JAPAN: Brazil's apology & more – 30th July 2024

Konnichiwa from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Japan Update from the 30th of July twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Japan.

A record level of rain fell in Yamagata and Akita Prefectures, located in the Tohoku region of northeastern Japan, from Thursday the 25th until Friday the 26th. Yamagata had the highest amount of rain in a twenty-four-hour period in recorded history in six different places, the highest being 389 millimeters in Shinjo City. The heavy rain caused many rivers to overflow, flooding residential areas and damaging property.

The swollen rivers killed at least four people: two police officers helping to rescue residents in Shinjo City and two elderly locals, one in Akita and another in Yamagata. Several other people have gone missing across both prefectures.

Fumio Kishida, the prime minister, acknowledged the dire situation and sent Self-Defense Forces to the area to conduct rescue operations alongside the local police and fire departments.

The Meteorological Agency expects heavy rainfall to continue in the Tohoku region until at least Tuesday the 30th. From Sunday the 28th on, most of the rain has been in Aomori and Miyagi Prefectures rather than Yamagata and Akita, but officials warned that even a small amount of rain could be dangerous in areas where previous heavy rain damaged riverbanks.

On Saturday the 27th, officials issued landslide alerts in some parts of Miyagi Prefecture. They also told people to be alert for overflowing rivers and flooding and to evacuate before the rain becomes heavy if they don’t feel safe.

Meanwhile, on Sunday the 28th, foreign and defense ministers from Japan and the US met in Tokyo to discuss better coordination between the Self-Defense Forces and the US military. They talked about China’s actions in the East China Sea, North Korea's missile launches, and their cooperation with Russia.

The ministers agreed they would create a new joint force headquarters that would report to the Commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command. They hope this will make it easier to produce defense equipment together and to improve communication between the two militaries, such as information-sharing about incidents involving US personnel.

In more international news, on Friday the 26th, the South Korean Foreign Ministry said they wouldn't oppose Japan registering a gold mine complex in Sado, Niigata Prefecture, as a World Heritage Site. They were originally against the idea because Japan forced thousands of Korean citizens to work the mines between nineteen ten and nineteen forty-five when Japan colonized Korea.

However, officials from both governments have talked it over, and Korea said it was fine as long as Japan used the site’s exhibition facility to tell the full history of the mine, including the forced labor.

They made the announcement just in time for UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee, which took place in New Delhi, India, on Saturday the 27th. The committee approved the gold mines, making it the twenty-sixth World Heritage Site in Japan.

apanese immigrants during the: 1940

Mario Okuhara, a forty-nine-year-old man who made a documentary about the persecution of Japanese people, and the Brazil Okinawa Kenjinkai, an association of people of Okinawan descent, asked the government to apologize but didn’t ask for any money.

A hundred association members attended the apology and afterward said they were happy that Brazil was willing to acknowledge the persecution.

In business news, sources suggested on Sunday the 28th that Mitsubishi Motors might join the Nissan-Honda alliance to compete with foreign rivals in electric vehicle or EV and advanced technology development. The three automakers are thinking about working together to standardize in-vehicle software.

If they did start working together, it would create two major groups in the Japanese auto industry, with the other being Toyota and its partnerships. The global auto industry is shifting towards connected, autonomous, shared, and electric vehicles, with Chinese and American companies leading the EV market.

Honda and Nissan are already looking for ways to build components together to reduce costs. If Mitsubishi joins too, it could help Japan catch up in selling EVs globally.

Speaking of automobiles, the city tram in Kumamoto, southern Japan, derailed on Friday the 26th after a two-car tram went in the wrong direction and went off the rail at a switch. It went nearly five meters or sixteen feet before the driver stopped and reversed it. Two passengers and two staff were on the tram, but luckily, the accident didn’t hurt anyone.

This is the ninth incident that the tram has had this year, including one instance where it ran with its doors open. The Kumamoto City Transportation Bureau is investigating the cause and has suspended service between the affected stops. A senior official apologized, saying that they are taking the situation very seriously.

Another thing people should take seriously is the ongoing heatwave, which is getting especially bad in central and southern Japan. On Monday the 29th, thirty-eight prefectures issued heatstroke alerts. Sano City in Tochigi Prefecture had the highest temperature at forty-one degrees Celsius or almost 106 degrees Fahrenheit, just zero point one degrees Celsius short of a record high. In other cities, such as Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Prefecture, temperatures rose to over forty degrees Celsius or 104 degrees Fahrenheit.

If only the yen’s value could rise as much as the heat, but instead it weakened slightly on Monday the 29th following a strong surge against the dollar last week. After many traders sold their short yen positions, they seem to be waiting to see how the market will play out before making any more moves.

Some market analysts believe the Bank of Japan may raise interest rates and reduce bond purchases at its upcoming meeting on Wednesday the 31st, which will likely influence currency values.

In other news, Kazuya Hiraide and Kenro Nakajima, both Japanese and two of the best mountaineers in the world, went missing on Saturday the 27th while climbing K2, the world's second-highest mountain, located in Pakistan. In past years, a century-old mountaineering magazine gave both Hiraide and Nakajima the famous Golden Ice Axe or Les Piolets d’Or award multiple times for their climbing skills.

The two chose a path on K2 that no one else has managed to climb. Because of its steep cliffs, dangerous weather, and avalanche-prone nature, it is considered even more difficult than Mount Everest. They attempted the climb in alpine style, which means climbing without supplemental oxygen or support teams.

A local report said two people fell from 7,500 meters or 25,000 feet off K2. A Pakistani helicopter saw two bodies in the snow, but could not land to confirm their identities.

Moving onto sports news, the Paris Olympics began on Wednesday the 24th, and several Japanese athletes have already won in different categories.

On Sunday the 28th in judo, Hifumi Abe won his second straight gold medal in the sixty-six kilogram or 145-pound men’s category. This followed his younger sister Uta Abe’s loss in the women’s fifty-two kilogram or 115-pound women’s category.

Koki Kano was another gold-winner but in the men’s individual epee fencing category. Yannick Borel, his opponent, was twenty-three centimeters or nine inches taller than him and had beaten two of Kano’s teammates. Even so, Kano managed to win Japan’s first Olympic fencing gold.

In swimming, Tomoyuki Matsushita won silver in the men’s 400-meter individual medley, coming second to Leon Marchand from France.

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

Do you know that besides the Japan Update, we also do others? Our latest ones are the Arctic Update, about the area north of the Arctic Circle, the Ocean Update, about the 70% of the earth covered in salt water, and the Multilateral Update about all the world's major multilateral institutions. The other ones are all country updates, we have a selection of countries from Africa, Asia, South America, and Europe. Check roroshok.com/updates to see the full list and find the link in the shownotes as well.

Mata Ne!