A little Island

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.

当然、トランプさんについて。^^ さてどうなることやら。日本はアメリカ軍を駐留させるために100%の維持費を払った方がいいよ。それ以外の道は核兵器を持つぐらいしか中国と戦えないでしょ。って。きゃー。やっぱりいきなりそうなる？とういうか大方のトランプさん派の意見なのか？というような刺激的な話からトランプタワー前でデモしてるのはお金をもらっている学生ばかりで、バスで運ばれて来るんだよ。って言ってたけど本当？

1)   Japan is now paying “enough” for the cost of stationing U.S. forces in the country, Defense Minister Tomomi Inada said Friday, though she was silent on how the government would respond if the next U.S. administration led by Donald Trump demands an increase in Japan’s budget.

2)   Lady Gaga besieged Trump Tower. Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence penned a thoughtful essay. Miley Cyrus posted a tearful video.

Hillary Clinton’s celebrity supporters were in deep mourning Thursday as Hollywood came to terms with Republican Donald Trump’s stunning election as U.S. president.

Pop princess Katy Perry, whose Twitter followers outnumber the populations of most European countries, urged her fans not to “sit still” or “weep.”

“We are not a nation that will let hate lead us,” she said.

3)   A Japanese journalist deported from Iraq denied on Thursday allegations by Kurdish officials that he is a sympathizer of the Islamic State extremist group.

Kosuke Tsuneoka told reporters in Tokyo that he was in Mosul only to report as a journalist on the battle to retake the IS-held city. Iraqi and Kurdish troops are currently fighting to expel the militant group out of Mosul.

“Let me remind you that I’m not an IS member, not even a supporter,” said the Muslim convert who also goes by Shamil Tsuneoka. “I’m fundamentally against the belief of the Islamic State group … That is not the Islam that I believe in.”

4)   Police are investigating the discovery of 11 cat carcasses found buried in a park in Sagamihara City, Kanagawa Prefecture, earlier this week.

According to police, a park maintenance worker noticed the back part of a cat’s body sticking out of the ground at around 3 p.m. on Nov 7 in Matsugae park in the city’s Minami Ward, Fuji TV reported. An additional five cat carcasses were discovered buried at a depth of 30 cm. Police said another five carcasses were found buried at the root of two trees near the initial discovery site.

5)   Tokyo Olympic organizers agreed Wednesday to hold some of the baseball and softball competition of the 2020 Games in Fukushima, the region devastated by the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster.

While the primary venue for baseball and softball is expected to be Yokohama Stadium, several cities in Fukushima are being considered for games in the preliminary rounds.

6)   Tokyo stocks soared 6% in opening trade on Thursday after diving the previous day on Donald Trump’s shock win in the U.S. presidential election, as global stocks and the dollar rallied.

7)   Do you know who your neighbors are? Probably you don’t. Who cares who they are? Modern urban life liberates us from the neighborhood. Our social and professional ties span the city, span the globe. Next door is another planet.

8)   We will play a leading role in the global community’s efforts to deal with climate change and fulfill our responsibility to safely pass down this precious Earth to our children and their children.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, after Japan ratified the Paris Agreement on fighting global warming. (Kyodo)

9)   Frustrated by the high price of antiviral drugs, thousands of patients from London to Moscow to Sydney are turning to a new wave of online “buyers clubs” to get cheap generic medicines to cure hepatitis C and protect against HIV infection.

While regulators warn that buying drugs online is risky, scientific data presented at a recent medical conference suggest that treatment arranged through buyers club can be just as effective as through conventional channels.

10)   Japan executed a death row inmate Friday, the Justice Ministry said in announcing the 17th execution in about four years since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe returned to power in December 2012.

The ministry said Kenichi Tajiri, 45, was hanged for killing two women in two murder-robbery cases in Kumamoto, southwestern Japan.

日本人はヒラリーになった方がいいと思ってるの？って聞かれたがどうなんだろう。むしろオバマさんもう一回でどう？という感じだ。どちらにしてもNeverending electionの空気が漂ってるそうでげんなりだそう。どうなるのかなぁ。

1)   Funeral services and a tomb for Prince Mikasa, uncle of Emperor Akihito, who died Thursday at age 100, will cost an estimated 289 million yen, with the cabinet deciding Tuesday to disburse 209 million yen of the cost from the government’s reserve funds for fiscal 2016.

2)   Japan is set to approve the Paris accord on fighting global warming on Friday, the day the pact will go into force, after the country’s ruling and major opposition parties struck a deal on parliamentary voting schedules.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party and the Democratic Party agreed to vote on approval of the Paris Agreement at a House of Representatives committee Wednesday and at the lower house’s plenary session on Friday. It has already passed the upper house with a unanimous vote.

3)   With the United States set to elect its next president on Nov 8, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton appears to be a better—and safer—choice than her Republican rival Donald Trump for Japan and other U.S. allies, given her deep understanding of the importance of alliances.

4)   A driver in the first vehicle accident fatality in Japan linked to playing the popular smartphone game Pokemon Go was sentenced Monday to 14 months in prison.

A city in Japan will demand the U.S. operator of the popular smartphone application Pokemon Go disable the game while a player is driving after the recent death of a 9-year-old pedestrian.

5)   In an extraordinary display of abject apology during a moment of supreme crisis, South Korean President Park Geun-hye took sole blame Friday for a “heartbreaking” scandal amid rising suspicion that she allowed a mysterious confidante to manipulate power from the shadows

6)   Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike says it could take as long as 15 months to conduct another environmental impact assessment for a new wholesale food market.

The relocation of the market from Tsukiji in downtown Tokyo to Toyosu on the waterfront had been scheduled for this month. But the governor postponed it until test results show whether the new site is safe.

7)   The Environment Ministry on Tuesday urged workers across Japan to wrap up for winter as the energy-saving Warm Biz campaign got under way.

However, the weather didn’t cooperate with much of Japan yet to experience cold temperatures. In Tokyo on Tuesday, the temperature rose to 21 degrees, but is expected to reach only 14 degrees on Wednesday before going up again.

今朝は満遍なく記事について話した感じ。ハロウインイベントはもはやバレンタインを超えたとな。あと大統領選挙もまたわからなくなって来たらしいし（先週はもうトランプはだめそうだったが。。。）核兵器禁止条約なんで日本は反対したの？と聞かれて、賛成することが「核なき世界へ」続く正しい方向とは違うからって岸田さんは言ってたよと言ったら「はぁ？」言うので同感だ。

1)   Young people dressed in Halloween costumes have started to gather near Tokyo’s Shibuya Station on Friday, 3 days before the actual holiday of October 31st. Tokyo police are deploying officers as crowds of revelers are expected every night through Monday.

Experts say the imported Western custom has become popular in the country as an autumn festival. The total value of spending associated with Halloween in Japan is estimated at more than 1 billion dollars, second to Christmas and surpassing that of Valentine’s Day.

2)   Japanese employees are reporting increased stress in the workplace, with those in their 30s having a high rate of mental disorders due to overwork. The health ministry analyzed more than 2,000 cases of workers’ compensation for mental illness from January 2010 to March last year. At least 368 of the people apparently committed suicide.

Their mental disorders were caused by the type of their work and changes in their workload. Another factor was interpersonal problems, including harassment and bullying at workplaces as well as problems with bosses.

3)   NHK has learned that the Tokyo metropolitan government sees various problems with the proposals for the venue for the rowing and canoeing events of the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The proposals include: building a permanent facility in Tokyo’s waterfront area; building a temporary facility in the same place; or using an existing course in Miyagi prefecture.
The officials found that a permanent facility in Tokyo is projected to generate an annual loss of 200 million yen, or about 2 million dollars, after the Olympics.

4)   Japan’s Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida has defended the country’s decision to oppose a UN committee resolution calling for a total ban on nuclear weapons. The United States and other nuclear powers opposed the resolution. Japan also voted against it.

Kishida told reporters in Tokyo on Friday that the resolution would only widen the gap between nuclear and non-nuclear weapons states. He said the 2 sides must work together to achieve results, and a practical approach based on cooperation is needed.

5)   The Okinawa prefectural assembly has adopted a resolution protesting an incident last week in which police officers from another prefecture insulted anti-base protesters with derogatory words.

The Okinawa prefectural assembly adopted the resolution by a majority vote on Friday. It condemns the officers’ remarks for, “trampling on the pride and dignity of Okinawa’s people, and for causing them deep, intractable mental scars”. It demands that the incident never be repeated again.

6)   Police in Ichinomiya City, Aichi Prefecture, have arrested the driver of a truck after he hit and killed a 9-year-old boy on Wednesday afternoon. The driver, Nobusuke Kawai, 36, has admitted he was playing Pokemon Go and did not see the boy.

According to police, the incident occurred at around 4:10 p.m. as the boy, Keita Noritake, was on his way home from school..  The driver, Nobusuke Kawai, 36, was arrested at the scene and charged with dangerous driving resulting in death.

7)   Japan’s estimate of dismantling the Fukushima nuclear plant is ballooning far beyond the utility’s estimate of 2 trillion yen ($19 billion). A government study released Tuesday found decommissioning the Fukushima Daiichi plant already has cost 80 billion yen ($770 million) over the last three years. The ministry overseeing nuclear power said the decommissioning costs will continue at several hundreds of billions of yen a year.

8)   A teacher at Kofu Josai Yamanashi Prefectural High School got angry when a student came to school with the sides of his head shaved. The teacher, a man in his 50s, slapped the boy at least 10 times at an after-school club activity and then ordered three other students to help him forcibly shave the boy’s head, Sankei Shimbun reported.

Another male instructor who was at the scene verbally abused the student, and forced the other three students to shave their hair off as an act of collective responsibility.

9)   Seeking to lash Hillary Clinton to her husband’s sprawling post-presidential empire, Donald Trump accused the couple of turning to corruption to enrich themselves while in public service.

On Thursday, the GOP nominee cited newly released emails from her campaign chairman’s personal account showing Doug Band, a former Bill Clinton aide, describing overlapping relationships between the Clinton Foundation and the family’s private gains

10)      Japanese scientists are getting an up-close lesson on how volcanic islands are formed.

Last week, they landed on Nishinoshima, which was just a rocky outcropping in the Pacific Ocean until two years ago, when spectacular eruptions spewed lava and ash, expanding it to 12 times its size.

家人が取材で仕事に行くために早く起こして世話を焼かねばならないから今朝の英語は20分間のショートタイム。大統領選と沖縄問題と豊洲とアイドルi⭐️ris(知らなかったので後で誰だろ？と調べた。)の話をした。

1)   What should be done about the debacle of the new Toyosu fish market which is supposed to replace the 80-year-old Tsukiji fish market, but which has been held up due to contamination issues?

Keep the fish market at Tsukiji and update its facilities if needed.

Relocate the fish market from Tsukiji to Toyosu only after it has been completely decontaminated and given the OK by independent experts.

Find a third location and build a new market.

2)   Japan’s two largest opposition parties refused to show up to parliamentary deliberations Friday on the ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, protesting remarks made by the agriculture minister this week that suggested the ruling parties could steamroll the approval of the pact through the Diet.

3)   A riot police officer dispatched from Osaka to help local police respond to anti-base protests in Okinawa Prefecture hurled an ethnic slur at protesters, calling them “aborigines,” police officials said Wednesday.

The incident came amid intensifying confrontations between riot police and local people over the construction of helipads at a U.S. military training site in the northern part of the prefecture

4)   Hillary Clinton ramped up her pressure on Donald Trump in the election’s most competitive states Friday with an emotional TV ad targeting his criticism of a Muslim-American family. Trump vowed to go all-out in the final three weeks so he’ll have no regrets — even if he loses.

5)   The organizers of a photo contest in northeastern Japan have decided to withdraw their revocation and award a prize for a picture of a teenage girl who apparently committed suicide due to bullying. They had originally revoked the prize after learning the girl had died.

The organizers, including Kuroishi City in Aomori Prefecture, said at a news conference on Wednesday that the top prize will be awarded for the picture of Rima Kasai. She was a second-year junior high student in the city.

6)   What is your opinion of organizations such as Greenpeace and Amnesty International?

7)   So perhaps idol unit i☆Ris (pronounced “Iris”) is on to something. Rather than having fans purchase CDs when what they really want is to spend a few moments connecting with (and possibly proposing marriage to) their favorite member of the group, i☆Ris has streamlined the process with a new promotion that simply lets fans pay money to talk with them.

So how much will these three minutes in conversational paradise set fans back? A cool 10,000 yen. However, CD albums in Japan regularly cost about 3,000 yen, and as we mentioned, passionate idol fans often buy multiple copies. As such, even with 49 time slots per i☆Ris member, reservations are already starting to fill up.