Some Japanese brand legacies stand to profit from geographical indication; others, not so much

Abstract: In the not so distant future, Kraft Parmesan, a household name for grated cheese with its distinctive green package sold by a Japanese dairy company, may disappear from shelves in Japan or reappear bearing a different name. That is one example of what may happen after Japan and the European Union agreed to protect each other’s signature food and other agricultural products designated as geographical indications (GI). It is part of an economic partnership framework that the two sides came to a broad agreement in July. The following is a brief rundown of the kinds of products covered under GI and the rules governing the designation. What is the purpose of geographical indication? Geographical indications are aimed at protecting regional food products that have obtained high quality and reputation as a result of unique farming methods and distinctive characteristics, including climate and soil conditions. Normally GI-registered products bear the distinctive name of their location of origin, such as Kobe beef. Once a product is so recognized by the government, only designated producers can sell their product using the name. This prevents unauthorized third parties from selling products using the listed name or something similar. The GI system was introduced in Japan in June 2015, and 39 food and agricultural products were registered as of August, according to the agriculture ministry. The registered products have a GI mark to indicate authenticity. An individual who sells unapproved products bearing a registered name can face up to five years in prison and up to a ¥5 million fine, or up to a ¥300 million fine in the case of an organization. The agriculture ministry is responsible for registering food and other agricultural products, while the National Tax Agency, which oversees the sales of alcoholic beverages, is in charge of the liquor list. What kind of products are registered as GI? GI products include globally recognized names such as Kobe beef, Japanese sake and Yubari melons, as well as more locally known specialties such as Aomori cassis, Shimonoseki pufferfish from Yamaguchi Prefecture and Yoshikawa eggplants from Fukui Prefecture. Farmers and food processors can submit an application for registration for their products as a group. The government then examines whether a product’s quality and reputation have strong connections to its production location and whether the product has traditional value specific to the area, such as if it has been produced in the same location for about 25 years or more. For example, Yubari melons produced in Yubari, Hokkaido, made the list thanks to their juiciness and mellow flavor nurtured through the significant temperature swings between day and night, low precipitation and good drainage of the area’s volcanic ash soil, according to the agriculture ministry. Once it passes government screening, a product is placed on the GI list and producers pay a registration fee of ¥90,000 to the government. Some non-food products, such as Kumamoto igusa (straw reeds) and tatami mats made of Kumamoto reed, are also listed. Why do producers want their products to be registered as GI? The biggest reason is to prevent cheaper, lower-quality products bearing the same or similar name from being sold. The designation makes it easier for producers to protect their brand, according to the agriculture ministry. Being listed as GI also boosts the sales of the product. For example, the sales of Aomori cassis tripled between January and March 2016 from the same period a year before after being registered as GI in December 2015, according to the ministry. The price of Yubari melons also rose 10 percent after they were registered as GI. The ministry also says the increasing brand awareness could result in more farmers underpinning production of traditional agricultural products. How does GI play a role in international trade? GI products will be treated the same way in the exporting country if the two sides agree to protect each other’s registered products. The economic partnership agreement inked with the EU in July was the first such case for Japan to exchange the protection list of agricultural products with foreign nations. Japan has in the past concluded an agreement for liquor brands with Mexico, Chile and Peru. The EU’s list covered 71 brand names of cheese, olive oil and other foods, including Gorgonzola, Parmigiano Reggiano, Prosciutto Toscano and Scottish Farmed Salmon, according to the agriculture ministry. The list of liquors also included names of 139 alcohol beverages, including popular ones such as Bordeaux, Champagne and Scotch whisky, according to the National Tax Agency. Once the deal takes effect, Japan can ask the EU not to sell GI-listed products produced by other countries, and vice-versa. For example, EU dairy farmers won’t be able to name a locally raised beef as Kobe beef, while Japanese cheese makers cannot sell cheese named Gorgonzola or similar names branded as “Gorgonzola-styled” cheese. The agriculture ministry believes this will boost brand awareness of made-in-Japan products overseas while protecting brand value from counterfeit products. Some food products using Japan’s geolocation name are already sold in other countries, such as melons branded as “Yubari Japan Melon” in Thailand and “Hokkaido Udon” made in Hong Kong, according to an agriculture ministry report published in March. Are there any concerns? Some domestic farmers and food industries may have to change the name of their products once the deal with the EU takes effect. For example, the popular Kraft Parmesan grated cheese, sold in Japan by Morinaga Milk Industry Co., which boasts the biggest share in the domestic grated cheese market, may have to change its name. The product name comes from the English translation of Parmigiano Reggiano but is made of U.S. natural cheese. The EU Court of Justice ruled in 2008 that the name Parmesan can be used within the EU only for Italian-made Parmigiano Reggiano cheese registered in the EU’s protected designation of origin (PDO) system. A Morinaga Milk spokesman declined to comment on this issue. The agriculture ministry and the national tax agency are accepting opinions from the public sector regarding possible restrictions caused by the deal until October.


Prime time in worker-scarce Japan for investing in service robots

Abstract: Faced with their worst labor shortage in decades, Japanese service companies are finally turning to labor-saving technology, an investment that could lift the sector’s woeful level of productivity and allow them to raise wages. While the nation’s manufacturers are renowned for deploying advanced robotics, most domestic-focused services companies have fallen behind in information technology investment, put off by a stagnant economy, restrictive labor rules and a shrinking domestic market. But as the workforce declines and the nation ages, businesses in areas like nursing and retail have found it harder to attract and keep staff. As Partners Co. is among companies looking to software for a solution. It plans to spend about ¥300 million to install new technology at its 15 nursing homes in and around Tokyo to make life easier for staff and residents. At its sleek new Asheim Nerima Garden home, caregivers can monitor the health of dozens of residents from smartphones, receiving notifications if anyone so much as sits up in bed. “Once we install this system in all of our nursing homes over the next three years, job turnover will likely decrease and then we’ll be able to hire fewer workers,” President Kenji Uemura said. Investment in IT by service firms could help provide the elusive wage gains that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been seeking for years to revive economic growth. Software spending by nonmanufacturers, particularly those in sectors with an acute labor shortage, is picking up “dramatically,” helping to fuel a “long-overdue acceleration” in broader capital spending, said James Malcolm, chief Japan economist at UBS Group AG in Tokyo. “As capex (capital expenditure) increases, productivity goes up, wages can go up, and consumption will follow,” Malcolm said. “It’s a key.” Medium-size and smaller companies, particularly retailers, are driving the trend, which is accompanied by spending on research and development and employee training, Malcolm said. Conditions are perhaps the most favorable in years. With exports and domestic demand improving, overall business investment grew 2.4 percent during the second quarter, the most in three years. Six straight quarters of economic expansion have pushed growth to an annualized rate of 4 percent. And a Bank of Japan survey in July showed that small businesses are finding it easier to gain access to capital for investment. The upshot is that some analysts see a wave of spending on the horizon. Bank of America Merrill Lynch forecast IT investment to rise as much as 9 percent annually in coming years, with the difference in software investment per worker versus the U.S. falling to 5 to 1 by 2020 from about 10 to 1 now. IT service stocks that may benefit include Fujitsu Ltd., Otsuka Corp., Trend Micro Inc. and NTT Data Corp., according to analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Nonmanufacturing companies planned ¥2.4 trillion in software investment in the fiscal year ending next March, according to the Bank of Japan’s tankan survey that was released last month. That would be the most since 2009. Retailers plan to spend ¥146.4 billion on software this fiscal year, the most on record since 1999, when tracking such data started. Convenience store operators Lawson Inc., FamilyMart Co. and Seven-Eleven Japan Co. are among those working with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry to boost productivity. One of their goals is for all products nationwide, some 100 billion a year, to use radio-frequency identification for price-scanning by 2025. Lawson is testing shopping baskets that enable customers to scan items as they drop them in, as well as an automated checkout system that would total the cost and bag the items. Customers could shop without ever interacting with human staff. Yet Japan has a long way to go to catch up with other advanced economies. While its average manufacturing productivity growth was the best among the Group of Seven countries in the two decades to 2014, its overall productivity was still the worst in 2015. In the services sector, productivity was about half that of the U.S. from 2010 to 2012, according to data from the Japan Productivity Center. And ingrained employment practices for the nation’s cohorts of salarymen mean change may come slowly for many white-collar jobs. For less desirable occupations, Japan is slowly beginning to tap overseas labor markets. The number of foreign workers in Japan rose 19 percent last year to top 1 million for the first time. But most are temporary workers, and Japanese leaders have ruled out opening the doors to full-scale immigration, which remains unpopular with the public. This leaves the country with little choice but to invest in robots, software and automation to maintain its high living standards. Capital spending is the most important factor in Japan’s productivity growth, Goldman Sachs economists wrote in a recent report. If investment doesn’t rise in response to the labor shortage, the country is likely to enter a period of “persistent zero growth” in the 2030s, according to Goldman Sachs. Izumi Devalier, head of Japan economics at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Tokyo, said the labor shortage could turn out to be an opportunity, forcing Japanese service-sector companies to finally start investing, and perhaps fueling an economic revival. “I think of it as the greatest chance Japan will get,” she said.

robots
robotics
aging society
workforce
labor shortage


Chile court OKs new law allowing abortions on limited basis, nixing appeal against lifting ban

Abstract: SANTIAGO - A Chilean court on Monday ruled that a law legalizing abortion in certain cases is constitutional, a win for President Michelle Bachelet’s center-left coalition and for groups that have campaigned for years against the country’s strict ban. With the decision by Chile’s Constitutional Court, women in the South American nation will be allowed to seek an abortion when their life is in danger, when a fetus is unviable or when a pregnancy results from rape. Chile was one of only a handful of countries worldwide where abortion was illegal without exception. The ban was put in place during the closing days of Augusto Pinochet’s 1973-1990 dictatorship, and Bachelet introduced a bill to loosen the prohibition soon after taking office for a second time in 2014. The road to congressional approval was difficult and met multiple delays due to deep divisions in the governing coalition and a unified opposition. The abortion bill was passed in its final form earlier in August, but conservative legislators then challenged its constitutionality. After listening to over 130 organizations over several days, the Constitutional Court rejected that challenge largely along partisan lines, meaning the bill now becomes law. Following the decision, women’s’ rights groups as well as left-leaning and centrist political parties celebrated outside the court in downtown Santiago. “What this decision definitively does is take Chile once and for all off the embarrassing list of countries that still criminalize abortion without exception,” said Ana Piquer, the executive director of Amnesty International Chile.

chile
abortions
michelle bachelet
constitutional court


Bonnie Tyler to 'goatality' countdown: Quirky sideshows during the Great American Eclipse

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Native American elders led stargazers in prayer Monday as the Sun vanished behind the Moon at a ranch in Oregon, the first state to experience a rare total eclipse that swept the continent coast-to-coast. Time stood still as millions across the nation took in the celestial spectacle — unseen in a century — enjoying what some saw as a welcome moment of togetherness after weeks of national turmoil. But the Great American Eclipse also had its share of quirky sideshows — here are a few: Just don’t look In Washington, where the eclipse was partially visible, President Donald Trump turned out to watch from the White House with the first lady, Melania, and young son Barron — but the president appeared to have missed the memo on eclipse do’s and don’ts. At one point, Trump was seen glancing skyward without protective eyewear — a big no-no, according to experts. “Don’t look,” an aide shouted to him. The 45th U.S. president later donned glasses but the scene prompted howls of derision. “NASA: Don’t look! Media: Don’t look! Melania: Don’t look! Aides: Don’t look! My mom: Don’t look! Your mom: Don’t look! President Trump…” summed up the journalist Brandon Ambrosino. Comedian Michael Moore later purported to read the president’s mind: “Dishonest, fake news media said don’t look at eclipse w/o glasses, so I did!” The gift of Bonnie Tyler She said she would do it, and do it she did. As the arc of totality swept across the continent, Bonnie Tyler regaled a cruise ship audience with a live rendition of her “Total Eclipse of the Heart” as they were plunged into darkness by the awe-inspiring astronomical show. The 1983 mega-hit became an unofficial anthem for the Great American Eclipse, belted out at bars and viewing parties across the nation (with varying degrees of seriousness). Interviewing the Welsh pop singer about her signature song, CNN host John Nernan got down to the nitty-gritty questions. “How do you think a total eclipse of the heart differs from a total eclipse of the sun?” he asked her. “Can you stare into a total eclipse of the heart without glasses?” “That’s a good one,” she smiled back. “I will definitely be wearing my glasses later, but I’m sure that you can look into my heart. I wear it on my sleeve.” Tyler topped off the interview with a few lines, a cappella, of her signature hit, earning the following words of thanks from CNN’s Bernan: “Bonnie Tyler, you have given us more than we could ever have hoped for.” Countdown to ‘goatality’ Total eclipses are well known to send birds swooping back to their nests, but as part of its wall-to-wall coverage — the Washington Post set out to test another wildlife-and-astronomy theory: do they make fainting goats faint? It did so by livestreaming from a farm in Tennessee that rears the breed of livestock — known for freezing stiff and toppling over when panicked, and as such already the stars of a host of viral videos. While millions sat glued to TV footage of the natural wonder unfolding in real-time, many more kept an amused eye on the Post’s tongue-in-cheek countdown to “goatality.” Was the flock startled? Hard to tell since the screen turned pitch-black. But the question was eventually settled with a tweet from the paper. “Update: no goats fainted.”


U.S. teen tells judge he bought tiger cub on streets of Tijuana

Abstract: SAN DIEGO - A California teenager who says he bought a Bengal tiger cub on the streets of Tijuana for $300 was arrested when he tried to bring it into the United States in his 2017 Chevy Camaro. Luis Eudoro Valencia was charged with smuggling a Bengal tiger into the United States after U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials found the furry cub lying on the floor of the passenger side of his car during an inspection around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday at the Otay Mesa border crossing. “CBP officers are often faced with unusual situations,” said Pete Flores, director of field operations for Customs and Border Protection in San Diego. The 18-year-old U.S. citizen, who lives in Perris, said he had purchased the tiger for $300 from someone who was walking a full-sized tiger on a leash in Tijuana, according to court documents. Several Bengal tigers, which are native to South Asia, have been seized this year by Mexican authorities in Tijuana. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service officials took custody of the cub and handed the male cat over to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park to care for it. In January, Mexican authorities seized a Bengal tiger in Tijuana after a resident called police to report a man was walking a tiger on a dog leash through the neighborhood. Officials said the 4-month-old tiger had been living in a private home with children. In April, Mexican officials seized a nine-month old Bengal tiger in Tijuana after the cub fell from a third-floor terrace onto a neighbor’s patio, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. Despite the fall, the tiger appeared to be in good health. Mexican circuses have been trying to get rid of exotic animals after a law went into effect in 2015 prohibiting such acts. Drug lords in Mexico have also been known to keep big cats as pets. All species of tigers are protected under the Endangered Species Act. Importing an endangered species into the United States requires a permit from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and a declaration filed with the agency. Prosecutors say Valencia lacked both. Valencia could not be immediately reached for comment and the office of his court-appointed attorney, Robert Schlein, said he has not had a chance to speak to his client. Valencia was released on a $10,000 bond and ordered to appear for a preliminary hearing on Sept. 5 in federal court in San Diego. If convicted, Valencia could face up to 20 years in prison.

u.s .
animals
mexico
pets
san diego
tijuana


SpaceX launches Taiwan's first home-built satellite; rocket lands on platform in Pacific

Abstract: LOS ANGELES - SpaceX on Thursday launched the first satellite designed and built entirely in Taiwan, a spacecraft that aims to boost disaster forecasts and mapping, environmental observation and space research. The satellite, called Formosat-5, weighs nearly 1,000 pounds (450 kg) and blasted off atop a Falcon 9 rocket in California at 11:51 a.m. “Falcon 9 has lifted off,” SpaceX engineer Lauren Lyons said as the rocket soared into the sky over the launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base, leaving billowing clouds of smoke in its wake. About 10 minutes after launch, SpaceX confirmed that Formosat-5 had been successfully deployed into orbit. The satellite is designed to operate for five years, and will orbit Earth once every 100 minutes. Its predecessor, Formosat-2, was decommissioned last year after 12 years, a life span in which it mapped a series of major disasters in parts of Asia and Africa. It, too, had been designed to operate for just five years. Continuing its effort to re-use expensive rocket components instead of jettisoning them into the ocean after each launch, SpaceX managed to land the first stage of the Falcon 9 on a platform floating in the Pacific Ocean. “This is the 15th successful landing of a Falcon 9,” Lyons said on the live webcast, as cheers erupted at SpaceX mission control in Hawthorne, California. After separating from the second stage of the rocket, the taller, first stage portion powered its engines and made a controlled return to Earth. Cameras mounted on the rocket showed it touch down, upright, on a drone ship named “Just Read the Instructions.” SpaceX plans to haul the rocket back to land and refurbish it so it can be used in a future launch.


Trump seen leaning toward Georgia ex-Gov. Sonny Perdue as farm chief

Abstract: WASHINGTON - Former Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue is U.S. Republican President-elect Donald Trump’s leading candidate to run the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a senior Trump transition team official said on Monday. Perdue, a Democrat-turned-Republican who founded a grain and fertilizer business, served on Trump’s agricultural advisory committee during his presidential campaign. The official gave no other details about Trump’s choice for agriculture secretary, one of the few remaining posts Trump has to fill as he assumes the White House on Jan. 20. The appointment must be approved by the Republican-led U.S. Senate. Perdue, 70, led the Southern U.S. state for two terms as governor from 2003 to 2011 after previously representing a rural swath of central Georgia about 100 miles south of Atlanta in the state Senate. Elected in 2002, he became the state’s first Republican since 1871, according to the National Governors Association. After finishing his second term as governor, Perdue founded Perdue Partners, a global trading firm that consults and provides services for companies looking to export products. Trump had been meeting with a number of other possible candidates for U.S. agriculture secretary, including Elsa Murano, undersecretary of agriculture for food safety under President George W. Bush, and Chuck Conner, head of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives. He has also met with Abel Maldonado, former lieutenant governor of California and co-owner of Runway Vineyards; Tim Huelskamp, Republican U.S. representative from Kansas; and Sid Miller, Texas agriculture commissioner.

agriculture
georgia
donald trump
sonny perdue


Egg prices soar, imports allowed in as South Korea poultry cull tops 30 million as bird flu rages

Abstract: SEOUL - South Korea has culled some 30.03 million chickens and other birds so far to contain the country’s worst bird flu outbreak, officials said Tuesday, with prices of eggs skyrocketing amid a shortage of supply. The number of poultry killed, announced by the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, is more than double that of the 14 million birds destroyed in South Korea during a 2014 outbreak. About a third of the country’s egg-laying hens, or about 22.45 million birds, have been culled, causing the production of eggs per day to drop from about 43 million to 30 million. Trading prices of eggs at farms are approximately double that of prices a year ago. In Seoul, eggs were sold out at supermarkets, and business such as cake shops have also been affected by the shortage. Meanwhile, in a move aimed at resolving the shortage, the country’s Cabinet approved Tuesday a regulation to temporarily remove import tariffs on egg products, allowing local companies to import 98,000 tons of whole eggs and other types of egg products without tariffs between Wednesday and June 30, Yonhap News Agency reported. The first case of the highly pathogenic H5N6 virus in South Korea was reported in late October from droppings of migratory birds and has since spread rapidly across the nation. The first outbreak at a chicken farm was reported in mid November. Many have criticized the government for its slow response amid turmoil triggered by President Park Geun-hye’s political scandal and subsequent impeachment by parliament.

south korea
tariffs
bird flu
eggs
poultry


A new year, a new prayer, and hopefully luck

Abstract: New Year’s Day is not just the first day of the year in this country — it has a special meaning. Jan. 1 is when people invite a god into their homes — the Shinto deity that presides over safety and prosperity for the year to come. People believe that everything — the sun, the moon, water and fire — is reborn on the day when the new year begins. It is said that “the god of the year” visits each house to bring happiness for the year. To welcome the god and receive the blessing, people have created a variety of New Year’s Day rituals and customs. As the old year winds down, they sweep away the dust and clean every corner of the house, which they then decorate with auspicious ornaments and offerings, including kadomatsu , a decoration made with pine branches and bamboo, shimekazari , made of pine branches, rice straw, plastic cranes and other lucky charms, and decorative kagami mochi pounded rice cakes in a two-mound stack. ‘Kagami mochi,’ a rice-cake offering, sits at Koishikawa Korakuen Gardens on Jan. 2. | SATOKO KAWASAKI After the day breaks on Jan. 1, many people go out to greet the first sunrise of the year, which is also believed to bring luck. The custom, in which people make a wish and proclaim their new year’s resolutions, started to become widespread across the nation in the Meiji Era (1868-1912). During that time, it became popular to visit a Shinto shrine located in the direction of a lucky cardinal or ordinal point, depending on the year’s Chinese zodiac sign. People wait in line from first light to get the first amulet given by the shrine. The visit is thought to be the origin of the current custom of visiting a shrine or Buddhist temple for the new year. People visit Sensoji Temple in Tokyo’s Asakusa district on Sunday. | SATOKO KAWASAKI In recent times, regardless of direction, famous shrines and temples attract throngs of people who are keen to pray for good luck for the new year. Trains run all night on New Year’s Eve to accommodate them. Every year, about 3 million people visit Meiji Shrine and Sensoji Temple over the first three days.


Germany legalizes cannabis for medicinal purposes

Abstract: BERLIN - Germany’s lower house of parliament on Thursday passed a law that legalizes the use of cannabis for medicinal purposes for people who are chronically ill. Those suffering from serious illnesses such as multiple sclerosis and chronic pain or a lack of appetite or nausea could be offered marijuana under the law. The draft law says patients will only have the right to be treated with cannabis “in very limited exceptional cases” and patients will not be allowed to grow their own cannabis. “Those who are severely ill need to get the best possible treatment and that includes health insurance funds paying for cannabis as a medicine for those who are chronically ill if they can’t be effectively treated any other way,” said Health Minister Hermann Groehe. A Health Ministry spokeswoman said cannabis would only be used as a last resort when nothing else seemed to work. She said a scientific study would simultaneously be carried out to assess the effects of cannabis use in such cases. Until now patients had only been able to get access to cannabis for medicinal purposes with special authorization which had made it complicated, but now they will be able to get a prescription from their doctors and a refund for it from their health insurance fund, she said. She said the law was likely to take effect in March after a procedural reading by the upper house of parliament. State-supervised cannabis plantations will be set up in Germany in future and until then cannabis will be imported. Other countries that allow cannabis to be used for medical purposes include Italy and the Czech Republic.


Hemp used for world's first 'bio-based' bridge

Abstract: EINDHOVEN, NETHERLANDS - While plenty of cannabis goes up in smoke in coffee shops around the Netherlands, Dutch researchers have found a new use for it — as an environmentally friendly building material to rival cement or steel. They have used hemp — a variety of cannabis which has many industrial applications including in textiles and insulation — and flax — the plant that linen is made of — to make an experimental footbridge to test the materials’ load-bearing properties. “Actually it’s the first ‘bio-based’ bridge in the world, as far as we know,” said Rijk Blok, an assistant professor of structural design at the Eindhoven University of Technology. The hemp and flax fibers are combined in a resin that is stuck to a core made of polylactic acid, a polymer also made of plant material, to form the span of the 14-meter (46-foot) bridge over a stream on the university campus. The developers — at several Dutch colleges and companies — are using sensors to monitor the bridge’s performance as people walk and run over it for a year. They first had to demonstrate that the bridge could withstand a load of 500 kilograms per square meter in laboratory stress tests before building permission was granted. “This was our research — trying to find out: Can they be used in a structural load-bearing capacity? And this bridge is the proof,” Blok said.


Japan sees sharp rise in number of foreign nursing care students

Abstract: Nursing care schools have seen a surge in the number of foreign students following a legal amendment making it easier for prospective caregivers to acquire resident status in rapidly graying Japan. The rise in foreign students training to become caregivers is a boon for schools. As the nation faces a serious labor shortage in its nursing care sector, it has struggled to attract workers willing to toil in demanding conditions for poor pay. According to the Japan Association of Training Institutions for Certified Care Workers, comprising bodies including vocational schools and junior colleges, the number of foreign students nationwide has grown to 257 in fiscal 2016, more than seven-fold from 34 in fiscal 2011. Under bilateral economic partnership agreements between Japan and Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam, prospective caregivers can only obtain resident status in Japan after at least three years of work experience and passing the national qualification exam in their fourth year. But an amendment to the immigration law, which was passed last year and will come into force this year, enables foreign students at nursing care schools to obtain resident status in Japan after being certified as caregivers by the state. Spurred by this legal change, which the industry hopes will lead to an increase in foreigners working as nursing caregivers, foreign nationals including students at Japanese language schools are seizing the opportunity to study nursing care. The Japan Welfare Education College in Tokyo has 15 foreign students after 10 enrolled last spring. Nationalities include Vietnamese, Nepalese and Filipino, and many of the students wish to eventually work in Japan, school officials said. Among the group is Vu Thi Thu Trang, a 29-year-old Vietnamese. “I am glad that foreigners can now work in Japan when they become caregivers. I want to stay on and engage in nursing care,” Trang said. The Kansai College of Social Welfare in Osaka is set to welcome around 30 Vietnamese students from this spring, comprising around half of its maximum 60-student intake per academic year. The college has been preparing to accept foreign students for the past two years. “The situation, in which the nursing care industry will have to rely on foreign nationals, will remain unchanged in the years to come,” school Principal Yohei Yamamoto said. One school in Tokyo has seen foreign students making up more than three-quarters of the 60 students who enrolled last year. By contrast, the overall number of students in Japan aiming to join the nursing care sector has seen a sharp decline, with the figure standing at 7,752 as of last April. This comprises only 46.4 percent of the quota. Kazuhiko Mashiko, a senior official of the Japan Association of Training Institutions for Certified Care Workers, said he “welcomes” the growing number of foreign students. “Accepting foreign students will also be part of an international contribution,” he noted. Eager to take advantage of this development, the Japan Association of Geriatric Health Services Facilities has set up a working group to consider introducing a scholarship for prospective caregivers, who can both study and work, with an eye to hiring them when they graduate. But several hurdles remain, such as language and cultural barriers for foreign caregivers. The pass rate for foreign examinees in the national qualification exam for fiscal 2015 testing was 50.9 percent. Junya Ishimoto, chairman of the Japan Association of Certified Care Workers, said he hoped the association can help ease the concerns of such caregivers. “So long as (aspirants) obtain a qualification, their nationality does not matter,” he said.


Palestinians seek prayers across Mideast to protest Trump-pledged U.S. Embassy move to Jerusalem

Abstract: RAMALLAH, WEST BANK - A senior Palestinian official called Tuesday for mosque and church prayers “from Pakistan to Tehran, from Lebanon to Oman” to protest the possible relocation of the U.S. Embassy in Israel to contested Jerusalem. The appeal came amid growing concerns in the region that President-elect Donald Trump will quickly make good on a campaign promise to move the embassy from Israel’s coastal city of Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Jordan, a key U.S. ally in the fight against Islamic militants and the custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, said last week that moving the embassy is a “red line.” Jordan also has close security ties with Israel. Mohammed Ishtayeh, an adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said Palestinian officials were told by “American circles and diplomatic friends” that Trump might reaffirm the relocation plan during his Jan. 20 inauguration. A Trump adviser has said moving the embassy was a priority for the incoming president, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has welcomed the idea. His office had no immediate reaction to Ishtayeh’s comments. The Palestinians hope to make east Jerusalem the capital of a future state that would also include the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Israel captured all three territories in the 1967 war and annexed east Jerusalem later that year. Israel considers all of Jerusalem to be its capital, but several Israeli leaders over the years have said they are open to a partition of the city as part of a peace deal with the Palestinians. Netanyahu, the current Israeli prime minister, has said Jerusalem, home to key Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy sites, is not up for negotiation. With Jerusalem’s status unresolved, most countries, including the United States, have maintained embassies in Tel Aviv. In recent days, Palestinian officials have warned that an embassy move would derail long-standing U.S.-led efforts to negotiate a two-state solution to the conflict. Such a solution has broad international backing, and the U.N. Security Council reaffirmed in December that east Jerusalem is part of the occupied territories. In moving the embassy to Jerusalem, the Trump administration would effectively recognize the entire city as the capital of Israel and thus pre-empt the outcome of any future negotiations, Ishtayeh told reporters Tuesday. “If it does so, frankly, we think this is the end of the two-state solution,” he said. “I hope President Trump does not underestimate the importance of Jerusalem for the Palestinians, Muslims and Christians.” In response to an embassy move, the Palestinians might seriously consider canceling a mutual recognition deal that was signed between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization, Ishtayeh warned. The 1993 Oslo accords paved the way for interim deals, including Palestinian self-rule in parts of the occupied lands. For now, the Palestinians and some of their allies are trying to exert greater public and diplomatic pressure. Abbas wrote to Trump and world leaders Monday, warning of the dangers of an embassy move. Ishtayeh said the Palestinian leadership is calling for protests after Friday prayers across the Muslim world. Churches in the region are being asked to ring their bells in protest on Sunday, he said.

israel
jerusalem
palestinians
u.s. embassy
west bank
donald trump


German swimmers dive into frosty waters to become 'Ice King of Chiemsee'

Abstract: PRIEN, GERMANY - Some 30 swimmers braved the frosty waters of Germany’s Chiemsee over the weekend, racing to be crowned “Ice King” of the famous lake near Munich. In driving snow, with air temperatures around freezing and water temperatures around 4 degrees Celsius, men and women competed in several disciplines such as breaststroke and freestyle in a 50 meter course off the town of Prien. The lake is known for its beautiful scenery and for a palace on one of its islands. Begun but never completed by Ludwig II of Bavaria, the palace was meant to the king’s own Versailles, but he stayed only a few nights at the palace before his premature death in 1886. Competitor Mirko Roever told Reuters TV he enjoyed the challenge. “Ice swimming is one of those things where you ask yourself: Why are you doing this? Well, for the health, the stamina,” Roever said. “And it requires a bit of willpower. That is very important. To overcome your ‘weaker self’ and be able to say that you did it. That is the great thing about it,” he added. Ice or winter dips are common in Scandinavian and Baltic countries, where swimmers will take to saunas afterwards to warm up.


Australia disappointed by Japan's whale hunt in Southern Ocean

Abstract: SYDNEY - Australia said Monday it is “deeply disappointed” that Japan has continued whaling in the Southern Ocean after anti-whaling activists published a photograph of a dead whale two days after Australian and Japanese leaders discussed the issue. Australia has long opposed Japanese whaling and the contentious issue was raised in talks between Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Sydney on Saturday, sources familiar with the talks said. “The Australian government is deeply disappointed that Japan has decided to return to the Southern Ocean this summer to undertake so-called scientific whaling,” Australian Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg said Monday. “It is not necessary to kill whales in order to study them,” Frydenberg added, without confirming the exact location of the current hunt. The International Court of Justice ruled in 2014, in a case brought by Australia, that Japan’s whaling in the Southern Ocean should stop, prompting the government to suspend the hunt for one season, though it resumed in 2015. The government maintains that most whale species are not endangered and that eating whale is part of Japanese culture. The government started what it calls scientific whaling in 1987, a year after an international whaling moratorium took effect. The anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd published a photograph Sunday of what it said was a minke whale on the deck of the whaling ship Nisshin Maru. The whale appeared to have been punctured by a harpoon. Sea Shepherd claimed the ship was hunting in an Australian sanctuary off the Antarctic coast. The photograph is the first of the Japanese whaling fleet hunting in the Southern Ocean since the 2014 court ruling, Sea Shepherd said in a statement. Footage shows the dead whale was later covered with a blue tarp. Frydenberg said Australia will continue to press its strong opposition to whaling at the International Whaling Commission.


Japanese law for endangered wildlife set for what critics call toothless revamp

Abstract: The Law on Conservation of Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora is set to be revised once again to further improve government measures to prevent vulnerable animal and plant species from becoming extinct. Conservationists say they scored some victories in 2016, symbolized by the September announcement by the International Union for Conservation of Nature that the giant panda had been taken off the list of “endangered” animals and is now classified as “vulnerable,” a less-threatening class. The population of wild giant pandas grew to 1,864 in 2014 from 1,596 in 2004. However, the IUCN’s Red List is still 82,954 items long, with 23,928 species “threatened with extinction.” Japan is no stranger to the issue. According the Environment Ministry’s Red List published in 2015, 3,596 species in Japan are threatened. Because the amendment made to the law on conservation required further revisions three years after it took effect, the ministry in November drafted a report on additional measures the government could take and solicited public feedback until Wednesday. Reflecting those comments, a ministry official said another amendment bill will probably be submitted to the Diet by the end of the year. What is the government doing to protect endangered species? The conservation law took effect in 1993 as the only one in the nation aimed at preventing wildlife from going extinct. It was revised 20 years later after conservation groups including World Wildlife Fund Japan argued that the law had become outdated. Although more than 3,000 species were on Japan’s Red List then, only 90, or 2.5 percent, were actively being targeted for preservation. By comparison, a similar law in the United States covered 1,382 species, with conservation projects underway for 1,137 of them. After the revision in 2013, the government adopted “supplementary resolutions” affirming that “preserving biodiversity” was the law’s main objective and outlining a need to educate the public about its importance. The resolutions were praised by WWF Japan. The revision also raised the maximum penalties for violators. Individuals now face up to five years in prison or a ¥5 million fine, instead of a year in prison or a ¥1 million fine, and businesses can be fined up to ¥100 million rather than ¥1 million. What are the main measures proposed in the draft report? The 1993 law mandated that the government single out particularly fragile animal and plant species as “vulnerable domestic wildlife” and regulate their domestic trade. In the 2013 revision, the government set a numerical target of 300 species for the new designation by 2020. So far, 208 have received it, including 33 newly announced in December. These include insects such as the Kumejima firefly that inhabits Okinawa. The same month saw restrictions slapped on domestic and international trade in 22 foreign species, including the African gray parrot, a popular pet, and the Pangolin, which was considered nearly extinct by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) held in Johannesburg last year. However, the biggest takeaway from the report is that there are limits to what the government alone can do. Out of the 208 designated vulnerable species, measures have been taken to help only 63, led mainly by the government with assistance from private-sector organizations. The report says conservation programs should also involve facilities such as zoos and botanical gardens, adding that protection and breeding campaigns “will be limited if run only by the government.” In addition, it says intensive capturing and harvesting by commercial traders is a big concern. Revisions should be made to restrict such practices while leaving room for capturing endangered species for research, it says. What measures are being proposed to restrict trade in ivory or other items made from vulnerable species? The current law requires owners of ivory acquired from internationally endangered species, including elephants, as well as owners of animals obtained before they were deemed endangered and covered by CITES regulations, to obtain a license from the Environment Ministry to keep or trade such goods. Such licenses must also be returned if any of the ivory that was in their possession was cut into pieces. In addition, owners of endangered species must return the license to the ministry if the protected plant or animal in their possession dies . The ministry points out that the maximum fine for violating the process — ¥300,000 — is low, which means licenses often remain unreturned and are used by unscrupulous businesses to trade unregistered items. To counter the problem, the ministry is proposing that microchips be attached to all registered wildlife. What do conservationists think of the draft report? The law aims to protect both domestic and foreign species present in Japan from extinction. However, conservationists say the law lacks teeth and encourages the poaching of African elephants and other species abroad. The CITES conference in October voted unanimously to ban domestic trade of elephant ivory, but a clause was attached to let Japan continue using ivory, mostly for hanko (personal seals) or accessories, after the nation’s representatives claimed the market here is rigorously controlled. The U.S., by contrast, almost banned ivory trade entirely in July, and China announced in December that it would shut down its market by the end of 2017. In the report, the ministry proposes that all businesses be required to list their trading license numbers in ads online, where most of the trading takes place, because it is difficult for the public to tell which businesses are legal. Although the ministry has been cracking down on illegal traders, conservationists say the domestic ivory trade is providing shelter for illegal traders and smugglers. There are “several thousand tons” of ivory that domestic traders are hoarding in the form of whole tusks and large pieces, WWF Japan said, urging the government to introduce a stricter inspection and registration mechanism for such items.

endangered species
ivory
cites
environment


2017: a year for sumo nostalgia

Abstract: On Jan. 22, 30-year-old ozeki (champion) Kisenosato (real name Yutaka Hagiwara) emerged victorious in the New Year Grand Sumo Tournament with an outstanding record of 14 wins and only one loss. His promotion to history’s 72nd yokozuna (grand champion) was confirmed by the Japan Sumo Association three days later. The announcement was greeted with jubilation in Kisenosato’s home prefecture of Ibaraki, as well as by fans across the nation. Whatever sumo fans might have been thinking, the domestic media was careful to avoid stating that Kisenosato was the first “Japanese” to be named to the top rank since Wakanohana in 1998. Rather, Kisenosato was referred to as “ Nihon-shusshin” — which in English has been rendered variously as “Japan-born,” “native-born,” “home-grown,” “made in Japan” or other such expressions. Since sumo has developed into an international sport, this steers away from the implication that a naturalized citizen should be regarded as any less “Japanese” than a person of so-called Yamato ethnicity. It’s a distinction that’s become increasingly important, because growing numbers of wrestlers from abroad have obtained Japanese citizenship, which is required by the JSA if they want to become a toshiyori (elder) and operate their own stable of wrestlers after they retire. One noted individual who went that route is a 72-year-old man with a bushy white beard who goes by the name Daigoro Watanabe. Born Jesse James Wailani Kuhaulua on the Hawaiian island of Maui in June 1944, he arrived in Japan in 1964 and during his sumo career competed under the name Takamiyama (“High-view Mountain”). The special Bessatsu Takarajima “mook” (magazine-book) dated Dec. 31 and currently on sale recalls that the coming Osaka tournament in March will mark 50 years since Takamiyama made headlines when he became the first foreign-born sekitori , as salaried members of sumo’s two highest divisions are called. At 192 centimeters and more than 200 kilograms, he was one of the tallest and heaviest competitors at the time, but his top-heavy physique made him vulnerable to quick moves. He depended mostly on sheer strength and momentum, as opposed to grabbing his opponents’ belts and downing them with throwing techniques. Nonetheless he avoided illness and serious injury and still holds sumo’s record for most consecutive top division bouts with 1,231. The late Andy Adams, sumo columnist for The Japan Times, believed this qualified Takamiyama as the “greatest sekiwake (junior champion) of all time.” He also deserves special recognition as a pioneer for non-Japanese entering the sport. According to Bessatsu Takarajima, out of the 186 foreign wrestlers who have attempted to enter professional sumo, 48 have reached the ranks of the top makunouchi division for at least one tournament. This puts their odds of making it at about 1 in 4, considerably better than for all competitors, which is said to be about 1 out of 10. Within a year of his ascension, Takamiyama was competing with top-ranked wrestlers. In a bout with yokozuna Sadanoyama, he took his first kinboshi (gold star), awarded to rank-and-file wrestlers who defeat a grand champion. Later the same year he defeated a second yokozuna, Kashiwado. In the Nagoya tournament of 1972, Takamiyama won his first and only tournament, with a record of 13 wins and two losses. He married a Japanese woman and took her surname, Watanabe, when he obtained Japanese citizenship in 1980. After retiring in 1982, he opened his own stable, Azumazeki, and his accomplishments continued, as he nurtured fellow Hawaiian Chad Rowan to become yokozuna Akebono in 1993. The Asahi Shimbun (Jan. 7), meanwhile, featured a nostalgic portrayal of the late David M. Jones (1915-2005), a nonwrestler who enjoyed a “career” in the sumo ring. In May 1961, 11 years and two months before Takamiyama was to win a tournament, Jones began presenting the Pan American World Airways trophy — an enormous winged globe standing 115 cm high and weighing 42 kg — on the final day of each tournament. He did this six times a year for the next 30 years. Clad in formal Japanese kimono, the diminutive Jones always began by exclaiming “Hyō-shō-JŌ!” (certificate of award) and then reading a brief presentation speech. When the tournaments were held in Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka, he would deliver his speeches in the local dialect — much to the delight of his audience. At the January 1973 tournament Jones lifted the top-heavy trophy, stumbled and toppled over backward, pinned beneath it until the tournament winner, Kotozakura — who was trying hard not to laugh — picked it up and helped Jones back on his feet. In addition to Japan, trophies or plaques are currently awarded at sumo tournaments by eight other countries: the Czech Republic, the United Arab Emirates, Mexico, China, Hungary, Mongolia, France and Bulgaria. While Pan American airlines is long gone, its trophy can be viewed at the sumo museum in Ryogoku. As a historical footnote, Jones also arranged for his airline to sponsor Takamiyama, who had been scouted as a high school football player in Maui by the veterans’ club of Hawaii’s famous 442nd regimental combat team. Takamiyama’s kesshō mawashi (ceremonial apron) bore the unit’s “Go for Broke” insignia. Returning for a moment to the subject of the newest yokozuna, Kisenosato, not all media coverage of his promotion has been rosy. Yukan Fuji (Jan. 25) cautioned sumo fans to brace themselves for the possibility of what it terms a “short-lived jinx.” It seems that since the introduction of the current system of six annual tournaments in 1958, only four ozeki (Asahifuji, Kotozakura, Mienoumi and Takanosato) achieved promotion to yokozuna after reaching age 30. Subsequently the former two only won a single tournament; the latter pair each won two tournaments. The post-promotion careers of the four turned out to be disappointingly brief, averaging less than two years. With the men in the top ranks starting to show their age, and no clear favorites yet among the younger up-and-comers, sumo might very well be in for a turbulent year.


Media starts to focus on Japan's aging prison population

Abstract: When it comes to crime and punishment, Japan is a conundrum for progressives. It has low crime rates and small prison populations, but it is also one of the few developed countries that still enforces capital punishment, and its criminal justice system is often criticized for giving too much power to prosecutors. These issues will surely be discussed at the next U.N.-sponsored Crime Congress, which will take place in Japan in 2020. The Japan Federation of Bar Associations (JFBA) has said it will make greater efforts toward abolishing the death penalty and instituting life sentences without parole as a possible replacement before the conference takes place , but it is looking at other aspects of the Criminal Code, which hasn’t changed since 1907. The media lately has taken note of the aging population of Japanese prisons . Usually, their interest in criminal justice extends only until a suspect in a particular case has been tried and sentenced, but with more than 20 percent of prison inmates now over 60 years old, they’ve started paying attention to the prison system itself. One reason for the large number of old people in jail is recidivism. Many ex-cons can’t adjust to life outside and so purposely get arrested in order to be sent back to the only home they know. What the media doesn’t explain is that recidivism itself is a function of the justice system’s lack of will when it comes to rehabilitation. Prison in Japan is about punishment, which is why the LFBA has demanded revisions to the parole system. Last November, the Asahi Shimbun reported that for the past decade, less than 10 prisoners who had been sentenced to indefinite prison terms ( mukichōeki ) had been released on parole each year. In the 1970s, the average number of prisoners granted parole each year was 70. According to the JFBA, the problem has to do with sentencing. The longest definite prison term is 20 years. The only longer options are indefinite sentences and capital punishment. When foreign media report on trials in Japan they tend to translate “mukichōeki” as “life sentence,” and during a recent discussion on TBS Radio , professor Koichi Hamai of Ryukoku University said this interpretation is not far off the mark, though it would be more accurate to call it “life without parole,” because that’s what an indefinite sentence almost always turns into. Technically, a prisoner with an indefinite sentence can apply for parole after serving 10 years, but Hamai said this has never happened. Because the longest definite sentence is 20 years, practically speaking no one with an indefinite sentence will receive a hearing until he has served at least that long. And since 1998, when changes were made so that definite sentences could be “augmented” if there were aggravating circumstances — for instance, a murder happened during the commission of a robbery — almost no one with an indefinite sentence has received a parole hearing until he’s served at least 30 years. Moreover, if a hearing is allowed but the parole is denied, the prisoner has to wait another 10 years to apply again, and the number of applications is limited to three during an individual’s incarceration. In 2010, the JFBA said that indefinite sentences in most cases had become de facto life sentences, regardless of the crime committed. As of the end of 2015 there were 1,835 prisoners serving indefinite sentences, 45 percent of whom were over 60. Twelve had been in prison for more than 50 years. “More people serving indefinite sentences die in prison than get paroled,” Hamai said. And yet the public thinks the opposite — that mukichōeki inmates tend to go free after 10 years or so. Hamai’s interviewer, critic Chiki Ogiue, said this is the fault of the media, which, when covering sensational murder trials, imply that anything less than a death penalty could result in a convicted killer going free after a certain period of time, since criminals with indefinite sentences can apply for parole. But they never report how that never happens. This myth partly explains why the Japanese public supports capital punishment. One reason so few paroles are granted is structural. The JFBA insists that there are not enough qualified officers to supervise parolees and ex-convicts, and 80 percent of the existing officers are already over 60. This shortage of human resources puts back pressure on the system. Last year, only 31 parole cases were heard. Shinichi Ishizuka, a law professor, told the Asahi that the number of indefinite sentences has increased in the past two decades and placed a substantial burden on Japan’s prison system. He says the government has a responsibility to “create an environment where (ex-convicts) can return to society.” Right now, the government is discussing a new bill that will allow individuals to be tried as adults at age 18 instead of 20 . The policy for juvenile offenders is to rehabilitate them. That’s why they are sent to “correction facilities” and not prisons, which are places of punishment. Another Asahi report , published Jan. 23, says that the Justice Ministry responded to criticism of the bill by opening up possibilities for new forms of sentencing that will incorporate rehabilitation. Judges may be required to postpone sentencing for certain nonviolent crimes so that they can determine whether or not a convicted criminal “is capable of being rehabilitated.” Another change would be to offer educational opportunities to inmates who are now required to perform labor — printing, woodworking — that is skilled but not necessarily in demand on the outside. The Justice Ministry says it will form an advisory panel next month to study these changes, any of which would be monumental given that the Criminal Code hasn’t been amended for more than a century. The media’s focus on the aging prison population could help make such progress possible by also showing the public how inmates have human rights and prisons in their current capacity are simply dumping grounds for society’s losers.


'Atmospheric river' triggers deluge, floods, evacuations across California, Nevada

Abstract: FORESTVILLE, CALIFORNIA/LOS ANGELES - A massive storm system stretching from California into Nevada sent rivers climbing out of their banks, flooded vineyards and forced people to evacuate after warnings that hillsides parched by wildfires could give way to mudslides. Northern California’s Russian River rose to its highest level since 2006, and schools and roads were closed across the wine-making region of Sonoma County, where thousands of people were without power. Avalanche concerns kept some California ski areas closed for a second day Monday in the Sierra Nevada. Forecasters said more snow and rain was on the way. In Nevada near Reno, Nevada National Guard high-water vehicles were deployed to help people evacuate from a town. The Russian River is prone to flooding, but this year’s flood has been particularly worrisome because it threatened to topple trees weakened by six years of drought. Jeff Watts, an artist, spent an anxious night listening for the sound of falling trees on his land. On Monday, he found his drive to work blocked by a tree that had fallen on a car. Emergency crews were working to extract the vehicle. “I couldn’t get past the tree, so I turned around and I’m doing this,” said Watts, who had pulled over to photograph oak trees and their reflections in the floodwater. Over the weekend, toppled trees crashed against cars and homes and blocked roads in the San Francisco Bay Area. Stranded motorists had to be rescued from cars stuck on flooded roads. A giant tree fell across a highway in Hillsborough to the south of San Francisco, injuring a driver who couldn’t brake in time and drove into the tree. And a woman was killed Saturday by a falling tree while she took a walk on a golf course. To the south near Los Angeles, commuters were warned of possible highway flooding and mudslides in hilly areas. Emergency workers in Nevada voluntarily evacuated about 1,300 people from 400 homes in a Reno neighborhood as the Truckee River overflowed and drainage ditches backed up. In the city of Sparks neighboring Reno, Bob Elsen said he never expected so much rain in Nevada’s high desert, where only 8 inches of precipitation normally falls each year. He moved to Sparks from perpetually wet Bremerton, Washington. “I don’t think I’ve seen this much rain since I moved here six years ago,” Elsen said, watching the Truckee River rise. “It’s why I moved out of Washington to get away from this stuff.” The worst flooding in Sparks was expected to send several feet of water early Monday into an industrial area where 25,000 people work. The back-to-back storms that have hit California and Nevada since last week are part of an “atmospheric river” weather system that draws precipitation from the Pacific Ocean as far west as Hawaii with potentially catastrophic consequences for areas hit by the heaviest rain. Schools were also canceled in Reno and Sparks, and Gov. Brian Sandoval told all nonessential state government workers to stay home Monday after he declared a state of emergency. In California’s Calaveras Big Trees State park, a well-known giant sequoia tree known for the huge tunnel carved through its trunk that cars once passed through came toppling down, The San Francisco Chronicle reported. Park volunteer Joan Allday said the tree had been weakening and leaning severely to one side for several years. “It was barely alive. There was one branch alive at the top,” she told the newspaper. Farther north, two major highways across the Sierra Nevada were partially closed because of mudslides and roads leading to Yosemite National Park’s valley floor remained were closed amid fears that the Merced River could overflow and cause major flooding. The storms have knocked out power for more than 570,000 customers of Pacific Gas and Electric in Northern and Central California since Saturday, but electricity has been restored to almost all of them, said company spokesman Tom Schmitz. The storms are the latest in a wet winter expected to put a considerable dent in California’s years-long drought. Just north of San Francisco, rains caused the Russian River in Sonoma County to flood early on Monday, the county Sheriff’s department said. That led to the evacuation overnight of more than 3,000 residents in the area of Guerneville, Jonathan Gudel, a spokesman for the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, said by phone. In Nevada, residents of about 400 homes in Reno were ordered to evacuate on Monday as rains swelled the Truckee River, which flows through the city, Washoe County health agency spokesman Phil Ulibarri said by phone. Officials in both California and Nevada said they were still assessing flood damage on Monday. Over the weekend, wineries in California’s Napa Valley were spared damage from the heavy rain, which is expected to replenish water supplies for the state’s wine-making industry after five years of drought, said Patsy McGaughy, a spokeswoman for the Napa Valley Vintners. “We’re actually grateful to see the rain,” McGaughy said. In a sign of the rain’s intensity, California officials for the first time in a decade were considering opening floodgates at a weir on the Sacramento River to prevent flooding in areas of Sacramento, Lauren Hersh, a spokeswoman with the state Department of Water Resources, said by phone. On Sunday, 27 homes were damaged from flooding in Monterey County south of San Francisco when the Carmel River breached its banks, swamping some nearby properties, and rainwater inundated homes in the town of Seaside, Gerry Malais, the county emergency services director, said by phone.


Global elites sample sushi, sake at Japan Night in Davos

Abstract: DAVOS, SWITZERLAND - More than 500 guests sampled Wagyu beef and sushi made with Uonuma Koshihikari rice Wednesday at an event to promote Japan’s produce on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Dishes featuring yellowtail and scallops were also served at Japan Night, held in conjunction with the annual gathering of political and business elites. Thanks to the popularity of Japanese food, Japan Night has been known to attract large crowds in recent years. This year, the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry supported to the event, from selecting food items to inviting top-level chefs from Kyoto and London. Sake brewed in Kumamoto Prefecture, which is undergoing reconstruction following massive earthquakes last April, was especially popular. “It has a great flavor,” an Indian business owner said. “We are seeing more imports of Japanese sake to India these days, and I can see why.”


Stress mounts as fees fall in Japan for home deliveries

Abstract: In early December, a YouTube video of a Sagawa Express Co. delivery man throwing and kicking parcels went viral. The scene was recorded outside a Tokyo apartment building to which, apparently, the man had failed to deliver some packages because the recipients were not at home. This caused him to lose his temper, since it meant he would have to return later, and he took out his frustration on the parcels. To make matters worse, the day was quite windy, forcing the man to chase after several boxes. Sagawa apologized to the public and said the delivery man “regretted” what happened, but by that point the video had already been viewed thousands of times and TV stations had covered it extensively. Public reaction was split between condemnation and sympathy. According to the transport ministry, the three main takuhai (home delivery) services — Yamato, Sagawa and Japan Post, which together account for 91 percent of all parcel deliveries in Japan — handled 3.4 million items in 2015. Given that the ministry estimates 23.5 percent of packages are not delivered on the first attempt, that’s a lot of potential tantrums. This situation has only become worse with the rise of online retailers, whose business in the past 10 years has grown from ¥900 billion a year to ¥11 trillion, a greater than tenfold increase. The Nihon Net Keizai Shimbun estimates that revenues will reach ¥20 trillion by 2020, and will eventually go as high as ¥60 trillion, which would represent 20 percent of all retail revenues in Japan. Needless to say, delivery services are essential to online sales, and the higher the volume, the greater the pressure that online retailers exert on delivery companies to cut their fees. By far the biggest online retailer is Amazon.jp , with ¥700 billion in annual sales. Amazon is followed by Bell Maison, Yodobashi Camera, Nissen and Dell Computer, which together account for ¥10 billion in sales, according to research by Gekkan Net Hanbai. Amazon thus has a great deal of power behind its demand for services, and apparently that demand became too much for Sagawa, which in 2013 did not renew its contract with Amazon, saying it was no longer basing its business on volume and would instead focus on “quality of service.” The Nihon Net Keizai Shimbun reported that Sagawa’s revenues dropped by ¥60 million the next year while Yamato’s increased by about 10 percent or ¥150 billion. Obviously, Yamato benefited from Sagawa’s withdrawal, but you have to wonder at what cost. The newspaper says that Yamato has continued to cut its delivery fees for Amazon. In his 2015 book “Takuhai Jingi Naki” (“Inhumane Home Delivery”), journalist Masuo Yokota says that contracted Yamato delivery personnel have to pay for these discounts over time, either in pay or just plain stress. One contract driver who works on commission told him that Yamato only charges ¥150 for an Amazon delivery. The usual charge for home delivery starts at ¥600. Many contract drivers supply their own vehicles and pay all their own expenses. The driver told Yokota that in order to break even he has to make 150 deliveries a day. Gekkan Net Hanbai says that in the past several years the number of items that delivery companies handle has increased while their revenues have remained about the same, which would seem to indicate that online retailers are always pressuring delivery companies to reduce fees. This would make sense, since 85 percent of online retailers offer free delivery in certain circumstances. Amazon in particular has a very liberal free delivery policy, and customers can return any item without having to explain why, with the return delivery being free as well. According to the Marketing Research Camp website, price is still the main criterion consumers use when selecting an online retailer, but free delivery comes a close second. In its survey of users, 90 percent of respondents said that free delivery “influenced” or “heavily influenced” their purchasing decisions. Due to price pressure on commissions for contract workers and quotas for staff wage earners, drivers have to make as many deliveries as possible in a short period of time, which explains the Sagawa meltdown. Obviously, having multiple deliveries in one building is more efficient, but if no one is home it can be multiply maddening. The ideal situation for a driver is to work an area of higher population density, since it requires less stops and time spent going from door to door to make deliveries. Also, higher-density areas mean more difficulty finding places to park your vehicle for free. Most end up parking illegally. Consequently, the vehicles get cited by traffic police, and the drivers are responsible for paying the fines. Last year a number of Sagawa drivers were arrested for sending acquaintances to pay their fines. Parking violations count the same as moving violations on a driver’s record. Citations are only given to vehicles, so the person who shows up to settle the ticket is the one who takes the penalty, though it’s supposed to be the person who was driving on the day of the citation. Delivery workers can’t afford to accumulate penalties because they might lose their driver’s licenses. Package delivery is a high-stress, low-pay job, which explains the industry-wide 13 percent turnover rate. All a person needs to get a job with a package delivery service is a driver’s license, so there will likely always be drivers available for such work, but labor shortages are endemic throughout the industry. Around the time the video went viral, Sagawa announced that customers should expect delays during the busy holiday season due to a lack of drivers, thus adding more stress. To help remove this pressure, some delivery companies ask people who order items online to designate the best time to make a delivery in order to avoid return trips. Some deliver to convenience stores where customers can pick them up at their leisure, an option that’s popular among women who live alone and don’t like opening their doors to strangers. Japan Post equips its drivers with automatic fuzaishahyō writing devices that save them the time of having to write out “unable to deliver” notices by hand, which is still the norm for other delivery companies. Yen for Living covers issues related to making, spending and saving money in Japan on the second and fourth Sundays of the month.

transportation
delivery
amazon
japan post
yamato transport
sagawa express


In uncertain times, Japan opts to save

Abstract: A funny thing happened on the way to the marketplace. The crowd thinned out. Consumption? Been there, done that. Enough. It’s a watershed. Minimal consumption equals a minimal economy — which equals what, long-term? The dreadful deprivation of the 1930s and ’40s fed a consumption boom as prosperity returned in the ’50s and ’60s. The aspiration was clear: a middle-class lifestyle symbolized by the “three Cs” — car, air conditioner, color TV. By the early ’80s some 90 percent of Japanese felt they’d arrived. Frenzied, frivolous consumption characterized the “bubble” years that followed. The bubble burst in the early ’90s. The “lost decade” became lost decades. Today economists debate whether they are over. Some indicators are up, others down. Hiring and wages are up, consumption is down. It doesn’t compute. Or then again, muses the business magazine Shukan Toyo Keizai, maybe it does. Central to Abenomics, the reform package touted by the administration of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, is the “virtuous circle.” Loose money would spark a corporate resurgence, creating jobs, raising wages, stimulating spending. As big business revived, so would small business. Jobs for job-seekers, good pay for hard work, eager buyers for proliferating products — and so on, all the way back to the ’80s, hopefully minus the crash landing. It would take two years, Abe confidently predicted four years ago. What went wrong? Nothing, say the government and the Bank of Japan. Two years was over-optimistic; otherwise, Abenomics is on course. Unemployment is 3 percent, the lowest in years. Salaries are rising, albeit slowly. Consumption is just around the corner. Patience. It’s starting to wear a bit thin even among optimists, Toyo Keizai finds as it makes the rounds of supermarkets, clothing retailers, restaurants, department stores and so on and hears tales of economic languor everywhere, the conspicuous exception being convenience stores, which seem to be holding their own. Major corporations, to be sure, are prospering, but it’s not trickling down. Consumer spending is 60-odd percent of the Japanese economy. Stagnant, it holds the whole economy hostage. What’s holding consumers back? Two things, says Toyo Keizai: demography and anxiety — to which might be added a third, satori. Demography, of course, refers to the rapidly aging and declining population. The biggest spenders are aged 15 to 64. That population sector declined 3.4 percent between 2011 and 2016. The swelling elderly population does not benefit from rising wages, and from where they sit the future looks anxious indeed. Will the pension system that sustains them collapse? Will they need ever more expensive care and medication as they age? Consumer spending amid such uncertainties would seem irresponsible. Better to err on the side of caution. Global insecurity only heightens the sense of being adrift. The year just past rattled complacency. The catastrophic Kumamoto earthquake in April, the hyper-severe typhoons of August, political upheavals from Britain’s exit from the European Union to the election of maverick U.S. President Donald Trump, have a psychological impact not confined to those directly affected. The climate, the world, life itself are changing rapidly and incomprehensibly, and not for the better. Money in the bank represents security. But money in the bank does not fuel the economy. Young people too, Toyo Keizai notes, are spending less. They too are anxious about the future. Those now in their 20s never knew the bubble. They’d be hard-pressed to imagine it. They grew up in tense, penny-pinching times, witnesses from childhood to expanding part-time and shrinking full-time employment. Will their own livelihoods be secure? Will they get stuck in one of the notorious burakku kigyō (black companies) whose working conditions amount to a kind of slavery? Will they earn enough to pay back university loans, or support infirm parents as the life expectancy soars? Who, weighed down with such thoughts, feels like splurging? “Yes, but,” an Abenomics apologist might say, “look at housing” — and the point must be granted: Home purchases are up, backed by rock bottom interest rates that make debt seem a less daunting burden. Maybe too much so. You sign the papers and reality sets in — shown by the fact, says Toyo Keizai, that families with housing loans spend 15 percent less on consumer items than families without. One sector’s gain is another sector’s loss. Economic planning is one thing on paper, another thing entirely in the marketplace where living, breathing, unpredictable people jostle each other, never reacting quite as the planners expected. Working women, for example, were supposed to buy more as their income rose. Did anyone consider that their work, combined in many cases with child rearing, would leave them no time for nonessential shopping? Less interest in it too, apparently, as job satisfaction fills the void once filled by consumption. The possibility that steals into view is that consuming for the sake of consuming — consuming for fun, pleasure, leisure and status — has, in Japan at least, had its day. A name for the new era lying ahead might have some relation to the word “satori.” In 2010, a book by journalist Taku Yamaoka sparked talk of a “satori generation.” What Yamaoka had noticed, to his dismay, was that young people don’t seem to want anything anymore. He titled his book “Hoshigaranai Wakamonotachi” (“Young People Who Don’t Want Anything”). What he described was no religious overcoming of desire but rather a languid indifference, shaped by economic constraints, to anything that costs money; also to a lot that doesn’t — love, for instance. Toyo Keizai offers a variation on that theme. The smartphone, it suggests, offers so wide a portal to a virtual reality cornucopia as to make virtual consumption, virtual travel, virtual anything, more attractive— certainly less troublesome — than anything the so-called real world can tempt us with. An economy premised on insatiable desire may be facing its moment of truth: Desire is not insatiable.

economy
consumer spending
economic anxiety


Emperor's abdication highlights the inconvenience behind the country's Imperial naming system

Abstract: For two weeks the media has been buzzing about the news that Emperor Akihito will abdicate before 2019. Initially, it was reported that he’d step down on Dec. 31, 2018, and his son, Crown Prince Naruhito, would become the new Emperor the next day. Every media outlet seemed to accept this information despite the fact that no official announcement was made. When queried during one of his regular news conferences, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga expressed irritation while claiming that he knew nothing about any such report. The Imperial Household Agency was more specific in its articulation of annoyance, stating that such a scenario would be “difficult” owing to private Shinto rituals that the Imperial family conducts on New Year’s Day. The abdication report was a scoop by the Sankei Shimbun . The article appeared in the newspaper’s Jan. 10 morning edition, with all other media rehashing it by the next day. According to the Sankei’s anonymous sources, the main reason for the dates chosen is that having a new emperor ascend to the throne on New Year’s Day would cause the least amount of inconvenience to the public, since a new Imperial era would start on Jan. 1, thus allowing government offices, businesses and citizens to prepare for a new gengō (era name) that dovetailed perfectly with a new calendar year. Now, it appears the Emperor may abdicate on Dec. 23, 2018, his 85th birthday , and his son would ascend the throne on Dec. 24, a situation that could cause problems since the following seven days would comprise the first year of the new era, thus potentially messing up calendars, official documents and computer programs. Reports indicate that the government still hopes that even if abdication takes place on Dec. 23, it can postpone the start of the new era until Jan. 1, but that might require some legal hocus pocus. The Diet has yet to pass the special law to allow the current Emperor — and only the current Emperor — to abdicate, so they could possibly approve the era postponement at the same time. For all the attention the story has attracted, no media outlet has taken the opportunity to question the gengō system and its relevance in the 21st century — or any century, for that matter. The illogical nature of the system was built into the headline of the original Sankei story, which said that the new era would commence on the first day of “Heisei 31.” If, under the original scenario, the Crown Prince were to become emperor on Jan. 1, the Heisei Era, which designates the reign of his father, would cease to exist on that day, meaning Heisei 31 is an impossibility. The Sankei could have avoided this semantic quandary by simply writing “2019,” but being one of those media that steadfastly adheres to everything that counts as “traditionally Japanese,” the paper can’t bring itself to use a designation derived from an outside culture — or, at least, not in something as momentous as a headline. In the body of the accompanying article “2019” is written in parentheses right after “Heisei 31,” just in case some readers were confused. And “confusion” is the operative word here. The Sankei isn’t the only media that religiously sticks to gengō in its denotation of dates. NHK is even worse. I once saw an NHK news report that said the maglev express train currently under construction would probably not be paid off until Heisei 84, another year that only exists in “The Twilight Zone” unless some method is found to cryogenically preserve the current Emperor. The reason they use such a designation is because the start and the name of the next era can’t be known until the current Emperor dies or steps down, so it’s more convenient to project the Heisei Era into the future as a reference. Well, no. It’s more convenient to use the Gregorian calendar, the “most widely used civil calendar” in the world, according to Wikipedia , and one that is widely used in Japan as well. What makes gengō especially troublesome is its application to relative time. As long as a date falls within the current Imperial era, there’s no problem, but when it doesn’t, you need a calculator and an encyclopedia to figure out the proper designation, and the more eras that fall between now and whatever past event you’re referencing, the more difficult it is. Before the Meiji Era (1868-1912), it becomes impossible, since gengō didn’t often correspond to Imperial reigns. Many were reboots that occurred during a particular reign for arbitrary reasons, such as reversing bad luck following a natural disaster. One era lasted a single day. There have been 247 gengō since the system started in 646 A.D. Takao Yamada wrote an apologia for gengō in the Mainichi Shimbun last week. Opening with the syntactically challenging assertion that “there is no one who says that a new gengō is not necessary,” he nevertheless goes on to explain why some people object to it, namely, that it is “irrational, undemocratic and unusable in international society.” However, gengō must be maintained because it is “rooted in Japanese society” and, to Yamada, “we can’t live without it.” He relates its history and cites a scholar who believes that abolishing gengō “will lead to an interruption of history and tradition as well as a collapse of culture.” As an illustration, the scholar mentions how people no longer use the unit “go” to measure a volume of sake, as if were a soul-killing development. The Asahi Shimbun offered a more practical discussion of the matter on Jan. 14. Dozens of hired experts, the paper said, will have to pore over official records to make sure proposed gengō for the new era weren’t used before and that they don’t mimic place or personal names. On the other hand, printing companies will make a great deal of money churning out revised documents. In essence, the common media wisdom is that gengō is vital to the Japanese identity and creates a lot of unnecessary work. That sounds about right.

royalty
emperor akihito
imperial family
abdication
emperor naruhito


Are female scholars taken seriously in Japan?

Abstract: There is a small group of female TV personalities whose claim to fame is that they graduated from the University of Tokyo , the most prestigious institute of higher learning in Japan. Like most TV personalities, these women have no demonstrable talent, and in almost every case when they appear on variety and talk shows they never discuss what they studied. They often show up on quiz shows where they can either confirm expectations about their intelligence or delight viewers by revealing they don’t know as much as they should, but overall there really isn’t any discernible difference between them and other entertainers peddled by production companies. What is it that makes these women interesting? The answer is that they represent a rare species. Not many women attend the University of Tokyo, colloquially known as Todai. Less than 20 percent of its undergraduates are female and now, it appears, the school itself is wondering if it shouldn’t do more to raise that rate. Starting this spring, Todai will offer housing subsidies of ¥30,000 a month to selected female students who would normally have to commute more than 90 minutes one-way to the Komaba campus in Meguro Ward. The subsidy would be available to some 100 students per year for no more than two years and regardless of their parents’ income. Todai thinks many qualified women are discouraged from applying to Todai because of the financial and safety concerns attendant with living away from home. The selected students will reside near the campus in an apartment building with strict security measures. In an article about the subsidy that appeared in Asahi Shimbun on Dec. 26 , an official of the school said, “We know parents of female students are worried about their daughters living on their own in a big city.” The Asahi reporter also talked to a number of young women who said that they were attending universities or colleges near their homes because their parents would not allow them to live anywhere else. However, safety and cost aren’t the only reasons women don’t move away from their families in order to go to college. Many told the reporter that their parents didn’t see the point in women receiving four years of higher education. Such an opinion sounds trite and old-fashioned, but apparently it still holds sway. One woman currently enrolled at Todai said that before she graduated from a high school in the Tohoku region, she was encouraged by her adviser to apply to Todai, but her mother and grandmother disapproved. “They thought it was a waste of time for me to work so hard, because I’m a girl,” she said. In her family, only boys went to university, but she applied anyway. The first time she took the entrance exam she failed, but the next year she took it again and passed. Interestingly enough, it was her father who encouraged her to keep trying. The story is meant to illustrate that higher education in Japan is not considered a priority for women, and in order for female applicants to succeed in gaining access to university, an extra measure of resolve is just as important as scholastic ability. Nevertheless, Todai has been criticized for the plan. Asahi reports that more than 80 people have accused the university of reverse discrimination. Advocates of the plan countered that there is nothing discriminatory about it, because women still have to meet the same rigorous entrance requirements as men. An expert on constitutional law sees the subsidy as a proactive attempt to promote gender parity, which would exist naturally if all other things in Japanese society were equal. In that regard, media coverage of the plan has sparked debate about whether or not female scholars are taken seriously. The upshot of the 2014 scandal involving STAP cell researcher Haruko Obokata , who was hounded out of academia for allegedly fabricating data, is that she was, like the TV personalities mentioned earlier, adored as a curiosity. However, once she was suspected of having sinned against science, her punishment was harsher than it would have been for a man. The implication was that, as a woman, she didn’t belong in that world in the first place. A feature about the subsidy that appeared in Tokyo Shimbun on Nov. 19 included interviews with female Todai students who said they still faced veiled opposition in society at large. One told the reporter that she believes people are somehow “scared” of female Todai students, as if being accepted at the university represented the death of a natural order. Another said she didn’t think the subsidy would make a difference until women gained respect as academics first. The situation is so twisted that some female applicants have been warned that they can’t hope to get married because potential husbands will be too intimidated by their elevated status as Todai graduates. Statistics seem to validate these suppositions. In October 2015, after the governor of Kagoshima Prefecture was blasted for saying that girls didn’t really need to learn trigonometry, an article appeared in Newsweek Japan confirming that Kagoshima had one of the worst rates in the country for female advancement to university. Moreover, in a survey of 59 countries carried out by the World Values Survey Association and cited by the magazine, 22.5 percent of Japanese said that university education was more important for males than it was for females, the third highest national portion on the list. The survey results and the Kagoshima governor’s remark reflect beliefs that permeate the conversation about education and thus influence a woman’s outlook while she is still young. There is, of course, no evidence that young women are less capable of excelling in certain scholastic fields than young men. Achievement depends at least partly on the message received. In Japan, males overwhelmingly dominate the fields of mathematics and hard science, while females overwhelmingly dominate music studies . It all has to do with what is expected of them.

gender equality
education
university of tokyo


Figuring out Japan's unsolved mysteries

Abstract: As a visit to any large public library or online search will reveal, Japan boasts a superb body of crime literature, both fiction and nonfiction. Among these, English readers may be most familiar with a half-dozen works by Seicho Matsumoto (1909-92). Many of his novels, such as “Kuroi Fukuin” (“The Black Gospel,” 1959) were loose reconstructions of actual events. Matsumoto’s nonfiction work included “Nihon no Kuroi Kiri” (“The Black Mist of Japan”), which was serialized in the monthly Bungei Shunju magazine in 1960. It featured accounts of baffling incidents in the immediate postwar period such as the enigmatic Teikoku Bank murder-robbery of 1948, and the mysterious death of Japan National Railways President Sadanori Shimoyama in 1949. Koji Kata (1918-98) was another author who produced a massive body of work, much of which concerned historical crimes spanning the Edo, Meiji, Taisho and early Showa eras (from 1600 to the 1940s). He published several histories about Japan’s most celebrated bandits, brigands and thieves of yore, and can be credited with having penned the insightful observation, “Nobody ever set out in life with the ambition of becoming a yakuza.” More recently, one of Japan’s most prolific investigative reporters has been journalist Fumiya Ichihashi. Ichihashi is a nom de plume written with the same kanji characters as his alma mater, Hitotsubashi University; the characters for “Fumiya” can also be read bunya , a slang term for a newspaper reporter. Last November, Shogakukan published a compendium of the notes and records from stories Ichihashi has covered, titled “Mo Jiko Dakara, Subete Hanaso Ka: Judai Jiken Koko dake no Hanashi,” which can loosely be rendered in English as “Since the Statute of Limitations Has Already Expired, Shall I Tell It All? Stories About Major Cases You Can Only Get Here.” The chapters include several famous unresolved cases such as the Glico-Morinaga corporate blackmail incidents of 1984-85; the ¥300 million Toshiba payroll robbery in 1968; and the 2013 slaying of Takayuki Ohigashi, president of the Gyoza no Osho restaurant chain. Harnessing inductive reasoning, Ichihashi has shown an exceptional ability to deconstruct the details of a crime and suggest possibilities that the police may have overlooked. It’s fascinating, too, to read how he first examines a hypothesis from various perspectives and then rejects it. For example, in a series of articles appearing in Shincho 45 magazine in 1995 related to a gang that engaged in various crimes in the Kansai area in the mid-1980s, referred to collectively as the Glico-Morinaga incident, Ichihashi noted how the crimes commenced with the abduction of Ezaki Glico’s president, then-42-year-old Katsuhisa Ezaki, from his own home on the night of March 18, 1984. The day after the kidnapping, the value of the company’s shares fell from ¥745 to ¥620. By April 13, it had dropped below ¥600 and within two weeks it was down to ¥485. Ezaki fortunately escaped unharmed from captivity and his company recovered; but the same criminals then targeted Morinaga products, and the firm’s shares promptly plummeted from ¥670 to ¥508. By the end of 1984, their value was down by almost half, to ¥380. From the brazen nature of the crimes, investigators may have suspected the abduction and extortion was an attempt to profit from fluctuations in their share prices; but Ichihashi correctly pointed out that the country’s Finance Ministry required anyone selling short to post a retainer of at least 10 percent. And, of course, records of all the transactions were easily available to investigators. No arrests were ever made in the case and the statute of limitations expired years ago. Then came Jan. 1, 2001, the first day of the new millennium. Subscribers to The Japan Times — myself included — may recall arising to retrieve their newspapers while wondering what bright and hopeful message the front page might carry. However, a rather large headline on that day read: “Police suspect burglary after family found slain at home.” At around 10:56 a.m. on Dec. 31, the bodies of Mikio Miyazawa, 44; his wife, Yasuko, 41; their daughter, Niina, 8; and son, Rei, 6; were found brutally murdered in their home in the quiet residential neighborhood of Kamisoshigaya in Setagaya Ward. As details were gradually released to the public, it was clear that the circumstances of the crime bordered on the bizarre. According to a police reconstruction, upon entering the house shortly before midnight, the killer stabbed to death the two parents and daughter and strangled the son. He then lingered in the house, helping himself to the contents of the refrigerator (including ice cream), going online to surf the internet and using the toilet. He napped on the second floor sofa and departed the crime scene shortly after 10 a.m. The investigators must have felt confident they would get their man, as the criminal left behind a veritable cornucopia of forensic evidence. Shoes and articles of clothing suggested a possible link to South Korea. Even more curious was the DNA extracted at the scene, which pointed to a male with East Asian ancestry — but not necessarily Japanese — on his father’s side, and what appeared to be south European ancestry on his mother’s side. So far in addition to Ichihashi’s own work, the Miyazawa slayings have been the subject of six other books. Like the police, the writers have hit a brick wall, with no useful clues as to the killer’s identity or motive. Posting on Kodansha’s Gendai Business Premium website ( gendai.ismedia.jp ) on Dec. 30 — 15 years to the day since the slayings — Ichihashi remarked bitterly, “I know who the ‘real criminal’ is — this case has gone unsolved due to fatal mistakes by the police and negligence by the mass media.” Once again he raises some tantalizing points, but doesn’t offer any closure. Still, there’s no statute of limitations on the murders or, as far as Ichihashi is concerned, on investigative journalism.


Tsukiji's fish wholesalers may be leaving but Showa Era outer market here to stay

Abstract: Although the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and Tsukiji’s fish merchants are wrangling over the planned transfer of the site in Chuo Ward to the Toyosu district in Koto Ward a few kilometers southeast, there is still a portion of the world-famous market that will remain vibrant and unchanged. The Tsukiji outer market area, known as Tsukiji Jogai Shijo, is next to the inner market (Jonai Shijo), an area dedicated to the business of licensed wholesalers, whose move to Toyosu has proved contentious due to soil contamination at the new site. The outer market, however, is accessible to everyone, and is always crowded with tourists. The 460 shops, selling everything from fresh tuna sashimi and dried fish to kitchenware, will not move to Toyosu. The reclaimed land area, which also houses many stalls and restaurants serving sushi, curry and ramen, is reminiscent of the Showa Era (1926-1989), and is markedly different in its atmosphere from the high-end shopping district of Ginza nearby. After the food stalls (many close by 2 p.m.), visitors can go to Namiyoke Inari Shrine, built in 1959. It houses a deity believed to have helped calm the sea for the land reclamation project in the mid-17th century. A couple share a strawberry skewer bought at the Tsukiji fish market, which sells not only seafood but also snacks and desserts. | YOSHIAKI MIURA A tourist photographs the head of a freshly caught tuna at a sushi restaurant in Tsukiji, Tokyo. | YOSHIAKI MIURA The shops and food stalls in the Tsukiji outer market are packed with tourists on Jan. 19. | YOSHIAKI MIURA Visitors to Namiyoke Inari Shrine in Tsukiji, Tokyo, pass through a hoop made of grass that is believed to purify their spirits. | YOSHIAKI MIURA A tourist browses a dry foods store in Tsukiji, Tokyo. | YOSHIAKI MIURA A family enjoys noodles at one of the many stalls offering traditional Japanese food. | YOSHIAKI MIURA Tsukiji Honganji Temple, a Buddhist temple in Tsukiji built most recently in 1934, features a unique stone exterior combining Buddhist, Hindu and Islamic architecture. | YOSHIAKI MIURA