JAPAN: Aid & more – 11th Jun 2024

Konnichiwa from BA! This is the Rorshok Japan Update from the 11th of June twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Japan.

Japan is arranging a meeting with Ukraine leaders in Germany for next week to talk about Ukraine’s reconstruction. Around sixty firms from Japan and Ukraine and Ukrainian officials including the prime minister, will attend the meeting, which they will hold alongside an international conference in Berlin.

In February, Japan and Ukraine agreed on seven areas where Ukraine needed the most support. They exchanged documents for over fifty cooperation projects, including social infrastructure and demining. At next week’s meeting, they will review the progress made on those projects so far and plan to start ten more cooperation projects in agriculture, renewable energy, and housing.

Japan is helping another country, too, but this one is a little more controversial. On Saturday the 8th, the Myanmar government celebrated the completion of a Japan-funded bridge. Japan received heavy criticism for continuing to fund the bridge after the twenty twenty-one military coup.

Japan's Official Development Assistance loaned money for the four-kilometer or two-and-a-half-mile bridge starting in twenty seventeen. Japan paused the construction and loans after the twenty twenty-one military coup, but then it negotiated with the new leadership, and the project continued. However, Japan hasn’t started any new projects in Myanmar since the coup.

Pro-democracy and human rights groups say that Japan is indirectly supporting human rights abuses by giving financial aid to Myanmar’s military.

Moving onto domestic news, a fire broke out in Yokohama Chinatown, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Friday the 7th. The fire broke out near Kuan Ti Miao, a famous temple and tourist spot. It took firefighters two and a half hours to put out the flames.

Fortunately, the fire didn’t hurt anyone, but it burned down four buildings. The cause of the fire is still unknown.

In an update to a previous story, Japan’s Broadcasting Corporation NHK recently got a photo of a sample with blue mold that officials took from a Kobayashi Pharmaceutical factory in Osaka. The factory has made supplements that have caused health issues for many of its consumers since early this year. The blue mold is similar to one that produces puberulic acid, which studies suggest causes kidney problems.

City inspectors took samples from the factory in March and cultured them, revealing moldy black spots. Inspectors also found mold in five different rooms in April, including a fermentation room. The mold is not commonly found in food factories, so officials believe it may have come from outdoors and spread inside the plant. Osaka officials are still investigating the mold's spread within the factory.

In business news, the 2,200 companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange will soon hold their annual shareholder meetings sessions, and many investors have started putting their suggestions in. According to the Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation, investors have submitted proposals to at least ninety firms.

Oasis Management Company, a Hong Kong-based investment fund, has called for the dismissal of Hokuetsu Corporation's president and four directors because the business hasn’t been doing so well.

The US-based Nihon Global Growth Partners Management wants Toyo Suisan to leave the marine products business and focus on noodles, and has asked them to be more transparent about how they’re using their money.

On another note, anyone living in a rural area in Japan might want to spend money on bells to scare off local wildlife. On Saturday the 8th, a bear seriously injured a forty-year-old woman in Takayama Village, Nagano Prefecture. She was delivering newspapers when the bear attacked her from behind. It will take about a month for her to recover.

On Friday the 7th, another bear attacked a man in Kijimadaira Village, also in Nagano, but he only had minor injuries.

Officials of the prefecture issued a bear alert and warned people to stay away from the mountains in the early morning and early evening when bears are most active. They also said not to go into the mountains alone, to carry bells in the mountains, and to avoid places where people have reported seeing bears.

In unrelated news, the revised Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act went into effect on Monday the 10th, changing the way authorities will deal with foreigners staying illegally in Japan. Those applying for asylum three or more times without good reason can now be deported. They made this change to avoid people abusing the system by reapplying over and over again.

Another change is that once the government gives deportation notice, the foreigners no longer need to stay in immigration facilities, which sometimes resulted in people getting health issues after long-term stays. Instead, those facing deportation can ask for approval to stay with a supervisor, who will have to report to immigration officials if they find out the individual is working illegally or planning to flee. Finally, people can only be released from detention facilities due to health issues.

In science news, researchers at the Japan Aerospace Agency or JAXA announced on Wednesday the 5th that NASA will be sending them asteroid samples in the summer. NASA collected the samples last year from the asteroid Bennu. Once JAXA gets the samples, it will compare them with samples that it collected in twenty nineteen from another asteroid called Ryugu. The two space agencies hope to make new scientific discoveries by working together.

That’s not all science has to offer. Sony Group recently unveiled a microsurgery assistance robot to improve medical care and help with the doctor shortage. The robot has arms that mimic human hand movements that are both precise and stable, which is important for delicate surgeries such as stitching together blood vessels. The system also has a high-quality display so that surgeons using it can see detailed color and texture as they’re working.

Unfortunately, science lost a great mind this week. Akira Endo, a world-famous biochemist, died on Wednesday the 5th at the age of ninety. He was most famous for discovering a cholesterol-lowering substance, which made it much easier to prevent and treat heart disease.

In nineteen seventy-three, Endo found that blue mold created statin, which stopped the buildup of cholesterol that led to arteries hardening. The first statin drug went on the market in nineteen eighty-seven in the US and, at one point, became the world’s best-selling medicine.

In sports news, on Saturday the 8th, tennis star Tokito Oda won his second men's wheelchair singles title in a row and his fourth Grand Slam at the French Open. He became the youngest men's Grand Slam title winner in wheelchair tennis last year at seventeen. This year, in the final held in Paris, the eighteen-year-old won against Argentina's Gustavo Fernandez, who ranks third in the world.

Oda also claimed the men's wheelchair singles titles at Wimbledon twenty twenty-three and the Australian Open earlier this year. Oda will likely represent Japan in the upcoming Paris Paralympic Games, which will be held in August.

And to wrap up this edition, Hirotsugu Kimura has become the youngest Japanese person to complete a solo, nonstop voyage around the world in a yacht. Kimura left Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, on the 22nd of October last year and reached the Kii Channel on Saturday the 8th, finishing his 231-day journey. At twenty-four years and nine months old, he surpassed the previous record held by Kojiro Shiraishi, who was twenty-six years and ten months in nineteen ninety-four.

Kimura expressed his happiness and gratitude to his supporters during a welcome ceremony. He originally attempted the voyage in twenty twenty-two but failed. He said he succeeded this time thanks to the support he received.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

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Mata Ne!