カテゴリー: English

北の某君の話などなど。

1)    New Justice Minister Yoko Kamikawa said Friday that the ministry is considering submitting a bill to lower Japan’s legal age of adulthood from 20 to 18 in the extraordinary Diet session likely be convened this fall.

2)   Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, seeking to repair his tattered approval ratings by reshuffling his cabinet, said Thursday he would focus on bread-and-butter issues such as jobs, a pledge he’s made in the past only to prioritize conservative issues such as amending the constitution.

3)   Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has indicated that he will let his party and the Diet decide the timeframe for his plan to submit a draft of constitutional amendment to the Diet. But some governing party members say Abe should not push forward the matter quickly at a time the rate of support for his cabinet is falling.

4)   Japanese business leaders have welcomed the new lineup. They say the incoming ministers have the experience to make policy, but insist much remains to be done.

Japan Business Federation Chairman Sadayuki Sakakibara told reporters that the new Cabinet needs to refocus on the economy.

He said business leaders want the new Cabinet to go back to the Abe administration’s top priorities: mounting an economic recovery and escaping deflation.

5)   North Korea has renewed its demand that the United States change its policy of hostility toward Pyongyang.

North Korea’s state-run media on Wednesday carried a statement issued by a spokesperson for the Korea Asia-Pacific Peace Committee. It serves as liaison between North Korea and South Korea.
6)   Japan has agreed to step up cooperation with India in developing the country’s strategically important northeastern region.

Government officials and representatives from both countries reached the agreement at a meeting in New Delhi on Thursday. It focuses on road building and other infrastructure projects.
7)   Mexico’s foreign secretary has indicated that his country could quit the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, if upcoming renegotiations on the accord end up unfavorable to Mexico.

8)   US scientists say they have successfully corrected disease-causing genes in human embryos with genome editing technology.

Researchers from the Oregon Health and Science University, collaborating with other institutes, published their work in the British science journal Nature on Wednesday. It is the first report of genome editing on human embryos outside China.

9)   US President Donald Trump’s plan to limit the number of legal immigrants is drawing rebuke not only from the Democratic Party but also from some members of his own Republican Party.

Trump on Wednesday unveiled an immigration reform bill drafted by 2 Republican senators.

He says that many green card holders with permanent resident status are low-skilled workers and are depriving American workers of jobs.

10)   Some employees at an IT company in the US state of Wisconsin are having a microchip that contains personal information implanted in their hands.

The chip allows employees to open doors and log onto computers by simply waving their hand.
Workers can also buy products from in-house stores.

ヒアリのことでこれほど大騒ぎになっている日本が不思議らしい。^^ アメリカにはもっと危険生物がたくさんいそうだからなぁ。トランスジェンダーの軍入隊禁止の理由も知らなかったので興味深かった。

1)   A Malaysian court says it will begin on October 2nd the trial of 2 women accused of killing the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

The two women have been indicted for killing Kim Jong Nam, who died after having his face smeared with the lethal VX nerve agent at Kuala Lumpur International Airport in February.
2)   NHK has learned that 12 cargo containers have been moved out of a port in Fukuoka City, western Japan, without being checked for venomous fire ants.

The alien species has been sighted at the city’s Hakata Port on a number of occasions. A worker was stung and slightly injured on Thursday.

3)   A survey in Japan shows that one in 6 women have suffered violence by their husbands or others but that most of the victims did not contact the police.
4)   Japan’s defense minister has been replaced, closing a chapter in a major cover-up scandal.

It centers on the withholding of records on Japan’s former peacekeeping mission in South Sudan.

Tomomi Inada stepped down to take responsibility after an internal inspection found a series of violations.
5)   The leader of Japan’s largest opposition Democratic Party, Renho, has expressed her intention to resign from the post.

Party sources say she told people close to her on Thursday that she intends to step down as president in a bid to revamp the struggling party.
6)    People in Japan are marking the first anniversary of a mass killing at a care home for the disabled just outside Tokyo.

Former care worker Satoshi Uematsu stormed the facility in Sagamihara city last year in the early hours of July 26th, wielding a knife. He killed 19 people. 27 others suffered stabbing wounds.
7)   The US Senate has passed a bill to impose sanctions on Russia over its alleged interference in the 2016 US presidential election.

Russia says it will seize some US diplomatic property in the country in retaliation for the passage of a new bill by the US Congress that imposes sanctions against Russia.
8)   US President Donald Trump has declared a ban on transgender people from serving in the US military, citing costs and other reasons. Democrats and human rights advocates have criticized the decision.

9)   Japanese government officials say the country’s unemployment rate in June stood at 2.8 percent.

That’s a 0.3-percentage-point improvement from the previous month.

The ratio of job offers to applicants rose to 1.51.
That means there were 151 job openings for every 100 people looking for work.

10)   The Japanese government has announced that it will impose a safeguard measure on frozen beef imports in order to protect domestic farmers.

Officials will apply higher tariffs on the products starting next month.

Duties on frozen beef imports from countries such as the US, New Zealand and Canada will be raised to 50 percent.

1)   The United States will bar Americans from travelling to North Korea in the coming weeks, two travel agencies said Friday, a month after a U.S. tourist, student Otto Warmbier, died following his imprisonment by Pyongyang.

North Korea’s tourism agency has launched a website offering holiday options ranging from surfing to rice planting, despite strong U.S. warnings to avoid travel to a nation where several trips have ended in jail.

2)   Thief returns stolen bicycle, includes written apology and edible gift to say sorry

3)   A number of books aimed at teaching elementary school children about issues concerning the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community have been published recently in an effort to deepen understanding about sexual minorities in Japan.

4)   Chinese censors can’t bear Winnie the Pooh

5)   Sources close to the Defense Ministry say Minister Tomomi Inada was told about the existence of the activity logs in February and this fact was reported to the Inspector General’s Office of Legal Compliance in March.

6)   A pact that allows Japan to export its nuclear power technology to India for peaceful purposes has taken effect.

It entered into force after Japan’s Ambassador to India, Kenji Hiramatsu, and Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar exchanged documents in New Delhi on Thursday.

The deal, signed by both governments last November, also enables the countries to exchange know-how on nuclear materials and plant equipment.

7)   An association of Japanese Bitcoin exchanges is considering moving forward a plan to suspend transactions of the virtual currency.

It’s taking the step because of growing concerns over a possible sudden split of the Bitcoin system.

8)    Japan’s government will conduct tests of self-driving buses using the country’s version of a global positioning system. It hopes to use such vehicles during Tokyo’s Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2020.

The Cabinet Office says it will start the tests in the southwestern prefecture of Okinawa in November.

9)      The US Justice Department says it has taken down the biggest online black market for illegal goods and services.

Department officials said on Thursday that since its inception, AlphaBay serviced more than 200,000 users, who traded in illegal drugs, toxic chemicals, firearms and stolen identities.

10)   A pro-Russian separatist leader of a breakaway region in eastern Ukraine has proclaimed a new state.

The new state will be called Malorossiya, and its capital will be placed in Donetsk. He added that Malorossiya is consisted of all Ukraine territories except for Russian-annexed Crimea, and a new constitution is being drawn up for the country.

11)   US President Donald Trump faces uncertainty 6 months after his inauguration, as the overhaul of Obamacare has stalled and investigations continue into Russia’s possible meddling in last year’s election.

Trump summoned Republican senators to the White House on Wednesday to pressure them to pass a bill to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care program as early as possible. He said they shouldn’t leave Washington until the bill is enacted.

12)   Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai has criticized China for its treatment of human rights activist and Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, who died last week.July 22nd, 2017

先生はトランプ支持者だから最近のあれこれはFakeニュースだと憤っていた。^^

1)   The leader of the junior partner in Japan’s ruling coalition on Friday urged Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to focus on regaining public trust after a slide in his popularity, and said revising the pacifist constitution was not a priority for voters.

2)   A vice minister has given up using a chauffeured official car to take her child to daycare after drawing political flak following a media report, but some working mothers expressed sympathy for the 39-year-old lawmaker.

The Shukan Shincho weekly magazine accused Megumi Kaneko of “mixing up official and private matters” when it reported in late June that she had used an official vehicle to transport her 1-year-old son to his nursery.

3)   The operator of nuclear power plants in South Korea has decided to suspend work on 2 reactors.

Massive amounts of radiation-contaminated water that has been processed and stored in hundreds of tanks at the plant are slowing decommissioning work and are a safety risk in case another massive quake or tsunami strikes. TEPCO needs to release the water – which contains radioactive tritium that is not removable but considered not harmful in small amounts – into the Pacific Ocean,

4)   Researchers say large foreign longhorn beetles are spreading in Japan, causing serious damage to cherry, peach and other fruit trees.

The insect spends a few years within fruit trees such as cherry, peach and plum, eating the wood. Cutting down affected trees alone has not stopped the spread of the species.

Hundreds of highly poisonous fire ants have been found at the port of Yokohama, near Tokyo.

5)   Two Japanese firms have created a self-driving car that can deliver sushi to a hungry customer’s doorstep.

The ever-growing demand for home delivery has left many companies with a problem. They don’t have enough drivers to transport the goods.

6)   The Japanese government has compiled a plan to support domestic cheese makers who are facing increased competition from European products.

Japanese and European Union negotiators reached a broad agreement on an economic partnership agreement last week. Japan will create a quota for European soft cheeses and abolish tariffs over a 15-year period. But Japanese cheese producers are worried about greater competition.

7)   Workers at major firms in Japan won an average monthly pay hike of over 60 dollars for the 4th year in a row.
That’s as a result of annual labor negotiations.

8)   Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said his country will provide aid in the amount of 1.4 billion yen, or about 12.4 million dollars, to Jordan.

9)   The death toll from last week’s record downpour in southwestern Japan has risen to 32.
10)   A US Democratic congressman has submitted a resolution to the House of Representatives to seek the impeachment of President Donald Trump.

11)   One of the biggest icebergs on record has broken off Antarctica, raising fears it could create more flow of ice into the sea and possibly raise the sea level.

12)   North Korea has threatened to retaliate if the United Nations Security Council imposes additional sanctions over its nucleaar and missile programs.

13)   The US government wants to renegotiate its free trade agreement with South Korea. Trade Representative Robert Lightheizer sent a letter to his counterpart in Seoul.

The letter says the US and South Korea are important allies and key trading partners. It says they need free, fair and balanced trade to strengthen the relationship.

It also says the US has real concerns about its significant trade imbalance with South Korea.

1)   Torrential rains continue to batter western Japan for a third day. Eleven people are dead and at least 14 are missing.
Over 54,000 residents were ordered to evacuate their homes while thousands of rescuers search for survivors.

Parts of Fukuoka prefecture, on the island of Kyushu, were hit by over 600 millimeters of rain in 2 days, almost double the amount that usually falls in all of July.

2)   A shipment of reprocessed nuclear fuel destined for a Japanese power plant has left France.

Two specially fitted vessels left the port of Cherbourg, northwestern France, on Wednesday.

French nuclear energy firm Areva manufactured the MOX, or mixed oxide, fuel, a mixture of uranium and plutonium reprocessed from spent nuclear fuel.

The fuel is to be used in the No. 4 reactor at the Takahama nuclear plant, which Kansai Electric Power Company restarted in May.

3)   Japan’s defense minister has defended her temporary absence from her office while Self-Defense Force personnel engaged in rescue operations in rain-devastated northern Kyushu, western Japan.

Japan’s Meteorological Agency had issued for parts of the region emergency heavy rain warnings, which are issued for disasters that could occur only once every few decades.

Tomomi Inada left the ministry for about an hour around noon on Thursday to attend a defense policy seminar.

4)   A single poisonous fire ant has been found at Tokyo Port. It was in a shipping container that arrived from China.

The ant was found during an inspection at a port wharf on Monday. An analysis by the Environment Ministry has confirmed that it was a fire ant. Officials have no reports of anyone being stung by the ant.

5)   Japan and the European Union have reached a broad deal on an Economic Partnership Agreement that would affect about 30 percent of the world’s gross domestic product.

The EPA is the first of its kind among large, advanced economies, and would be one of Japan’s biggest trade deals.

6)   Japan’s tax revenue for the fiscal year that ended in March dropped for the first time in 7 years.

The Finance Ministry says total revenue came to nearly 55.5 trillion yen, or about 490 billion dollars. That’s down 1.5 percent from the figure for the previous year.

Corporate tax income dropped 4.6 percent. The stronger yen has dampened corporate earnings. Revenues from income and consumption taxes both fell 1.1 percent.

One economist says the drop in revenue has brought Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economic policies to a crossroads.

7)   Anti-capitalist protesters have clashed with police in Hamburg ahead of the G20 summit that opens on Friday. Authorities say more than 70 police officers were injured.

Police say about 12,000 people took part in a rally at a port on the Elbe River on Thursday.

8)   A United Nations conference is expected to adopt a final draft on Friday of a legally binding treaty to ban nuclear weapons.

Conference President Elayne Whyte Gomez presented the final draft on Thursday to the 129 non-nuclear countries taking part in the negotiations at the UN headquarters in New York.

9)   A United Nations conference is expected to adopt a final draft on Friday of a legally binding treaty to ban nuclear weapons.

Conference President Elayne Whyte Gomez presented the final draft on Thursday to the 129 non-nuclear countries taking part in the negotiations.
10)   Leaders of the Group of 20 economies have opened their summit in Germany, with free trade and climate change among the key issues.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed the leaders in the northern city of Hamburg on Friday. Merkel will chair the 2-day summit.

The leaders will discuss terrorism, the world economy and trade, as well as climate change on the first day.

A key focus is whether the G20 can issue a clear message in support of free trade for sustainable growth, amid rising protectionism.

誕生日プレゼントのレッスンデー。

1)     The Japanese government is exploring ways to use cruise ships in order to cope with accommodation shortages expected during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics

2)   These days, we should consider the thought of coming under cyber-attack as just a way of life.

3)   A Japanese team has inspected tourist sites and other facilities on Etorofu Island, one of the 4 Russian-held islands claimed by Japan.

The delegation of about 70 members, including government officials and business people, arrived in Etorofu on Thursday.

They are visiting the islands to study the feasibility of starting joint economic projects with Russia. Etorofu is the second leg of their 5-day tour, which started on Kunashiri Island on Tuesday.

4)   The US government says it is tightening security on inbound flights due to a heightened threat of terror attacks.

Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly announced the new aviation safety rules on Wednesday in Washington.

He said he is concerned about terrorist groups’ renewed interest in targeting the aviation sector. He emphasized the necessity of boosting security in airports around the world for direct flights to the US.

5)   Many Japanese follow a tradition of eating grilled eel to beat the summer heat. But with the price of eel rising in recent years, a major supermarket chain is offering grilled catfish, a less expensive alternative.

Retail giant Aeon unveiled the new product for the Midsummer Day, which falls on July 25th. The company is selling catfish raised in Vietnam for the first time.

Company officials say they are using a type of catfish called pangasius, which is known for its fleshy white meat suitable for grilling.

6)     India’s largest port has been hit by a cyberattack, following ransomware attacks targeting government agencies and companies in Europe and the United States.

The Indian government said in a statement on Wednesday that malicious software crippled operations at one terminal of the port in western city of Mumbai.

7)   A major operator of tax-free stores in Japan is launching a new type of outlet that gives tourists a chance to experience a lifestyle rather than just buy a product.
It caters to a growing number of foreign visitors who want to get a taste of the real Japan.

Tax-free items include products that are popular among tourists, such as home appliances and cosmetics.

Visitors to the store can also enjoy a buffet of various Japanese dishes like sushi and tempura.

They can play a survival game using air guns that shoot plastic bullets.

In addition, there’s a shop that specializes in instant noodles. It sells 42 varieties and many of them are exclusive to Japan. There’s hot water available for people who can’t wait to taste their purchase.
8)   Exactly 3 years have passed since the Islamic State militant group unilaterally declared an Islamic caliphate in an area straddling Iraq and Syria.

The group declared itself the Islamic State after seizing Iraq’s second largest city, Mosul, on June 29th, 2014.

An offensive to retake Mosul from the militants has entered the final phase. Iraqi forces say the insurgents are now trapped in a one-square-kilometer area.

9)   A US survey suggests the image of the United States has sharply worsened worldwide under President Donald Trump.

The non-partisan Pew Research Center surveyed about 40,000 people earlier this year, in 37 countries including Japan.

It reports only 49 percent held a favorable view of the US, compared to 64 percent in the closing years of the Obama administration.

10)   The social-networking giant Facebook says its monthly active users reached 2 billion.
The number has doubled in 5 years.

選挙からパンダから将棋まで諸々。全然上手く話せてはいないけれど何故かこの時間がストレス解消に役立ってるのが分かる。来週のレッスンは誕生日プレゼントにするから予約しないでね。とのこと。sweet!

1)    People in Okinawa are marking the 72nd anniversary of the end of a fierce ground battle in the closing days of World War Two.

Every year on June 23rd, Okinawa commemorates the end of the Japanese military’s organized combat against US forces in the southwestern prefecture.

More than 200,000 people, including about a quarter of Okinawa’s residents, were killed in the 1945 battle. The exact figure remains unknown.

2)   Candidates for the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly have kicked off their campaigns for an upcoming election.
Political parties in Japan see the assembly election as an important bellwether for national ballots.
3)   The announcer and cancer blogger Mao Kobayashi has died. She was 34 years old.

A Tokyo native, Kobayashi started her career as a TV personality while she was still at college.

After graduation, she became a freelance announcer and was a caster for a news program.

She married the kabuki actor Ichikawa Ebizo in 2010 and had 2 children.

4)   The Shinkansen bullet train service in western Japan was suspended for 5 hours from Wednesday night due to a power outage. 72 trains were immobilized, and more than 50,000 passengers were affected.

Central Japan Railway says overhead wiring got severed in Takatsuki, Osaka, shortly before 8 PM on Wednesday.

5)   A former vice education minister has called for a third-party investigation into a favoritism scandal involving the operator of school run by a close friend of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Kake Educational Institution, headed by Abe’s long-time friend, Kotaro Kake, plans to open a veterinary school in a government-designated special economic zone in Imabari City, western Japan.

Kihei Maekawa told a news conference on Friday that the prime minister’s office and the Cabinet Office are being dishonest in repeatedly denying the contents of documents that have turned up in an education ministry probe into the scandal.

6)   Tokyo’s Ueno Zoo says a newborn giant panda cub has turned out to be female.

Zoo officials say the cub that was born on Monday of last week is steadily growing.

They say they conducted the cub’s third physical checkup on Thursday with a Chinese specialist from a giant panda’s protection and research facility.

7)   Another type of venomous ant has been found in western Japan, at the same port where fire ants were earlier confirmed.

Kobe City officials say about 100 of the ants were discovered on Tuesday in Kobe Port.

On May 26th, fire ants were found at the port in a shipping container from China. In mid-June, about 100 of these ants were also discovered in a container storage area at the port.

The ants found on Tuesday are a different variety that has a lower toxicity. But their sting could cause a severe reaction.

8)   The number of foreign tourists visiting Japan is continuing to increase. It hit a new record for the month of May.

The Japan Tourism Organization estimated that nearly 2.3 million foreigners visited in the month. That’s up 21 percent from May last year.

South Korea topped the list.

The number of visitors from the country increased by 85 percent as more direct flights were added. Tourists also returned to Kumamoto, one year after a strong earthquake there.

9)   Japan’s youngest professional shogi player, 14-year-old Souta Fujii, won his 28th game in a row. His winning streak matches a record set 30 years ago.

10)   Tokyo’s governor has been consulting with executives from global firms about how to make the nation’s capital a more attractive place to do business.

Yuriko Koike met Thursday with the CEOs and managers of 8 US- and UK-based institutions that operate in Tokyo.

Koike says she’s determined to turn the capital into an international financial hub.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government this month outlined its plan to attract overseas financial institutions. It includes cutting corporate taxes, and improving workers’ living environments.

One of the people Koike consulted was the president of fund manager BlackRock Japan.

He noted the difficulty of finding talented mid-career women workers. He said this is because childcare in Japan is so poor. And he called for better support for working mothers.

Another participant said Tokyo needs to develop a bigger talent pool. He suggested creating a university that specializes in finance and gives lectures in English.

Koike said the feedback will help make the city a better place for women and highly skilled professionals to work.

The Tokyo government wants to put the finishing touches on its plan around this autumn.

共謀罪の話と認知症の話がメイン。一度母が「まさごを探しに行くの」と私に言い、玄関から外に出て行こうといたのを止めたなぁ。もうあれは7-8年前かな。母が半身麻痺がなくて一人で外で歩行ができるなら「行方がわかりません」の人になってしまう心配もあったなぁ。先週姉の会社の方のご家族（お母様？）の行方が分からなくなり、うちの町内あたりで見かけたと誰かが言ってとのことで姉からその方の顔写真が送られて来て、この人を見かけたら連絡してと言われたが、あの方は見つかったのだろうか…..。

1)   The number of Japanese people with dementia reported missing hit yet another record high in 2016, figures released Thursday showed, indicating the issue of elderly care is becoming more complex due to Japan’s aging society.

The National Police Agency said 15,432 people with dementia or who are suspected to be suffering the condition were reported missing to police in 2016, up 26.4 percent from the previous year.

2)   Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was under mounting pressure Friday over allegations that he used his influence to help a friend in a business deal after two official reports appeared to back up the claims.

3)      A prominent anti-U.S. base activist in Okinawa said Thursday at a U.N. Human Rights Council meeting that the Japanese government has committed “clear human rights violations” against opponents of the relocation of a U.S. air base within the southern island Japan prefecture.

4)   The death toll in an apartment building fire in west London is likely to rise significantly. Police says they have confirmed at least 30 people died from the fire that engulfed a 24-story building on Wednesday.

5)   A beer garden located higher than any of its competitors in Tokyo attracted a large number of people at its yearly opening.

The summer open-air restaurant is located halfway up the 600-meter Mount Takao in western Tokyo.

On Friday, hikers in groups dropped by for beer on their way down the mountain. They enjoyed a view of skyscrapers in the center of Tokyo in the far distance and a rainbow that appeared in the sky.

6)   Japan’s Foreign Ministry has lodged a strong protest over a South Korean military drill on the Takeshima Islands of Shimane Prefecture.

Foreign Ministry officials said they confirmed that the exercise started on Thursday morning.

South Korea controls the islands. Japan claims them.

7)   A group of Japanese writers is condemning the enactment of anti-terror legislation as an outrage.

The head of the Japan PEN Club, Jiro Asada, released a statement on Thursday, following passage of the bill which criminalizes the act of preparing terror attacks and other organized crimes.

Asada, a novelist, said the new law could seriously threaten freedom of speech and expression by effectively introducing the crime of conspiracy.

8)   Local assemblies in Japan are having hard time in getting citizens to show interest in their activities.

The assembly of Tomakomai City, northern Japan, has started offering 50 yen, or about 45 cents, in community points to citizens who attend its sessions.

Thursday was the first day of the offer. At reception, citizens scanned their community money point cards to get 50 points, worth about 45 cents.

9)   Sources say struggling Japanese auto parts maker Takata is taking final steps to file for bankruptcy as early as this month. The company is one of the world’s top 3 airbag producers but has been involved in a worldwide recall since 2013.

10)   A Japanese convenience store chain is turning to artificial intelligence to reduce its employee workload. The industry is currently struggling with a serious labor shortage.

FamilyMart, free messaging application provider LINE and trading firm Itochu have reached basic agreement on the tie-up. The say their new convenience stores will employ AI technology now being developed by LINE.

They say the system will use sales data to predict customer demand and place the appropriate orders.

They will also try to persuade the approximately 68 million LINE users in Japan to use their smartphones to make payments.

The three firms will study the practical aspects of the tie-up projects and try to open a model store by the end of 2018.

Lawson, another convenience store chain, has been developing an automated checkout system in a tie-up with a major electronics maker.

11)   An expert panel set up by Japan’s Cabinet Office says the economy has likely been expanding since December 2012. That’s more than 4 and a half years, making it the third-longest period of postwar growth.

The panel says the pace of growth did slow between April 2014, when the consumption tax was raised to 8 percent — and early 2016.

But experts have agreed that this period was not a recession.

The current run is longer than the period of growth in the bubble years, which started in 1986 and lasted 4 years and 3 months.

12)   Russian President Vladimir Putin has reiterated that discussing issues arising from the Japan-US Security Treaty is unavoidable to make progress in negotiations on a territorial dispute with Japan.

Putin spoke to reporters in Moscow on Thursday after a televised question-and-answer session with ordinary citizens.

Putin talked about joint economic activity with Japan on a disputed island chain. On-site surveys are set to start late this month.

記事を満遍なくという感じ。天皇陛下のお名前に「hito」がつくのはなぜか聞かれた^^

1)   For the first time in 2 centuries, Japan’s Emperor will be allowed to step down.
The Diet has enacted a bill that allows Emperor Akihito to abdicate, but the law only makes the provision for him. The law is designed to allow him to hand over the throne to his son, Crown Prince Naruhito.

2)   The operator of a nuclear research facility near Tokyo says one of its workers may have suffered a high levels of internal radiation exposure.

Five workers at the facility of the Japan Atomic Energy Agency in Oarai Town, Ibaraki Prefecture, were accidentally exposed to radioactive substances on Tuesday.

3)   A police officer in southwestern Japan has been arrested for allegedly killing his wife. The couple’s young children were also found dead at their home on Tuesday.

Police arrested Mitsuru Nakata based on forensic evidence at the scene. The 38-year-old works for the Fukuoka prefectural police.

4)   Japanese education minister Hirokazu Matsuno says his ministry will reinvestigate the existence of controversial ministry documents.

The documents are alleged to be related to the planned creation of a new veterinary school by Kake Educational Institution, which is run by a close friend of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

One of the documents allegedly mentions the intentions of the highest level of the Prime Minister’s Office in calling for swift approval of the opening of the new school.

5)   A man held as a murder suspect in Japan is believed to have been helped by more than 10 members of his radical leftist group while on the run for over 45 years.

Sources with the investigation say members of the Chukaku-ha group gave shelter to Masaaki Osaka and helped him elude the authorities.

Police on Wednesday served Osaka with a fresh arrest warrant in the killing of a police officer during a riot in Tokyo in 1971.

6)   Haagen-Dazs Japan has announced a recall of new ice cream products that may contain black pieces of rubber.

Company officials soon received complaints from consumers saying they found black pieces in the ice cream. The officials say they found worn rubber in manufacturing equipment at a factory, and that fragments may have been mixed into the ice cream.

7)   Japan’s largest business organization is asking Vietnam to help get the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade deal back on track after the US withdrawal.

Japan and Vietnam are among the 11 remaining signatories of the TPP.

8)   South Korea’s military says it has found small, unmanned aircraft crashed on a mountain in the northern part of the country. The military says the drone’s size and shape are similar to a North Korean drone found on a remote island 3 years ago.

9)   The US state of Hawaii has enacted legislation calling for continued efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions across Hawaii in line with the Paris climate change agreement.

10)   67 members have joined a new effort to stop multinational tax avoidance. Members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development have backed a convention that stops companies from exploiting countries with lower taxes.

The move follows claims that firms such as Apple and Amazon were shifting profits to low-tax jurisdictions despite having little presence there.

パリ協定とか日本の塾の話とか。

1)   US President Donald Trump says his country will withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Trump said he will keep his promise to US taxpayers. He referred to the largest emitter China and said the Paris deal is unfair to the US as it allows other countries to continue to pollute at a greater rate.

2)   A US Defense Department official has expressed confidence about establishing a missile defense system capable of handling threats from North Korea and Iran.

The Pentagon announced on Tuesday that an interceptor launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California successfully shot down a mock-up of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

3)   Japanese police have arrested 5 women for allegedly trying to smuggle gold from South Korea through an airport in central Japan.

Police say the women arrived at Chubu international airport last December with about 30 kilograms of gold bars hidden in pockets sewn inside their clothes.

The gold is said to be worth about 1.2 million dollars.

Police believe the women were serving as couriers for the ringleader, thought to be a South Korean woman, who allegedly purchased the gold in Hong Kong.

4)   The Japan Coast Guard has arrested 5 Japanese and 3 Chinese men on suspicion of smuggling what appears to be over 200 kilograms of gold bullion into the country.

Coast Guard officials say they believe the owner of the small boat used by the suspects is Yasuaki Saito, a resident of the city of Iki in Nagasaki Prefecture.

Saito and the 7 others allegedly unloaded about 206 kilograms of cargos believed to be gold at a fishing port in the city of Karatsu in Saga Prefecture on Wednesday.

5)   The UN Human Rights Council released on Wednesday a report compiled by Special Rapporteur David Kaye. He is a professor at the University of California.

Kaye notes that Japanese media face direct and indirect pressure from government officials, urging the government to strengthen media independence.
6)   The job interview season has officially started in Japan, as next spring’s graduates begin the task of landing a job with a major firm.

The season is scheduled according to guidelines set by the Japan Business Federation, or Keidanren.

University students are pressing their suits and polishing their interview skills.

7)   A government advisory panel on education reform proposed to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday steps to ease the workload of teachers in Japan and boost community and parent involvement with schools, amid concerns about overwork.

The panel is recommending introducing a “Teachers’ Day,” designed to make local communities more aware and involved in tasks handled by teachers.

8)    Japan’s health ministry on Friday abandoned its plan to completely ban smoking in restaurants as part of measures to lower cancer risks, yielding to a ruling party proposal advocating smokers’ rights.

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare will still aim to fully eliminate smoking in government offices and medical institutions, its officials said, as the host country of the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics seeks to implement tighter measures to counter passive smoking.

9)   Apple is preparing to launch a connected speaker to serve as a smart home assistant in a challenge to Amazon Echo and Google Home, a news report says.

The speaker powered by Apple’s digital assistant Siri may be unveiled at the annual Worldwide Developers Conference next week in Silicon Valley, Bloomberg News reported Thursday.

10)   Price hikes for a number of items went into effect in Japan on Thursday, among them beer, butter and postcards.

The new law will require mass merchandisers to raise the price of beer and happoshu (low-malt beer-like beverages) by about 10%.

1)   British police suspect a 22-year-old man carried out the bomb attack in Manchester that killed 22 people and injured 59.

2)   Japanese police have arrested 6 men in connection with last year’s robbery of gold bars worth millions of dollars near a train station in the city of Fukuoka, western Japan.

3)   Some Japanese insurance companies are expanding their policies to cover cyberattacks because of increased risks worldwide.

Officials at Sompo Japan Nipponkoa Insurance have updated their policies for small and medium-size businesses relating to cyberattacks.

4)   A pair of melons produced in the northern city of Yubari, Hokkaido, sold for 1.5 million yen in the first auction of this harvest season on Friday.

The price was half the record 3 million yen fetched for a pair of Yubari melons, a type of premium cantaloupe, in the previous year’s auction, but largely in line with prices set in regular years at the Sapporo Central Wholesale Market.

5)   Businesses and local authorities in Japan are turning to environmentally friendly bioplastics for shopping and garbage bags, as well as product containers, in a bid to step up their conservation efforts.

Environmentally conscious consumers have responded positively to the use of such materials, viewing it as a practical way of helping conservation.

6)   The last Japanese peacekeepers with a United Nations mission have left South Sudan. The team was Japan’s first with an expanded mandate to use force if necessary to protect civilians and U.N. staff.

Japan decided in March to end its peacekeeping mission in the East African nation where civil war is well into its fourth year.

7)   Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and US President Donald Trump have confirmed that both countries will work closely to tackle the issue of North Korea.

Abe and Trump held talks in Italy on Friday on the sidelines of the Group of Seven countries summit.

At the top of the meeting, Trump said the issue of North Korea is on the global agenda, and that it definitely needs to be resolved.

8)   Japan is to increase the number of officials assigned to tourism promotion as it gears toward a target of 40 million visitors from overseas in 2020.

Last year, a record 24 million foreigners visited Japan. The government wants to boost this to 40 million when Tokyo hosts the Olympics and Paralympics.

The ministry in charge of tourism says it will boost the number of personnel at the Japan Tourism Agency, an external agency, by about 50 to 150 by this summer.

9)   Japan’s Education Minister has reiterated that he can’t confirm the existence of documents allegedly tying Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to a university operator’s plan to open a school. The operator is run by a close friend of Abe’s.

10)   Japan’s Consumer Price Index for April was up for the 4th straight month.

The officials at the Internal Affairs Ministry say the CPI was 0.3 percent higher from the same month last year.
The reading includes oil products, but not fresh food

11)   The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and major non-OPEC oil producing nations have agreed to extend their cuts in crude oil output until March of next year.

12)   Rural areas in Japan are being hit by severe declines in population. A government-affiliated housing loan provider has decided to offer mortgages with lower interest rates to those moving to the countryside.

The Japan Housing Finance Agency says it will cut the rates on their 35-year fixed mortgage by quarter of a percentage point with certain conditions.

トランプ大統領と皇室と共謀罪の話

1)   The cabinet on Friday approved a bill to allow Emperor Akihito to hand over the Chrysanthemum throne to Crown Prince Naruhito in what would be Japan’s first abdication in roughly 200 years.

2)   Toxic benzene at up to 100 times the government safety limit was detected again in groundwater samples collected in April at the planned relocation site for Tokyo’s Tsukiji fish market, the Tokyo metropolitan government said Thursday.

3)   The ruling coalition has won crucial approval for a controversial bill that would criminalize the act of plotting terrorist attacks or other serious crimes. A majority of members on a Lower House committee have given their backing to the legislation.

The vote was a scene of chaos as opposition lawmakers shouted out in protest.
They’ve called the deliberations insufficient, and said the bill doesn’t have the public’s support.
But members of the ruling coalition voted in favor

4)   A hospital in Japan has started a clinical study to find out whether laughter can have therapeutic effects on cancer patients by boosting their immune systems with help from professional entertainers.

The Osaka International Cancer Institute and 3 entertainment companies will conduct the experiment. Professional comic storytellers, known in Japan as “rakugo-ka,” and pairs of stand-up comedians called “manzai-shi,” will participate in the research.

5)   A global treaty designed to restrict the manufacture and trade of products that contain harmful levels of mercury will take effect in August.

As of Friday, 51 signatories, including Japan, the United States and the Netherlands, had ratified the Minamata Convention. It was adopted at a UN conference in Kumamoto Prefecture, southwestern Japan, in 2013.

The convention was named after a city in the prefecture where people suffered health problems caused by industrial mercury poisoning.

6)   US information security firm is looking into the possibility that North Korean hackers were involved in last week’s massive global cyberattacks.

The US government says at least 300,000 computers in 150 countries were affected.

In each case, ransomware encrypted the computers’ data and locked users out of their systems.

7)   One day before the first anniversary of her inauguration, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen urged China to try to improve cross-strait relations without sticking to the “One China” principle.

Tsai made a speech before an overseas group on Friday. She admitted that she has achieved little to revitalize the economy and narrow the wealth gap among Taiwanese people.

On relations with China, she said old problems should be left in the past, adding that leaders face a new task of keeping peace and prosperity on both sides of the strait.

8)   New university graduates in Japan are enjoying the best job market on record.

The labor and education ministries say 97.6 percent of graduates had landed jobs by April 1st. The ministries jointly polled 4,770 students who left university in March.

The employment rate is up 0.3 percentage points from last year, the highest since the survey began in 1997.

9)   4 carmakers have agreed to pay 553 million dollars to settle a class action suit in the United States over a massive recall of Takata airbags.

Toyota, Subaru, Mazda and BMW say they reached a settlement with car owners who said they incurred economic losses because of the recall.

 

この中にはないけれどFBI長官の話。アメリカだなぁ。と。

1)   The Japanese government for the first time has released a nationwide list of over 300 companies that have violated labor laws, hoping this name-and-shame tactic would help eliminate abuses and prevent karoshi, or death by overwork.

Major companies such as advertising agency Dentsu Inc and electronics maker Panasonic Corp are named for illegal overtime, and a local unit of Japan Post, a subsidiary of Japan Post Holdings Co, is mentioned for failing to report a work-related injury.

2)    A man has been sentenced to 30 months in prison for causing the death of a woman in Kasugai, Aichi Prefecture, last August while playing Pokemon Go as he was driving.

The Nagoya District Court ruled that 27-year-old Yusuke Okuyama from Toki in neighboring Gifu Prefecture was giving his attention to his smartphone when his car hit the 29-year-old Vietnamese woman.

3)   Police in Tokyo have arrested an unemployed 31-year-old man on suspicion of theft after he was caught stealing a wallet from a woman’s tote bag on a train.

According to police, the suspect, Nobutaka Ando, stole the wallet, containing 18,000 yen. Police said Ando may be responsible for at least 21 pickpocketing cases on the Saiko Line this year.

4)   Rice planting for commercial sales began on Wednesday in a village in Fukushima Prefecture for the first time since the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in 2011.

5)   Police say 85 million yen in cash, or about 750,000 dollars, was stolen from a safe in a police station in the city of Hiroshima, western Japan. Police say confiscated evidence is normally kept in a safe in the investigators’ division, but in this case, the cash was stored in a bigger safe in the accounting division, as the amount was large.

6)   The youngest-ever professional player of the Japanese board game shogi, 14-year-old Sota Fujii, has stretched his run of official consecutive victories to a fresh record of 17.

Fujii made headlines last month when he broke an earlier record of 10 straight wins in the game, which is often called Japan’s version of chess. Since then he has continued to dominate.

On Friday, Fujii beat Kazuhiro Nishikawa, a shogi master who holds the rank of 6th dan, to notch his 17th win.

7)   Tokyo police have raided the headquarters of a yakuza crime syndicate in the western prefecture of Hyogo in connection with an extortion case.

About 30 investigators conducted a search of the headquarters of the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi on Friday.
The group, which was formed in 2015, is an offshoot of Japan’s largest crime syndicate, the Yamaguchi-gumi.

8)   New Zealand has ratified the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement, becoming the second country to do so after Japan.

9)   The head of a Chinese-led development bank says it wants to cooperate with the region’s long-established lender, the Asian Development Bank.

Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank President Jin Liqun attended a meeting of the World Economic Forum in Cambodia on Thursday.

Jin said his bank was not created to be a rival of the ADB. He added that he believes the 2 lenders can share responsibilities and work together. The ADB promotes health and education, while the AIIB focuses on support for infrastructure.

10)   Japan’s central government debt stood at a record 1,071.56 trillion yen ($9.4 trillion) at the end of fiscal 2016 in March, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday. The amount owed per person came to approximately 8.45 million yen, based on Japan’s estimated population of 126.79 million as of April 1.

11)   Thousands of people took part in a parade in Tokyo’s Shibuya district Sunday to raise awareness of issues related to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, marching on along busy shopping streets led by a float decorated in rainbow colors about 6,000 participated.

12)   The United States cannot continue to run huge trade deficits with major trading partners, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said following the release of data showing the U.S. merchandise trade deficit with Japan hit a nine-year high in March. “The United States can no longer sustain this inflated trade deficit with Japan.

13)   JR East will open a prayer room within Tokyo Station’s premises due to an increase in travelers from Muslim countries, notably Southeast Asia.

14)   More Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force troops left Juba, South Sudan, on Thursday, to return to Japan.

Their departure is part of the process to end their five-year participation in the ongoing U.N. peacekeeping mission.

1)   A car driven by an elderly woman has rammed into a hospital in southwestern Japan, leaving 13 people injured.

Police suspect the driver, who is 76 years old, made an error and lost control of the car.

2)   Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said he wants to put a revised Constitution into force in 2020.

3)   North Korea has warned Japan that it would suffer the greatest damage if war breaks out on the Korean Peninsula.

4)   Anti-refugee sentiment is rising in Europe and the United States but in Japan those seeking haven from tyranny and war have long faced daunting legal and social gauntlets.

One of the world’s wealthiest countries, Japan accepted just 28 refugees in 2016

5)   Japanese researchers have succeeded in extracting natural gas from frozen methane hydrate deep in the seabed off the Pacific coast of central Japan.

6)   A Japanese research group has found a new type of computer virus that destroys programs in devices that are connected to the Internet.

7)   US electric car maker Tesla more than doubled its sales in the January-March quarter from the same period last year, thanks to record volume.

8)   Japan’s economy has expanded in the first 3 months of this year thanks to brisk exports and consumer spending.

The growth estimates for annualized real-term GDP range from 1.4 percent to 3.1 percent from the previous quarter.

9)   The number of children in Japan fell for the 36th straight year to another record low, the latest data showed Thursday, indicating efforts by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s government have been inadequate to tackle the long-standing issue of a declining birthrate.

10)   Tokyo risks being one of the unhealthiest Olympic Gamaes hosts in years, as an anti-smoking law exposes deep rifts over tobacco tax revenue, personal freedom and the dangers of passive smoking.

先生の住む地域が乾燥しててwild fireが近くまで来ているそうな。http://wildfiretoday.com/tag/florida/ 雨が降るといいのだけど。

1)   The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department says internet users were denied access to its website on Friday afternoon in a suspected cyber-attack.

The department said on Friday it is the first time that internet users have been prevented from accessing its website due to a massive amount of data.

2)   More than a dozen journalists in Japan have protested a government-sponsored anti-terrorism bill. They say the law could suppress freedom of thought.

The bill would punish a criminal organization planning a serious crime, such as a terrorist attack, if a member of the group is found to make any preparations. A Diet committee is deliberating the bill.

3)   A Cabinet Minister in charge of rebuilding areas hit by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami has resigned after making a remark seen as offensive to those affected by the disaster.

Reconstruction Minister Masahiro Imamura submitted his letter of resignation to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Wednesday morning.

4)    South Koreans are taking issue with US President Donald Trump’s recent call for their country to pay for a missile defense system being deployed there.

Amid rising tensions over North Korea’s accelerated nuclear and missile programs, the United States is deploying the Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, in South Korea.

On Thursday, Trump said in an interview with Reuters that he wants South Korea to pay for THAAD, which costs an estimated 1 billion dollars.

5)   The US Navy has unveiled on its website a photo of its aircraft carrier Carl Vinson and destroyers from Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force engaged in joint exercises.

The Carl Vinson strike group was joined by 2 Maritime Self-Defense Force destroyers on Sunday off the coast of the Philippines for the joint drills.

6)   US President Donald Trump says he wants to solve the problem of North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs diplomatically, but it’s very difficult.

Trump spoke with the Reuters news agency at the Oval Office on Thursday, ahead of his 100th day in office on Saturday.
7)   Russian President Vladimir Putin says that if his country and Japan conclude a peace treaty, it must benefit the national interests of both sides.

Putin attended a joint news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe after their talks in Moscow on Thursday.

Putin described the meeting as constructive, saying Russia and Japan are ready to solve the most difficult issue facing them.

8)   The Japanese government has released key economic figures for the month of March. They show a mixed picture.

The labor market remains tight, with the unemployment rate at 2.8 percent. That’s unchanged from February.

The ratio of job offers to applicants rose very slightly, to 1.45. This means there were 145 job openings for every 100 people looking for work.

On the downside, industrial output fell 2.1 percent from the previous month. That’s the first decline in 2 months.

The consumer price index was up 0.2 percent from March last year. That was the third consecutive monthly increase.

Household spending was down 1.3 percent from a year earlier, declining for the 13th month in a row.

9)   The Japanese government says the country’s catch of young bluefin tuna has exceeded its annual quota, two months early.

Japan agreed in 2015 to limit its catch of Pacific bluefin weighing less than 30 kilograms, under an international accord aimed at conserving the species.

The country’s quota is 4,007 tons, but the Fisheries Agency said the total catch had reached 4,008 tons as of Thursday. The tuna fishing season ends in June.

It is the first time Japan has failed to keep within its quota. The Agency blamed underreporting of catches and illegal fishing in 9 prefectures.

10)   Executives at struggling electronics maker Toshiba are considering selling the company’s semiconductor business to a Japan-US group.

Sources say the group includes US investment firm KKR and a Japanese government-backed fund, the Innovation Network Corporation of Japan.

Also in the group are the government-affiliated Development Bank of Japan and several other Japanese businesses.

But it remains unclear whether the Japan-US group can come up with the roughly 18 billion dollars needed to cover Toshiba’s massive losses.

福岡の三億円事件と北朝鮮の話あたり。

1. 1)   Investigators say the man barged into a businessman who was carrying a bag containing about 670,000 dollars in cash along a street.The alleged thief was wearing a blue jacket and jeans.
   Police say footage captured by a nearby security camera shows two men fleeing the scene on a black motorcycle.

   Investigators suspect the two men were involved.

1. 2) Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike has been chosen as one of the world’s 100 most influential people by Time magazine of the US.Koike is listed in the category of Pioneers. The first woman mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, describes her as a governor with both ambitions for Tokyo and an acute awareness of the challenges it faces.

1. 3)   Japan’s governing Liberal Democratic Party has accepted an offer by a member lawmaker to leave the group over a scandal involving an extramarital affair.  Lower House member Toshinao Nakagawa told the party on Friday that he doesn’t want to cause it any more trouble. A weekly magazine had reported on the affair the day before.

1. 4)   Japan’s foreign minister says the US must consult with Tokyo before taking military action against North Korea from any bases on Japanese soil. Fumio Kishida made the comment on Thursday during an Upper House committee meeting on foreign affairs and defense.

1. 5) The number of children in Japan who’ve become victims of crimes through social networking services hit a record high last year. The National Police Agency says 1,736 children up to age 17 were victimized last year. That’s up 84 from 2015.

1. 6) Japanese and Indian teams taking part in an international competition to send rovers to the Moon have conducted test runs of their vehicles. Japanese team HAKUTO and Team Indus performed the test runs for a media audience in Tokyo on Friday.

1. 7) A Japanese city plans to collect virtual currency donations to help maintain a popular cherry blossom viewing park. The park in Hirosaki City, Aomori Prefecture is known for its 2,600 cherry trees and 400-year-old castle. The park attracts 2 million people during blossom season each year. But caring for the trees costs hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

1. 8) Japan’s Finance Minister Taro Aso has expressed his view that the remaining 11 nations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership will start discussions in May to put the TPP deal into effect. The United States withdrew from the TPP after President Donald Trump took office earlier this year.

1. 9) China and South Korea have criticized Japanese government leaders and parliament members for their actions relating to Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine.

1. 10) A US research group has released satellite imagery of what appears to be people playing volleyball at a nuclear test site in North Korea. Researchers say the North’s preparations for a nuclear test may have gone into “stand-by” mode.

今日はこんな感じ。満遍なく話したかな。さて草取りしてこよう。’

1)   The southwestern Japanese prefecture of Kumamoto has held a ceremony to remember the people killed in the earthquakes one year ago.

The quakes killed 225 people. 169 of the deaths have been recognized as related to the quakes, such as falling ill at evacuation shelters. About 200,000 houses were completely or partially destroyed. About 47,000 people are still living in temporary housing.

2)   Orders for commemorative stamps featuring popular figure skater Mao Asada shot up after she announced her retirement from competition. The set of stamps is paired with a small doll dressed in the skater’s costume.

Japan Post last month began accepting orders for the set. The doll is dressed in the dark blue costume Asada wore at the free style in the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games.

3)   Japan’s Board of Audit has found that nearly half of the firms that were granted state subsidies in exchange for making inroads into areas hit by the 2011 disaster have given up their efforts.

The Japanese government earmarked up to nearly 46 million dollars in subsidies to companies that will be building factories and other facilities in the prefectures of Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima.

Officials say in many cases, the firms were unable to secure land or a workforce due to the slow pace of recovery.

4)   The US military says it struck a stronghold of the Islamic State militant group in Afghanistan with the largest non-nuclear bomb it has ever used in combat.

It said the GBU-43B Massive Ordnance Air Blast, known as “the mother of all bombs,” was used in an air strike in the eastern province of Nangarhar on Thursday.

5)   US President Donald Trump has given assurances that he held constructive talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping over North Korean provocations.

Trump on Wednesday tweeted he “had a very good call last night with the President of China concerning the menace of North Korea.”

6)   Police said Thursday they have obtained arrest warrants for two Chinese women after Meiji Shrine in central Tokyo was vandalized earlier this month with an oily liquid.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police said Piao Jinyu and Piao Shanai, both 49, are suspected of vandalizing the shrine in Shibuya Ward on the morning of April 3 and were identified from surveillance camera footage.

The police said the two women, who have already left Japan, have been put on a wanted list as they are likely to return to the country.

7)   France and Japan want to recover pieces of a Martian Moon and bring them back to Earth, the head of France’s National Centre for Space Studies (CNES) said Thursday.

The Martian Moons Exploration project would launch a probe in 2024 destined for Phobos, the largest and closest of two moons circling the Red Planet.

8)   The United Fiasco could have happened to (most) any airline and it was a matter of time. The problem is not just with the airlines, but with the decline American customer service levels.

9/11 hurt our country in a number of ways, and its effects are still felt. What was once an industry based on pleasure has become more of a military installation. Airlines have embraced the powers afforded them through 9/11 and instead of treating passengers as customers, they often act as if they are doing the passenger a favor by transporting them.

9)   A misdirected airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition earlier this week killed 18 allied fighters battling the Islamic State group in northern Syria, the U.S. military said Thursday.

U.S. Central Command said coalition aircraft were given the wrong coordinates by their partner forces, the predominantly-Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces.

10)    Japan has a well-deserved reputation as a country with stimulating night life. Every major city has at least one “neon-gai” (entertainment zone), and Tokyo has dozens.

But according to J-Cast News (April 2), the varieties of so-called “fuzoku” (adult entertainment) businesses are showing signs of rapid decline.

11)   Miyako Taxi, which mainly operates in the Kyoto area, has designated a number of cars in its fleet as Silence Taxis. A notice written on the back of the passenger seat headrest informs customers that aside from offering a greeting when they get in and confirming their desired route, the driver will not speak to them unless he is spoken to (excepting, of course, emergency situations where communication is critical).

テロの話とアメリカのシリア空爆に賛成できる？日本ではどう報道されてるの？がメインの話だったかな。世界がどんどんシビアな状況になっててるなぁ。しかし。

1)   Swedish media report that a truck drove into a crowd on a shopping street and crashed into a department store in central Stockholm on Friday. The media report at least two people died and several others were injured. They report that police are investigating the incident as a possible terror attack.

2)   US President Donald Trump has ordered a missile strike on a Syrian airbase in response to a suspected chemical attack on rebel-held territory. It’s the first US attack on Syrian government forces since the civil war started in 2011. The Pentagon says 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched from the destroyers USS Porter and USS Ross in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea.

3)   Chinese President Xi Jinping has arrived in the United States for his first summit with US President Donald Trump. Xi and his wife flew to Florida on Thursday. He was greeted by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who visited China last month. Trump and his wife also arrived there by Air Force One. The leaders are scheduled to have a dinner together at Trump’s retreat with their wives.

4)   Germany’s cabinet on Wednesday approved a bill that punishes social networking sites if they fail to promptly remove illegal content such as hate speech or defamatory fake news. The cabinet agreed on rules that will impose fines up to 50 million euros, or more than 53 million dollars, on the social media platforms. The bill says social networks need to ensure that obviously criminal content, as defined by German law, will be deleted within 24 hours.

5)   Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Friday that Japan “supports the resolve” of the United States not to allow the proliferation or use of chemical weapons, following a U.S. missile strike on a Syrian air base from which a deadly poison attack was allegedly launched earlier this week.

6)   Japan is struggling to improve English proficiency in public high schools, an education ministry survey showed Wednesday, with students’ performance well behind targets set by the government.

As of December, 36.4% of third-year senior high school students scored “Grade Pre-2” or higher in the Eiken Test in Practical English Proficiency. That was up 2.1 percentage points from the previous year but a long way off the 50% target set by the government for third-year students to achieve by their graduation in March next year.

7)   Japan’s disaster reconstruction minister said Tuesday displaced people yet to return to areas of Fukushima Prefecture deemed safe to live in are “responsible for themselves,” before snapping at the reporter whose question prompted the remark.

Masahiro Imamura made the comment at a press conference explaining the government’s efforts for the reconstruction of areas hit by the March 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster.

8)   Japanese retail chain operator Seven & i Holdings will acquire convenience stores from a US company.

It says the 3.3-billion-dollar deal will boost its presence in the country.

Seven & i will buy about 1,100 stores in Texas and other states from gas station and convenience store operator Sonoco in August.
9)   In Japan, the number of stalking cases where police identified suspects hit a record high in 2016.

The National Police Agency says there were more than 2,600 cases last year. It also issued warnings in more than 3,500 cases.

Police received over 22,700 inquiries and reports about stalking. That’s the second highest since record-keeping began in 2000.

10)   The city of Osaka has certified a gay couple as foster parents in an apparent first in Japan.

City officials say the men — one in his 30s and the other in his 40s — were approved in December after being vetted by an expert panel. They were also scrutinized by a child consultation center and given an orientation on the foster parent program.

The pair now has a child.
 

 

1)   The head of a Japanese nationalist school at the heart of a swirling political scandal said in sworn testimony in parliament on Thursday that he received a donation of 1 million yen from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s wife in her husband’s name.

2)   Fewer Japanese are taking their own lives, a positive sign in a country with one of the world’s highest suicide rates.

Experts say it’s difficult to pinpoint a reason for the decline, attributing it to a combination of factors. The government has made a determined effort to tackle the issue, starting with national legislation in 2006. Consumer loan laws have been revised to try to keep people from taking on too much debt.

“Now we can talk about suicides,” said Yasuyuki Shimuzu, founder of Lifelink, a nonprofit that lobbies for suicide-prevention measures. “I believe the change in environment has made it easier for the needy to seek help.”

3)   British police arrested seven people in armed raids Thursday linked to the deadly attacks the day before on the symbol of the country’s democracy.

Britain’s top anti-terror officer Mark Rowley also said police have revised down the number of victims from Wednesday’s rampage to three from four. Some 40 people were wounded.

4)   The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has unveiled an outline of a facility designed to boost young people’s communication skills in the English language.

The Tokyo government is planning to open the educational facility called English Village in September next year, in the lead-up to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. The project is part of Tokyo’s efforts to foster globally-minded talent.

The facility will be named Tokyo Global Gateway and located in Koto ward. It is expected to be operated by a private company. Courses will be offered for fifth-grade students through high-school seniors with priority given to applications from schools.

5)   Writers and film directors in Japan have voiced opposition to a proposed bill to criminalize preparing to carry out terrorism and other organized crimes.

The Japan PEN Club, a group of writers and poets, said in a statement that the legislation would violate freedom of thought and beliefs guaranteed by the Constitution.

The group criticized the government’s argument that the legislation is necessary to host the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics. The group says the existing organized crime law is sufficient for taking anti-terrorism measures.
6)   A government survey says abuse of elderly people by family members and others reached 16,384 cases in Japan during the year ending March 2016. That’s a 2 percent increase from the previous year.

7)   An internet-based bank in Japan plans to soon start allowing customers to withdraw cash from ATMs using only smartphones.

Jibun Bank account holders will be able to use the service at more than 23,000 ATMs owned by Seven Bank. The machines are located around the country, mainly in Seven-Eleven convenience stores.

Customers must first enter the withdrawal amount on a smartphone app. The ATM will display a QR code to be scanned with a smartphone camera. The app will then show a number for the transaction.

Once users enter the number and an account password, they’ll be able to get their money.

今日は硬い話が多かったかな。森友とか福島のこととか。

1)   A court in Japan has found the central government and Tokyo Electric Power Company liable for failing to prevent the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident.

In a ruling on Friday, the Maebashi District Court in Gunma Prefecture ordered the government and TEPCO to pay more than 38 million yen, or about 335,000 dollars, in damages to a group of 137 evacuees.

2)   Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says neither he nor his wife made a donation to build a school for an organization embroiled in a controversy over a state-owned land deal.

Abe was answering a question in a Lower House committee on Friday. One day earlier, Moritomo Gakuen President Yasunori Kagoike suggested that Abe had donated one million yen, or about 8,850 dollars, to build an elementary school.

3)    An upgrade being rolled out this summer to Mastercard’s mobile payments service will let people open, manage and close their tabs at participating bars and taverns completely through their phones, without having to hand over a credit card.

4)   Japan is laying the groundwork for a free education program for some households that will cover a student’s costs from preschool to college to ensure the country maintains a highly-skilled workforce.

The program, still in its early stages, is expected to feature in the government’s economic strategy due sometime around June.

5)   The number of crime syndicate members in Japan fell below the 20,000 threshold for the first time in 2016, as gang groups are struggling to secure financing on the back of stronger police crackdowns and a growing civil movement to eliminate them, a national police report showed Thursday.

6)   The Tokyo Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games on Friday confirmed that the International Olympic Committee Executive Board has approved the Fukushima Azuma Baseball Stadium in Fukushima Prefecture as an additional venue for Baseball and Softball events at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

7)   Managers at Japan’s major companies are putting their offers on the table in response to workers’ demands for higher wages.

The outcome so far of annual labor negotiations indicates workers will probably take home higher pay, but their raises will be less than agreed upon last year.

 

今日はここから韓国と南スーダンと震災の話。

1)   “Radiation! Bang bang!”

Gesturing as if with guns, two boys in Tokyo repeatedly taunted a girl whose family fled to Japan’s capital to escape radioactivity unleashed by the Fukushima nuclear crisis of 2011.

The girl began to skip classes, and switched schools to escape the bullies, her mother told Reuters. But the very radiation that uprooted the family brought more pain in her new home.

“For her to be called ‘radioactive’ was heartbreaking,” said the mother.

Six years after an earthquake and tsunami sparked the Fukushima meltdown, several cases of “nuclear bullying,” as the Japanese media calls them, have prompted discrimination similar to that suffered by survivors of the World War Two atom bombs.

2)   Support for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has plunged after questions were raised in parliament about a murky land deal involving an elementary school to which his wife had ties, according to an online poll published this week.

Abe has said neither he nor his wife, Akie, was involved in the deal for state-owned land purchased by Moritomo Gakuen, an educational body in the western city of Osaka.

3)   In a historic, unanimous ruling Friday, South Korea’s Constitutional Court formally removed impeached President Park Geun-hye from office over a corruption scandal that has plunged the country into political turmoil and worsened an already-serious national divide.

4)   Six years after a huge tsunami ravaged Rikuzentakata, the coastal city in northeastern Japan is moving on to rebuild tourism with a unique home stay program.

The “minpaku” private lodging program organized by the city’s tourism promoting organization Marugoto Rikuzentakata enables visitors to get a taste of the daily lives of local fishermen, farmers, and other residents while learning about the disaster.

5)   Computers of Japanese companies and individuals are becoming the prime target of an attack using “ransomware”—programs that bar victims from accessing their business files or family photos unless they pay money to do so.

A computer gets infected with ransomware typically when its user opens a file attached to a spam email from a sender pretending to be a company, often a parcel delivery company, according to the government-affiliated Information-Technology Promotion Agency.

6)   A 36-year-old truck driver who was playing Pokemon Go when he hit and killed a 9-year-old boy last year, was sentenced to three years in prison Wednesday by the Ichinomiya branch of the Nagoya District Court.

7)   Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Wednesday he plans to visit Germany, France and Italy from March 19 for talks with the countries’ leaders on ways to address security and other challenges facing them.

8)   Rattled by North Korean military advances, influential Japanese lawmakers are pushing harder for Japan to develop the ability to strike preemptively at the missile facilities of its nuclear-armed neighbor.

9)   China is violating its free-trade pledges by pressing foreign makers of electric cars and other goods to give technology under an industry development plan that is likely to shrink access to its markets, a business group said Tuesday.

The report by the European Union Chamber of Commerce adds to  complaints Beijing improperly shields its new developers of robotics, software and other technology from competition.

10)   The top U.S. commander in the Middle East signaled Thursday that there will be a larger and longer American military presence in Syria to accelerate the fight against the Islamic State group and quell friction within the complicated mix of warring factions there.

11)   Japan’s Prime Minister says his administration will end its main UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan. The government will not send another team to replace the current unit. Japan’s top government spokesperson says the country’s withdrawal from a UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan is not due to worsening security there.

12)   The Osaka prefectural government may decide not to approve a plan to open an elementary school in Toyonaka City in April. It is concerned that the school’s operator has failed to give convincing answers to the questions raised over a controversial land deal.

Moritomo Gakuen wants to open the school on a plot it bought from the Japanese government. But the operator has been mired in controversy since it came to light that the site was purchased for a fraction of its market value.

13)   25 Filipino women have arrived in Japan to engage in housekeeping work under the government’s strategic special zone program. They will start working in April in Kanagawa Prefecture, south of Tokyo. At present, foreigners can perform this type of work in Tokyo, Kanagawa, and the city of Osaka.

The women are allowed to work for up to 3 years. Live-in jobs are prohibited in order to protect the workers from possible abuse.

14)   A record 54,000 children in Japan were referred to child welfare centers in suspected abuse cases in 2016. The National Police Agency said on Thursday that reports on 54,227 children were filed last year. The figure was up 46 percent from 2015 and is the highest since comparable data became available in 2004.

トランプさんの話はなくて豊洲と森友の話が多かったかな。先生はフロリダにいるのだけどまたどこかに移ろうかなと言っていた。でもフロリダより好みの場所が思いつかないらしい。

1)   Former Tokyo Gov Shintaro Ishihara urged incumbent Gov Yuriko Koike on Friday to relocate the aging Tsukiji wholesale market to a nearby site without further delays, criticizing her reservations about the long-stalled project.

“She should be held responsible for wasting money,” Ishihara told the Japan National Press Club, referring to the running costs for the unused relocation facility in the Toyosu area which used to host a gas production plant.

2)   A bill that would make Saitama Prefecture the first local government in Japan to charge for helicopter mountain rescue operations was submitted to the prefectural assembly Thursday.

3)   In March, housing subsidies run out for those who fled the Fukushima nuclear disaster from areas other than the government-designated evacuation zones, and as the clock ticks down, they have had to decide whether to return or move once again.

Many of these so-called voluntary evacuees are mothers concerned to avoid any risk to their children’s health, with the fathers remaining back in Fukushima Prefecture, according to freelance journalist Chia Yoshida.

4)    Would you support a complete ban on smoking in public places in Japan?

5)   Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Thursday he does not intend to start a probe into the government or his ruling Liberal Democratic Party as questions mount over their possible roles in a controversial sale of government-owned land in Osaka.

6)   The Japanese government pension fund said Friday it posted a record investment profit of 10.50 trillion yen ($91.90 billion) in the October-December period, boosted by a rally in stocks at home and abroad following Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election last November.

The Government Pension Investment Fund, the world’s largest pension fund, logged the biggest investment profit for a quarter since fiscal 2001, when it started managing its investments on its own.

7)   With a month to go this fiscal year, Japan’s installation of new wind power capacity in 2016-17 is set to come in almost double that of the previous 12 months, propelled by higher tariffs guaranteed by Tokyo and a rising number of offshore wind farms.

8)   A North Korean envoy rejected a Malaysian autopsy finding that VX nerve agent killed Kim Jong Nam, saying Thursday the man probably died of a heart attack because he suffered from heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure. Malaysia dismissed the claim.

9)   Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Monday it was inappropriate that a kindergarten in Osaka run by a controversial school operator made children cheer for him during a sports event.

“I have no intention whatsoever of making a kindergarten say (such a thing). I think it is inappropriate,” Four preschoolers raised their right hands and shouted twice, “Go fight, Prime Minister Abe.”

Video footage showed the children also saying, “Adults should protect the Senkaku Islands and Takeshima. Chinese and South Korean people who treat Japan as a bad (country) should amend their minds.” They also said, “The passage through the Diet of the security legislation was good.”

10)   Smartphones have become a mine of personal information, holding bank data, credit card information and addresses, making them the preferred target for cybercriminals, experts warn.

“Cybercriminals go where there is value, and they have understood that the smartphone has become the preferred terminal for online shopping and payment,” said Tanguy de Coatpont, Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

11)   SpaceX plans to launch two paying passengers on a tourist trip around the moon next year using a spaceship under development for NASA astronauts and a heavy-lift rocket yet to be flown.

The launch of the first privately funded tourist flight beyond the orbit of the International Space Station is tentatively targeted for late 2018, Space Exploration Technologies Chief Executive Elon Musk told reporters on a conference call.

12)   The Japanese government is planning to reduce penalties for those who plot serious crimes like terrorism but turn themselves in before actually committing them under a contentious anti-conspiracy bill it is preparing, sources close to the matter say.

The government plans to submit the bill to the ongoing Diet session to amend the law on organized crime to criminalize the act of making preparations for terrorism.

13)   Japanese Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso says he’s in the process of arranging his first round of economic talks with US Vice President Mike Pence for mid-April.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and President Donald Trump agreed in February to launch dialogue between their deputies to deepen economic relations.

14)   A campaign to boycott Lotte Group’s products is growing in China in opposition to the planned installation of an advanced US missile defense system in South Korea.

The protest began when the South Korean government said on Tuesday that it officially acquired a golf course in the country’s south from Lotte Group as a site for deployment of the system.

Seoul says it will install the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, system this year to boost its defense against nuclear and missile threats from North Korea.

15)   Police in Japan have arrested an environment ministry official for alleged bribery over decontamination work following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster.

Fifty-six-year-old Yuji Suzuki, who works at a ministry sub-branch in the prefecture, is suspected of helping a construction company land such work in exchange for wining and dining.

Fukushima and Tokyo police found that Suzuki was provided entertainment at hostess bars and a free trip worth about 1,750 US dollars from the construction firm in Toyama Prefecture.

ハルキの新作はどんな話なの？と聞かれた^^ 　そのうち買おう。多分文庫になったらかな。

1)   Japan’s prime minister will spend Friday afternoon meditating while staff at some of the country’s biggest firms are also quitting work early—in time for a bit of shopping or maybe a boozy train ride.

Welcome to Premium Friday, Japan’s latest bid to tackle two perennial problems—sluggish consumer spending and notoriously long working hours blamed for a national health crisis known as “karoshi,” or death from overwork.

2)   Residents near the U.S. Kadena Air Base in Okinawa were awarded about 30.2 billion yen ($267 million) in a court ruling Thursday, marking the largest damages payment levied against the Japanese government in a suit over noise from a military installation.

The Okinawa branch of the Naha District Court, however, turned down a request by 22,000 nearby residents to ban nighttime and early morning flights at the biggest U.S. air base in East Asia.

3)   “White-hat” hackers who spot a security vulnerability in a computer system or network may be one of the most sought-after professions in Japan today with technology firms struggling with increasing threats of cyberattacks.

In an effort to strengthen education on system security and train ethical hackers, a state-run Japanese college has launched a bug-hunting contest among its students

4)   Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Friday that his wife Akie has resigned as honorary principal of a soon-to-open elementary school after revelations that its nationalist operator had bought central government-owned land at far below its appraised value.

5)   Workers at Yamato Transport Co have asked the delivery service firm to limit the volume of packages accepted from clients amid labor shortages, sources close to negotiations between management and labor said Thursday.

The two sides will negotiate ways to deal with tough working conditions, particularly delivery truck drivers’ long working hours, in this year’s spring wage talks as the growth of online shopping services has led to a surge in the number of parcels.

6)   U.S. President Donald Trump is yet to name an ambassador to Japan. Which is more important for incoming ambassadors: To be well connected to their head of state or to have a good knowledge of the country where they are being posted?

A)   Top of Form 1

Be well connected to their head of state.

B)   Have a good knowledge of the country he or she is being posted to.

C)   Both, if possible.

7)   The Trump-Abe summit just concluded was, in both formal and informal terms, a ringing confirmation of the U.S.-Japan alliance. It also stressed the transcendent importance of U.S.-Japan relations as a whole in American global diplomacy.

Trump also pointedly thanked Japan for hosting U.S. armed forces, and made no mention of “burden-sharing,” departing markedly from his campaign-trail skepticism of Japan’s contributions to mutual defense.

8)   North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un’s half brother was assassinated with a lethal nerve agent manufactured for chemical warfare, Malaysian police said Friday.

Releasing a preliminary toxicology report on Kim Jong-Nam’s murder at a Kuala Lumpur airport, police said the poison used by the assassins was the odourless, tasteless and highly toxic nerve agent VX

Bottom of Form 1

今朝は通常トピック、でもないか・・暗殺とかそういう話。怖いねー。と。

1)   U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Thursday pledged that Washington would use the full range of its arsenal, including nuclear weapons, to defend allies Japan and South Korea against North Korea if needed.

2)    Prosecutors on Thursday released an 88-year-old man whose truck plowed into school children, and he is unlikely to be charged with any crime as it appears he suffers from dementia without realizing it, an investigative source said.

The man was arrested on suspicion of negligent driving resulting in death and injury after a minitruck he was driving struck a group of school children as they were walking to school in Yokohama last October.

3)   Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says he hopes that new government-business initiative, called “Premium Friday,” will boost economic consumption.

Abe met Wednesday with the government’s Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy to discuss the introduction of “Premium Friday,” which allows employees to finish working at 3 p.m. on the last Friday at the end of each month. It is set to begin on Feb 24

4)   Products bearing the image of “Kumamon,” the black bear mascot of quake-hit Kumamoto Prefecture, racked up sales of at least 128 billion yen ($1.1 billion) in 2016, the prefectural government said Wednesday.

5)   The leaks are real. But the news about them is fake. The White House is a fine-tuned machine. Russia is a ruse.

For its stunning moments and memorable one-liners, Donald Trump’s first solo news conference as president has no rivals in recent memory.

6)   Tired of the usual box of chocolates? Try a bug cocktail or a caramel creepy crawly for Valentine’s Day.

A Tokyo bar on Sunday offered courageous couples and curious gourmets a special menu of desserts and drinks made with insects ahead of Tuesday’s holiday.

“They are crispy like the skin of walnuts and go pretty well with chocolate,” Sayumi Makino, 20, told Reuters Television at the Duranbar in central Tokyo.

The menu ranged from a cranberry and water bug cocktail to caramelized worms with almonds and cashews. The whipped cream on some desserts included the internal fluids of giant Thai water bugs, known for their sweet taste.

7)   A 70.2% majority of Japanese people are satisfied with recent talks between Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Donald Trump, while 19.5% said they are dissatisfied, according to a Kyodo News survey conducted Sunday and Monday.

How do you distinguish between real and fake news?

今日は前半に安倍総理がトランプ大統領と会ってるねーって話からまたもトランプ大統領でり上がり時間がなくなってしまったので発音の練習と猫の記事を無理やり入れて終わる^^　明日大統領たちと一緒にゴルフやってみたら？とふざけて言ったらそんな暇はないよ、まぁ日本の女優さんが来た時ならやるけどね。とアメリカンな答えでした。

犬の方が猫より頭いいと思う？と言う問いかけからの猫記事

Cats are as good as dogs at certain memory tests, according to a new Japanese study published in the journal Behavioural Processes. The study findings suggest that cats are just as smart as dogs, researchers say.

The study was conducted using 49 domestic cats and different bowls of food. The findings shows that cats can recall memories of positive experiences, such as eating a delicious snack. The experiment was a test of episodic memory, or memory of past events and experiences that occur at a particular time and place. It was modeled off of a similar 2012 study conducted on dogs.

Kyoto University psychologist Saho Takagi told BBC News that both cats and dogs may have episodic memory similar to that of humans. “Episodic memory is viewed as being related to introspective function of the mind,” Takagi said. “Our study may imply a type of consciousness in cats.”

A Feline Study 

In one phase of the experiment, cats were led to four open containers of food, and were permitted to eat from two of them. After fifteen minutes passed, the containers were replaced with empty ones, and the same cats returned to the room in search of food. Here, researchers found that they spent more time exploring those containers from which they had already eaten than others.

That cats were able to remember “what” and “where” information about the food bowls suggests they have episodic memory. Still, it’s unclear whether cats can experience past memories in the same depth that humans do.

“It’s hard to know if the cats actually subjectively remember the experience of going to that particular bowl, such as the colors and the sounds,” Nick Diamond told TFK. He is a researcher at the University of Toronto and Rotman Research Institute. “So when we study [episodic memory] in animals, scientists tend to boil it down to the what, the where, and the when without getting into the experience of what the animal is remembering, which is certainly tough to figure out.”

Still, the study’s results may have practical applications. “It opens the door to new studies examining how long cats’ memories can be,” Yale University Professor Laurie Santos told BBC News, “and whether they also remember richer episodes in their own life as humans do.”

トランプ大統領とテロ等防止法とゴルフ場の女性正規会員禁止の話がメイン。10日に安倍総理が訪米だから来週も新大統領の話が多そうだ。

1)   Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has met with US Defense Secretary James Mattis in Tokyo. Abe said he wants to maintain a strong Japan-US alliance under the new US administration.

Mattis paid a courtesy call to Abe on Friday evening after arriving from South Korea. He was the first member of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet to visit Japan.

Abe said he hopes and also is convinced that together with Mattis and President Trump, the 2 countries will be able to demonstrate the unwavering alliance inside and outside the country.

2)   A traditional bean-throwing festival to invite good luck has been held at a Buddhist temple near Tokyo.

The annual festival held on Friday at Naritasan Shinshoji Temple attracts about 50,000 people each year.

Among the celebrities taking part were sumo wrestler Kisenosato, who recently became a yokozuna, or grand champion, and actor Gin Maeda, who’s appearing in an NHK yearlong TV drama.

3)   Japan, which has a consistent trade surplus with the U.S., is putting the finishing touches on a package that it claims will create 700,000 jobs in the U.S. and help create a $450-billion market.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and President Trump are expected to meet on Feb. 10. Major Japanese newspapers cited a draft of the proposal that calls for cooperation on building high-speed trains in the U.S. northeast, Texas and California. The two sides would also jointly develop artificial intelligence, robotics, space and Internet technology.

 

4)   Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says the country needs a law to impose criminal charges on those plotting terror attacks ahead of the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games in 2020.

Japan’s government is working to narrow the requirements for a plot to constitute a conspiracy, to establish the charge of preparing a terror attack and other organized crimes.

5)   The legal fight over President Donald Trump’s ban on refugees is likely to turn on questions of a president’s authority to control America’s borders and on whether the new immigration policy unconstitutionally discriminates against Muslims.

6)   The organizers of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics plan to urge the scheduled venue for golf to change its membership policy.

The Kasumigaseki Country Club in Kawagoe City near Tokyo does not extend full membership to women.

The Tokyo organizer said at its board meeting on Wednesday that it will work with the sport’s associations and the Japanese Olympic Committee to persuade the country club to change its policies.

7) Buddhist monk Kaichi Watanabe chants sutras to commemorate the one-year anniversary of a woman’s death.

The 41-year-old may look like a traditional holy man in Japan—but he wasn’t dispatched by a temple. Instead, the family ordered him through a fast-growing rent-a-monk business that has angered traditionalists who warn it is commercialising the religion.

Watanabe’s employer, Tokyo-based firm Minrevi, said demand for its monk delivery service has spiked since it started in May 2013, as more and more Japanese lose their ties to local temples—and lose faith in an opaque donation system.

The firm has a roster of about 700 monks nationwide with business on track to grow by 20% this year, he added.

トランプ大統領の話は続く….。そして入院の話も。retinal detachmentはもう完全に私の中で語彙が定着してる。^^

1)    The Tokyo metropolitan government is arranging an extra spending measure of around 9 billion yen ($79.43 million) to compensate businesses for losses resulting from its postponement of the Tsukiji fish market relocation amid safety concerns at the new site, a source close to the matter said Thursday.

2)   U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday ordered construction of a U.S.-Mexican border wall and punishment for cities shielding illegal immigrants while mulling restoring a CIA secret detention program as he launched broad but divisive plans to reshape U.S. immigration and national security policy.

3)   A government survey shows that in 2016 the number of foreigners working for Japanese companies within Japan topped one million for the first time.

The labor ministry obliges all Japanese companies to report how many foreign workers they hire domestically.

The ministry says that as of the end of October, there were about 1.08 million foreign residents employed by Japanese firms. That’s up 19.4 percent from a year earlier.

4)   Chinese tourists are pouring into Japan as the week-long Chinese Lunar New Year holiday starts.

New Chitose Airport, the largest airport in Hokkaido, northern Japan, is crowded with travelers from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

On Friday afternoon they formed long lines at the immigration check point.

5)   Fatal car accidents caused by elderly drivers have become an issue in Japan. Government officials are looking for ways to prevent them.

One plan is to encourage more drivers to buy cars equipped with automatic braking and other safety systems.

The officials are considering supporting automakers in the development of technology that assists elderly drivers.

6)   Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has not ruled out the possibility of negotiating a bilateral Free Trade Agreement with the United States instead of the multilateral Trans Pacific Partnership.

Abe was speaking at a question-and-answer session in the Lower House budget committee on Thursday.

US President Donald Trump has decided to withdraw his country from the TPP. The 12-member free trade pact is unlikely to take effect without the nation.
7)   People visited a disabled care home near Tokyo to offer flowers on Thursday to mourn the victims of a mass murder that occurred there 6 months ago.

The attack at the facility in Sagamihara City, Kanagawa Prefecture, left 19 dead and 27 wounded. The suspect is a former worker at the home.

The man suspected of killing 19 intellectually disabled people at a care facility 6 months ago has told investigators his motive for committing the murders. He reportedly said the victims were worse off than any other disabled people he had met before and were a burden to others.

今日はやっぱりこれでしょう。トランプ新大統領就任式。世界はどうなるのかなぁ。

1)   Black-clad activists angry about U.S. President Donald Trump’s inauguration smashed store car windows and blocked traffic in Washington on Friday and fought with police in riot gear who responded with tear gas and stun grenades.

About 500 people, some wearing masks, marched through the city’s downtown, using hammers to claw up chunks of pavement to smash the windows of a Bank of America branch and a McDonald’s outlet, all symbols of the American capitalist system.

In Tokyo, several hundred people, most of them expatriate Americans, protested against Trump

2)   Fake News Is Taking Hold In Other Countries In Attempts To Influence Elections And Incite Genocide

The most notable current fake news target in the developed world happens to be Germany.

3)   Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says he hopes to further strengthen the country’s alliance with the United States under its incoming president Donald Trump.

Abe was delivering a policy speech in the Diet on Friday to mark the start of a regular session.

4)   The number of suicides in Japan continued to fall in 2016, marking the 7th consecutive year-on-year decline.

The National Police Agency says 21,764 people killed themselves in Japan last year. That’s 2,261 fewer than in 2015 — a decline of 9.4 percent.

The total fell below the 22,000 level for the first time in 22 years and remained under 30,000 for the 5th year in a row.

Health ministry officials say that people in their 40s accounted for the largest number of suicide deaths, followed by those in their 50s and 60s.

5)   The Tokyo Metropolitan Government plans to clarify whether former Governor Shintaro Ishihara is obliged to pay reparations for the relocation of a wholesale food market to a contaminated site.

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike revealed this to reporters on Friday in connection with a lawsuit filed in 2012 by a group of Tokyo residents.

The plaintiffs are demanding that the metropolitan government should make the former governor pay about 500 million dollars.

6)   Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has ordered all of the country’s ministries and agencies to check whether their officials helped colleagues secure post-retirement jobs.

Abe gave the instruction on Friday to state minister Kozo Yamamoto, who’s in charge of civil service reform.

Education ministry officials had been found to have lobbied to secure a university job for a retiring colleague.
A retired senior official from the education ministry in Japan has given up his post of university professor. He secured it with the help of ministry colleagues.
7)   Osaka police have referred the mother of a teenage pop performer to prosecutors on suspicion of allowing her daughter to skip school.

Police say the 44-year-old woman is suspected of allowing her then 15-year-old daughter to skip junior high school from February to July of last year.

They add the woman told them that her daughter declined to go to school. She said she respected her daughter’s decision to pursue her pop career rather than attend junior high.

大雪と喫煙の話がメインだったかな。あ、あと小池さんがアピールしてるオリンピックの風呂敷とかバッグの話。

1)    Officials at Japan’s Meteorological Agency say a strong cold air mass flowing into Japan will continue to bring snowstorms to the north of the country.

Weather officials say strong winds are blowing mainly in the north and that snow is falling heavily along the Sea of Japan coast and in mountainous areas.

In the town of Happocho, Akita Prefecture, maximum wind gusts at one point reached more than 106 kilometers per hour.

Snow has accumulated to 30 to 60 centimeters during the past 24 hours in some parts of the Sea of Japan coast and mountainous areas in the Hokuriku region.

2)    The Japanese government says it will promote efforts to develop and deepen economic ties with the United States, whoever is president.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga spoke to reporters on Thursday, after the news conference by US President-elect Donald Trump.

3)   Japanese cafes, restaurants and similar businesses are protesting a move to ban indoor smoking.
They say they’ll petition ruling parties to reconsider the plan.

Health ministry officials want to apply the ban to all indoor public spaces. They say it will reduce the risk of passive smoking.

But they’re prepared to allow designated smoking rooms that are sealed off by four walls.

Officials are considering penalties for managers and smokers who violate the rule.

4)   Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has announced a trillion-yen aid package for the Philippines, spread over 5 years, to help with the country’s infrastructure projects.

Abe announced the package, worth about 8.7 billion dollars, at a meeting with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte in the country’s capital Manila on Thursday.

The money comprises official development assistance and private-sector investments. The 2 countries are to set up a joint committee to ensure that it is spent efficiently.

5)   Eight baby giant pandas in China’s southwestern province of Sichuan have joined celebrations for the New Year.

27 giant pandas were born last year at a breeding base in Chengdu in the province. Giant pandas are feared to be on the verge of extinction.

On Wednesday, 8 of them were taken in the arms of keepers to an area decorated for the New Year. The cubs played with stuffed toy birds symbolizing the Year of the Rooster in the Oriental zodiac, and climbed trees.
6)   One of the more optimistic goals of Tokyo Gov Yuriko Koike is “manin densha zero”—to eliminate crowding on the trains. In November, Nikkei Business (Dec 12) assigned three reporters to board rush-hour commuter trains and present their views on the sources of the problem.

The three were in agreement that it is indeed no exaggeration to describe the morning ordeal undergone by commuters by transposing the word “tsukin” (commuting to work) to another “tsukin,” with characters meaning “painful diligence.”

7)   China’s massive export engine sputtered for the second year in a row in 2016, with shipments falling in the face of persistently weak global demand and officials voicing fears of a trade war with the United States that is clouding the outlook for 2017.

China’s exports fell 7.7% in 2016 from a year earlier, while imports slid 5.5%, leaving the country with a trade surplus of $509.96 billion, official data showed on Friday.

The world’s largest trading nation could be heavily exposed to U.S. protectionist measures if President-elect Donald Trump follows through on campaign pledges to label it a currency manipulator on his first day in office and impose heavy tariffs on imports of Chinese goods.

8)    “He was constantly after me on Facebook – ‘Can we have dinner? Can we get together?’ I said, ‘Please, don’t send me any more messages!’ – but that only made him angry. He started writing about me on (gossip site) 2-Channel, using my real name and occupation.”

A toughening of anti-stalking laws in December is a welcome if belated sign that the government is starting to take the issue seriously. The definition of stalking was broadened to include online harassment.

お正月１回目はこんな感じで。entrepreneurは知ってる単語なのに読めなかった。がっくし。

1)   The governor of Niigata Prefecture has voiced his opposition to the restart of Tokyo Electric Power Co’s (TEPCO’s) Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant, adding it may take a few years to review the pre-conditions for restart.

2)   Sushi entrepreneur Kiyoshi Kimura paid top price at the first auction of the new year at Tokyo’s Tsukiji fish market on Thursday, bagging a prized bluefin tuna for an eye-watering 74.2 million yen ($636,000).

The head of the Sushizanmai chain is now the proud—if temporary—owner of a 212-kilogram fish.

3)   The Japan Gerontological Society has proposed that a person should be defined as elderly from age 75 instead of 65.

It announced the proposal in Tokyo on Thursday. Currently a person aged 65 or older is defined as elderly.

4)   Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga has announced Tokyo’s countermeasures against the erection of a statue symbolizing those referred to as comfort women in front of the Japanese Consulate General in Busan, South Korea.

Suga announced the temporary return to Japan of its ambassador to South Korea and the Consul General at Busan. He added that Japan will also suspend bilateral talks on the resumption of a currency swap agreement, postpone bilateral high-level economic talks and cancel the participation of Japanese consulate general officials in events linked with Busan City.

5)   The newly-elected US Congress convened on Tuesday. The majority Republicans intend to review President Barack Obama’s health care act.

The Republican Party retains control of both chambers after the election last November.

In the first session Tuesday, the Republican Senate Budget Committee chairperson submitted a bill to repeal what’s known as Obamacare.

6)   US President-elect Donald Trump says Toyota Motor should pay heavy taxes if it goes ahead with its plan to build a factory in Mexico.

Trump released a message on Twitter on Thursday. It reads “Toyota Motor said will build a new plant in Baja, Mexico, to build Corolla cars for US. NO WAY! Build plant in US or pay big border tax.”
7)   Prime Minister Shinzo Abe asked business leaders on Thursday to support a sustainable economic recovery by raising employee wages in the new year, in keeping with their policy of the last few years.

“I thank you for the high-level wage increases over the past three years,” Abe said in a speech at a New Year reception hosted by major business lobbies.