作者別: masago

やっぱり今日は北海道で見つかった少年の話からスタート。見つかってよかった。

1)   A boy who had been missing since Saturday was found Friday morning in a town in Hokkaido, northern Japan.

Yamato Tanooka was found at a Self-Defense Force exercise range in Shikabe Town, about 4 kilometers from the spot where he went missing 6 days ago.

When an SDF member found the boy inside a rest facility on the range, the 7-year-old said his name was Yamato. Police say his parents later confirmed his identity.

2)   Japan’s government has decided on a new growth strategy aimed at boosting the country’s gross domestic product to 600 trillion yen, or about 5.5 trillion dollars.

The strategy aims to stimulate a 4th industrial revolution by creating a new growth market making full use of artificial intelligence.

It aims for the use of self-driving vehicles on highways by 2020, and goods delivery by drones within 3 years.

The government plans to promote technology development to make better use of robots and drones for search and rescue operations in disasters.

3)   Mitsubishi Materials Corp, one of dozens of Japanese companies that used Chinese forced laborers during World War II, reached a settlement covering thousands of victims Wednesday that includes compensation and an apology.

The deal was signed in Beijing with three former workers representing the company’s more than 3,000 Chinese victims of forced labor, Mitsubishi Materials said in a statement.

4)   Groups of residents from remote mountainous areas in Japan and Taiwan plan to work together on projects to lure tourists by promoting local ghost stories, those involved on the Japanese side said.

A group in Miyoshi, Tokushima Prefecture, western Japan, and the other in Nantou County in central Taiwan signed a cross-promotion agreement in February, allowing each to sell the other’s souvenirs and attend events with their sister organization.

5)   Cafes are nice relaxing places. Cats are cute cuddly animals. Sooner or later – with hindsight it seems almost inevitable – an entrepreneur would come along, put the two together and launch a “cat cafe” boom. It happened about eight years ago, and now there are some 200 cat cafes nationwide, most of them doing a brisk business premised on the joys – innocent joys, you’d think – of interacting with cats over coffee.

Actually not so innocent, Spa! (May 31) finds. There is a dark side to the business which is not, in fact, limited to cats or cafes. The disposal each year of roughly 100,000 cats and dogs suggests too many pets being bred and sold to too many people with too little knowledge of what’s involved in raising a pet. Nor are cats the only cafe mascots – there are rabbit cafes, reptile cafes, monkey cafes, owl cafes and so on.

6)   Leaving the European Union would be an act of “economic self-harm,” British Prime Minister David Cameron said Thursday during a televised grilling that saw him challenged on the emotive topic of immigration and accused of scaremongering about the impact of quitting the 28-nation bloc.

7)  A Japanese comedian will run the marathon for Cambodia at the Olympics in Brazil this summer, an official said Thursday, a second attempt by the funnyman to go to the Games for the Southeast Asian sporting minnows.

いろいろ興味深い話をしたので細かく説明したいのに英語力が足りなくてうまく言えなくて悔しいなぁ。広島、沖縄、消費税、スリランカの話をしていたら50分過ぎてしまったので、残りは来週ということになった。^^

1)   US President Barack Obama on Friday afternoon laid a wreath at the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima. He’s the first sitting US president to visit the atomic-bombed city.

2)   Presumptive US Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has won more than half the delegates — enough to secure the party nomination.

3)   Japan’s health ministry has decided to conditionally approve pig cell transplants for people with diabetes.

4)    Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga says the government is aware of the seriousness of a resolution that condemns an alleged crime by a US military base worker.
5)   Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has hinted that he may postpone an increase in the consumption tax, from 8 to 10 percent, which is scheduled for next April.
6)   Taiwan’s new government says it takes no specific legal position on the status of Japan’s southernmost island, Okinotorishima. The position marks a reversal of the previous administration’s policy.
7)   World Bank President Jim Yong Kim says he intends to work together with other global organizations to step up measures against international tax evasion.

マイケル先生は小保方さんの話が好きなので、ドイツの研究機関がSTAP細胞あるって証明したみたいだよ。と教えたら喜んでいた^^

なんで日本はそんなにスリランカに投資するの？と聞かれて、なんでだろうね、スリランカはあまり馴染みがない感じがするのだけど、と返してしまったがその後日本とスリランカの関係をネットで調べたら日本は第二次世界対戦後に連合国に分割されようとされていたのをスリランカの大統領の演説で助けられていたと知り恥ずかしかった。

1)   A civilian U.S. base worker under arrest on suspicion of dumping the body of a 20-year-old woman in Okinawa Prefecture has admitted to killing her, investigative sources said Friday

2)   The Egyptian military found the personal belongings of passengers and other debris from an EgyptAir jet floating in the Mediterranean, Cairo said on Friday, confirming that the plane had plunged into the sea with 66 people on board.

3)   Japan’s seafood consumption has declined drastically, especially among the younger generation, according to a government report released this week.

The report reveals that the total per-capita marine food consumption in the year through March 2016 had declined to 27.3 kilograms, 30% down from a peak of 40.2 kilograms in fiscal 2001, Sankei Shimbun reported.

4)   A top official of Tokyo’s successful bid to host the 2020 Olympics said Thursday he knew nothing about a $2 million payment to a Singaporean consulting firm under investigation over alleged bribery suspicions.

In an interview with Kyodo News, Masato Mizuno, who was vice president of the bid team, said he was tasked with interviewing other consulting companies and drawing up contracts but said he had no knowledge of one with the Black Tidings consultancy company, or even its existence.

5)   Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to wait until after this summer’s House of Councillors election before deciding whether to raise Japan’s consumption tax as scheduled, sources close to the premier said Wednesday.

6)   When Republican Donald Trump complains about unfair trade partners, he often singles out Vietnam — “hot as a pistol right now” and “the new one just killing us.”

And when Democrat Bernie Sanders warns about the perils of global trade deals, he rarely misses a chance to say Americans shouldn’t have to compete against Vietnamese workers earning 65 cents an hour.

7)   Japan will lend Sri Lanka more than $3.5 billion, mostly to finance development, Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake said on Thursday, as the island nation tries to reduce its debt costs and avert a balance of payments crisis.

“We are getting more than $3,500 million from Japan for our development activities,” he said, adding that $1.2 billion would be used to buy government bonds and $2.5 billion used for lending to development projects.

8)   A Japanese government survey shows that a record number of university graduates landed jobs this spring.

The education and labor ministries jointly polled more than 4,700 students who graduated in the last academic year. 97.3 percent had found jobs as of April 1st.

The region with the highest employment rate for new graduates was Chubu, with 98.3 percent. Kyushu and Okinawa had the lowest ratio, 96.3 percent.

主にトランプさんの話。マイケル先生は彼が大統領に成ると思うって。韓国や日本から米軍撤退とか言ってるけど、それは？と言うと、二つの議会（上院と下院）通過しなきゃがあるからそんなことにはならないよと言ってたけど本当だろうか。

オバマさんのリタイア後の自虐動画が面白かったのでここにも貼っておく。

1)   Legislators of Taiwan’s Nationalist Party (KMT) are demanding that the executive branch take tougher action against Japan, including use of military force, after a Taiwanese fishing boat and its crew were detained by Japan’s coast guard last month for fishing in Japanese waters.

KMT legislator Liao Kuo-tung on Thursday told a legislative committee that the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou, also of the KMT, is “too weak” in handling the matter so “when it (Taiwan) gives an inch, it (Japan) will take a mile.”

“We must take stronger actions,” he said. “Only by using military means can we make Japan bow its head.”

2)   Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Thursday Japan would work with whoever becomes U.S. president after being asked if he could work with Donald Trump now that he has effectively clinched the Republican Party’s presidential nomination.

3)   Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Thursday that “drastic fluctuations” in the yen’s value risked having a major impact on the trade prospects of Japanese companies.

Abe said the current situation was “not desirable”, during a visit to London.

4)   In the aftermath of a series of earthquakes that forced thousands of people to leave their homes in Kumamoto Prefecture last month, police said there have been a string of burglaries of homes and abandoned offices.

5)   The 120-nation Nonaligned Movement headed by Iran accused the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday of violating international law by ruling that nearly $2 billion in frozen Iranian assets can be paid to victims of attacks linked to the country.

A communique issued by the NAM’s Coordinating Bureau follows an Iranian appeal to the United Nations last week to intervene with the U.S. government to prevent the loss of their funds. Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called the ruling an “outrageous robbery, disguised under a court order.”

6)   Donald Trump’s emergence as the last man standing in the Republican presidential race has prompted his critics inside the party to intensify their search for a candidate they could back as a serious third-party alternative.

7)   Pakistani police on Thursday arrested 15 members of a tribal council accused of ordering the burning alive of a young girl for helping a couple to elope in a so-called “honor killing”, police said.

The 16-year-old girl was set on fire last week in the town of Donga Gali, about 50 km (30 miles) northeast of the capital, Islamabad, on the orders of the council, said district police chief Saeed Wazir.

金曜日だけど3連休なの英語。銀行が国を動かしているという話とマリファナとビールの比較。

1)   The Bank of Japan has decided to extend zero-interest-rate loans to financial institutions in quake-hit Kumamoto Prefecture.

The decision was made at the central bank’s policy meeting on Thursday.

The BOJ plans to set up a mechanism to supply 300 billion yen, or about 2.77 billion dollars, to local lenders in the southwestern prefecture.

2)   Japan’s ski competition governing body has suspended the membership of 2 teenage snowboarders for their use of marijuana. They used the banned drugs on their tours of the United States in December.

The Ski Association of Japan announced the boys’ punishment on Wednesday after deciding it at an emergency board meeting earlier in the day.

They are suspended indefinitely both as association members and contestants. Their status as athletes designated for training support has also been cancelled

3)   Japan has lodged a protest with Taiwan over a statement made by its president challenging Tokyo’s claim to waters in the Pacific. Ma Ying-jeou described Japan’s southernmost island as a rock around which it cannot claim an exclusive economic zone.

The Japan Coast Guard on Monday seized a Taiwanese fishing boat for illegally operating in exclusive economic waters off Okinotorishima island.

The ship’s captain was released after promising to pay a bond.

On Wednesday, fishermen and lawmakers protested outside the building in Taipei that houses the Interchange Association, Japan’s liaison office in Taiwan. Some threw eggs at the building.
4)    Dignitaries and celebrities joined Japan’s Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko for the annual spring party at the Akasaka Imperial Gardens in Tokyo on Wednesday.

The imperial couple hosts the garden party every spring and autumn.

Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako, Prince and Princess Akishino and other imperial family members also greeted guests as they toured the garden.

Among the visitors was astronaut Kimiya Yui, who spent nearly 5 months aboard the International Space Station last year.

5)   Officials of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency suspect that wrong data and errors in programming may be to blame for the failure of its astronomy satellite, Hitomi.

The officials say Hitomi apparently recognized it was rotating at around 4 AM on March 26th. They say this was not the case, but that the satellite likely applied force to stop the perceived rotation. They suspect the action caused the satellite to spin.
6)   The European Union plans to propose a study of the global eel trade at an international conservation conference in South Africa later this year. The survey will include Japan, the world’s largest consumer of eel.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature, or IUCN, placed Japanese eel on its list of endangered species in 2014, following a 30-year drop in catch.

Conservation of dwindling eel resources will be one of the topics at the conference of the parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES, to open in Johannesburg in September.

7)   Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda has said the bank’s monetary easing measures coupled with
the negative interest rate are already having an impact.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, BOJ Governor Kuroda said: “I will examine risks to economic activity and prices, and if I think it’s necessary for achieving the inflation target, then I won’t hesitate to take additional easing measures in terms of three dimensions — quantity, quality and interest rate.”