JAPAN: Equipment Manufacturer’s Slush Fund & more – 31st Dec 2024

Konnichiwa from BA! This is the Rorshok Japan Update from the 31st of December twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Japan.

The Defense Ministry released a report on Friday the 27th saying that Kawasaki Heavy Industries, a heavy equipment manufacturer, created a nearly eleven-million-dollar slush fund through made-up transactions for Maritime Self-Defense Force or MSDF submarine repair contracts.

According to the report, the slush fund has been around since nineteen eighty-five, and the company used the funds for submarine crews’ personal fun, buying goods like appliances and games, and covering social events and beer vouchers.

The ministry began the investigation in July after an Osaka Regional Taxation Bureau report. The Defense Ministry said it would reprimand Kawasaki Heavy Industries, demand a refund of ill-gotten profits, and recalculate contracts. It also plans to further interview MSDF crew members and those overseeing the repair contracts, with potential punishments for anyone involved in the scheme.

Speaking of schemes, on Thursday the 26th, Japan Airlines and MUFG Bank both suffered from cyberattacks of a similar nature.

MUFG Bank said it was hit with a huge amount of data that made using its online site slow and glitchy. Many customers had trouble logging in. However, no one stole any customer data and the bank’s computer system was not damaged.

The airline company’s computer system also experienced many technical difficulties that resulted in several canceled flights and over sixty flight delays. Investigators believe that it was a form of cyberattack where hackers flood a website with data to make it crash.

In other news, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba announced on Thursday, the 26th, that he plans to submit legislation during next year’s Diet session to establish an AI system. He said AI could make Japan more competitive in the global market and might even help with labor shortages in different industries.

However, he said that AI could easily fool people, so they had to come up with a way to distinguish AI-generated content from human-made material.

The proposed legislation will use recommendations from an expert advisory council, which suggests more government oversight across AI research, development, and application. The bill will likely create an AI strategy headquarters involving all Cabinet members and include measures such as punishments for malicious copyright violations.

In health news, there has recently been a surge in influenza and mycoplasma pneumonia cases. Influenza usually lasts a few days to a week and causes a high fever, sore throat, cough, runny nose, and headache. Mycoplasma pneumonia’s main symptom is a cough that sticks around for weeks or even months. Some patients end up catching both at the same time, which can lead to people being very sick.

Doctors report a never-before-seen rise in mycoplasma pneumonia cases requiring IV therapy. There has also been a sharp increase in patients with influenza. Both illnesses spread through coughing and close contact. To lower the chances of infection, it’s best to wash hands frequently, avoid close contact, and disinfect surfaces.

Daisuke Ito, a clinical director, said that people don’t always realize they have mycoplasma pneumonia, and that if you experience persistent coughing despite taking medicine, you should consider seeing a doctor.

Flu season was only made worse by the severe weather Japan experienced over the weekend. On Sunday the 29th, heavy snow hit the Sea of Japan coast, with temperatures below minus thirty degrees Celsius or minus twenty-two degrees Fahrenheit at high altitudes.

Mountainous areas got the worst of the snowfall, with 151 centimeters or five feet of snow in Yuzawa, Niigata Prefecture, and 328 centimeters or ten feet in Suyaku, Aomori Prefecture, both in northern Japan. The snow remained heavy until Monday the 30th, but afterwards it calmed down a bit.

Weather officials warned of potential traffic disruptions, avalanches, and snow piling up on power lines and trees.

This snowballed when a bullet train in Hokkaido, northern Japan, was temporarily stranded after a power failure on Monday the 30th. The East Japan Railway company, or JR East, which operates the bullet train, said it was running from Tokyo in east Japan to Akita Station in the north.

One passenger said that it was warm at first, but it got colder after a while. Fortunately, they were not stranded for too long, and JR East transported all 260 passengers on board to a nearby station by taxi.

The company is still investigating what caused the failure. They think that the train’s pantograph, which is the part of the train on the roof connecting to the overhead power line, hit something, possibly because of the heavy snow in the area.

Meanwhile, the General Support Union recently published a survey revealing that forty-five percent of self-employed delivery drivers for Amazon Japan experienced accidents while on the job, often due to rushing or limited visibility from too many packages. The union has a division specifically for Amazon drivers and advocates for higher wages and manageable delivery limits.

Conducted from January to the 1st of December, the survey found that Amazon assigned twenty-one to thirty packages per hour to seventy-two percent of drivers. Many said the workload was overwhelming, with some skipping breaks and feeling underpaid.

Nearly eighty-nine percent of people who took the survey said that reducing the number of packages might help prevent accidents.

Amazon Japan, however, did not agree. It said that it makes safety a top priority in distributing packages and also provides twenty-four-hour driver support.

On the subject of workers, the number of foreigners in Japan holding specified skilled worker visas has grown since the visa's introduction five years ago. As of June, 250,000 people held the visa, with the number going up by over 5,000 every month.

Unlike the technical intern training program, which is another attempt to make it easier for foreigners to work in Japan, this visa allows workers increased flexibility, such as job-switching, overtime, and employment across more industries. Also, since employers aren’t required to provide housing, they’re more willing to hire these visa holders.

However, if a worker wants to change jobs, they are not legally allowed to work during job searches, so many take illegal part-time jobs. Jiho Yoshimizu, the representative director of a nonprofit organization supporting Vietnamese people in Japan, said that the policy should change because people can’t live without wages for several months.

In other business news, Osamu Suzuki, the longtime leader of Suzuki Motor, passed away on Thursday the 26th at the age of ninety-four due to lymphoma. Suzuki led the automaker for over four decades, expanding beyond its core market and emphasizing cost efficiency.

Suzuki was best known for his decision to partner with Maruti, an Indian car maker, in the early nineteen eighties, investing heavily to become the most popular car brand in India. That partnership became Maruti Suzuki, which today controls forty percent of India's car market. His insistence on workplace equality in India also had a big impact.

He stepped down as CEO in twenty sixteen but stayed on as an advisor until his death.

In cultural news, the Tatsumizu Shrine in Tsu, Mie Prefecture in central Japan, installed a giant statue of a snake standing three meters or ten feet high and weighing 200 kilograms or 440 pounds. It symbolizes the Chinese zodiac sign for twenty twenty-five, and is part of the shrine’s tradition of making jumbo zodiac statues every New Year. Local residents created the statue in about a month using lightweight steel frames and polystyrene.

The shrine unveiled the statue after a procession where children pulled it around in a cart. Kimio Masui, a seventy-six-year-old resident who was in charge of the project to build the statue, said she hoped the coming year would be prosperous, as symbolized by the snake holding a pile of gold coins.

The statue will remain on display until the end of March. To see the jumbo zodiac statues of past years, follow the link in the show notes!

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

Before leaving we want to wish you a happy and exciting twenty twenty-five! Thank you for sticking with us, sharing the podcast, and being such an amazing part of our community. We’ll be here as long as you’re enjoying the episodes, so if you have any thoughts, ideas, or suggestions on how we can get better, don’t hesitate to reach out—shoot us an email at info@rorshok.com. We’d love to hear from you!

Mata Ne!