Japan Faces First Hague Convention Test

British Foreign Secretary William Hague

A Japanese woman living in Britain has been ordered by a British court to return her child to the father residing in Japan under the Hague Convention, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.

The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction imposes rules on the parental custody of children abducted and taken overseas after marriages fall apart. The order was the first to enforce the return of a child to Japan since the convention took effect in this country in April, according to the Foreign Ministry.

The Hague Convention stipulates that a parent who takes a child under 16 overseas without the other parent’s consent must, in principle, return the child to the country where he or she was living.

In the latest case, the Japanese mother left for Britain with her 7-year-old child in March while divorce proceedings were under way in Japan. The father filed a lawsuit with the British court to have the child returned, saying that his wife broke a promise that she would return to Japan in May.

On June 22, the court acknowledged it was illegal for the mother to keep the child in Britain beyond May in light of the Hague Convention. The mother was ordered to send the child back to Japan by Wednesday.

The couple is in the middle of a court battle in Japan to decide who should have custody of the child. After the child leaves Britain on Wednesday, a Japanese court will begin examining the appropriate custody arrangement for the child.

“The way the child would be raised would have been decided only by the mother had the convention not been enforced,” the father’s lawyer, Hirotaka Honda, said in an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun.

Through a spokesperson, the mother said: “I didn’t intend to abduct the child. I planned to go home. I don’t understand why the father filed a suit to demand the return of our child.” 

Yomiuri

Yakuza Hired By Tokyo In Fukushima

Homeless Cleaning At Fukushima Daiichi

Organized criminal groups in Japan known as Yakuza have infiltrated the massive, government-backed decontamination effort underway at the defunct Fukushima nuclear reactors in Japan, according to Reuters.

In 2011, an enormous earthquake and subsequent tsunami triggered meltdowns at three of the nuclear reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

More than a year after the earthquake, after the crisis at Fukushima went from bad to worse, the Japanese government commandeered the clean-up effort from Tokyo Electric Power Company, the nuclear plant’s embattled operator.

Despite the government’s intervention, the report published by Reuters suggests that the clean-up effort is still broken.

Reuters revealed that the Yakuza, the notorious criminal syndicates that control Japan’s underworld, are filling a manpower void created by Japan’s aging populations and a legacy of tight labor-market regulations.

More specifically, they are filling the void with homeless men they’ve recruited off the streets.

From Reuters:

The sprawl of small firms working in Fukushima is an unintended consequence of Japan’s legacy of tight labor-market regulations combined with the aging population’s deepening shortage of workers. Japan’s construction companies cannot afford to keep a large payroll and dispatching temporary workers to construction sites is prohibited. As a result, smaller firms step into the gap, promising workers in exchange for a cut of their wages.

Below these official subcontractors, a shadowy network of gangsters and illegal brokers who hire homeless men has also become active in Fukushima. Ministry of Environment contracts in the most radioactive areas of Fukushima prefecture are particularly lucrative because the government pays an additional $100 in hazard allowance per day for each worker.

Forbes

Fukushima Daiichi Ice Wall Not Freezing

More than three years after the earthquake and tsunami devastated northeast Japan and left a major nuclear plant in Fukushima paralyzed, efforts to contain the nuclear disaster are still facing major hurdles as the area around it remains a ghost town. Last week, Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), revealed that an ice wall that was designed to stem the flow of radioactive water seeping from the crippled reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant isn’t freezing as fast as they hoped.

In the three months since construction began, temperatures in the ground around the barrier meant to contain the contaminated water in underground trenches have only fallen to around 15 degrees and TEPCO announced a new plan to accelerate the freezing process — dumping 10 tons of ice every day until the wall forms.

TEPCO made the announcement during a meeting of Japan’s Nuclear Regulation Authority on July 23. Apparently a small stream of water has kept the ice wall from freezing properly. The Japanese electric company said it has not been able to get temperatures down to about 5 degrees, the ideal temperature to form the barrier. The original design of the ice wall called for it to be completely formed by late May. So to quicken the freezing process, TEPCO said it will start dumping huge amounts of ice and also increasing the number of underground pipes to quickly lower temperatures.

Starting Aug 1, TEPCO will drop about 10 tons of ice and one ton of dry ice per day into the trenches surrounding the reactors. If temperatures drop enough and the wall starts forming, the plan is to reduce the daily ice dump to about four or five tons. And they will also install an additional four pipes to bring the total up to 23 pipes pumping coolant.

During the meeting last week, a building engineering professor, who is part of the investigation panel charged with finding a solution to the nuclear disaster, voiced concern over the logistics of the ice wall. He doubted that the frozen barrier would be able to form and urged the committee to consider just filling in the trenches with concrete to prevent any of the contaminated water from flowing out.

The NRA seemed confident that TEPCO would be able to see results of their ice dumping by the middle of next month. Although many remain skeptical, hopefully there will be some good news about the ice wall soon to give the people of Fukushima Prefecture who are still reeling from the daily onslaught of bad news something to be happy about.

Sankei

16 Year Old Sasebo Suspect Speaks to Police

Investigators Leave Suspect's Apartment

A 16-year-old high school girl who was arrested Sunday for the grisly murder of her 15-year-old classmate in Sasebo, Nagasaki Prefecture, told police on Monday that she wanted to see what it was like to kill someone.

The suspect was sent to prosecutors as police, educators and psychologists tried to determine her motive for killing Aiwa Matsuo. 

Officials at the school that the two girls attended expressed shock Monday and said there was no indication of any trouble between the two, Sankei Shimbun reported. 

Police said the suspect told them that she and Matsuo went shopping on Saturday afternoon and when they returned to her apartment, she killed her. Police said the girl admitted striking Matsuo on the back of the head at least 10 times with a hammer. She then strangled her with a cord, before hacking her head off with a saw. Matsuo’s left hand was also severed, police said.

After Matsuo failed to return home on Saturday night, her parents called police who came to the suspect’s apartment to look for her. They found the suspect with Matsuo’s body.

The suspect also told police that she bought the tools she used to kill Matsuo a few days prior to the attack.

The suspect had been living alone in the apartment since April. Sankei Shimbun reported that her mother died of an illness last year and that her father had remarried.

Police are also investigating the posting of four anonymous messages, showing some bloody images, on 2channel, which purported to be from someone claiming he or she just murdered someone. The messages were posted after 10 p.m. on the night of the murder, police said. 

Japan Today

Koreans Protest Removal of Monument in Gunma

Koreans Protests Removal of Monument

Local authorities in Japan have demanded the removal of a monument in memory of the tens of thousands of labourers forcibly recruited from the Korean peninsula during the second world war.

The monument, dedicated to Koreans who died after being brought to Japan to work in coalmines and factories amid a wartime labour shortage, was erected by a friendship society in a public park in 2004.

The government in Gunma prefecture, north-west of Tokyo, has ordered it removed after what the Asahi Shimbun newspaper described as petitions from "anti-Korean" groups and individuals complaining that it was anti-Japanese and had become the focus of political activity in a publicly owned space.

Part of the inscription, written in Japanese and Korean, reads: "We hereby express our determination not to repeat the same mistake by remembering and reflecting on the historical fact that our country inflicted tremendous damage and suffering on Koreans in the past."

Many of the 600,000 ethnic Koreans living in Japan are the descendants of labourers who remained in the country after its defeat in 1945.

The Gunma assembly adopted a resolution to remove the monument after accepting criticism that it had been the focus for political activity during a memorial service in 2012. Prefectural authorities said they would refuse to extend the monument's 10-year licence if the friendship society failed to remove it voluntarily.

Giichi Tsunoda, a former upper house MP and representative of the group that commissioned the monument, said the officials had acted unreasonably. "The gathering is a memorial event and the prefectural government's decision to remove the monument is tantamount to abusing its authority," Tsunoda said. "Its conclusion that the gathering was politically motivated is also arbitrary."

Commemorating the use of forced labour is causing similar controversy in other parts of Japan. In Nagasaki, a row has erupted over a proposed monument to Korean victims of the atomic bombing of the city in August 1945. A draft text of the epitaph reportedly condemns imperial Japan for its use of slave labour.

The controversies are being played out against a rise in anti-Korean sentiment in Japan, fuelled by disputes between Tokyo and Seoul over territory and Japan's conduct during its 1910-1945 occupation of the Korean peninsula.

The UN human rights committee has called on Japan to do more to clamp down on hate speech directed at Koreans during demonstrations in Tokyo and other cities. The committee, which noted that there were more than 360 such demonstrations and speeches last year, mainly in Korean neighbourhoods in Tokyo, is expected to make recommendations to Japan on Wednesday, possibly including the introduction of legislation against hate speech.

On Wednesday, officials from both countries met in Seoul to discuss Japan's use of as many as 200,000 mainly Korean and Chinese women as sex slaves before and during the war. Japan recently ruled out a revision to a 1993 official apology, but suggested that the statement was the result of a political compromise and not an accurate reflection of Japanese involvement in wartime sex slavery.

Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, is one of several prominent conservative politicians who have questioned claims that the imperial Japanese army coerced the women – euphemistically referred to as comfort women – into working in frontline brothels.

Nikkei Has Best Gain Sice January

Tokyo stocks rose 0.46% Monday to close at a fresh six-month high as Japanese earnings season gets into full swing.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 index added 71.53 points to 15,529.40, its best finish since late January, while the Topix index of all first-section issues rose 0.37%, or 4.72 points, to 1,286.07.

In currency trading, the dollar was little changed at 101.84 yen, against 101.83 yen in New York on Friday.

15 Year Old Girl Arrested For Beheading Classmate

Investigators at Suspect's Apartment

A 15-year-old Japanese schoolgirl is being held in police custody after she admitted murdering her classmate and dismembering her body.

The teenager, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was arrested on Sunday after the body of 15-year-old Aiwa Matsuo was discovered in the city of Sasebo, in Japan's southwestern Nagasaki Prefecture.

The suspect told police she hit her classmate over the head with a metal object before strangling her.

According to Japan's Kyodo news agency, she also admitted cutting off the victim's head and left hand.  She said she had acted alone.

Police found the body on a bed in the suspect's apartment.  The tools used in the killing were discovered nearby. 

The victim, who graduated from the same junior high school as the suspect, had reportedly gone to meet friends on Saturday afternoon.  Her parents called police when she failed to return home that evening. 

The suspect told police that her mother passed away last April and her father had married a woman she could not tolerate and demanded her father move her to her own apartment near her high school.  The father and step mother have refused to comment.

Hakuho Wins 30th Career Title In Nagoya

Grand champion Hakuho defeated his Mongolian compatriot, Harumafuji, on Sunday to win his 30th career title at the Nagoya Grand Sumo Tournament, edging closer to the all-time championship record in Japan's ancient sport.

Hakuho was pushed back to the edge by fellow grand champion Harumafuji in the final bout of the 15-day tournament, but finally got a grip on Harumafuji's belt and hauled his opponent down to improve to 13-2 for the event.

The 29-year-old Hakuho is now just two behind the record of 32 championships held by former grand champion Taiho. Chiyonofuji is second on the list with 31.

Harumafuji gave Hakuho a serious challenge but couldn't finish off his opponent and closed out the tournament with a 10-5 record.

UNDP Chief: Japan Must End Misogyny

Japan must work to “eliminate misogyny” if it wants to draw more women into the workforce as part of a wider bid to stimulate the economy, said the head of the United Nations Development Program.

Helen Clark, a former New Zealand prime minister, made the comments in an interview with AFP ahead of the release of the agency’s 2014 Human Development Report in Tokyo on Thursday.

“Japan still has quite a low proportion of women in its parliament, amongst decision-makers, at the top corporate levels, so there are still some breakthroughs for the women of Japan to make,” said Clark, who is seen as a possible contender to succeed Ban Ki-moon as the U.N.‘s secretary general.

Japan has one of the lowest rates of female workforce participation in the developed world and most economists agree it badly needs to boost the number of working women to grow its economy as the population rapidly ages.

But a lack of childcare facilities, poor career support and deeply entrenched sexism are blamed for keeping women at home, and for one of the lowest birthrates among the developed world as young women see having children as obstacles to their careers.

The issue was highlighted last month when a member of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party admitted he launched sexist taunts at a Tokyo assemblywoman during a council debate on motherhood.

The embarrassing episode came as Abe has made boosting the number of women in the workforce a key part of his wider effort to revive an economy long plagued by deflation and tepid growth.

Clark—who acknowledged sexism was still a problem for women in other advanced economies—said the Japanese prime minister was “covering the right territory”, and added that he has come up with “quite practical proposals and investment in Japan to make a difference for women”.

“If Japanese women can really work together to get more women through the political party system… (and there are) more people articulating perspectives about women’s needs… then I think this kind of misogynist criticism you’re seeing will start to recede,” Clark added.

That is “what our aspiration should be, because women shouldn’t have to put up with the sort of abuse or catcalls… because they are women,” she added. 

AFP

Mother Arrested For Death of Child

Police in Okinawa on Tuesday arrested a 40-year-old woman after her 5-month-old son died in her car while she played pachinko.

According to police, the woman, identified as Kiyono Arakaki, left her son in the car for six hours from 10:30 a.m. until around 5 p.m. on June 10 while she played pachinko in Tomigusuku in southern Okinawa. Fuji TV quoted police as saying that the child died of heatstroke. The car windows were all shut, police said.

The woman told police she thought the child would be alright. 

According to the Japan Meteorological Agency, the temperature outside reached a high of 29.8 degrees that day. 

Japan Today