JAPAN: Former University Chancellor Arrested & more – 16th Jan 2025

Konnichiwa from BA! This is the Rorshok Japan Update from the 16th of January twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what's going down in Japan.

On Monday the 13th, the Tokyo police in eastern Japan arrested Kinuko Iwamoto, the former chancellor of Tokyo Women’s Medical University, for allegedly embezzling 120 million yen, which is 760,000 dollars, from university funds between twenty eighteen and twenty twenty.

She originally said that the funds were consulting fees to a registered architect for the construction of new campus buildings. However, the architect didn’t actually do any work. Instead, the architect sent two-thirds of the money back to Iwamoto. The police searched her home and other locations and found 200 million yen, which is over a million dollars, and ten kilograms of gold ingots.

The police are still investigating other possible frauds at the university, including fake salary payments and preferential admissions. A third-party panel’s report in August twenty twenty-four talked about the possible embezzlement and criticized Iwamoto’s financial conduct. The university fired Iwamoto from all university roles that same month.

Shinji Ishimaru, the runner-up in Tokyo's twenty twenty-three gubernatorial election and former Akitakata mayor, said on Wednesday the 15th that he created a new regional political party called the Path of Rebirth, or Saisei no Michi in Japanese. Ishimaru plans to field candidates in all forty-two districts for the Tokyo metropolitan assembly election this summer. He will choose people through a screening process that involves public interviews, and said he would empower local leadership.

He gained attention during the governor's race for his independent campaign and strong online presence, which got just over one and a half million votes. While he will not run for an assembly seat, he will lead the party and may consider another gubernatorial bid in the future.

In international news, both Takeshi Iwaya, the Japanese foreign minister, and Satsuki Katayama, a senior member of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said they will attend the inauguration of Donald Trump, the US President-elect, on Monday the 20th.

Trump’s team invited Iwaya as a high-ranking official from one of the US’s allies. Iwaya plans to arrange a meeting with Marco Rubio, a senator and the future US Secretary of State. Iwaya also hopes to tell Trump that Shigeru Ishiba, the prime minister, wants to meet with him. Meanwhile, Bill Hagerty, a US Senator and former ambassador to Japan, sent Katayama, who attended Trump’s twenty seventeen inauguration, an invitation.

Currently holding key roles in the party’s Policy Research Council and financial research panel, she plans to meet with US Congress members and financial experts during her visit. Katayama also attended Trump’s first inauguration in twenty seventeen.

That’s not the only international news. Japan and Britain agreed to expedite the joint development of a next-generation fighter jet with Italy, hoping to sign a contract by the end of the year. The two countries hope to strengthen security in the Indo-Pacific region.

Foreign women working in Japan as technical intern trainees often face maternity harassment, where companies fire employees who become pregnant or force them to go back to their home country.

Jiho Yoshimizu, author of If You Get Pregnant, Sayonara and head of a support group for Vietnamese residents, talked about these injustices, worsened by labor shortages and employers' reluctance to give maternity leave. Despite legal protections under Japan's Equal Employment Opportunity Law, many foreign workers either don’t know their rights or face language barriers in getting support.

Yoshimizu's group, which created a labor union in twenty twenty-two, has supported 153 women since twenty twenty, helping them retain jobs after maternity leave. The Japanese government plans to replace the internship program by twenty twenty-seven, but Yoshimizu warns bigger changes are needed to ensure the humane treatment of foreign workers.

Speaking of maternity, Yuriko Koike, the Tokyo governor, held a press conference on Saturday the 11th and announced that the Tokyo Metropolitan Government would subsidize up to 100,000 yen, which is 640 dollars, for epidurals and other anesthesia to help with labor pain during childbirth starting October twenty twenty-five. Koike will set aside about seven million dollars in the fiscal twenty twenty-five budget to support this program.

Tokyo will be the first prefecture in Japan to offer such subsidies in the hopes of encouraging people to have more babies amid Japan’s declining birth rates.

The popularity of painless childbirth has grown, rising from five percent of deliveries in twenty seventeen to almost twelve percent in twenty twenty-two, because it reduces pain, lowers stress, and speeds up recovery. However, one of the main reasons people don’t use it is because it’s expensive, ranging from 640 to almost 1,000 dollars on top of standard delivery fees.

Meanwhile, a six-point-seven-magnitude earthquake hit southern Japan near Miyazaki Prefecture on Monday the 13th. The Japan Meteorological Agency looked into whether this might trigger a Nankai Trough megaquake, but said there was no increased risk.

Recall that in a previous show, we mentioned that there was a similar seven-magnitude quake in August twenty twenty-two, after which the agency issued a week-long advisory that there might be a megaquake. However, with the latest Miyazaki quake, the agency said an earthquake in that area needs to be at least magnitude seven to potentially trigger the Nankai Trough.

A Tokyo professor said that even though the Monday the 13th quake was only a fraction of a point less in magnitude, it had three times less energy than the one in August.

Despite no advisory being issued, the agency said there was still an ongoing eighty percent chance of a Nankai Trough earthquake within thirty years.

In an update to a story from a previous show, US company Rising Sun Management sent a letter to Fuji Media Holdings, a Japanese broadcasting company, on Tuesday the 14th. Rising Sun owns over seven percent of Fuji Media shares, and in its letter, it demanded that Fuji create a third-party committee to investigate the recent allegations against Masahiro Nakai, a Fuji TV personality and former boy band member, of misconduct toward a woman.

Magazines first reported that Nakai settled a dispute with a woman in twenty twenty-three. The Shukan Bunshun magazine and others said that the woman had a dinner scheduled with Nakai, but Nakai didn’t show up. Fuji put up a statement on its website saying that Nakai wasn’t involved in the incident, and didn’t know about any scheduled dinner.

Fuji announced on Wednesday the 15th that it hired outside lawyers to investigate the incident and will act based on the outcome.

In business news, Kosé, a popular Japanese cosmetics company, announced on Wednesday the 15th, that it was partnering with Foxtale Consumer, an Indian skincare firm, and had bought ten percent of Foxtale’s shares.

Established in twenty twenty-one, Foxtale has grown quickly through online sales. Kazutoshi Kobayashi, the Kosé CEO, said the partnership with Foxtale was crucial to expanding business in India, where Kosé has had a branch since twenty thirteen. Kosé also hopes to rely less on China, where the lack of sales played a big part in the company’s twenty-eight percent drop in net profit in early twenty twenty-four.

And to close this edition, Japan Airlines recently showcased a new airplane surface treatment that gives airplanes’ surface riblets — fine grooves as thin as human hair — that reduce air resistance and improve fuel efficiency. Developed with Japan’s space agency and other partners since twenty twenty-two, the riblets cover about twenty percent of the plane's surface and have shown potential to save 119 tons of fuel annually on routes between Japan and Germany. The planes will begin European service this month.

This follows All Nippon Airways using a similar technology starting September twenty twenty-four on cargo planes. They said they plan to use it on passenger flights starting in spring. Both airlines are also trying to replace current fuel with sustainable aviation fuel to support net-zero emissions goals.

And that's it for this week!

Thanks for tuning into the update. You can connect with us on social media as @rorshokjapan on Twitter and Instagram.

Mata Ne!