households across the three towns and suggests a grim outlook for the municipalities as they struggle to rebuild and attract younger people. Speaking ahead of the eighth anniversary on Monday of the quake and tsunami that left more than 18,000 people dead or missing and led to the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, an official at the agency called for steps to make the town more attractive. “There is a limited number of residents willing to return,” the official said. “We need to create an improved employment environment to attract newcomers.”


Spotify has one eye on untapped podcast market in Japan

Abstract: Spotify paid nearly $340 million to acquire podcast producer Gimlet Media and services provider Anchor in deals disclosed to the Securities and Exchange Commission last month, prompting analysts to start considering what this all meant for the industry. The growth of podcasts in recent years has taken on a life of its own , with a wide variety of media organizations pouring resources into the creation of such content in an attempt to target a younger demographic. Spotify’s investment in the industry underlines just how serious such content is being viewed abroad. Japan has been late to the party insofar as podcasts are concerned, and Spotify seems to be looking at making a grab for a piece of this untapped domestic market. The music streaming giant recently unveiled several platform-exclusive programs for the domestic market, highlighted by “ The Nakajima Hiroto Show: Life Album ” and “ Pop Life: The Podcast ,” which is hosted by Soichiro Tanaka and Yuki Mihara. Both programs appear to attempt to replicate a model that has taken off in the West in Japan, even though the local landscape has also evolved in its own way. Spotify’s investment in such content isn’t the first time a company has tried to jump on the podcast bandwagon in Japan. As interest in podcasts started to grow in the mid-2000s, several creators managed to produce episodes on a regular basis that garnered a following. These ranged from niche offerings such as a show dedicated to some guys discussing every single episode of “Dragonball” to something like Hotcast , a podcast that started in 2005 featuring conversations about, er, whatever the presenters wanted to talk about. Such efforts probably fall more in line with a utopian view of podcasting that is trotted out from time to time. Like most visions of the internet, this perspective initially treated podcasts as a platform that independent creators and alternative voices could use to discuss issues that are being ignored by mainstream media. Spurred on by the success of crime series “ Serial ,” podcasts have subsequently leaned toward narrative storytelling. Numerous radio shows have been created to talk about pop music, but only the podcast ecosystem can really justify multiple creations devoted entirely to abrasive Japanese noise artist Merzbow . Podcasts have since evolved into something with more substance, increasingly relying on celebrities and advertising to function. True crime stories dominate narrative offerings to the point of bordering on macabre parody . The next wave for podcasts appears to be a Netflix-inspired subscription model . That said, plenty of independent creators and voices continue to thrive — or, at the very least, keep on creating. In Japan, though, podcasts quickly became associated with radio. News outlets such as NHK , Nikkei and terrestrial broadcasters have mostly just repackaged existing shows into on-demand options (complete with Geocities-quality webpages to promote them). There’s probably little difference between what media organizations in Japan produce when compared to networks such as National Public Radio or the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., which appear to publish contents along the same lines. As radio remains strong in Japan, they also have less of an incentive to change. While fewer young people listen to radio in their cars (mostly because they can’t afford to buy a motor vehicle), apps such as Radiko allow digital natives to tune in to their favorite stations via a smartphone. There isn’t much of a demand for something new because the old systems have just slid over to new tech. If there’s one caveat regarding Japan’s unique podcast environment, it pertains to language learning, English in particular. Look at rankings on iTunes, Spotify or whatever this podcast list is , and note how many focus on English education. The biggest players include “ Hapa Eikaiwa Podcast ” and “ Bilingual News .” The prior offers something resembling traditional lessons, while the latter features casual conversations that jump between Japanese and English. Most Japanese podcasts resemble a news show, an English-language show or a news show that doubles as an English-language show. And that’s why Spotify’s recent foray into the market is so intriguing. The company’s two flagship exclusive productions offer something different than the normal audio programs that can be found on the market. “Life Album” finds Nakajima interviewing musicians about their albums, an accomplishment in and of itself given how icy some domestic artists can be about their work. It also offers a deeper dive into a wide array of art in a way few domestic podcasts (or much media, really) can, even if it’s presented in a friendly tone. Bigger still is “Pop Life,” which was initially inspired by a playlist but has since been transformed into a standalone show. The two hosts are joined by a variety of guests and they discuss pop-culture issues in a timely fashion. And that’s about it. The program’s received positive feedback and now sits at the top of Spotify’s own charts. The buzz that the first few episodes of “Pop Life” has generated perhaps hints at potential for the domestic podcast market, which has thus far been largely ignored.