A little Island

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.