A little Island

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.