JAPAN: Fanconi Syndrome & more – 9th Apr 2024

Konnichiwa from BA! This is the Rorshok Japan Update from the 9th of April twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Japan.

In light of the concern around the fermented rice health supplement beni-koji, researchers from the Japanese Society of Nephrology have begun studying patients who have taken the supplement. On Monday the 1st, they released a report of their findings so far: all but one of the forty-seven patients they studied developed Fanconi syndrome.

Fanconi syndrome is when your body isn't properly absorbing nutrients from food, which often makes a person tired and dehydrated. One patient in the study started having kidney problems as the syndrome got worse.

The researchers recommended that people immediately stop taking the supplement. They also said that if you have taken it, you should go to a doctor and test your blood and urine since not everyone who gets Fanconi syndrome realizes they have it right away.

Kobayashi Pharmaceutical, the company that made the beni-koji supplement, revealed that water accidentally leaked into a tank containing ingredients for beni-koji and other products. The leak happened at a factory in Osaka that they shut down in December, but they didn’t say when exactly the leak started and how many products it might have affected before they caught it.

Water and moisture can cause mold, so the leak might have caused the blue mold that produced puberulic acid, potentially affecting the kidneys. However, the company doesn’t know for sure if the leak was behind the health problems. Government officials are still looking into the company’s factories and practices.

Speaking of questionable practices… Over the past several months, the Liberal Democratic Party, or LDP, has punished thirty-nine lawmakers who received kickbacks. However, according to the news organization NHK, many people criticized Fumio Kishida, the Prime Minister and former president of the LDP, for not taking proper responsibility and instead punishing his subordinates.

Tsuyoshi Masuda, an analyst at NHK, said that the LDP likely refrained from punishing Kishida because it didn’t want to face backlash from its own members. Masuda also believes that he rushed the punishments because he wanted to put the whole kickback mess behind him and focus on the upcoming summit in the US, which he left for on Monday the 8th. However, this may come back to bite him because the public is still not happy with the LDP and how Kishida handled the issue.

In international news, Japan, the United States, the Philippines, and Australia conducted a joint maritime drill in the South China Sea. The First Multilateral Maritime Cooperative Activity drill involved vessels and aircraft from the four nations. They did communication training and drills aimed at enhancing cooperation in maritime scenarios.

The drill is important since there has been much tension in the South China Sea, particularly when the Chinese Coast Guard fired water cannons at Philippine ships. Analysts said that the joint exercise was a kind of warning to other countries to refrain from carrying out such activities and to state that everyone should be free to navigate the area.

That’s not the only instance of international cooperation. On Monday the 8th, the United States, the UK, and Australia released a statement saying they were interested in working with Japan on advanced technology projects to improve security for all four countries.

In the statement, they talked about Japan’s strengths and defense partnerships with allied countries. They said that Japan could probably help a lot in defense-related artificial intelligence and hypersonic missiles.

Prime Minister Kishida and US President Joe Biden will likely talk about the matter further on Wednesday the 10th during the summit in Washington, in the US.

After the massive earthquake in Taiwan on Wednesday the 3rd, officials issued a tsunami warning in Okinawa and urged residents and tourists alike to head to evacuation centers. Naha Airport canceled eighty-nine flights to and from Okinawa and told people to go to the third and fourth floors of the building.

Fortunately, no tsunami hit Okinawa. But after the massive traffic jam of people trying to get to shelters, authorities advised people to evacuate on foot if possible since the advanced notice of the tsunami warnings usually meant that people’s lives weren’t in immediate danger.

Japan also decided to send one million dollars in aid to Taiwan to help them recover from the earthquake. Yoko Kamikawa, the Foreign Minister, said they would send the money through the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association to cover essential supplies like food, water, and healthcare items. Kamikawa expressed gratitude for Taiwan's past support during Japan's natural disasters and emphasized Japan’s commitment to aiding Taiwan's recovery efforts.

In other news, the Internal Affairs Ministry recently said that they had a record number of participants in a program meant to revitalize rural communities, as they are struggling with aging populations. Individuals who apply to the program have to work in a rural area. In exchange, the government provides financial support for up to three years to cover expenses for those working in farming, forestry, and fishing, among other rural activities.

In twenty twenty-three, 7,200 people took part in the program, 753 more than the previous year. The northern island of Hokkaido is the most popular destination, followed by Nagano and Fukushima Prefectures. Over the past fifteen years, just over half of the program participants settled in the area where they worked. The ministry aims to increase the number of participants to 10,000 by the twenty twenty-six fiscal year.

Hopefully, such programs help improve the economy overall, because according to Teikoku Databank, a credit research firm, a lot of businesses are having a hard time. Almost 9,000 companies filed for bankruptcy in fiscal year twenty twenty-three, which is over thirty percent more than last year and the highest number of bankruptcies in nine years.

One of the reasons was that many businesses that got interest- and collateral-free pandemic relief loans had difficulties paying them back. The other big reason was labor shortages: some companies had to shut down simply because there weren’t enough people willing to work for them. The industries that had it worst were construction, services, and transportation. And now that the Bank of Japan has ended its negative interest rate policy, smaller businesses will probably have to deal with higher interest rates on bank loans, which may make it harder to stay in business.

Moving on to Friday the 5th, the Cabinet announced they will apply new refugee screening rules starting the 10th of June. With the new rules, anyone who goes to Japan and applies for asylum three or more times may be deported.

The original law protected asylum seekers from deportation while their applications were being processed, but some abused the system. The revised law allows those facing deportation to live under the supervision of an authorized figure, such as the person or company who sponsored their visa, instead of being jailed. Ryuji Koizumi, the Justice Minister, said that authorities would closely monitor the implementation of the new rules since many are concerned about how they might be abused.

Finally, in entertainment news, the long-running Captain Tsubasa manga series ended on Thursday the 4th. It has been running for forty-three years and sold in over fifty countries.

Yoichi Takahashi, the manga artist, announced his plans to end the series in January because he was getting older and the manga industry had become too fast-paced for him thanks to widespread digitization. He also said that he plans to start a website in the summer with a sort of sequel series. He didn’t give out many details, but it would center around the main character from Captain Tsubasa and feature rough sketches instead of more polished art.

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Mata Ne!