A little Island

今年の英語最終日。来週の今頃はおせちを作ってるんだろうな。多分。今日読めなかった単語はrelinquishとChrysanthemum。覚えられる気がしない。菊は覚えておきたいな。今年は大統領選挙があったのでそれを聞くのも楽しかった。アメリカ人は沖縄の基地のことをどう思っているのかがわかったし。基地問題が話題に上ると非常に答えに困る。。ことも分かった。でもともかく今年も楽しく学べました。上達しないことは置いといて、先生ありがとう。続きはまた来年！

1)   Addressing the country on his 83rd birthday Friday, Emperor Akihito thanked the Japanese public for heeding his message earlier in the year indicating his desire to abdicate.

His annual birthday remarks followed his rare video message in which he said his advanced age could one day prevent him from fulfilling his duties as the symbol of the state. Currently, there are no provisions in law allowing an emperor to relinquish the Chrysanthemum throne.

2)   “Overseas, gambling addiction has become a serious social problem,” explains a source who is familiar with casinos. “In South Korea in 2000, the Kangwon Land casino that was previously only open to foreign visitors was also opened to locals. In the area adjacent to the resort, now pawnshops can be seen all over the place, and several hundred people who had lost everything they had to gambling are said to be living on the streets.

3)   Japanese police and firefighters are inspecting the scene of a massive fire in Niigata Prefecture to determine how it started and spread.

The fire broke out at a Chinese restaurant in Itoigawa City on Thursday morning and engulfed about 150 buildings including houses and shops. Six firefighters and two other people suffered injuries.

The restaurant owner claimed to have discovered the fire upon returning after a short absence.

4)   Officials at Japan National Tourism Organization say an estimated 1.9 million foreign visitors came to Japan in November. That’s a record high for the month.

5)   A group of people who evacuated due to the 2011 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has spoken out about the many problems they face, including recent bullying of evacuee children.

A senior official of the group, Mitsuo Sato, said what has been reported about bullying is the tip of the iceberg. He said adults also face harassment and insensitivity.

A woman who voluntarily evacuated from Fukushima Prefecture with her daughter asked people to think about why they had to leave their home. She added that the nuclear accident is far from over.

6)   Japan’s cabinet ministers are to approve on Thursday a record-high budget plan for the next fiscal year.

The draft budget is expected to total about 833 billion dollars. That’s 6 billion dollars more than what was projected for the current year.

One-third of the money will be for social welfare, including ballooning spending on the needs of the country’s aging population.
7)   A senior Russian government official has expressed his willingness to implement deals reached with Japan during President Vladimir Putin’s recent visit.

Russian media report that Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov attended a parliamentary committee on Thursday to report on last week’s summit talks.

Morgulov said President Putin’s visit to Japan was a breakthrough and provided a major boost to the development of bilateral ties in economic, political, humanitarian, and various other areas.

プーチン来日についてと沖縄について。両方意見を言いにくかった。アメリカ人にとってはどちらも上から目線で言いたいことがあるのだなぁという感想で。

1) Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Russian President Vladimir Putin wrapped up two days of talks on Thursday, with numerous economic deals but no big breakthrough on a territorial row that has over-shadowed ties since World War Two.

2) Emperor Akihito, 82, has a cold and fever and has cancelled morning duties, an official at the Imperial Household Agency said on Friday. The emperor has no planned duties Friday afternoon and this weekend and will rest at the Imperial Palace, the official said.

3) The Bank of Japan is likely to give a more upbeat view of the economy at next week’s rate review, sources say, as a pick-up in emerging Asian demand and positive signs in private consumption improve prospects for a solid, export-driven recovery. Japan surpassed China in October as the largest foreign owner of U.S. Treasury securities, the first time the countries have swapped places in nearly two years. Total foreign holdings fell for a fourth month.

4) Defense Minister Tomomi Inada has received a report from a new Japan Self-Defense Force peacekeeping unit in South Sudan. She urged the group to ensure its safety.

Inada talked with the unit’s commander, Colonel Yoshiro Tanaka, via video phone on Thursday. He said the situation in the capital, Juba, is relatively stable.

5) Japanese police say a street robbery in the spring of this year resulted in gold bullion worth about 600 million yen, or more than 5 million dollars, being stolen by men disguised as police.

The robbery took place near JR Hakata station in downtown Fukuoka City, southwestern Japan.

Investigators told NHK that men carrying attache cases containing gold were stopped for questioning by men wearing what looked like police uniforms.

6) The governor of the southwestern Japanese prefecture of Okinawa is to lodge a protest with the country’s central government over the accident involving a US marine Osprey transport aircraft.

Governor Takeshi Onaga plans to meet Defense Minister Tomomi Inada and other government officials in Tokyo on Thursday.

He also plans to call for determining the cause of the accident and demand the removal of Ospreys from Okinawa.

7) U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday rejected as “ridiculous” U.S. intelligence reports that Russia intervened in the presidential election on his behalf through targeted hacking, putting him at odds with top lawmakers who vowed to investigate the findings.

臓器移植についてどう思うかが今日のメインだったかな。それと生活保護世帯が増えているという硬めの話だった。

1)   The number of households on welfare in Japan marked a record high for the second straight month in September, as more elderly people need support.

Welfare ministry officials say the number of households receiving public welfare benefits rose by 266 from August to more than 1.63 million in September.

2)   A black swan at a zoo in Aichi Prefecture, central Japan, has tested positive in preliminary screening for the bird flu virus.

Officials at Higashiyama Zoo in the city of Nagoya say they tested the male swan on Tuesday after it appeared to grow weak. The bird later died. The swan was living in a pond on the zoo grounds until it was moved indoors last week.

3) Communist party chairperson Kazuo Shii took up the issue of new duties assigned to a Self-Defense Forces unit dispatched to South Sudan for UN peacekeeping operations. The new tasks would call on the SDF members to rescue foreign peacekeepers and others under attack using weapons.

4)   Japanese utility Kyushu Electric Power Co (KEPCO) on Thursday night restarted the No. 1 reactor at its Sendai nuclear power plant in Kagoshima Prefecture.  KEPCO said the reactor is expected to achieve criticality by Friday morning and commence power generation on Sunday.

5) Organ transplantation is not only a medical issue that involves patients and doctors. It naturally also involves fundamental ethical questions. The slow progress of organ transplantation in Japan is thought to be connected with the spirituality of Japanese people such as their view of life and death.

6)   The United States on Thursday approved a series of deals worth more than $7 billion to supply military helicopters, planes and missiles to four of its Arab allies. The green light, announced by the State Department, will mark another windfall for plane maker Boeing and other large U.S. defense manufacturers.

7)   Japan’s Foreign Ministry has officially announced Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to the country next week. The ministry said on Thursday that Putin will pay an official working visit from December 15th to 16th and hold meetings with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

歌うように記事を読むのって永遠にできない気がするなぁ。^^ 　一個読めない単語が入るとそこからガタガタになる。でも楽しいし緊張感が脳トレになってるかな。

1)   A top IOC official renewed his demand Thursday that Japanese organizers further reduce their $18 billion budget ceiling for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, saying the figure could scare off cities considering bids for future games.

2)   An elementary school pupil who evacuated from Fukushima in the wake of the 2011 nuclear disaster has skipped school for more than a week since a male teacher added “germ” to his name when addressing him in late November, a local education board in Niigata Prefecture said Friday.

3)   A 68-year-old Japanese man suspected of having been abducted by North Korea in 1985 was found alive in Japan in late November, police said Thursday.

Police officials denied the possibility that Masanori Katsuki, who went missing in Tokyo in February 1985, was abducted by North Korea, saying he was not involved in an accident or criminal incident.

Katsuki went missing after temporarily returning from the United States, where he had worked as a sushi chef. At the time, he was preparing to leave for the United States, the officials said.

4)   A Lower House committee has approved a bill to legalize casino gambling in Japan. Proponents tout the economic benefits of casinos, while opponents say they may fuel gambling addiction.

Friday’s vote came 2 days after the committee began deliberations on the bill, which was sponsored by a cross-party group of lawmakers.

The legislation won majority support from members of the main governing Liberal Democratic Party and the opposition Nippon Ishin Japan Innovation Party.

5)   Japan’s government estimates the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant will end up costing its operator more than 170 billion dollars. The figure includes the costs of decommissioning the facility, as well as compensation and decontamination work.

Tokyo Electric Power Company has said it will secure about 17 billion dollars to decommission the plant’s reactors.

However, government officials now say the total cost will be more than 4 times higher. They estimate about 70 billion dollars will be required for the work, which includes removing melted nuclear fuel and dealing with radioactive wastewater.

6)   U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday warned American firms wanting to relocate abroad that they will face punishment, as he announced a deal with air conditioning manufacturer Carrier to keep jobs in the country.

“Companies are not going to leave the United States anymore without consequences. Not going to happen,” Trump told workers at the Carrier plant in Indianapolis in his first major public remarks since winning the White House.

7)   Thirty-three traditional festivals from across Japan were added to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list on Wednesday, the international body said.

The festivals, most of which date back to the Edo period (1603-1868), are held in 18 prefectures across Japan and feature parades involving floats made with traditional woodwork and metalwork techniques, and decorated with lacquered products and dyed fabrics.

昨日はまた英語の予約をし忘れていた。慌てて今朝の枠を予約。^^ 今日は次の枠の予約があるからショートタイムでごめんと言われたけど、それが正しい時間だよ。こちらこそいつも延長ありがとう！

1)   Government narcotics agents have arrested 22 people believed to have formed a “pot community” in depopulated areas in and around Nagano Prefecture, where they hosted music events and allegedly smoked marijuana, the narcotics bureau said Friday.

Narcotics agents from the Kanto-Shinetsu Regional Bureau of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, whose jurisdiction covers Tokyo and nine surrounding prefectures, coordinated with police from Nagano and Kanagawa prefectures Friday to apprehend the male and female suspects ranging in age from 27 to 64.

2)   Japan’s Self-Defense Forces have recalled recruitment flyers that said Defense Minister Tomomi Inada is “not dependable enough,” while highlighting her gender, an SDF provincial office said Friday.

The A4-size advertisement, made by a male SDF member at the office in Odate, Akita Prefecture, said, “Defense Minister Inada is not dependable enough, but we want a dependable person like you to challenge yourself (to a career in the SDF)!” Just after the minister’s name, the word “woman” was inserted in parenthesis.

3)   Japan’s consumer prices fell in October, government data showed Friday, extending the longest string of declines in five years and underscoring its struggles to conquer deflation.

The weak inflation data—core prices excluding fresh food fell 0.4 percent from a year ago—come several weeks after Japan’s central bank pushed back the timeline for hitting its 2.0 percent inflation target.

The BOJ’s target is a key part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s faltering bid to pump up the world’s number three economy.

4)   Fidel Castro, who led a rebel army to improbable victory in Cuba, embraced Soviet-style communism and defied the power of 10 U.S. presidents during his half century rule, has died at age 90.

With a shaking voice, President Raul Castro said on state television that his older brother died at 10:29 p.m. Friday. He ended the announcement by shouting the revolutionary slogan: “Toward victory, always!”

Castro’s reign over the island-nation 90 miles (145 kilometers) from Florida was marked by the U.S.-backed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961 and the Cuban Missile Crisis a year later that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war. The bearded revolutionary, who survived a crippling U.S. trade embargo as well as dozens, possibly hundreds, of assassination plots, died 10 years after ill health forced him to hand power over to Raul.

5)   U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has said he is going to pull the U.S. out of any further negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) pact, while the other 11 nations involved want it to be ratified. Are you for or against the TPP?

6)   Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Friday Russia’s deployment of missile systems on islands in the western Pacific isles that are also claimed by Tokyo was “regrettable”.

His comments came less than a month before Russian President Vladimir Putin is to visit Japan for talks aimed at progress on the decades-old territorial row. Moscow has already said it hoped the deployment would not damage efforts to settle the dispute.

7)   The Japan High School Baseball Federation (Koyaren) has submitted a proposal to allow girls to take part in baseball practice sessions at Koshien.

The issue of girls being on the field with boys at the National High School Baseball Championship tournament became the focus of media attention last summer when a female baseball team manager from Oita High was warned by tournament organizers for coming onto the field to help at practice sessions.

Tournament regulations specify that only males are allowed to play on the grounds as part of “hazard prevention” measures. The rules also apply to practice sessions.

 

トランプさん前と後はどう？って聞いたらまだ同じだよとのこと。そりゃそーだ。安倍さん来たね。日本ではどう報じられてるの？ってやっぱり興味あるのだねー。その後は高齢者の自動車運転（義母がまだ運転してるから心配だ）と三船敏郎の話。（７人の侍って人気あるねぇ外国人に）と大麻の話。お酒やタバコより大麻の方がいいんだけどね。って。お酒は人間性が変わるが大麻はただ静かになってお腹がすくっだけなんだって。

1)   Actor Tomokazu Miura, 64, and former idol singer Momoe Yamaguchi, 57, have been chosen the most ideal married couple of the year in an annual survey conducted by insurance company Meiji Sumitomo Seimei. The couple, who married in 1980, have been ranked first continuously for the past 11 years, Fuji TV reported.

2)   Following a spate of traffic accidents, some fatal, involving elderly drivers, the National Police Agency is urging senior citizens to drive safely and voluntarily return their driver’s licenses if they don’t feel confident.

This week, police handed out fliers and spoke to senior citizens seen behind the driver’s wheel in parking lots at local hospitals and other places at 97 locations nationwide, Fuji TV reported.

3)   Japan remains one of the world’s worst-performing nations in tackling climate change, think tank Germanwatch says.

Japan was deemed the second-worst performer of 57 countries and Taiwan, this year’s Climate Change Performance Index report showed.

The report said Tokyo’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions center on reactivating nuclear energy as more or less the only alternative to fossil fuels, “instead of sufficiently promoting renewable energy.”

4)   One day before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s first meeting with a foreign leader, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Japanese officials said they had not finalized when or where in New York it would take place, who would be invited, or in some cases whom to call for answers

5)   With a law change planned to reduce the age of adulthood from 20 to 18 in Japan following the similar lowering of the minimum voting age, the society and those in their late teens seem less prepared for the government’s envisaged step.

In fact, a majority of teens appear not keen on the idea while many said 18- and 19-year-olds lack the ability to make judgment calls or are unable to take responsibility for their own actions.

6)   A police raid on a factory in a small town in Wakayama Prefecture has uncovered a massive haul of cannabis with a street value estimated at 2 billion yen ($18.3 million).

Police said Wednesday they have seized over 10,000 cannabis plants and arrested senior gang member Junichi Kimura, 54, along with three others, all from Osaka, on suspicion of possessing marijuana with intent to sell.

“I only dropped by for a visit,” Kimura was quoted telling police.

According to police, about 11,000 plants in various stages of growth were discovered. Some 4,000 of them, worth about 2 billion yen, were fully grown and ready for distribution.

7)   Prosecutors alleged Tuesday that a 20-year-old man being tried over the murder of a beautician in Hokkaido last year wanted to replicate killings he had simulated in video games.

At the Kushiro District Court, the defendant pleaded guilty to the murder of 31-year-old Erika Konno and the destruction of her body in August last year in Hokkaido’s Tokachi region. The alleged perpetrator’s name is being withheld because he was a minor at the time of the incident.

8)   Hollywood celebrated the life of legendary Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune on Monday, honoring him with a star on its iconic Walk of Fame two decades after his death.

Mifune rose to stardom through Akira Kurosawa’s classics, including “Rashomon” (1950) and “Seven Samurai” (1954), with masculine portrayals of powerful warlords that earned him a reputation as the world’s best samurai actor.

9)   What do you think the Japan-U.S. relationship will be like after Donald Trump takes power?

A)   The relationship will get worse than it is now.

B)    The relationship will improve.

C)    The relationship will generally be about the same as it is now.

10)   Using smartphones to measure how much time people spend looking at those phones confirms that more screentime is tied to poorer sleep, researchers say.

“This is the first study to directly measure actual screen time in natural environments and compare it to sleep quality,” said senior author Dr Gregory M. Marcus of the University of California, San Francisco.