Gift-giving etiquette in Japan is driving some recipients crazy

Abstract: With spring looming, perhaps it’s time to re-think the national obsession with seasonal gifts and souvenirs. Once a virtual national pastime, the cyclical ritual of obligatory gift-giving could be consigned to history within a matter of years , according to a recent survey conducted by MyNavi.jp. According to the survey, close to 70 percent of 1,000 respondents believe that traditional and seasonal gift-giving has become redundant. Summer gifts ( ochūgen ) are regarded as most unnecessary , according to a related survey on online website woman.jp, followed by winter gifts ( oseibo ). Some sites that provide advice on manners and etiquette suggest writing letters in advance to people who might send a seasonal gift that they should not bother. The letter should state politely but firmly that the recipient should refrain from sending a gift. Other sites such as kisetsuseikatsu.com point to the existence of a three-year rule, arguing that it’s acceptable to quit such gift-giving back-and-forths after 24 months without guilt . In the world of business, however, old habits are hard to break , and companies have been sending gifts to clients each summer and winter for as long as one can remember. Fail to send a gift at these times of year and you run the risk of failing to renew a contract . Seasonal gifts are far from cheap, with some users on forums such as 2chan basically describing them as bribes that should be done away with. Buying them can quickly burn a hole in your pocket, with most costing somewhere between ¥3,000 and ¥5,000. Major corporations trying to impress valuable clients may spend as much as five times that amount. Excessive gift-giving can sometimes take a toll on your psychological health. In 2001, celebrity couple Masaaki Sakai and his wife, Miri Okada, ended their 12-year marriage and Okada intimated that the burden of responding to the pile of gifts that arrived each season was to blame. Okada subsequently told reporters in interviews after they divorced that she frequently needed to go through a mountain of gifts, writing thank you notes and buying return gifts ( okaeshi ) as custom dictates. Okada said that she found the process of dealing with the gifts exhausting and reportedly suffered a nervous breakdown as a result . The incident sparked a debate on whether Okada was an ingrate who shirked her wifely duties or a courageous woman who dared to speak up about a tradition that many homemakers find troublesome. Fast forward to the present day and the internet is rife with wives that profess to be stressed out by the ritual. It’s customary for the parents of brides to gift their in-laws once or twice each year — usually twice a year for the first three years — and the in-laws are expected to reciprocate. Wives are often caught in the middle of this exchange, as they are typically required to write letters to both sets of parents and ensure that everything goes smoothly. “ My parents want to quit gift-giving altogether, but I have no idea how to tell my mother-in-law without sounding rude ,” one worried woman wrote on acmena.jp. She was advised to ask her husband to break the news to his mother, as these things “always sound better coming from the son.” And in case you’re wondering, such news is best not delivered with a text message, although an Instagram shot of a weeping wife may just do the trick.


China's Hui Muslims fear Lunar New Year education ban a sign of further restrictions to come

Abstract: GUANGHE, CHINA - For some in China’s ethnic Hui Muslim minority here, a recent ban on young people engaging in religious education in mosques is an unwelcome interference in how they lead their lives. Their big fear is the Chinese government may be bringing in measures in this northwestern province of Gansu that are similar to some of those used in the crackdown on Uighur Muslims in the giant Xinjiang region further to the west. Well-integrated into society and accustomed to decades of smooth relations with the government, many Hui have watched with detachment as authorities have subjected Xinjiang to near-martial law, with armed police checkpoints, re-education centers and mass DNA collection. But in January, education officials from the local government in Guanghe county, which is a heavily-Muslim area, banned children from attending religious education during the Lunar New Year break. That lasts for several weeks around the weeklong public holiday period that started Thursday. It is unclear if the ban, similar to those used by the authorities in the Uighur communities, will continue after the holiday, but it appears to conform to new national regulations that took effect Feb. 1 aiming to increase oversight over religion. Residents in the city of Linxia, the capital of Gansu’s so-called “autonomous” prefecture for the Hui people, about 50 kilometers to the west of Guanghe, told Reuters that similar restrictions were in place there. “We feel it is ridiculous and were astonished,” said Li Haiyang, a Hui imam from the eastern province of Henan who in a widely circulated online article denounced the policy as violating China’s constitution. Such bans had been conveyed verbally in recent years, Li told Reuters, but implementation was uneven and often ignored. The more forceful rollout this year shows authorities are serious about enforcement, he said. The Linxia prefecture government, which oversees Linxia city and Guanghe, did not provide details of the policy, but said China’s Constitution required separation of religion and education. “Religious affairs management … adheres to the direction of the Sinofication of religion, and firmly resists and guards against the spread and infiltration of extremist religious ideology,” the Linxia government’s publicity department said in a fax in response to questions. “Maintaining legal management is the greatest concept in the protection of religion,” it said in a statement that stressed stability. Repeated phone calls to the Guanghe education bureau’s propaganda department went unanswered. China’s State Administration for Religious Affairs did not respond to a request for comment, but the State Council Information Office said China amply guarantees citizens’ right to religious freedom under law, including children. “While safeguarding all ethnic group’s religious freedom and other lawful interests according to law, China will also resolutely prevent and severely crackdown on the use of religion to carry out illegal activities,” it said. The pressure on the Hui from the authorities is far from as intense as the Uighurs face in Xinjiang, where a massive security clampdown followed deadly bouts of ethnic violence the government blamed on extremists. But state media has also reported on the removal of loudspeakers used to broadcast calls to prayer from mosques in Hui regions, ostensibly to prevent noise pollution. In April, the government-run Islamic Association of China said new mosques should reject the “Arabization” of architecture, with its “excessive size and extravagance,” in favor of traditional Chinese designs. In Guanghe and Linxia, antipathy toward the education rules was widespread. “You can’t oppose it. You can only obey,” 46-year-old Ma Shaqing, who describes himself as a “patriotic Muslim,” said in his antique shop near the towering Halal China Mosque in Guanghe. Another man leaving afternoon prayers at Linxia’s New China Mosque said local officials were misapplying Chinese President Xi Jinping’s policies. “Families are afraid to teach their children to have faith for fear it will bring them trouble,” he said. “How can cultural traditions be passed down like this?” China’s image with the wider Muslim community around the world is important to Beijing as it pushes President Xi’s “Belt and Road” initiative to invest billions of dollars building infrastructure linking Asia, Europe and Africa. China has sought to make the more secular Hui, among China’s roughly 20 million Muslims, a face of the project, highlighting it at a China-Arab states expo in the heavily-Hui Ningxia region in September. A man his late 20s, surnamed Zhou, who had been studying for more than 10 years to be an imam in Linxia, said a “very tense political situation” had taken hold in Linxia, and he only agreed to speak to Reuters far away from the gates of his mosque. Zhou said government concerns of extremism spreading among Hui were misplaced. “The possibility of this happening is almost none, because none of us believe this way. We aren’t extremists,” he said.


Tobishima is the next tourism hot spot — it just doesn't know why yet

Abstract: Tobishima, Aichi Prefecture — a village without a single hotel, ryokan (Japanese-style inn) or souvenir shop — will establish a tourism exchange association in April, in the hope of encouraging local residents to rediscover the area’s appeals and become involved in boosting tourism. The idea was conceived by Michito Takeda, 47, an official at travel agency JTB Central Japan Corp., who helped make the village of Achi in Nagano Prefecture a popular tourism destination by promoting it as the place with “the best starry sky in Japan.” By adopting a unique method that prioritizes interactions with locals, the association hopes to find regional treasures that even some of the villagers are not currently aware of. Monthly workshops in preparation for the launch of the association have been held since October. One night in January, nine men and women gathered at the village office in Tobishima to attend. The participants, varying in age and profession — including a housewife, a teacher of Japanese tea ceremony and an executive of a local chamber of commerce — discussed what kinds of activities can be offered for visitors to enjoy at the village. Using a projector, Takeda showed them a few illustrations that look like paintings by Vincent Van Gogh. “These are all landscape photographs of Tobishima that have been processed with a photo editing app,” he explained. Takeda said the landscape of the village, a coastal wetland, has a lot in common with that of Arles in southern France, which Van Gogh loved. “Let’s look at the positive side of the fact that little development has been made and that a panoramic view of the rural landscape remains,” he said. Looking at the illustrations, Toyohiro Tatematsu, a 33-year-old farmer, said, “I thought they were really Van Gogh’s paintings. It’s surprising that a familiar sight could look like this.” During the two-hour discussion, the participants came up with ideas such as holding a Van Gogh-style painting contest and creating sunflower fields like those depicted in one of his famous paintings. Tobishima, located west of Nagoya with a population of 4,705 as of Jan. 1, is dubbed the richest municipality in Japan in terms of financial power thanks to property tax revenues from large-scale factories and port facilities along the coast. Local residents enjoy benefits offered by village authorities, including trips to the United States for junior high school students and a ¥1 million fund given to every resident who turns 100. But Tokio Kuno, the head of the village, said there is “little to be proud of other than that.” He hopes the association can help create tourist attractions in the village and revitalize the community through interactions with visitors. Takeda at JTB Central Japan has been involved in promoting tourism for approximately 20 local governments in the Chubu region. He places an emphasis on upgrading existing attractions to make them more appealing for visitors, and holds long discussions with residents to discover the main attractions for each area. In the case of the village of Achi, with which Takeda has been involved for the past six years, he heard residents comment on the starry sky during discussions. One resident said they take the starry sky for granted and that it is not something they would pay money to see in a planetarium, while another said his girlfriend from outside the village shed tears when she saw the night sky from the top of a mountain in the village. That inspired Takeda to come up with a tour to experience the breathtaking view of Achi’s starry sky, which has attracted a total of 350,000 visitors to the top of a featureless mountain in the countryside over the six years since. The village of Tobishima plans to hold a ceremony in March to commemorate the opening of the tourism exchange association and announce the ideas that villagers came up with in the workshop. “I want the villagers to be able to imagine the happy faces of the tourists and the future of the village in 10 years,” said Takeda.

tourism
jtb corp .
vincent van gogh
aichi
tobishima


Trailblazing Nagoya restaurant that accepts XEM cryptocurrency moves to Tokyo

Abstract: A popular restaurant that accepted NEM, a virtual currency, has relocated to Tokyo from Nagoya, where it operated until last October. Regarded as the holy grail among virtual currency fans, it is believed to be the first store in the world to exchange XEM, the cryptocurrency of the NEM platform, for actual goods. NEM became well known to the public after it became the target of hackers last month. Despite the controversies surrounding it, the restaurant owner wants “(people) to not decide right away that virtual currencies are suspicious.” Yousuke Sato, 39, opened St. Arnould as a small restaurant of 20 seats specializing in Belgian beer, with over 200 varieties on offer. It was located in the second floor of a building that sells various items along the Hori River in Naka Ward, Nagoya. In response to the request of a virtual currency user who visited the restaurant, Sato exchanged XEM for a ¥1,200 pizza on June 28, 2016. The XEM is now worth ¥54,000. “I became interested in virtual currencies about five years ago and began tweeting about them. I thought it would be interesting to accept payment in a virtual currency, so I said yes,” Sato said. Word spread through the internet that it was the first store in the world where XEM could be used, and St. Arnould became packed with virtual currency fans. Last fall, after operating the restaurant for eight years, Sato decided to move to Tokyo. He raised ¥8 million by issuing his own new virtual currency, and relocated to Akasaka in November. In January, hackers infiltrated Coincheck, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in Japan, resulting in the loss of ¥58 billion. “I think the operators weren’t strict enough with the management of the currency. There’s nothing wrong with the concept of virtual currency itself,” said Sato. “The market for virtual currency is still young so it’s only natural that it has become a target of speculation, but I think it has potential as a currency that is not restricted by country. I think it’s too early to say what will happen to virtual currencies in the future,” said Sato. Virtual currencies are encrypted electronic data that are considered valuable assets and are traded on the internet. Unlike the yen or dollars, they are not guaranteed by an issuing country. Bitcoin has the highest market capitalization, at around ¥16 trillion, while NEM has around ¥500 billion. The value of cryptocurrency coins is currently skyrocketing due to speculation. The number of stores that accept payment in virtual currencies is increasing in the Tokai region. However, it is still rare to find people who use virtual currency to pay and send money, so it is unlikely it will be widely available like cash and digital currencies. Two years ago, a salon in the Sakae area of Nagoya called Hair Grande Seeek began accepting bitcoin as payment. “Digital currencies became popular all of a sudden, so I thought virtual currencies would become widely used too,” explained owner Yasuyuki Matsubara, 35. However, only three people have opted to pay using virtual currencies so far. “The price of cryptocurrencies keeps changing so it is difficult to use them. Most owners purchase virtual currency speculatively,” he added. Bic Camera, a major electronics retail company, allows payment in bitcoin only if the purchase total is below ¥300,000. According to its press release, “the service is used mostly in metropolitan areas by men in their 20s to 40s.” According to Satoru Kado, a senior researcher from Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting Co., Ltd. who is an expert on virtual currencies, there are approximately 1 million bitcoin holders in Japan, but “there is little benefit in using bitcoin to make payments or send money.” “Virtual currency carries high risks and it’s almost like gambling, so it does not fit well with the personality of Nagoya citizens, who are prudent,” said professor Toshihiro Uchida from the Department of Economics, Chukyo University.

nagoya bitcoin cryptocurrencies coincheck nem xem


German newspaper gets dog registered as a Social Democrat

Abstract: BERLIN - Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) were forced on Tuesday to declare that a 3-year-old dog called Lima would not be allowed to vote with party members on a coalition deal with Angela Merkel’s conservatives, despite joining the party. The top-selling Bild daily splashed a photo of a floppy-eared, brown-and-white dog wearing a red scarf, the SPD’s color, on Tuesday under the headline “This dog can vote on the grand coalition.” Bild reported how Lima had received a party card after the newspaper made an application on the dog’s behalf to become a party member on Feb. 6. Personal details on the application included her sex and put her occupation as unemployed and her age at 21, in dog years. “It is not about the dog Lima, but rather about how we at Bild proved how prone to falsification the SPD members’ vote is,” a spokesman for Bild wrote in an emailed statement. “People who wish to manipulate the vote on a ‘grand coalition’ through criminality could do just the same.” All party members are entitled to vote in the postal ballot, which started on Tuesday and will end on March 2, on a coalition pact for Europe’s biggest economy. It could decide the future of Chancellor Angela Merkel. If SPD members reject the deal, the SPD will not be able to share power with the conservatives, and either a new election or minority government is likely. Andrea Nahles, expected to be chosen as SPD leader in April, was forced to respond to the question posed by Bild about whether manipulation of the vote was possible. “A dog can’t vote,” she said, adding that the party would look into legal steps if there had been deception over a party member’s identity.


Kin of 'world's ugliest animal' hauled from Australia abyss

Abstract: SYDNEY - Over 100 rarely seen species of fish were hauled up from a deep and cold abyss off Australia during a scientific voyage, researchers said Wednesday, including cousins of the “world’s ugliest animal” — Mr. Blobby. Scientists spent a month on a vessel last year off the country’s eastern seaboard to survey life lurking up to 4.8 kilometers (2.9 miles) below the surface, using nets, sonar and deep-sea cameras. Over 42,000 fish and invertebrates were caught, with some being potentially undiscovered species. Scientists will gather in the Tasmanian capital of Hobart this week to examine them more closely. The haul includes several blobfish relatives of Mr. Blobby, which was voted the world’s ugliest animal in 2013 by the Ugly Animal Preservation Society and became a global media sensation. Blobby, from the Psychrolutidae family, was discovered off the coast of New Zealand in 2003 and was affectionately named by the scientists who found it. Other species unearthed during last year’s voyage included stereotypical-looking yet bioluminescent sharks with razor-sharp serrated teeth, a haul of frightening lizardfish and graceful tripodfish, which prop themselves on the seafloor with long fins waiting for food to drift within reach. Scientists have previously revealed they also came across an unusual faceless fish, which has only been recorded once before off Papua New Guinea in 1873 by the HMS Challenger’s pioneering crew. Museums Victoria ichthyologist Martin Gomon said the gathering in Hobart was the first systematic attempt to examine life at abyssal depths anywhere along Australia’s vast coastline. “The discoveries provide us with a glimpse into how our marine fauna fits into the interconnected abyssal environment worldwide and, for the scientists, adds another piece to the puzzle of what affects evolution in the deep sea,” he said. “For those of us aboard it was a real buzz to see the amazing fishes that provide this information as they emerged from the nets, and we’re looking forward to the opportunity to take a closer look at them in Hobart this week.” Life at such depths is one of crushing pressure, no light, little food and freezing temperatures, with animals that call it home evolving unique ways to survive. As food is scarce, they are usually small and move slowly. Many are jelly-like and spend their lives floating about. Others have ferocious spines and fangs and lie in wait until food comes to them. CSIRO ichthyologist John Pogonoski described the trip as “frontier science” that is vital for increasing scientists’ understanding of the deep-sea environment. “We are investigating possible new species and fishes never before recorded in Australian waters,” he said. The voyage, an international collaboration led by Museums Victoria, was the first survey of the abyssal waters off Australia’s east coast. Australian National Fish Collection manager Alastair Graham said it -s the largest and deepest habitat on the planet, covering one-third of Australia’s territory. “But it remains the most unexplored environment on Earth,” he said.

evolution oceans australia animals biology


Metro government says Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic venue construction on schedule

Abstract: The Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s construction of new permanent venues for the 2020 Olympics is currently on schedule, officials said Tuesday. TMG is building seven brand new permanent venues for the July 24 — Aug. 9 games, including the Musashino Forest Sport Plaza badminton and modern pentathlon fencing arena, which was completed last November. The new National Stadium, which is currently scheduled for completion in November 2019, is the responsibility of the Japan Sport Council. TMG gave reporters a tour of four of the venues under construction on Tuesday: the Sea Forest Waterway, the Olympic Aquatics Centre, Ariake Arena and the Canoe Slalom Course. All four venues are located in the Tokyo Bay area. The Sea Forest Waterway in Koto Ward will be used for canoeing and rowing events, and was cleared for construction in November 2016 after Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike decided to abandon a proposal to relocate the events to Miyagi Prefecture. On Tuesday, TMG officials said that the 2,000-meter-long Sea Forest Waterway is 20 percent complete, and is scheduled to be ready by March 2019. The seating capacity is set for around 24,000, which will be reduced to 2,000 after the games. Around 200 construction workers are currently at work on the site, which includes the construction of a dam to keep water levels on the course constant during the competition. “My understanding is that races will be held in the mornings and afternoons, so you need to be able to maintain the water levels,” said a TMG official at the site. “We need to limit the effect of the tides.” The Olympic Aquatic Centre is being built in Koto Ward near the existing Tokyo Tatsumi International Swimming Center, and will host swimming, diving and synchronized swimming events at Tokyo 2020. It will also host Paralympic aquatic events. TMG says it hopes to hold 100 competitions at the venue annually following the Olympics, and has targeted 1 million visitors each year. TMG Director for Venues Daishu Tone said that construction of the venue is very slightly behind schedule but he is hopeful of getting it back on track. Work on the venue began in April last year and is roughly 25 percent complete. It is expected to be ready by the end of 2019. Tone said that 240 workers were active on the site on Tuesday, down from a peak workforce of 1,000. Tone insisted that workers’ overtime levels are strictly checked to ensure they comply with the law. Last year, labor inspectors determined that the suicide of a 23-year-old man working on the National Stadium construction site stemmed from karōshi , or overwork. The man recorded more than 210 hours of overtime in one month, far in excess of the 80-hour karōshi threshold. “We have supervisors, and in Japan we have contracts with laborers about working times,” Tone told The Japan Times. “We have an entrance gate with electronic security which keeps a record of working times.” Ariake Arena, which will host volleyball at the Olympics and wheelchair basketball at the Paralympics, is another venue that was not given the green light until December 2016, following a review of costs ordered by Koike. The venue, also in Koto Ward, is now 10 to 15 percent complete and is scheduled to be finished by the end of December 2019. “We are confident that it will be ready for the test events,” said Director of Facility Yoshifumi Iizuka. Ariake Arena has a projected seating capacity of 15,000 and will consist of a main arena and a sub-arena. The sub-arena will be used by the public once the games are over. TMG expects Ariake Arena to attract 1.4 million visitors annually. The artificial Canoe Slalom Course is located next to Kasai Rinkai Park in Edogawa Ward, and aims to hold seven annual competitions once the Olympics are finished. Organizers hope to attract 100,000 visitors each year. It is currently 21 percent complete and on schedule.

tokyo metropolitan government
tokyo 2020 olympics
paralympics
yuriko koike
sports venues


Tabloids say possible family financial troubles linked to Princess Mako’s fiance behind marriage delay

Abstract: The abrupt announcement that Princess Mako’s formal engagement and marriage to her fiance will be delayed has sparked speculation of reasons other than the official version. The Imperial Household Agency’s said Tuesday that the princess and law firm worker Kei Komuro, both 26, will wait until 2020, citing “lack of preparation.” She is not the first female member of the Imperial family to postpone marriage-related ceremonies, but most of her predecessors made their decisions amid extraordinary circumstances such as natural disasters. Sayako Kuroda — the former Princess Nori, the only daughter of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko — was supposed to announce her engagement in November 2004. However, she postponed it to Dec. 18 after a powerful earthquake hit Niigata Prefecture in October, killing 40 people and forcing more than 100,000 others to be evacuated to shelters. After Princess Takamatsu, an aunt of the Emperor, passed away on Dec. 18, the announcement was further pushed back to Dec. 30, after her funeral. Following last year’s torrential rains in Kyushu, the Imperial Household Agency also delayed the announcement of Princess Mako and Komuro’s engagement, which was originally scheduled for July 8, 2017, by around two months. But the unprecedented delay of their wedding ceremony has left many people perturbed, as it has hindered preparation for the ceremony, which had been set to take place on Nov. 4 at the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo. The princess and Komuro had planned to become formally engaged on March 4 in a traditional court ceremony called Nosai no Gi . The delay comes as news of Komuro’s financial troubles began appearing in tabloids. The weekly magazine Shukan Josei reported in December that Komuro’s mother had borrowed more than ¥4 million from her former partner and hadn’t returned the money yet. The report suggested she had used the money for living expenses and to cover her son’s tuition and expenses for studying abroad. The news also has made headlines this year in the weekly magazines Shukan Shincho and Shukan Bunshun. The magazines also reported that Komuro’s father died when Komuro was an elementary school student, and that his mother relied on her then-boyfriend for financial support. The articles said that after breaking off the relationship, the man issued a written document demanding that Komuro’s mother pay him back. The article said she refused, claiming she had received the money as a gift. The tabloid reports have sparked concerns over the man the princess has chosen to marry, calling into question whether they will tie the knot. Agency official Takaharu Kachi, however, said that the intention of the two to get married has not changed and that the decision to postpone the marriage was not related to the tabloid magazine reports on financial issues surrounding Komuro’s family. Another agency official, Shinichiro Yamamoto, said, “It’s the couple’s decision whether to marry, and we are not in a position to comment on family troubles.” However, a third agency official said the negative reports regarding Komuro have been destroying the festive mood, and “We need to wait until things calm down.” Another senior agency official said the postponement should be seen in a positive light: “If there is any trouble, it should be resolved, and then the two should get married. Time can be used to further strengthen their bonds.”

royalty
emperor akihito
imperial family
imperial household agency
empress michiko
princess mako
kei komuro
sayako kuroda
princess nori


Officials look to stem norovirus outbreak at Olympic Games

Abstract: PYEONGCHANG, SOUTH KOREA - Olympic officials are discussing measures to combat the spread of a virus that causes vomiting and diarrhoea after 42 new cases were confirmed at the games, a Korean Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) official said on Friday. After rising from an initial 32 norovirus cases on Tuesday to 54 on Wednesday, the figure had risen to 128 as of late Thursday, with most of those affected security personnel, the KCDC said. The virus broke out ahead of Friday’s opening ceremony in Pyeongchang and led to some 1,200 security staff being quarantined. Organizers have had to call in military personnel to replace them. As yet, no athletes have been confirmed to have contracted the highly contagious virus. An outbreak at last year’s World Athletics Championship in London forced competitors from several countries to miss events. Su Mun-gyo, a KCDC public relations official, said the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was discussing the issue. “The IOC is meeting right now about the Winter Olympics and countermeasures to the norovirus is one of the topic,” Su said. “We will then announce the results of the discussions and update the number of cases again.” Health agencies are undertaking hygiene inspections at accommodation and restaurants, as well as making checks on drinking and tap water.

south korea
disease
norovirus
2018 pyeongchang olympics


Okinawa tourist numbers top those of Hawaii for first time

Abstract: While Hawaii has long been one of the most popular go-to destinations for tourists from Japan, Okinawa has finally caught up to outshine the rival resort island chain. For the first time, Okinawa overtook Hawaii in terms of tourist numbers last year, according to Okinawa Prefectural Government data released last month. Tourists to Okinawa totaled 9,396,200 in 2017, up 9.1 percent from a year earlier, on the back of an increase in cruise trips making port calls from East Asia and new direct flights connecting Okinawa to other areas in Japan and abroad in recent years. Meanwhile, tourists to Hawaii numbered 9,382,986 last year, up 5 percent from the previous year, according to data released by the Hawaii Tourism Authority on Jan. 31. The latest figure for Okinawa — surpassing the 9 million mark for the first time and marking a record high for five years in a row — is welcome news for the local government and businesses, considering that its tourist turnout was only one-fifth that of Hawaii in 1972 when it was returned to Japan. Cruise ships marked a record 515 port calls in 2017 — up 33 percent from the previous year — thanks to cruise demand from Taiwan, China and other areas in East Asia, the Okinawa General Bureau said in preliminary data. Based on reservations the bureau expects cruise ship port calls to top this record for 2018, increasing 29 percent to 662. The prefecture already has a 9.5 million target for fiscal 2017, which ends in March. Should the current pace of growth continue during the January-March period, this goal can be achieved. Going forward, the prefectural government hopes to attract 12 million people to Okinawa, including those coming to Japan via cruise ships, by fiscal 2021. However, despite a boost in its number of tourists, Okinawa still has much to do to match Hawaii in other aspects. The average number of days tourists stayed in Okinawa in fiscal 2016 was 3.78, while the corresponding figure in Hawaii was 8.95 days in 2017. The gap between Okinawa and Hawaii also remained substantial in terms of average spending per tourist during each trip — ¥75,297 for Okinawa in fiscal 2016 and $1,787.9 (¥196,669) for Hawaii in 2017. Takao Kadekaru, head of the prefectural government’s division responsible for tourism, said that cooperation between the public and private sectors had born fruit in boosting the number of tourists but that they must make more efforts to put the average number of stays and consumption during those stays on a par with Hawaii. “For Okinawa, Hawaii is a model in its quest to be a world-class resort,” Kadekaru said. Satoshi Toyama, chairman at the prefectural hotel association, said they hope to make Okinawa more appealing to tourists so they will be encouraged to stay at least four nights or more — instead of the two-night trips common for most visitors. He also sees tourists as a potential consumer market for Okinawa’s agriculture products. “In Hawaii, there is the spirit that they will earn through tourism,” Toyama said, adding that all sectors in Okinawa should make a concerted effort to shape the prefecture into a tourist island. The Hawaii Tourism Authority announces its monthly data based on five barometers — tourist spending, its impact on tax revenue, number of tourists, the number of flights bound for Hawaii and tourism-related job openings — indicating their strong focus on the economic aspect of tourism. Another reason why Hawaii’s tourism policy has worked is that it has incorporated the views of local residents. Around 15 years ago Hawaii launched a campaign offering discount packages to visitors to keep up with the fierce competition, but this irked residents due to incidents of tourists drinking and littering on beaches. The Aloha State then shifted to targeting the affluent, and succeeded in striking a balance between respecting the lives of local residents and entertaining tourists. “We will be able to welcome visitors more warmly if our policies reflect what the local residents want,” said Ichiro Miyazato, head of a prefectural hotel and inn association labor union.


Japan doctors tap health-monitoring app to help diabetics keep dialysis at bay

Abstract: In September 2016, freelance journalist Yutaka Hasegawa touched off a firestorm of criticism after writing in his blog that diabetes patients receiving dialysis should pay for the treatment themselves instead of using public health insurance. He argued that it was their “corrupt” lifestyles that spawned the need for dialysis and that their medical expenses would “ruin Japan.” Many people took to the internet to slam Hasegawa over his misleading and abusive remark (not all diabetes is lifestyle-related). But it also shone a spotlight on the dire financial situation surrounding Japan’s health care system, which is dealing with a rapidly graying population and a swelling ratio of diabetics. According to the health ministry, 10 million people were “strongly suspected” of being diabetic in 2016, up from 6.9 million in 1997. Also, in a report released in July, the ministry said Japan has the highest per capita number of people on dialysis among major countries, with diabetes treatment costing the nation ¥1.2 trillion a year, or 4.4 percent of all medical expenditures. According to the Japanese Society for Dialysis Therapy, 2,596.7 people per 1 million were on dialysis in the nation in 2016. Dialysis costs ¥400,000 per patient per month, posing “a big challenge for the nation’s medical expenditures,” the report said. Against this backdrop, the government is seriously studying ways to stop diabetes patients from progressing to the dialysis phase. Last month, doctors at the National Center for Global Health and Medicine in Tokyo, with help from medical institutions and health insurance unions across the country, launched what they called the world’s first large-scale clinical study to examine whether using the internet of things is effective in keeping high blood-sugar levels at bay. The researchers, sponsored by the state funding body Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED), have recruited 2,000 type 2 diabetes patients who are a step short of receiving dialysis and divided them into two groups: one fitted with a smartphone app and internet-connected medical devices, and the other without. Type 2 covers more than 90 percent of all diabetes patients, experts say. Unlike type 1 diabetes, the cause of which is not known, type 2 diabetes is often associated with overeating, obesity, lack of exercise and stress. During the two-year study, named PRISM-J, which started on Jan. 23, users will be asked to log their health data daily, including weight, blood pressure, kind of meals eaten, number of steps walked, and amount of exercise performed, through Bluetooth-connected devices. The data will be sent to a central database and shared with their doctors. They use a smartphone app called Shichifukujin (Seven Lucky Gods) developed by Dr. Kazuyo Tsushita of the comprehensive health science center at the Aichi Health Promotion Public Interest Foundation. In a previous study conducted by the Aichi institute and covering nearly 200 people, users of the app were shown to be more successful in lowering their blood-sugar levels than nonusers. The app features cartoon characters of seven gods including Ebisu that monitor walking habits, and Daikokuten, which checks one’s diet. They send motivational messages tailored to each user, and alerts if they slack off on exercise or start to veer from their weight-loss plan. In the PRISM-J study, patients will have blood tests taken at their doctors’ offices every three months to have their blood sugar, pressure and fat levels and kidney and liver functions checked. Doctors will also review data sent from the internet of things devices and give advice. The researchers said the ¥1.5 billion project is aimed at keeping patients engaged in treatment; at present, nearly 4 out of 10 diabetes patients drop out of therapy, citing reasons such as being busy at work or school, finding medical bills too costly or not feeling sick (even though the disease might be progressing without major symptoms). The government has set a target of having 75 percent of diabetes patients continue their treatment, which includes advice on exercise, diet and medications. “This is an unprecedented undertaking, in terms of the size and duration of the project,” said Dr. Kohjiro Ueki, director of the diabetes research center at the National Center for Global Health and Medicine and the head of the study. “Previous studies (that explored the use of the internet of things in diabetes care) lasted three months or six months at the longest.” Kazumi Nishikawa, director of the health care industries division at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, which jointly manages AMED with the health ministry and the education ministry, argued that the project is the first attempt to establish internet of things gadgets as medical tools, not toys for health and fitness geeks. “Doctors see patients once a month, but cannot manage them between visits,” Nishikawa said. “Wearable devices and apps are handy tools to monitor patients’ conditions, but until now, those devices have not been reliable enough for professional use.” The results of the PRISM-J study will be published in a respectable medical journal in about two years, Nishikawa said, noting that, if the internet of things is indeed proven effective in diabetes care, it could be incorporated in clinical guidelines for treatments to be used by doctors. In the future, specifications for the devices could be standardized and made public so any manufacturer can develop them for clinical purposes. The devices could even be exported to other countries with high-risk populations, such as Russia and China, he said. Dr. Hiroaki Kato, a guest professor at Digital Hollywood University in Tokyo who is versed in digital health, said he is all for promoting the internet of things in medical care and commends the PRISM-J project. He said such devices will be a common tool in many medical fields, citing the success of a smoking-cessation app in Japan. “It’s like taking the doctor home,” he said. The challenge is getting everyone, including patients and doctors, to understand that digital health data cannot be trusted blindly, Kato said. “Even if the data show someone’s heart rate has gone up to 200 beats per minute, it might be just that the person has just run a marathon. The data alone won’t tell you under what circumstances patients were gauged. Everyone should share the awareness that data have their limits.”

national center for global health and medicine


Dow sees worst fall since 2011 as Wall Street plummets over 1,100 points

Abstract: NEW YORK - The Dow Jones industrial average plunged more than 1,100 points Monday as stocks took their worst loss in six and a half years. Two days of steep losses have erased the market’s gains from the start of this year and ended a period of record-setting calm for stocks. Banks fared the worst as bond yields and interest rates nosedived. Health care, technology and industrial companies all took outsize losses and energy companies sank with oil prices. At its lowest ebb, the Dow was down 1,597 points from Friday’s close. That came during a 15-minute stretch where the 30-stock index lost 700 points and then gained them back. Market pros have been predicting a pullback for some time, noting that declines of 10 percent or more are common during bull markets. There hasn’t been one in two years, and by many measures stocks had been looking expensive. “It’s like a kid at a child’s party who, after an afternoon of cake and ice cream, eats one more cookie and that puts them over the edge,” said David Kelly, the chief global strategist for JPMorgan Asset Management. Kelly said the signs of inflation and rising rates are not as bad as they looked, but after the market’s big gains in 2017 and early 2018, stocks were overdue for a drop. The Dow finished down 1,175.21 points, or 4.6 percent, at 24,345.75. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index, the benchmark most professional investors and many index funds use, skidded 113.19 points, or 4.1 percent, to 2,648.94. That was its biggest loss since August 2011, when investors were fearful about European government debt and the U.S. came close to breaching its debt ceiling. The Nasdaq composite fell 273.42 points, or 3.8 percent, to 6,967.53. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks sank 56.18 points, or 3.6 percent, for 1,491.09. The slump began on Friday as investors worried that creeping signs of higher inflation and interest rates could derail the U.S. economy along with the market’s record-setting rally. Energy companies, banks, and industrial firms are taking some of the worst losses. The S&P 500 has fallen 7.8 percent since January 26, when it set its latest record high. Investors are worried about evidence of rising inflation in the U.S. Increased inflation might push the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates more quickly, which could slow down economic growth by making it make it more expensive for people and businesses to borrow money. And bond yields haven’t been this high in years. That’s making bonds more appealing to investors compared with stocks. The stock market has been unusually calm for more than a year. The combination of economic growth in the U.S. and other major economies, low interest rates, and support from central banks meant stocks could keep rising steadily without a lot of bumps along the way. Experts have been warning that that wouldn’t last forever. As bad as Monday’s drop is, the market saw worse days during the financial crisis. The Dow’s 777-point plunge in September 2008 was equivalent to 7 percent, far bigger than Monday’s decline. Stocks hadn’t suffered a 5 percent drop since the two days after Britain voted to leave the European Union in June 2016. They recovered those losses within days. The last 10 percent drop for markets came in early 2016, when oil prices were plunging as investors worried about a drop in global growth, which could have sharply reduced demand. U.S. crude hit a low of about $26 a barrel in February of that year. A drop of 10 percent from a peak is referred to on Wall Street as a “correction.” Wells Fargo sank $5.91, or 9.2 percent, to $58.16. Late Friday the Fed said it will freeze Wells Fargo’s assets at the level where they stood at the end of last year until it can demonstrate improved internal controls. The San Francisco bank also agreed to remove four directors from its board. Benchmark U.S. crude oil fell $1.30, or 2 percent, to $64.15 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, the standard for international oil prices, lost 96 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $67.62 a barrel in London. Bond prices tumbled after moving sharply higher on Friday. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 2.73 percent from 2.84 percent. That hurt banks by sending interest rates lower, which means banks can’t charge as much money for mortgages and other types of loans. The dollar fell to ¥109.70 from ¥110.28. The euro slipped to $1.2399 from $1.2451. Gold declined 80 cents to $1,336.50 an ounce. Silver dipped 4 cents to $16.67 an ounce. Copper rose 3 cents to $3.22 a pound. Stocks in Europe also fell. Leading political parties in Germany, which is the largest economy in Europe, have struggled to form a government. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative Union bloc and the center-left Social Democrats are still in talks about extending their alliance of the past four years. Britain’s FTSE 100 lost 1.5 percent while France’s CAC 40 slid 1.5 percent. The DAX in Germany shed 0.8 percent. Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 tumbled 2.6 percent and the South Korean Kospi shed 1.3 percent. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index sank 1.1 percent.

inflation
oil
stocks
bonds
bitcoin
wall street
dow
u.s. jobs report


Chinese government-run paper says diplomatic ties with Vatican inevitable

Abstract: BEIJING/HONG KONG - China and the Vatican will establish formal diplomatic relations sooner or later because Pope Francis has the “wisdom” to resolve problems between the two sides, a state-run Chinese newspaper said Tuesday, amid increasing controversy over the issue. A framework accord between the Vatican and China on the appointment of bishops is ready and could be signed in a few months in what would be an historic breakthrough in relations, a senior Vatican source said last week. But on Monday, Cardinal Joseph Zen, 86, the outspoken former bishop of Hong Kong said the Vatican is selling out China’s underground Catholics and “forcing them into a bird cage,” raising the ante in his recent criticisms that had already sparked a rebuke from the Vatican. An even partial resolution of the thorny issue of who gets to appoint bishops could open the way for a resumption of diplomatic relations nearly 70 years after they were cut during the Communist takeover of China, when missionaries were expelled from the country. Beijing later established the official Catholic Patriotic Association, which does not recognize the Pope, while “underground” Catholic communities that remain loyal to the Vatican have been systematically persecuted for decades. China has so far said little about the talks. However, the widely read tabloid Global Times said a deal between Beijing and the Vatican would be “tremendously beneficial to Catholics.” “Despite the difficult process, China’s vast numbers of non-Catholics have never been strongly against the Vatican. The Chinese public generally respects each Pope,” it said in an editorial in its Chinese and English-language editions. “Beijing and the Vatican will establish diplomatic relations sooner or later … Pope Francis has a positive image with the Chinese public. It is expected he will push China-Vatican ties forward and solve related problems with his wisdom,” it said. The newspaper is published by the ruling Communist Party’s official People’s Daily but, unlike its sister publication, does not speak for the party or the government. The moves have not been without controversy in the church. “Our brothers in mainland China are not scared of losing all their fortunes, being thrown into jail or even bleeding. Their greatest pain is from being betrayed by their ‘family members,’ ” wrote Zen, who vowed to keep speaking out despite the Vatican’s rebukes. He also said the Pope had, during a meeting with him three years ago, agreed that the official Catholic community run by the Chinese Communist Party objectively represents a schism. Another source of friction with China is the Vatican’s maintenance of official ties with self-ruled Taiwan, which Beijing sees as a wayward province to be taken back by force if necessary. “The Taiwan question isn’t Beijing’s top concern in handling its relations with the Vatican as the mainland has many tools to pressure Taiwan,” it said. The Vatican is Taiwan’s sole remaining European diplomatic ally. China has been ramping up the pressure on Taiwan since Tsai Ing-wen of the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party won presidential elections in 2016.


Japan Tourism Agency aims to draw more Western tourists amid boom in Asian visitors

Abstract: The Japan Tourism Agency launched a new digital advertising campaign Tuesday in a bid to draw more tourists from Western countries, a demographic that has failed to keep pace with Asian tourists who have flocked to Japan in recent years. Currently, three out of four Japan-bound tourists come from South Korea, China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, according to 2017 statistics from the Japan National Tourism Organization, also known as the JNTO. The Japan Tourism Agency and JNTO have created online video clips for YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and other social networking services after conducting market research in Germany, the United Kingdom, France, the United States, Canada and Australia. To mark the beginning of the “Enjoy My Japan” campaign, the two entities sponsored a brief kickoff event at the upscale department store Ginza Six in Tokyo’s Chuo Ward. “Of course we want many tourists from Asia to visit Japan, but we also want people from other places as well, including Europe,” said Akihiko Tamura, a tourism agency commissioner. “We are sponsoring events in Britain and five other countries to raise awareness of this campaign.” The consulting firm Mckinsey & Company Inc. has referred to the reliance on Asian tourism in Japan as a “visitor-portfolio imbalance.” According to an October 2016 McKinsey report, the lagging number of Western tourists can be attributed to low awareness of tourist destinations, a biased perception of Japan as expensive and the lack of an online tourism portal. The event included Dave Spector, a frequent TV commentator, as well as David Atkinson, a special adviser to the JNTO. “The needs of Asian travelers are relatively similar to people living in Japan,” said Atkinson, who also serves as the chairman and president of Tokyo-based heritage restoration firm Konishi Decorative Arts and Crafts Co. “If you come from the U.S. or Europe, you are going to demand more than people from the same region, making it a market that is much more difficult to develop.” “Amazingly, very few heritage sites have any English signage at all, outside of warnings such as ‘don’t smoke,’ ‘don’t eat here.’ But the government is making progress, as more and more of these sites will include English explanations,” said Atkinson, a former Goldman Sachs banker. “One goal of this campaign is to diversify Japan’s tourist market,” he said.

tourism
social media
david atkinson
jnto


Japan bobsled makers miss out on Olympic games glory

Abstract: On Feb. 17, the BBC reported that the Jamaican women’s bobsled team would compete in its “preferred sled” at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in South Korea “after a beer producer purchased the craft and donated it” to the team. The main concern had been the departure of the team’s German coach, who was reportedly “legally responsible” for the Latvian-made vehicle. The Jamaican Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation was afraid the coach would take the sled with her after, according to her claims, she was “forced out.” Apparently, she demanded payment for the sled’s use, and Jamaican brewer Red Stripe came up with the money. Everybody was happy. Well, almost everybody. Originally, the Jamaican team was going to use a Japanese-made bobsled, and on Feb. 5, the promotion committee for the Shitamachi Bobsleigh Network Project announced that if the Jamaican team didn’t use the committee’s sled then it might file a lawsuit , since it had a contract with the Jamaicans to supply sleds free of charge. The suit would demand ¥68 million in damages, about four times the combined cost of the development of the sled and related transportation. On Feb. 16, the Yomiuri Shimbun said that the Japanese sled would be on hand in Pyeongchang in case the Jamaican team needed it , but thanks to Red Stripe it didn’t. The Feb. 5 announcement, which was covered extensively by the media, was the first time that most people had heard anything about the Shitamachi project, even though it was launched in 2011 with the idea of designing a world-class bobsled that would draw attention to Japan’s storied small factories ( machi-kōba ) concentrated in the Shitamachi area of Tokyo’s Ota Ward. Since some Shitamachi factories supply parts for high-end motorsports, the committee thought it could adapt its expertise to the manufacture of bobsleds, many of which are designed by automotive powerhouses like Ferrari and BMW . The press became briefly interested in the project when the committee visited Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and he had his picture taken sitting in a prototype . The photo eventually made its way into a new ethics school textbook as an illustration of Japanese workmanship. Jamaica decided to not use the sled following the Bobsleigh World Cup in Germany last December. According to reports, the Jamaican team was unable to use the Shitamachi sled due to a transportation strike that prevented delivery, so they opted to use a sled made by a company called BTC in Latvia. The Mainichi Shimbun said the Jamaican team preferred the Latvian bobsled to the Japanese one — they came seventh in Germany, its best finish ever — and so subsequently chose it for the Pyeongchang Olympics. Latvia is experienced in bobsled technology, having supplied sleds to Soviet teams for many years. In fact, a number of other national teams are using Latvian sleds at the Olympics. Originally the Shitamachi sled was designed for use by Japanese Olympians, but the local bobsled federation rejected it for the 2014 Sochi Olympics and later again for Pyeongchang, so the promotion committee looked for other countries and set its sights on Jamaica, which, due to the popularity of the 1993 Disney movie “Cool Runnings,” has garnered an eternal underdog reputation in the sport. (It doesn’t snow in Jamaica.) The Japanese team offered the Jamaicans the use of its sled for free and would ship it anywhere without charge, so the Jamaicans accepted, but once they discovered how fast the BTC model was, they decided to use it instead and the promotion committee threatened to sue. Last week, business magazine Diamond Online posted an article that attempted to clear up the confusion surrounding the Shitamachi sled , since the matter has kicked up something of a ruckus on the internet. According to Diamond, commenters have blasted the threatened suit as embarrassing, while others have said the committee is only interested in government subsidies. Diamond learned that after the project got off the ground in 2012, the committee raised funds through corporate donations and grants from Ota Ward. It then applied for subsidies from the central government, which gave the committee up to ¥20 million a year for three years. The money was important since the project started with zero knowhow in the field of bobsled design, and because the purpose of the project was to show off Shitamachi’s manufacturing prowess, the committee needed money to exhibit its designs at overseas trade shows. The initial goal was not the Olympics, but while the sled did draw attention at trade shows such as Germany’s Compamed, in the end the design would have to be proven in competition, since that is what bobsleds are for. Enter the Jamaicans, whose aim in accepting the Shitamachi sled is different from the project’s purpose in finding a user. The Jamaicans wanted to win but couldn’t afford equipment from the best, meaning Ferrari or BMW. The Shitamachi project’s aim shifted to getting its sled into the Olympics. Then the Jamaican men’s team failed to qualify for Pyeongchang. The women’s team did well at the North American championships last November with the Shitamachi sled, but at the World Cup, using a different sled, for the first time ever it pulled within a second of the winning team’s time, so the decision to go with BTC at Pyeongchang was a no-brainer. What’s ironic about the affair, according to web TV channel “No Hate TV,” is that BTC has more in common with the legendary Ota Ward factories that used to be lionized on NHK’s documentary series “Project X” than the Shitamachi project does . BTC has only six employees. The Shitamachi sled was developed by several factories and a large number of technicians. The sled itself is fabricated by major materials manufacturer Toray. More to the point, the proposed lawsuit confounds the spirit of competition inherent in the story. As Diamond put it, the Shitamachi project should just “admit it lost the race” and find a new challenge.

shitamachi
jamaican bobsled team
2018 pyeongchang olympics


Success of Pyeongchang Olympic mascots leaves Japan in a bind

Abstract: While the performances of athletes have hogged much of the spotlight at the Pyeongchang Olympics, it’s been hard to ignore the stuffed tigers the winners have received on the podium at the conclusion of their events. In December, the Pyeongchang Organizing Committee announced that medalists would receive a doll of the games mascot wearing a gold, silver or bronze hat and a paper flower . They would subsequently receive their medals at a ceremony held at the end of each day. The white tiger has been named Soohorang and, according to the official Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games website, is said to be regarded as a sacred guardian animal symbolizing trust, strength and protection on the Korean Peninsula. Its name is a portmanteau of the words “ sooho ,” which means “protection” in Korean, and “ rang ,” which, according to the official Olympics website, has a double meaning . ‘“Rang” forms part of “ horangi ,” the Korean word for “tiger,” and is also the last part of “Jeong-seon Arirang,” a traditional folk song of Gangwon, the province in South Korea where the games are being held. Bandabi, the mascot of the Paralympic Winter Games, is an Asiatic black bear with a half moon on its chest . The Asiatic black bear symbolizes strong willpower and courage in Korean mythology, characteristics that underpin the overall Olympic theme of equality and harmony. The name is a portmanteau of “ ban-dal ,” the Korean word for half-moon, and “ bi ,” which stands for celebration of the games. Soohorang has experienced a few wobbles since it first appeared in public to promote the games. First, its designers discovered that it was difficult for the mascot to pass through standard doorways without getting stuck . Then, those charged with wearing the outfit complained that it was hard to see properly because the eyes had been positioned too far apart from each other . Online reactions, however, were mostly positive. “The Soohorang plush awarded to medalists at the flower ceremony is so cute. You can also purchase them online,” says Twitter user @Mpj72610Yukako . Twitter user @chiro_desu celebrated the Olympics by making Soohorang and Bandabi character bentos, which are also known as chara-ben , a creative bento that involves a high level of artistic skill. Twitter user @shiho2626ster , meanwhile, is clearly a Bandabi fan: “The Pyeongchang Olympic & Paralympic mascot characters Soohorang and Bandabi are so cute — especially Bandabi.” Mascots have also been at the center of discussion for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Three design options were revealed in December and, according to the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games website, each set of characters has different meanings . The first options are checker-patterned. The Olympic option is represented by a combination of traditional and neo-futuristic colors, while the Paralympics design has a cherry blossom appearance and possesses supernatural powers. The second options comprise of an Olympic mascot that has been inspired by the sacred foxes of Shinto shrines, while the Paralympic design draws from the shrines’ guardian dogs. The final options consist of an Olympic mascot inspired by a combination of fox and an ancient Japanese curved jewel, along with a Paralympic design derived from the supernatural raccoons of ancient folk tales. While most feedback from the public was initially positive, some have argued that the designs strongly resemble characters from cartoons such as “Digimon,” “Pokemon” and “Yokai Watch.” What’s more, the Tokyo options have come off second best when compared to the mascots at the center of the Pyeongchang Games. “The difference in cuteness is vast,” says Twitter user @in_mi_nim . The Tokyo Organizing Committee asked elementary school children nationwide to vote for the mascot they liked best. The winner will be announced on Feb. 28, with the names being chosen by experts and made public in July or August. “The mascots have been designed to embody the collective will of everyone for the successful hosting of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2018, and experts of various fields contributed to the process,” Pyeongchang Organizing Committee President Lee Hee-beom says . “The mascots will now spearhead our communication activities and marketing initiatives. With today’s meaningful step forward, (the Pyeongchang Organizing Committee) will use the momentum to gain more public support and excitement for the games.” With the mascots chosen to be face of the Pyeongchang Olympic and Paralympic Olympics proving to be popular with fans, one can only hope that the design that is selected to lead Tokyo in 2020 on Wednesday captures the imagination of the public in the same way. The jury’s still out on that one, though. “Soohorang and Bandabi are cute mascots,” Twitter user @qrym10 says. “I want to buy a lot of official Olympic merchandise. I suspect whichever mascots get chosen for Tokyo 2020 won’t be as cute. They probably won’t inspire me to buy a product.”

mascot
2020 tokyo olympics
2018 pyeongchang olympics
japan pulse


South Korean chat app becomes new outlet for Me Too movement

Abstract: SEOUL - A chat app where South Koreans can anonymously dish the dirt on their misbehaving bosses and colleagues is belatedly stirring the country’s Me Too movement, shedding new light on sexual harassment in the heavily male-dominated corporate culture. Prompted by a recent wave of complaints about workplace misconduct — including a groping allegation made by a South Korean public prosecutor last month — the app Blind has added a new feature: a message board dedicated to a rising number of stories of harassment. “We thought the prosecutor going public would put fresh momentum in the Me Too movement in South Korea, and our Me Too board was definitely inspired by her action,” Kim Sung-kyum, co-founder at Blind’s creator TeamBlind said. South Koreans are wary of being whistleblowers about harassment at family-run conglomerates, or chaebol , that dominate South Korean business. Their big fear: the companies will turn on them for rocking the boat and they will be victimized again. Some 61 percent of South Korean respondents working at private companies said they would bypass in-house whistleblower hotlines, saying they didn’t trust their organization to keep complaints confidential, according to a survey by consulting firm EY. That was significantly higher than the Asia-Pacific average of 37 percent. Instead, South Koreans are turning to Blind, which now has over a million users in the world’s most wired country. “Employees are reluctant to use internal bulletins for fear of reprisals which is part of our country’s corporate culture,” said a banker at a South Korean state-run bank who uses the app. “I think Blind can make people talk more freely, which can’t be controlled by their companies.” In less than 24 hours after the launch of the Me Too board on Blind, more than 500 posts were uploaded, making the app intermittently unavailable due to heavy traffic, the app’s operator says. By Thursday, the board had swelled with more than 1,600 posts, prompting conversations about workplace sexual misconduct ranging from cracking sexist jokes to making unwelcome physical advances. Blind says it encodes personal data and information to protect users’ privacy, and users must use their company email for verification. When the app first came out four years ago, several companies requested Blind take down posts that might be damaging to their reputation. TeamBlind says it has not taken down any posts at a company’s request and has not faced any lawsuits for material posted on its message boards. TeamBlind said it does review posts and has removed some that violated its terms of use, including publishing statements that might be defamatory or breach individuals’ privacy. Globally, the Me Too movement has exposed men accused of sexual assault and harassment in fields including entertainment, politics and business. Dozens of prominent men have quit or been fired from high-profile posts, and police have opened investigations into some accusations of sex assault. But it was slower to catch on in South Korea, which ranked 118 out of 144 on gender equality last year, according to the World Economic Forum. In the case of the public prosecutor — who said her boss groped her at a funeral in 2010 — the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office launched an inquiry into her allegations. The investigation is ongoing but the Prosecutor General has promised to take action to combat sexual harassment in the workplace. In another incident late last year, South Korean furniture maker Hanssem publicly apologized after a post detailing a female employee’s experiences of workplace sexual abuse went viral, sparking a boycott of the company’s products. Earlier this month, posts made on Blind said the chairman of the group that owns Asiana Airlines had made inappropriate physical contact with female flight attendants. Last week, Park Sam-koo, chairman of the airliner’s parent Kumho Asiana Group, issued an apology over the allegations, saying “it was all my carelessness and responsibility.” Park did not respond for requests for comment, and the company said it had taken no action against him. Despite the increased awareness, many South Korean Blind users say they are yet to see significant changes in their workplaces. “Through Blind, I have come to realize there are so many things that need to be corrected in my company. But I haven’t seen any sweeping change yet,” said another user who said he was working for a major conglomerate. “We still have a long way to go.”

women
south korea
social media
sex crimes
me too


'Dreamless' mice in Japan help unravel the mystery of sleep

Abstract: A dream can sometimes stay with us all day, perhaps even longer. Other times we wake up and don’t really remember much of what we’ve dreamed about. But what about other animals? Do they dream? It’s a question we’ll perhaps never be able to answer — but let’s give it a shot. The logo for the International Institute for Integrative Sleep Medicine (IIIS) in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, is a sleepy cartoon mouse curled up next to our planet. It is apt in two ways. First, while sleep is familiar to everyone in the world — and indeed to all animals — there is still a lot we don’t know about it. Second, the institute, based at the University of Tsukuba, aims to solve this mystery by using mice. We spend approximately a third of our lives asleep, but exactly what sleep does for us is a mystery. Scientists assume there is something that builds up during our waking hours that makes us gradually more sleepy. If there is such a substance, however, we don’t know what it is. When we want to investigate disease and general questions in biology, we tend to use animals as model systems. What often happens is that a scientist suspects a particular gene might be faulty and therefore be responsible for a disease, so mutates that gene in a mouse, fruit fly or worm, and then sees what happens. However, Masashi Yanagisawa, director of the IIIS, takes a different approach. Yanagisawa believes that starting with a particular gene in mind immediately biases the processes you are looking at. Instead, his team utilize what is called “forward screening.” In a gigantic research effort, they introduced random genetic mutations in more than 8,000 mice and then examined the animals for abnormal sleep patterns. To do this, they measured the brain waves of each sleeping mouse with electroencephalography (EEG). Let’s just pause and think about this for a second. I know the scientists didn’t build a giant high-tech mouse dormitory with 8,000 tiny beds but, still, their achievement is remarkable. They have become extremely proficient at working with mice and fitting them with electrodes. Plus they have developed software that allows them to automatically screen the EEGs. Yanagisawa’s team discovered two particularly interesting mutations. One made the mouse sleep for an extended period. The scientists called this mutation “sleepy.” Sleepiness was then traced to a gene called Sik3 that is active in neurons in the brain. Another mutation gave mice a shortened and unstable sleep period. Sleep comes in cycles of rapid eye movement sleep and deeper, non-REM sleep where the eyes don’t roll around. Recent research has identified neural networks in different parts of the brain that switch us between wakefulness, REM sleep and non-REM sleep. However, the molecular mechanism regulating these switches was unknown. In particular, the REM part of the mouse’s sleep was disturbed. REM sleep is the part of the sleep cycle where most of the bizarre and vivid dreams occur. Mice without proper REM sleep were called “dreamless,” and have a mutation in the Nalcn gene. As a result, the massive screening process identified genes with roles in regulating the need for sleep and for maintaining periods of dream sleep. The work was published in the journal Nature. While I can get my head around the idea of other mammals dreaming, it’s harder to imagine this in more “primitive” animals, but previous work has found similar mutations in genes related to Sik3 and Nalcn in fruit flies and nematode worms. The discovery that the genes have similar effects in animals as apparently different as invertebrates and mammals shows just how fundamental the process of sleep is. “We hope that the discovery of these key genes is just the beginning of our long journey into the black box of sleep regulation,” Yanagisawa says. “It’s amazing that we know almost nothing about the simple question of what ‘sleepiness’ is physically in our brain. We will start from these genes and try to solve the great mystery.” So to return to where we began: Do other animals dream? Naturally, we have no real idea and as far as worms and flies are concerned it’s impossible to say. What about mice? I bet they do. Why not? They need to process and consolidate their memories, just like us, and they need to imagine the future. Perhaps they even have nightmares where they find themselves trapped in a room surrounded by hungry cats? Perhaps the mice in Yanagisawa’s lab in Tsukuba dream at night of a fabled land where everything is made of cheese? When I asked Yanagisawa if he believed that mice dreamed, he was understandably reticent. “It’s difficult to answer since dreams are a fundamentally subjective phenomenon,” he says.


Rural areas hit by acute scarcity of nurses, with turnover high among agency-referred staff

Abstract: Hospitals and clinics in rural areas are finding it increasingly difficult to hire nurses on their own, and the amount of referral fees they are paying to private agents are significantly on the rise, a recent research report shows. To employ a full-time nurse the fees were about ¥870,000 ($8,100) on average in fiscal 2016, according to the report released by the Japan Medical Association Research Institute. In the year that ended in March 2017, the total amount of fees paid by 844 medical institutions surveyed had ballooned to roughly ¥1.6 billion, compared with ¥1.1 billion in fiscal 2014, it said. “The results confirmed the costs have placed a heavy burden on hospitals relying on private staff agencies,” said Nobuyuki Tsutsumi, one of the research fellows at the institute who conducted the survey. The report, released in late December, said there were 36 hospitals spending more than ¥10 million on such fees. Despite the additional costs, the report also showed that the turnover rate of nurses recruited with the help of the agencies is higher. In recent years an average of 11.3 percent left jobs within one year, while the overall rate — including those employed without using private employment agencies — was just 6.1 percent. As for the rate of departures within six months, 6.6 percent of nurses hired through the agencies left compared with only 3 percent overall. The institute conducted the survey between May and June last year, contacting some 4,000 hospitals and clinics across the country of which 844 responded online. The study found that the lack of nurses is acute in more rural and less-populated areas. About 50 percent of medical institutions in cities with a population of more than 1 million said there has been a shortage of nurses. For those located in towns with a population of less than 100,000, the percentage experiencing a shortage rises to 75 percent. In depopulated areas, 83 percent of medical institutions admitted to suffering from a chronic shortage of nurses. To better address the difficult situation, the report has proposed that hospital officials actively use “nurse centers” that were set up across the country in the 1990s based on a national law. All 47 of Japan’s prefectures have at least one nurse center. The centers, operated by the Japanese Nursing Association, can provide job-placement services for free. But they are not widely known and their use remains marginal. Masami Kumagai, an executive of the association, said the centers are staffed with veteran nurses, and that she is confident they can provide more detailed advice and information than private employment agencies. As 94 percent of nurses in Japan are women, she said the centers are willing to help them with how best to continue their careers even after they marry and give birth, for example. She added that the association is also prepared to facilitate the re-employment of middle-aged and older nurses who wish to work. “The centers are aimed at assisting each individual to find a job,” Kumagai said. “If the employment situation is stabilized, the quality of nursing and medical services will improve in the long run and that is going to be a very good thing for patients.”


Energy riches fuel bitcoin craze for speculation-shy Iceland

Abstract: KEFLAVIK, ICELAND - Iceland is expected to use more energy “mining” bitcoins and other virtual currencies this year than it uses to power its homes. With massive amounts of electricity needed to run the computers that create bitcoins, large virtual currency companies have established a base in the North Atlantic island nation blessed with an abundance of renewable energy. The new industry’s relatively sudden growth prompted lawmaker Smari McCarthy of Iceland’s Pirate Party to suggest taxing the profits of bitcoin mines. The initiative is likely to be well received by Icelanders, who are skeptical of speculative financial ventures after the country’s catastrophic 2008 banking crash. “Under normal circumstances, companies that are creating value in Iceland pay a certain amount of tax to the government,” McCarthy said. “These companies are not doing that, and we might want to ask ourselves whether they should.” The energy demand has developed because of the soaring cost of producing and collecting virtual currencies. Computers are used to make the complex calculations that verify a running ledger of all the transactions in virtual currencies around the world. In return, the miners claim a fraction of a coin not yet in circulation. In the case of bitcoin, a total of 21 million can be mined, leaving about 4.2 million left to create. As more bitcoin enter circulation, more powerful computers are needed to keep up with the calculations — and that means more energy. The serene coastal town of Keflavik on Iceland’s desolate southern peninsula has over the past months boomed as an international hub for mining bitcoins and other virtual currencies. Local fishermen, chatting over steaming cups of coffee at the harbor gas station, are puzzled by the phenomenon, which has spawned oversize construction sites on the outskirts of town. Among the main attractions of setting up bitcoin mines at the edge of the Arctic Circle is the natural cooling for computer servers and the competitive prices for Iceland’s abundance of renewable energy from geothermal and hydroelectric power plants. Johann Snorri Sigurbergsson, a business development manager at the energy company Hitaveita Sudurnesja, said he expected Iceland’s virtual currency mining to double its energy consumption to about 100 megawatts this year. That is more than households use on the island nation of 340,000, according to Iceland’s National Energy Authority. “Four months ago, I could not have predicted this trend — but then bitcoin skyrocketed and we got a lot more emails,” he said at the Svartsengi geothermal energy plant, which powers the southwestern peninsula where the mining takes place. “Just today, I came from a meeting with a mining company seeking to buy 18 megawatts,” he said. At the largest of three bitcoin “farms” currently operating within Keflavik — called “Mjolnir” after the hammer of Thor, the Norse god of thunder — high metal fences surround 50 meter-long (164 foot) warehouse buildings stacked with computer rigs. The data centers here are specially designed to utilize the constant wind on the bare peninsula. Walls are only partial on each side, allowing a draft of cold air to cool down the equipment. “What we are doing here is like gold mining,” said Helmut Rauth, who manages operations for Genesis Mining, a major bitcoin mining company. “We are mining on a large scale and getting the gold out to the people.” Genesis Mining, founded in Germany, moved to Iceland in 2014 when the price of bitcoin fluctuated from $350 to $1000. Now, one bitcoin is valued at about $8,000, according to tracking site Coindesk, after peaking at almost $19,500 in December. The currency took a hit in January when China announced it would move to wipe out its bitcoin mining industry, following concerns of excessive electricity consumption. Rauth said bitcoin should not be singled out as environmentally taxing. Computing power always demands energy, he argues. “How much energy is needed for credit card transactions and internet research? Cryptocurrencies have the same global impact,” he said. In the capital, Reykjavik, some are more skeptical about bitcoin. The last time Iceland was an international hub for finance, the venture ended with a giant bank crash, making the country one of the symbols of the 2008 global financial crisis. The political turmoil following the crash swept the upstart Pirate Party into Iceland’s parliament, where it currently holds 10 percent of seats. Pirate Party legislator McCarthy has questioned the value of bitcoin mining for Icelandic society, saying residents should consider regulating and taxing the emerging industry. “We are spending tens or maybe hundreds of megawatts on producing something that has no tangible existence and no real use for humans outside the realm of financial speculation,” he said. “That can’t be good.”

computers iceland arctic electricity bitcoins cryptocurrencies


Mie and Gifu take delivery of Mobile Pharmacy vehicles to improve medical provision in the wake of natural disasters

Abstract: Demonstrations were held last week allowing residents in the city of Tsu, Mie Prefecture, to explore new mobile pharmacy vans delivered to the prefecture at the end of 2017. Gifu prefecture also received a delivery of the vans, which are equipped with pharmaceutical supplies and equipment, making the service available for the first time in the Chubu region. The orders were made based on lessons learned through the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, when pharmacies and hospitals sustained significant damage. The mobile pharmacy is a modified recreational vehicle, or RV, loaded with medicine and pharmacy tools, which allows pharmacists to head to disaster-stricken areas and attend to the injured. The vehicles are expected to play an important role in responding to emergencies going forward. The vans were developed after the pharmacists association in Miyagi Prefecture, which experienced heavy damage in the March 2011 earthquake, approached Vantech Inc., an RV manufacturer based in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture, in 2012. The company modified a small truck into an RV. The sleeping space was left as is, but medicine shelves, pharmaceutical packaging machines, and devices to prepare medicine in a bacteria-free environment were installed in the galley area. Vantech has already delivered mobile pharmacy vans to all seven pharmaceutical associations in Japan, and the product demonstrated its capabilities following the earthquakes in Kumamoto Prefecture two years ago. After the quake, Tatsuya Kobayashi, 42, a pharmacist registered with Mie Pharmacists Association, was deployed to help the village of Minamiaso in the Aso district using a mobile pharmacy van from Wakayama Prefecture. He stationed the van next to a gym that served as an evacuation center, and provided medicine to victims of the earthquakes based on prescriptions given by the medical team. In addition to prescribing medicine to those suffering from high blood pressure or diabetes, who routinely take medication, the facility also served an important role in treating patients with norovirus or influenza quickly to prevent them from spreading their ailments at the shelter. “(The mobile pharmacy) had the basic equipment needed to operate as a pharmacy,” reflected Kobayashi. Mie Prefecture expects heavy damage if a Nankai Trough megaquake occurs, so the prefecture’s pharmacists association purchased the van last December. It cost approximately ¥14 million, with the prefecture providing a 50 percent subsidy. When a natural disaster strikes, cooperating pharmacies in the prefecture will load the vehicle with the necessary medicines and a team of three pharmacists will head to the affected area. The prefecture held a training session last month for approximately 20 pharmacists who will be deployed in the event of an emergency. The training provided necessary information on topics such as using the batteries for emergency power supply and servicing the van properly. In the Chubu region, Gifu Pharmaceutical University also purchased one unit last December, becoming the first university in the nation to operate a mobile pharmacy. “Pharmacists need to bring a large amount of medicine to areas that suffer catastrophic damage,” said professor Tetsuji Yae from Suzuka University of Medical Science. The mobile pharmacy makes it possible to prescribe powder medications and injections, which were previously difficult to provide in disaster-affected areas because they require special equipment. “A mobile pharmacy is like an emergency ambulance for pharmacists and we will see more organizations purchasing them in the future, so we need to teach students to operate from them as pharmacists as well,” he added.

medicine
elderly
aging society
pharmacies


Japan's staff-heavy banks downsize and turn to technology for survival

Abstract: These are tough times for banks. As the Bank of Japan’s prolonged ultra-easy money policy weighs on earnings, the emergence of technology like artificial intelligence is transforming the mechanics of financing and threatening to replace thousands of roles with automated systems. The nation’s major banks have announced restructuring measures including downsizing to deal with the situation and are rushing to catch up with digital innovations, but some critics say it could be too late in the game. Here’s an overview of the situation facing the nation’s lenders. How are banks’ earnings? Not too rosy. Negative interest rates introduced by the Bank of Japan in 2016 have been sapping the earning power of banks’ core operations. The combined net core business profits of Japan’s five big banks — Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. (MUFG), Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. (SMFG), Mizuho Financial Group Inc., Resona Holdings Inc. and Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. — fell 22.4 percent in April-December from a year earlier, to ¥1.571 trillion. Interest margins between deposits and loans are a key source of bank earnings. But the BOJ’s negative interest rates have kept banks’ average lending rates below 1 percent. Meanwhile, banks are lowering deposit rates to unprecedented levels to reduce pressure on interest margins. “Our business model revolving around traditional commercial banking services is no longer sustainable in its current state,” wrote Nobuyuki Hirano, president and CEO of MUFG, in a 2017 report published by the group. Dozens of regional banks are also feeling the pinch. According to the Financial Services Agency, the combined net profit of regional banks fell 14.7 percent to ¥1 trillion in the fiscal year ending last March compared to the year before. How are banks dealing with the situation? For one thing, they’re looking to downsize. In November, Mizuho Financial said it plans to cut 19,000 jobs by the end of fiscal 2026 and consolidate its 500 branches into 400 by the end of fiscal 2024. MUFG is looking to trim 6,000 jobs from its domestic workforce by the end of fiscal 2023, and its president, Hirano, said last year the group plans to eliminate the workload equivalent of 9,500 positions over the next 10 years. SMFG said last year it plans to streamline 4,000 posts over three years. “People are optimistic about artificial intelligence. There is a lot of manual paperwork that can be done using AI (artificial intelligence),” said Ikuma Ueno, senior digital strategist at Mizuho’s digital innovation department. However, he added that not everyone will appreciate the digital shift. “While managers may be happy with AI, it may be more difficult for the people who are displaced and reallocated to different positions,” he said. How are bankers reacting? The megabanks have said that downsizing should be organic, involving cutting down on new hires and automating mundane tasks. But rank-and-file bankers appear to have read between the lines. According to major recruitment firm Recruit Career Co., the number of those in the finance industry signing up with the company between April and September last year jumped around 30 percent compared to the same period the year before. “We’ve seen a surge in those from the financial sector since the BOJ introduced negative interest rates,” said Chihiro Hara, a spokeswoman for the company. Recruit Career said there has also been a marked shift in where financial workers secured new roles. During the April-September period in 2015, before the BOJ’s move, 43.5 percent found positions in the same field. In 2017, that figure had dropped to 25 percent, indicating how many are moving away from their own sector. What else is behind the trend? Demographics are a factor. Japan’s population is graying and shrinking. Government statistics show that the size of the population peaked a decade ago and is forecast to fall 30 percent by 2065. The BOJ touched on the issue in its Financial System Report released in October. The central bank said the fall in profits can also be seen in other advanced economies where low interest rates have prevailed. “However, even in that situation, the low profitability of Japanese financial institutions is striking,” the report said, adding that “the number of employees at financial institutions and the number of branches may be in excess (overcapacity) relative to demand.” How are banks responding to ‘fintech’? With technology companies like Rakuten Inc. and China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. accelerating their expansion into financial technologies, or fintech, banks are trying to keep pace by seeking partners and launching new ventures. SMFG launched a biometric identification venture called Poralify last year with NTT Data Corp. and Irish biometrics company Daon Inc., eyeing to pitch the technology to e-commerce companies and other businesses to ease online payment transactions. Also last year the company formed a joint venture with Yahoo Japan Corp. to analyze the bank’s client data in order to create new services. MUFG also created its own fintech company last year, called Japan Digital Design Inc., to collaborate with regional banks on research and development. It’s looking to tap AI for consumer loan screening, and provide technology to streamline financial transactions. Mizuho meanwhile launched a fintech company called Blue Lab Co. with venture firm WiL LLC, and aims to offer payment services and products based on blockchain. Banks have also begun embracing cryptocurrencies. MUFG has been developing its own digital currency called the MUFG coin, and reports say it’s working to open its own exchange this year. Mizuho is leading a consortium of banks to develop a cryptocurrency known as J-Coin in time for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, when higher numbers of tourists are expected to visit Japan.

banks
lending
ai
corporate restructuring


Billionaire investors Icahn and Deason say Fuji-Xerox deal undervalues company

Abstract: Carl Icahn and Darwin Deason have come out against Xerox Corp.’s plans to cede control to Fujifilm Holding Corp., arguing the deal “dramatically undervalues” the company. “To put it simply, the current board of directors has overseen the systematic destruction of Xerox, and, unless we do something, this latest Fuji scheme will be the company’s final death knell,” the two Xerox investors said in a letter to shareholders Monday. Icahn is Xerox’s second-largest holder with about 9.2 percent of the company’s stock, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Deason holds about 6 percent, according to a filing Monday. Xerox, the once-iconic American innovator that became synonymous with office copy machines, agreed last month to cede control to Japan’s Fujifilm. Under terms of the deal, Xerox would first merge with a joint venture the company operates with Fujifilm in Asia. Fujifilm would ultimately end up owning 50.1 percent of the combined entity, which expands the joint venture to encompass all of Xerox’s operations, the companies said. Xerox holders would receive a cash dividend of $9.80 (about ¥1,068) a share under the proposed transaction. “It really is a remarkable achievement by Fuji. Without putting up any cash, they will acquire majority control and ownership of a venerable American icon,” the two investors said. In an emailed statement Monday, a spokesman for Norwalk, Connecticut-based Xerox said a comprehensive review conducted over “many months” by independent directors and advisers considered several options in detail and concluded the transaction with Fuji “is the best path to create value for Xerox shareholders.” “The transaction provides shareholders with the opportunity to benefit from ownership in a combined company that has enhanced growth prospects and a stronger financial profile to support future value creation, as well as an immediate substantial dividend payment,” the spokesman said. Icahn and Deason demanded a complete and detailed disclosure of Xerox’s efforts to evaluate other indications of interest during the 46 days its spent negotiating the transaction. They also want to see what advice was given to the board about terminating or renegotiating its joint venture in Asia with Fuji in the wake of an accounting scandal there. They also called for new leadership at Xerox and its board to reinvigorate the company. “There is still great opportunity for Xerox to create enormous value for shareholders, and it does not involve selling control to Fuji without a premium,” the investors said. “Rather, it entails freeing the company from the shackles of the Fuji Xerox joint venture and bringing in leadership with the vision and operational expertise to revive the company.”

carl icahn
xerox
fujifilm holding
darwin deason


As Boeing weighs new '797' midsize jet, Delta, in sign of thaw, looks to sign on

Abstract: ATLANTA - Delta Air Lines Inc. is showing no hard feelings after its recent trade spat with Boeing Co. The No. 2 U.S. carrier wants to be one of the first to fly a potential new mid-sized jetliner from Boeing, said Delta Chief Executive Officer Ed Bastian. That’s a vote of confidence from one of the most influential aircraft buyers as Boeing decides whether to build the plane, dubbed the 797 by analysts. “You’re going to see us participate in Boeing’s middle-of-the-market campaign,” Bastian said. “I hope that we’re going to be a launch customer on that program as well.” The employee message shows how Delta is looking to play an active role in the development of Boeing’s first all-new jetliner since the 787 Dreamliner. The Atlanta-based carrier recently tangled with the plane maker in an international trade case involving smaller planes and placed a $12.7 billion order last month for Airbus SE’s A321neo — one of the toughest aircraft competitors to Boeing’s next new plane. The airline calls Boeing’s proposed jet “an interesting concept,” said spokesman Morgan Durrant. The plane would be a potential replacement for Delta’s aging fleet of Boeing 757s and 767s on long domestic routes and midrange international flights. “Delta is actively engaged with Boeing on this and we will continue a healthy dialog with them as the program matures,” Durrant said. A Boeing representative said the company doesn’t disclose details of customer discussions. The cost of developing what Boeing calls the “New Midmarket Airplane” probably would run from $10 billion to $15 billion, Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst at Teal Group, said recently. Boeing is considering two models for the new aircraft: a 225-seat version with a range of 5,000 nautical miles, and a 275-seat version with a 4,500-mile range, Dinesh Keskar, Boeing’s senior vice president of Asia-Pacific and India sales, said recently. Bastian’s employee message should relieve concerns that Delta’s dispute with Boeing in an international trade case will push the carrier into the Airbus camp for the long term. Boeing last year persuaded the U.S. Commerce Department to slap duties of almost 300 percent on a new jet from Bombardier Inc., called the C Series. The Canadian plane maker sold 75 of the new planes to Delta at well below cost, Boeing alleged. The U.S. International Trade Commission ruled last month that the sale of the C Series isn’t harming American industry and blocked the duties from being imposed. While Bastian has said the trade case wouldn’t affect Delta’s fleet orders, its decision in December to order 100 Airbus A321neo jets over Boeing’s competing 737 Max 10 fueled industry speculation about whether Delta might shun Boeing for some period. The new Airbus jets will replace at least some of Delta’s older 757s, as well as McDonnell Douglas MD-90 and older A320 aircraft. Boeing’s new 797 would give Delta better range than the A321neo and additional capacity to haul cargo, which is more important for international flights than for domestic ones, said George Hamlin of Hamlin Transportation Consulting in Fairfax, Virginia. “Delta needs both Boeing and Airbus,” Hamlin said. “If it becomes beholden to one, that doesn’t give it much leverage in negotiations.”

boeing
airbus
delta air lines
bombardier
797