Shinjiro Koizumi: Japan Must Have Drastic Change

Shinjiro Koizumi Son Of Former PM Junichiro Koizumi

The Japanese public’s top pick to become the next prime minister says the country’s not ready for the scale of change he thinks it needs.

Shinjiro Koizumi, the 38-year-old son of popular former premier Junichiro Koizumi, consistently leads polls asking who should succeed long-serving Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. 
As the most prominent member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s new guard, he wants quick reforms to manage the country’s rapidly ageing population.

“If you look at Japan now, people don’t want to change much,” Koizumi said in an interview at his offices in Tokyo Wednesday.

“They don’t have big dreams, but they don’t have a sense of crisis either,” he added. “But it’s no good for this country to stay as it is. What this country needs more than anything is change. Not just change, but rapid change.”

Even though the younger Koizumi has never held a cabinet post and limits his media exposure, he is seen by many as the future of the ruling party due to his charisma, clean image and a resemblance to his father. The ex-premier enjoyed immense popularity during most of his five-year run in office and was known for his willingness to stir up the stodgy LDP.

But that doesn’t mean the public’s completely on board with his agenda yet, Koizumi said.
Koizumi heads an LDP panel on social security, which last month published a “vision” for reforms to tackle what Abe has called the national crisis of Japan’s demographics. The population is set to slump by almost a third by 2060, by which time about 40 percent of Japanese will be aged 65 or over, according to the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research.

In a bid to rein in the ballooning debt fueled by the developed world’s fastest ageing population, Abe’s government is set to raise the sales tax to 10% in October from the current 8%. Koizumi declined to comment on whether he agreed with the plan, saying only: “it has been decided.”

Rather than calling for higher taxes or lower payouts in its report, Koizumi’s panel urged a re-evaluation of the concept of the working-age population. Older people should be encouraged to stay in the labor force beyond the traditional retirement ages of 60-65, becoming contributors to the social security system, rather than burdens on it, the report says.

“We have to correct that huge imbalance between those who are supporting social security and those who are being supported by it,” Koizumi said. Specific measures should include changing a tax system that gives precedence to housewives over working women, and offering health-maintenance incentives.

Koizumi speaks English fluently, which is rare in Japan’s political world. He earned a master’s degree in political science at Columbia University, and served as a secretary to his father before taking over his parliamentary seat in 2009 in the port city of Yokosuka, home to the U.S. Seventh Fleet.

A poll by Jiji Press in March found Koizumi was the most popular choice to succeed Abe, with 24.4% of respondents opting for him. In second place was former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba on 18.9%.

“My field of vision has always been international, rather than domestic,” he said. “With the falling population, the domestic market is shrinking. When I was head of the party’s agriculture panel, I said Japan’s farmers shouldn’t look at the 100 million-strong internal market, but must sell to the 10 billion-strong global market.”

The need to expand export markets was why he supported Japan joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership regional trade deal at a time when it was anathema to many lawmakers in the LDP, which has strong ties to farming groups opposed to opening up agricultural markets.
“We were a tiny minority in the party. Can you imagine how much we were criticized?” he said. “But we can’t make do just with our own shrinking market, we need to face up to the world.”

After President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of the TPP soon after his inauguration, the 11 other members including Japan went ahead without the U.S. to forge a successor deal.
Despite that strong public support and four consecutive election victories, Koizumi is seen as too young for the top job by Japanese standards. Abe was queried about his youth when he embarked on his first stint as premier at age 52.

Koizumi’s rivals to succeed Abe are now mostly in their sixties. And it may not be over for the premier, whose current term ends in September 2021. Some in his party have called for a change in the rules to allow him to run for a fourth consecutive term, though polls show voters oppose the idea.

Bloomberg

Miyazaki Quakes Raise Awareness Of Nanakai Trough

Japan Meteorological Agency Graphic Of Nankai Trough

The Central Disaster Prevention Council is urging reinforced countermeasures against a huge Nankai Trough earthquake in light of the recent activity along the trough in the last week.

Since Friday there have been a total of 7 earthquakes in the trough area near the Miyazaki coastline. The quakes have ranged in magnitude from 6.4 to 3.8.  Other quakes have occured since Tuesday in Kochi Prefecture on the island Shikoku, the bay of Hiroshima and in the Tokai bay off the coast of Southeast Aichi Prefecture.  These quakes ranged from 3 to 4.5.

Part of a review of disaster prevention steps based on the Act on Special Measures Concerning Countermeasures for Large-Scale Earthquakes has been underway since Saturday. 
 

The government is to review measures to send out disaster management information, which are in place based on the assumption that such a powerful earthquake is predictable. In the report, Shizuoka and Kochi prefectures, as well as the Chubu economic region centered in Nagoya, are selected as model areas, with discussion about specific disaster prevention measures. 

While there is no specific mention of reviewing the Act on Special Measures Concerning Countermeasures for Large-Scale Earthquakes itself, it states that disaster prevention steps should be reviewed on the grounds that "it is not possible to predict an earthquake with a high degree of certainty." 

In addition, there are four scenarios of a major earthquake occurring. These are: 1) a huge tremor occurring east of the hypocentral region of a major Nankai Trough earthquake; 2) a magnitude 7 earthquake occurring in the same hypocentral region; 3) observation of changes such as a decrease in the number of quakes -- as was the case before the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011; 4) and observation of ominous "sliding plates" that would suggest a Tokai tremor is imminent. 

In the case of 1) and 2), the probability of additional quakes occurring becomes higher, therefore making it necessary to consider evacuating residents in advance and other measures. In addition, in the case of 3), "it is not possible to determine whether this will lead to a major tremor," and therefore it is judged that prior evacuation measures are not possible. 

On the other hand, in the case of 4), the prime minister is supposed to issue warning statements in accordance with the Act on Special Measures Concerning Countermeasures for Large-Scale Earthquakes -- asking residents to evacuate in advance as well as halting public transport services. 

However, it has been pointed out that it is not possible to judge the extent to which an earthquake occurring has become more likely. But administrative bodies need to be on alert, but at the same time it is difficult to ask residents to evacuate in advance.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said yesterday, "We need to hurry ahead with these disaster prevention measures." In particular, disaster countermeasures in cases 1), 2) and 4) need to be revised. 

With regard to local authorities that have been selected as model districts in the report, aspects such as the kinds of residents who should be evacuated in advance, the length of the evacuation, and evacuation areas will be discussed. Based on this, local authorities will draw up guidelines relating to disaster prevention in their respective areas. 

Since the 6.4 quake in Miyazaki on Friday morning the latest aftershock earthquake occurred today at 7:20am in Hyuga Bay off the coast of Nobeoka, Miyazaki Prefecture with a magnitude of 3.7.  There were no reports of damage or injury.

Miyazaki And Kyushu Still Shaking From Aftershocks

Miyazaki Prefecture Crews Inspect Sinkhole From 4.2 Quake

Today Miyazaki has experienced three aftershock earthquakes of 3.9, 4.2, and 4.9.  These have also affected nearby prefectures of Oita, Kumamoto, Kagoshima, and Fukuoka.  Damage was reported by several buildings in Nobeoka, Miyazaki, Miyakonojo, and Kobayashi all in Miyazaki Prefecture.  A sink hole formed in Miyazaki City from a 4.2 quake that hit the area at 11:15 this morning.  No injuries were reported in any of the quakes.

Seizmology experts at Kyushu University are concerned about detected activity at the volcanoes Shnimoedake, Aso, and Sakurajima.  It has been 2 weeks since Aso erupted, six months since an eruption at Shinmoedake, and Sakurajima has had level 3 warnings for the last year.

The Japan Meteorological Agency office in Miyazaki is advising people affected by the earthquakes in southwestern Japan to remain on the alert for more tremors.

Agency official, Masaki Nakamura, spoke to reporters after the last quake (4.9) rocked Miyazaki Prefecture and the surrounding areas this afternoon.

Nakamura warned that quakes with intensities of up to 5-minus on the Japanese intensity scale of zero to seven could follow over the next week. He added that extra caution is advised for the next two to three days.

He called on residents to stay on the alert, as the quake may have increased the risk of rock falls and landslides in hard-hit areas, and volcanic activity as well.

Nakamura said the earthquakes occurred at a plate boundary beneath the sea. He warned that a tsunami could hit coasts if a quake with a bigger intensity occurs in the same area.

Nakamura added that the focus the quakes could be located in an area along the Nankai Trough that is expected to trigger a mega-quake. But he said the agency did not issue an alert notifying residents of the increased risk of a mega-quake.

He explained that the scale of the quake did not meet the government's criteria for conducting a survey to examine if the possibility of a mega-quake has risen.

Sankei Miyazaki

6.4 Earthquake Strikes Off Miyazaki Coast

Inspectors of JR Kyushu Check Rail Line

 An earthquake hit off the coast of Kyushu off the coast of Miyazaki Prefecture. No tsunami warning was issued and there are no reports of injuries or damage.
 
According to the Miyazaki Nichi-nichi Newspaper, the quake struck at 8.48 a.m. local time, with its epicenter off the coast of Nichinan, Miyazaki Prefecture at a depth of 20 km in the Hyuga Coastal Bay.

The quake did cause the delay of airline travel at Miyazaki City and local private airports. Rail travel was halted for an hour throughout the prefecture as JR Kyushu, Hyuga Railway, and Nichinan Lines checked lines and equipment.

The Japan Geological Survey put the magnitude of the quake at 6.4.

Emperor Naruhito Will Face Challenges

Emperor Naruhito

Whatever the future may hold for the new era under Emperor Naruhito, it’s clear that the majority of Japanese remain supportive of the imperial family and the sense of national unity the Chrysanthemum Throne provides.

However, the real test of the symbolic strength of the emperor and his family could well be how the imperial household fares when it comes to promoting Japan’s image and interests overseas.

While the new emperor and empress will be more than capable of serving as Japan’s ultimate ambassadors abroad, they will have to overcome considerable hurdles at home before they can realize their full potential as great diplomats.

Like Britain, Spain and Denmark, Japan too has a constitutional monarchy in which the sovereign has no political power.

Still, when it comes to enhancing relations abroad, the royals can be an asset in otherwise tricky situations, especially in dealing with other countries that also have monarchies. They can also add an extra layer of reassurance as well as glamor to countries with which Japan maintains well-established ties.

For example, Japan’s imperial household has been an essential diplomatic tool in reaching out to the Saudi royalty and the sultan of Brunei. Saudi Arabia and Brunei are two countries with which Japan has significant economic interests and yet may find it challenging to see eye-to-eye politically.

Meanwhile, relations with Western European allies such as Belgium and the Netherlands have benefited from friendly royal relations, not least through eye-catching photo opportunities showcasing the elegance of monarchies.

The pomp accompanying the imperial household will be on full display for Emperor Naruhito’s enthronement ceremony on Oct. 22. Leaders and royalty from nearly 200 countries will be invited to take part in the festivities in Tokyo.

The real diplomatic challenge for the new emperor and empress, though, is whether they will have the opportunities and will to make full use of their own attributes.

After all, the Oxford- and Harvard-educated Empress Masako was a career diplomat before she married Emperor Naruhito, while he too studied at Oxford and has publicly declared his two years there as one of the happiest times in his life.

Both are certainly more than up to the task of being part of Japan’s soft-power strategy, and while they may not be as alluring as the duke and duchess of Cambridge or the king and queen of Spain, they could no doubt contribute to adding more glamor to Japan on the global stage.

There are, however, three major hurdles at home for Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako to playing a greater role in imperial diplomacy. First and foremost, the fact that their only child cannot inherit the throne simply because she is a female will only be highlighted as the question of succession and will invariably remain an issue.

Without changes to the succession rules, the 17-year-old Princess Aiko will never become empress and will actually relinquish her royal title after marriage.

Instead, her cousin, 12-year-old Prince Hisahito, who is the son of Emperor Naruhito’s brother, is in line to the throne. Gender equality is guaranteed by law and Japanese women are as well-educated as men.

Perhaps most importantly, it is apparent that Emperor Naruhito is a loving husband and a doting father, and incredibly protective of both his wife and daughter. Yet such facts are likely to be eclipsed by the fact that there is such blatant gender discrimination within the imperial household.

The second obstacle for imperial diplomacy remains the Imperial Household Agency itself. The fact that Empress Masako suffered from stress-related disorders as a result of pressures to adapt to imperial rules is evident.

In her new role there will be more public duties for Empress Masako to attend and she will be less able to sit out highly visibility functions both at home and abroad.

Whether there will be greater flexibility and tolerance on the part of the rule-makers to allow Empress Masako to be able to take on those roles without any emotional turmoil remains to be seen.

Finally, the challenge of Japan being able to improve relations with its immediate neighbors, particularly South Korea, will continue to be an issue for the imperial family.

This is not least due to the fact that Japanese aggression was virulent across Asia during the reign of Emperor Naruhito’s grandfather, Emperor Showa.

That said, his son, Emperor Emeritus Akihito, was personally committed to expressing remorse about Japan’s wartime past and offering condolences across the Asia-Pacific, especially in the Pacific islands.

Expectations for Emperor Naruhito to carry on his father’s legacy on the one hand, while navigating the evolving political minefield of reaching out to former occupied countries on the other, will continue to be a balancing act for the new sovereign with no end in sight.

Whether the emperor will be able to meet those expectations remains to be seen. What is clear at this juncture is that there is no end to the list of issues Emperor Naruhito could tackle in his new role at home as well as abroad.

Ryo Hasegawa

GSDF Failed To Report Troop Logs

The Ground Self-Defense Force failed to report to then-defense chief Tomomi Inada that it had found activity logs in March 2017 for troops in Iraq, even as she denied their existence during Diet deliberations the previous month, Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera said Wednesday.

The latest revelation comes as another potential blow to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government, already embroiled in a cronyism scandal over a heavily discounted sale of state land to a school operator with ties to his wife, Akie.

Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera

The GSDF reported to the ministry in January this year that it had found the logs, even though the documents were discovered over nine months before.

Opposition lawmakers had requested to see the logs, but the ministry said on Feb. 16 last year that such logs did not exist. Four days later, Inada told a Diet committee that the ministry was unable to find the logs.

“I want to apologize for inaccurate explanations in the Diet and the failure to respond appropriately to the request for the documents,” Onodera told reporters, adding that he has set up an investigation team in the ministry.

The ministry was rocked by a similar scandal last year, when its inappropriate handling of GSDF activity logs for a U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Sudan prompted Inada to resign in July.

Regarding the logs for GSDF personnel dispatched for reconstruction efforts in war-torn Iraq more than 10 years ago, the ministry admitted Monday that it had found them despite denying their existence last year.

Opposition lawmakers had been asking for the logs as deteriorating security conditions in South Sudan and risks facing the peacekeepers were being discussed in the Diet at the time.

“I cannot believe that the Defense Ministry would come as far as reporting false information,” said Hajime Sebata, an associate professor at Nagano Prefectural College who is knowledgeable about public document management.

“There have been a series of problems regarding the government’s handling of public documents, but this case (involving the Defense Ministry) is even worse,” Sebata said, referring to the Finance Ministry’s admission that it had altered documents on the state land sale to the school operator.

Japan sent roughly 5,500 GSDF personnel to Iraq from January 2004 to July 2006 to provide water and medical aid and help repair infrastructure in Samawah in the south of the country.

The mission stirred controversy as it was the first time for Japan to send the SDF, whose role is restricted by the war-renouncing Constitution, to a country where fighting was continuing.

KYODO

1 In 6 Children In Japan Live In Poverty

Finance Minister Aso Pressured By Media To Explain Poverty Issues

The smell of miso soup and rice wafts from a kitchen as a brigade of volunteers put their cooking skills to use on a recent Saturday evening in Tokyo’s commuter belt.

In an adjoining room, children chat and make paper cutouts while they await the arrival of what, for some, will be their only proper meal of the day.

Kawaguchi children’s cafeteria is one of hundreds to have sprouted up in Japan in recent years in response to a problem few associate with the world’s third biggest economy: child poverty.

The Health and Welfare Ministry announced last Wednesday 3.5 million Japanese children – or one in six of those aged up to 17 – are from households classed as experiencing relative poverty.

Japan’s relative rate of poverty has risen over the past three decades to 16.3%, while the rate in the US, though higher at 17.3%, has fallen.

“The global economic turmoil in 2008 hit women in their 20s and 30s particularly hard,” said Finance Minister Taro Aso.  “Those in full-time work were forced to take irregular or part-time jobs with low pay and no bonuses or annual pay rises. In some cases, these women have to borrow money, sometimes from loan sharks, and then end up working in the commercial sex industry to pay off their debts. It’s easy for them to get trapped in a negative cycle”, Aso concluded as he addressed the media yesterday.

Their plight is a rarely seen consequence of Japan’s struggle to steer its economy out of the doldrums after more than two decades of stagnation and deflation. Four years after Shinzo Abe became prime minister for a second time, campaigners say the rise in poverty is evidence that his grand plan for growth – known as Abenomics – has failed to deliver for many families.

Japan now has some of the worst wealth inequality and highest rates of child poverty in the developed world, according to a Unicef report released in April that ranked Japan 34th out of 41 industrialised countries.

Of the 3.5 million children who are eligible for state support, only 200,000 actually receive any – a low take-up rate that campaigners blame on the stigma attached to living on social security.

Jiji Press

Cool Japan Uncool After 10 Years

Former PM Koizumi At Cool Japan Launch July 2007

It has been 10 years since the then former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi launched the Cool Japan marketing campaign to internationally sell Japan as not only a cool destination for vacation but exchange study, academic research, business exchange, and cultural exchange.

 

Elated by the international attention, Japan’s bureaucrats and CEOs reformulated the concept of "national cool" into a Cool Japan marketing campaign that could reach new consumers and add soft power to Japan’s manufacturing achievements. And it seemed to work ... for a while.

Leading media soon had Cool Japan columns and programs. Tourists were invited to the country for Cool Japan tours and seminars, with obligatory stops at the kawaii (cute) capital, Harajuku, and the anime-drenched district of Akihabara.

But the hoped-for revenue streams didn’t pan out.

North American manga sales peaked in 2007 and then declined, resulting in a wave of layoffs at international manga distributors. 

 

According to the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry’s 2012 “Cool Japan Strategy” white paper, Japan exports only 5 percent of its Cool Japan contents – not quite one-third of US creative industries’ 17.8 percent. 

The industry created a bubble that has now burst, says Mr. Galbraith, author of “The Otaku Encyclopedia: An Insider's Guide to the Subculture of Cool Japan.” “Some say anime is dead,” he observes in Tokyo, “while others who still like it say it’s overpriced, and end up illegally streaming it.”

Even Japan’s mighty video games are losing their worldwide cachet. Legendary game designer Keiji Inafune was recently accused of having a “Charlie Sheen moment” in his calls for Japanese studios to wake up to their growing irrelevance.

The marketing of the phrase Cool Japan itself creates an awkward problem: “To call yourself cool is by definition uncool – and it defies Japanese modesty,” says Manabu Kitawaki, director of Meiji University’s Cool Japan program.

“Creativity doesn’t spring from marketing,” he continues. “The Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry hired Dentsu for its Cool Japan campaign. It’s become a way to funnel money to a big ad firm.”

The otaku culture (a term used to describe people with intensive interests in anime or manga) celebrated by Cool Japan can also be problematic overseas. Critics complain of the use of the popular girl band group AKB48 as cultural ambassadors. “AKB48 may represent Japanese culture,” says Yukio Kobayashi, president of Tokyo music agency 3rd Stone From The Sun, “but underage girls in sexy clothing … to me it’s basically legal child porn.”

Experts also say the country focused for too long on producing highly developed but unexportable products.  They say the sheer size of the domestic market made foreign fans of Japanese culture an afterthought – and that when Japanese contents industries did look abroad, the rush of interest in Cool Japan created unrealistic expectations. 

“It’s the boiling frog scenario,” says the Ryotaro Mihara of the new Creative Industries Division at the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI). “With Cool Japan the market shrank bit by bit," he says referring to Japan's domestic manga, anime, and music markets, "so there wasn’t a sense of urgency” to reach international consumers.  

By contrast, says “Japanamerica” author Roland Kelts, “The Korean government invested a lot of money in its domestic pop industry and went after overseas markets. “Places where J-pop was formerly popular, like Southeast Asia, have switched to K-pop.”

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster then came along to deal a cruel blow to Japan’s image. “You can call Japan ‘cool’ all you want,” says Japanese film critic Mark Schilling, “but images of the tsunami and reactor meltdowns are stronger now in many foreign minds than any miniskirted pop idol.”

As the challenges facing Japanese soft power sink in, some say the first step to addressing them may mean ditching the Cool Japan slogan altogether.

METI’s Mr. Mihara admits there has been criticism. “A debate is needed within Japan,” he says, “to come up with a better phrase to explain Japanese culture.”

Rather than Cool Japan slogans, Japan may be better off promoting specific aspects of Japanese culture. “What you want is Cool X, Y, or Z,” says Steve McClure, former Billboard Asia bureau chief and publisher of McClureMusic.com. “Branding a cultural movement in terms of national origin is dangerous.”

This is an area where Japan should have an advantage. “Gangnam Style” may have 800 million YouTube views, but Japan produces a broader range of success stories.

Last year in North America, vintage singer Saori Yuki had a No. 1 song on the iTunes jazz chart while dance music star Kyary Pamyu Pamyu topped iTunes’s electronic music chart. “It’s almost irrelevant whether Japan is cool or not, because there is enough cool stuff here anyway that will sink or swim on its own,” says Mr. McClure.

Instead of throwing money at marketing campaigns, experts say Japan should support its struggling domestic contents industries. Japan spent just 0.12 percent of its national budget on the arts in 2008, the latest year for which comparable figures are available, whereas South Korea spent 0.79 percent, and China 0.51 percent. 

Public funds would be effective in industries like manga and anime, where young “kamikaze” animators burn out from long days and salaries that average only just over 1 million yen (about $12,185) per year.

Indeed, though Japan once dominated the industry, work is increasingly done by its low-cost Asian neighbors. “There is a culture of manga and anime that is currently in critical condition,” says Galbraith. “The manga market cannot be allowed to fail. It is the base of the contents industry in Japan.”

Public money would also be useful in helping Japanese artists make expensive trips abroad. “We get many requests from overseas fans,” says King Record’s Sayaka Yamada, who manages the international catalog of girl groups like Momoiro Clover Z. “Financial support would be very helpful,” she continues. “Japan should study Korea, which invested a lot to promote K-pop artists.”

Observers say Japan production houses should empower the “scanlators” who post pirated manga. “They need to join with other companies to make a Web presence that’s attractively priced and branded,” Mr. Kelts counsels, pointing again to South Korea, which has been much more proactive about utilizing the Internet and branding its culture.

“When a Pixar film comes to Japan, it’s branded as a Pixar film,” Kelts says. “Nobody knows Japanese anime studios like Production I.G. Cool Japan was fine in the early phases, but at a certain point distinguishing brands have to emerge.”

An initiative by METI’s Creative Industries section, which was formed just last year, may speak to new efforts in this direction. METI funded a “Harajuku Street Style” market in Singapore. “Kawaii styles are very popular there, but Japanese fashion businesses have difficulty operating overseas,” METI’s Mihara says. “We provided a budget to help them get established. Pooling their efforts, we had 13 brands available in Singapore for the first time.” 

Experts also say Japan needs to get away from stereotypes.  “We need to convey the depth of Japanese culture beyond manga and anime,” says Meiji’s Mr. Kitawaki. “Behind manga and anime there is a rich culture, for example the animism of Shinto. Or take modern Japanese design’s ability to manage extremely small spaces – this is also Cool Japan.” 

The massive worldwide outpouring by the likes of Lady Gaga after the Fukushima disaster hinted at the reach of Japanese soft power. And a recent global poll by research firm StrategyOne ranked Japan the world’s most creative country.

Mr. McGray, in his famous article, foresaw two possible futures for Japan. It could either employ its vast potential soft power to reinvent itself, or, he warned, lurch toward further uncertainty.

He leaned toward optimism, saying, "Japan's history of remarkable revivals suggests that the outcome … is more likely to be rebirth.”

 

Yet 10 years later it is certain that Cool Japan has lurched to not only uncertainty but uncool because what equates as cool to 60+ year old politicians is certain to be uncool to the rest of society.

Vietnamese Detainee Dies In Custody At Japanese Immigration Center

Detention Area at Ibaraki Immigration Center

A Vietnamese man died in a solitary cell at a Japanese immigration detention center on Saturday. The Vietnamese detainee had complained of pain throughout his detention for a week before his death, according to fellow detainees.

The death was the 13th in Japan’s detention system since 2006, a toll that has provoked sustained criticism from activists and a watchdog overseeing the centres about conditions prevailing there.

In a handwritten note seen by Reuters on Tuesday, six detainees said the man, Nguyen The Hung, repeatedly told guards he was suffering from pain in his neck and head after his arrival at the East Japan Immigration Center in Ibaraki Prefecture in mid-March.

An official at the centre northeast of Tokyo, declined to elaborate on a statement issued on Monday saying that a Vietnamese man in his forties had been found unconscious there on Saturday and later pronounced dead.

A Vietnamese nun helping to arrange Nguyen’s funeral, Tam Tri Thich, initially told Reuters on Monday that the Vietnamese embassy in Tokyo had told her that Nguyen had killed himself at the facility.

On Tuesday, however, she said she had misheard the information and that in fact the embassy had told her only that Nguyen had died suddenly.

The embassy did not immediately reply to Reuters telephone and email requests for comment.

Nguyen was prescribed painkillers by a doctor at the centre last Wednesday, the detainees said in their letter, only for guards to ignore his later complaints of pain and admonish him to be quiet.

A Reuters investigation into the death of a Sri Lankan held in a solitary cell at a Tokyo detention center revealed serious gaps in medical care and monitoring of people held in Japan’s immigration detention system.

The cause of Nguyen’s death has not been announced. The centre and the country’s Justice Ministry, which oversees the detention centres, have said the authorities would perform an autopsy.

The East Japan Immigration Center held 297 detainees at the end of last year, according to the Justice Ministry.  

Reuters

Opposition Parties Want PM Shinzo Abe's Wife To Testify

PM Abe's Wife, Akie Abe

Four opposition parties on March 24 agreed to demand that first lady Akie Abe testify as a sworn witness in the Diet to determine who is lying in relation to a questionable deal over state-owned land.

The move comes a day after Yasunori Kagoike, chief of the Osaka-based Moritomo Gakuen educational institution, repeated his claims about Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Akie, and the couple again rejected Kagoike’s words as falsehoods.

“There is a total contradiction in what Akie said and what Kagoike said,” Kazunori Yamanoi, Diet Affairs Committee chairman for the main opposition Democratic Party, said. “We are forced to make this request (to have Akie appear before the Diet) in order to clarify the facts.”

Kagoike, testifying as a sworn witness, told the Diet that he sought Akie’s help on a leasing deal for the state-owned land in Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture, that Moritomo Gakuen wanted to buy for a planned elementary school.

Kagoike also repeated that Akie gave him a 1 million yen ($9,000) donation from the prime minister.

The ruling coalition is opposed to calling Akie before the Diet on grounds that both she and her husband have repeatedly denied donating money to Kagoike or being involved in Moritomo Gakuen’s purchase of the land for 14 percent of its appraised value.

In Diet questioning on March 24, the prime minister again denied any involvement by him, his wife or his office in the land deal.

He and other government officials also blasted Kagoike’s claim that Akie gave him the money when they were alone in his office at Moritomo Gakuen.

“It is extremely regrettable that comments were made counter to the facts by laying out a situation involving a conversation in a closed room that makes it impossible to provide counter evidence,” Abe said at the Upper House Budget Committee on March 24.

He also criticized Kagoike for revealing only some of the e-mail exchanges between his wife and Akie to give the impression that the first lady had asked them to keep quiet about the evolving scandal.

The prime minister said he intended to disclose the e-mail exchange between the two women over a two-year period.

Kyodo

Emperor Akihito Will Abdicate Januray 1, 2019

Crown Prince Naruhito and Emperor Akihito

The government has set the date of Crown Prince Naruhito’s accession to the Imperial Throne and the beginning of a new era for January 1, 2019, the Imperial Household Agency announced Wednesday.

The Emperor, who signaled his wish for abdication in a video message last August, will step down on Dec. 31, 2018, closing the current Heisei era of his reign at its 30th year.

The government considers it desirable to start the new era at the same time as a new calendar year to minimize the impact of the era change on people’s daily lives, the sources said.

Within the government, the end of 2018 had been widely regarded as a possible date for the 83-year-old Emperor’s abdication since he, in the closely watched video released on Aug. 8, noted that the Heisei era will reach the 30th year in 2018.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the government is “past consideration and is preparing for transition” the timing of Imperial succession at the moment.

The next era name will be announced before Emperor Akihito's birthday November 23, 2018 in order to facilitate preparations for the name change, if planned abdication legislation is enacted during the ordinary session of the Diet from Jan. 20, the sources said.

The government hopes to present the special legislation to enable the current Emperor’s abdication around a string of national holidays from late April to early May after upcoming talks between the ruling and opposition parties on the issue.

AP, Jiji Press, Daily Yomiuri

Why Japan Refuses Economic Refugees and Multiculturalism

Pokemon Go Release Delayed Again In Japan

Game-maker Niantic has postponed the scheduled launch of Pokémon Go in Japan following an email leak.

Yesterday it was reported that the game was due to go live in Japan but the companies behind Pokémon Go have canceled that plan, a source close to the launch told TechCrunch. One major reason for that change of heart is that internal communication from McDonalds Japan, the game’s sponsor, detailing the launch made its way to internet forums (including 2ch, “Japan’s Reddit”) and photo site Imgur.

An initial morning launch time was pushed back to early afternoon as the email went viral. Later, however, the companies decided to cancel today’s launch entirely due to concerns that the hype generated would overload the game, our source explained. We don’t have an immediate update on when the game will finally go live in Japan, but understand that the launch is “imminent” but unspecified.

The postponement will frustrate many in Japan who are still waiting but, on the positive side, Niantic, Nintendo and the Pokémon Company — the three firms behind the smash game — are confident that, if the game is launched right, their serves can handle the undoubtedly huge demand that Pokémon Go will generate in Japan. Ninatic CEO John Hanke previously cautioned that the company needed time to ensure it had enough servers to cope with a deluge of Pokémon addicts in Japan.

The delay means also that we will have to wait to see the impact of the first “sponsored location” in the game. McDonalds has agreed to become the first paying sponsor, turning its 3,000 stores in Japan into “gyms” where players can battle, adding a new source of revenue to the game beyond its already lucrative in-app purchases and potentially driving real-world traffic to McDonalds stores. That’ll be a partnership to watch since there are plans to offer sponsored locations in other parts of the world.

The success of Pokémon Go is unprecedented. Just two weeks after its U.S. debut, it has reportedly passed 30 million downloads and $35 million in revenue, and surpassed Twitter on active users and Facebook on engagement. That has doubled the valuation of Nintendo — yes, in just two weeks — and all without launching in Japan, the home of Pokémon, yet.

Pokémon Go is available in more than 30 countries right now thanks to a steady rollout across Europe last week. TechCrunch understands that Japan is planned as the first launch in Asia and, once the game is available there, it will be extended to other countries in the region.

Jon Russell, Techcrunch

NOAA Adds To The Lies Of AGW

Kimonori Ito - Science Contributor

Science is not about “consensus.” There was “consensus” about aether. There was “consensus” about the mass and age of the Sun, assuming it was made of pure coal.

Both were complete fantasy because the data the models were based on were inaccurate.

Man Made Climate Change (or Man Made Global Warming) shills love to quote the UN Climate Agency survey of 2009, but important information is left out.   Of 1000 scientists asked, “Is there a human component to global warming?” 300 replied. 288 of them said “Yes.”  That’s 98%.  Actually it is only 98% of those who replied, and only 1/3 of those surveyed replied.  288 of 1000 is actually 28%.

What wasn’t asked was, “How much influence do humans have?”

As a climatologist with the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) and a professor of Meteorology at Miyazaki University, I have a duty to report honestly on research that refutes pseudo-science.

In their “hottest year ever” press briefing, NOAA included this graph, which stated that they have a 58 year long radiosonde temperature record. But they only showed the last 37 years in the graph.

Here is why they are hiding the rest of the data. The earlier data showed as much pre-1979 cooling as the post-1979 warming.

I combined the two graphs at the same scale below, and put a horizontal red reference line in, which shows that the earth’s atmosphere has not warmed at all since the late 1950’s.

The omission of this data from the NOAA report, is just their latest attempt to defraud the public. NOAA’s best data shows no warming for 60 years. But it gets worse. The graph in the NOAA report shows about 0.5C warming from 1979 to 2010, but their original published data shows little warming during that period.

Due to Urban Heat Island Effects, the NOAA surface data shows nearly one degree warming from 1979 to 2010, but their original radiosonde data showed little warming during that time. Global warming theory is based on troposphere warming, which is why the radiosonde data should be used by modelers – instead of the UHI contaminated surface data.

NOAA’s original published radiosonde data showed little net troposphere warming from 1958 to 2010, when the data set ended.

The next graph shows how NOAA has altered their 850-300 mb temperature data since 2011. Another hockey stick of data tampering.

NOAA just lost its scientific credibility by posturing to political  interests rather than to honest science.

The collapse of the false "consensus" has been driven by reality. The fact of the matter is that the earth's temperatures have flat-lined since 2001, despite growing concentrations of C02. Peer-reviewed research has debunked doomsday scenarios about the polar ice caps, hurricanes, malaria, extinctions, rising oceans. A global financial crisis has politicians taking a harder look at the science that would require them to hamstring their economies to rein in carbon.

Dr. Kiminori Ito is Meterological Professor and Climate Science Chair at Miyazaki University.  Dr. Ito is the author of the 2010 book, Lies and Traps in the Global Warming Affairs. 

What Government Is Hiding About Zika

 

The establishment mainstream media continue to parrot the same hysteria regarding the Zika virus – that it's causing birth defects – but there is so much information intentionally being left out. The mainstream media's false narrative is causing the public to fear a benign, asymptomatic viral infection, as the true origins of birth defects and brain damage go unstudied. Also, the mainstream media fails to tell the whole story of why Zika has become such a big problem in Brazil in recent years and how the outbreak is connected to the release of genetically modified mosquitoes in 2012.

As Zika becomes the newest health scare, health authorities are urging women to delay pregnancy. News reports are multiplying the scare tactics, warning people not to travel or procreate. Pictures of babies with shrunken heads and small brains are flashed across the screen as Zika virus is blamed for causing a record number of birth defects called microcephaly.

The birth defect is real, with affected newborns' heads measuring 32 centimeters or less in circumference, but the causes are not fully understood. The causes are varied and more likely resemble chemical toxicity, vaccine damage, pesticide exposure and drug interactions.

Of the initial 4,180 suspected cases of microcephaly, only 270 cases have been confirmed by Brazil's Health Ministry as actual microcephaly. Of the 270 cases, medical researchers could only correlate six cases of microcephaly to the Zika virus. This means 264 confirmed microcephaly cases didn't even show a trace of Zika virus! So why is Zika virus being blamed for the birth defect?

Zika was first isolated in 1947 by scientists working for the Rockefeller Foundation. Zika was "discovered" in a rhesus monkey that was being held in captivity. Many people still wonder if Zika was created in the lab for experimental purposes.

For decades, Zika transmission was extremely rare. The virus didn't start spreading until after 2012 – right after the biotech company Oxitec released genetically modified mosquitoes en masse in Brazil. Zika outbreaks quickly exploded from sites where genetically modified mosquitoes were released to combat dengue. Zika has now spread to 21 other countries and territories.

What's appalling is that Zika virus (ATCC® VR-84™) can be purchased from ATCC labs. It was deposited by Dr. Jordi Casals-Ariet of the Rockefeller Foundation and sourced from the blood of an experimental forest sentinel rhesus monkey from Uganda in 1947.

The question remains: Is Zika virus a bio-weapon, intentionally released via genetically modified mosquito? Perhaps it wasn't intentionally released but instead was an unintended consequence of releasing GM mosquitoes into the environment to eradicate dengue. Maybe this Zika strain is a resistant, mutant viral strain – the evolution of a mosquito-borne virus caused by a biotech experiment gone bad?

In the wake of Zika's spread, Brazil is now mobilizing 220,000 soldiers to try and eradicate mosquitoes that carry the Zika virus. This means that tons of insecticide will be sprayed in and around homes, further exposing pregnant women and young children to brain-damaging chemicals.

In 2014, the Brazilian Minister of Health mandated that all expectant mothers receive the new Tdap vaccine. This meant that, at 20 weeks gestation, a vulnerable, developing young life would be exposed to aluminum adjuvant, mercury preservative, formaldehyde, antibiotics and a host of other chemicals that could damage a fetus's developing brain. It's no coincidence that birth defects have spiked in Brazil because of the toxic elements that fetuses have been exposed to.

It's also very obvious why Zika is being blamed for the birth defects. The biotech industry is using Zika virus to cover up three science experiments that have gone bad (Tdap vaccines, insecticides, GM mosquitoes). In this way, nature can be blamed, more insecticides and vaccines can be sold, and more GM mosquitoes can be released. The public is taught to fear nature even more and stop reproducing.

Natural News

Funahashi Ryuichi Sentenced To 9-13 Years For Murder Of Ryota Uemura

Funahashi Ryuichi Murdered Ryota Uemura

The Yokohama District Court on Wednesday handed down a sentence of nine to 13 years in prison to 19-year-old, Funahashi Ryuichi, for playing a key role in the murder of 13 year old, Ryota Uemura, on a riverbank in Kawasaki, southwest of Tokyo, last year.

In giving the so-called indeterminate sentence as stipulated under Juvenile Law, Presiding Judge Hiroko Kondo highlighted the cruelty of the way Ryota Uemura was assaulted and killed by Funahashi, who had previously been a part of the same peer group.

“The victim’s neck was slashed more than once and he was forced to swim in the river in the middle of winter. This was just so appalling and the cruelty (of the case) stands out,” the judge said.

She also determined that Funhashi “bore the heaviest responsibility” for playing a leading role.

Funahashi had pleaded guilty to the charges in his trial, determined by a panel of professional and citizen judges.

The father of the victim, who was a first-year junior high school student, issued a statement after the court decision, saying, “I cannot accept it by any means. The sentence is way too light.”

Two other 18-year-old boys, Higuchi Toshio and Shibayama Kazuka, have also been arrested over their involvement in the case, but have been indicted on the lesser charge of causing injury resulting in death. Their trials will begin later.

According to the ruling, the Funahashi killed Uemura on Feb 20, 2015 by repeatedly slashing his throat on the banks of the Tama River in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture. A total of 43 knife wounds were inflicted on Uemura’s body, including 31 to the neck during the assault, which lasted more than an hour.

The ruling said the killing occurred after Funahashi got angry with Uemura because he told his friends that he was struck by the Funahashi on Jan 17, 2015. The Funahashi felt pressured because Uemura’s friends came to his home after the January assault.

The judge said Funahashi had a “misdirected resentment” against Uemura and he was “extremely self-centered” in that he came up with the idea of killing Uemura after he started assaulting him with the two others at the riverbank, fearing he might be arrested for injuring the victim.

Prosecutors had demanded a sentence of 10 to 15 years in prison saying he played the leading role in the murder, while his defense counsel pleaded for five to 10 years, citing the possibility of reformation.

The defense counsel also insisted that Funahashi did not have “a strong intention to kill,” but the judge rejected the argument, saying, “he continued to attack the victim with the accomplices until the victim died.”

The judge, however, said the defendant’s “immaturity” of allowing violence can largely be attributed to the environment he was brought up in and that warrants lessening his responsibility.

Dallas Brincrest and Charles Gannon