JAPAN: Illegal handouts & more – 23rd July 2024

Konnichiwa from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Japan Update from the 23rd of July twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Japan.

On Thursday the 18th, police raided the offices and home of Manabu Horii, one of the lawmakers who took kickbacks from the Liberal Democratic Party's secret slush fund. Over the past five years, Horii received around twenty-two million yen or 140,000 dollars in kickbacks.

Horii had been giving condolence money to supporters whose family members died around twenty twenty-two, and the police believe that he used the kickback money to do it. The condolence money ranged from 10,000 yen or sixty-three dollars to several times that. All in all, he handed out several thousands of dollars. However, it's illegal for politicians to give money to their supporters unless it's specifically at a funeral, and the politicians hand it over personally. According to investigations, he instead asked his secretaries to give the money.

Moving on, companies around the world, from airlines to hospitals to news media outlets, had computer-related system failures on Friday the 19th because of a faulty Windows update. Japan Airlines couldn't take or change reservations on its website, while Jetstar Japan, another airline, had trouble with boarding procedures. In addition, shops and restaurants within Universal Studios Japan and about a third of McDonald's had to shut down entirely because their registers stopped working.

Fortunately, CrowdStrike, a US cybersecurity firm, helped fix the problem, so systems returned to normal before long.

The government also has a few problems to fix. On Wednesday the 17th, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida gave a formal apology to the victims of forced sterilization. This came after the Supreme Court declared Japan's former eugenics law unconstitutional and said that the government should compensate the victims. The law was put in place in nineteen forty-eight, sterilizing over 25,000 people until the government removed the law in nineteen ninety-six.

Kishida expressed deep regret, acknowledging the severe harm caused to the victims. He said he would withdraw the government’s statute of limitations defense to make it easier for victims to settle their lawsuits.

The Japan Federation of Bar Associations is also helping victims file lawsuits. Since many of the victims are getting older and having health issues, they are asking for prompt compensation.

In a follow-up to last week’s show, the Pacific Islands Leaders Meeting wrapped up on Thursday the 18th. The leaders, which included Japan’s prime minister and other leaders from Pacific Island nations, agreed that they opposed China’s military activity in the East and South China Seas, but some pushed back against the idea of joint military drills with Japan’s Self-Defense Forces.

Kishida also asked the leaders for their understanding of the treated water release from the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, but not everyone was willing to offer their support.

Meanwhile, Japanese weather officials have issued warnings about an ongoing heatwave across much of the country, urging people to be careful of heatstroke. Notable high temperatures include thirty-eight degrees Celsius or 100 degrees Fahrenheit in Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Prefecture, and Toyoka City, Hyogo Prefecture, on Sunday the 21st.

The Meteorological Agency expects the heatwave to continue into Tuesday the 23rd at least, predicting highs of thirty-eight degrees Celsius in Kumagaya City, Saitama Prefecture, and Kofu City, Yamanashi Prefecture. The agency and Environment Ministry issued heatstroke alerts for forty prefectures, advising residents to stay indoors, use air conditioning, stay hydrated, and keep an eye on infants and the elderly.

As for what caused this heatwave, the Meteorological Agency created a panel of experts to investigate. They said it was because the sea around Japan is abnormally warm. They found that there were record-high sea surface temperatures for June, with some areas off southeastern Hokkaido being six degrees Celsius, or eleven degrees Fahrenheit, which is warmer than usual.

Experts explained that the Black Current, or Kuroshio, a current on the west side of the North Pacific Ocean, is much further north than usual and is causing this marine heatwave. A warm sea reduces the number of clouds and the amount of fog, which means more sunlight comes through and heats things up. The seawater evaporating trapped even more heat. They warned that the ongoing marine heatwave will likely cause high temperatures again this summer in northern Japan.

Back on land, two maintenance vehicles had an accident on the Tokaido Shinkansen bullet train line between Nagoya and Hamamatsu stations on Monday the 22nd. One of the drivers tried to brake, but the vehicle didn’t slow down and rear-ended the other vehicle. The accident injured two workers.

Central Japan Railway Company, the railway operator, stopped service between the two stations for the rest of the day while they repaired the railway. They made a public apology for the inconvenience and said they didn’t know why the brakes didn’t work properly.

The lines reopened as normal on Tuesday the 23rd.

In other news, the recent surge of tourism in Japan has prompted some restaurants to charge foreign travelers a higher cost than locals. Businesses that get a lot of tourist traffic said they have to increase costs to hire English-speaking staff and give travelers extra help since they have a harder time than locals understanding how things work.

Popular tourist attractions are also thinking of creating foreigner-only fees to help with maintenance costs and reduce overcrowding. This type of dual-pricing system is common in developing countries, and some are worried that using it in Japan could hurt the country’s reputation. However, a loyalty point service company conducted a survey and found that nearly sixty percent of locals supported the idea, with some suggesting that services like guides and non-local languages should instead be offered as extras.

Meanwhile, Greenland police arrested Paul Watson, a noted anti-whaling environmentalist, on Sunday the 21st under a warrant Japan issued. The police will bring him to a district court before deciding whether they’ll extradite him to Japan. Watson founded the Captain Paul Watson Foundation or CPWF and is most famous for directly confronting whaling ships while at sea.

CPWF said they think the arrest is because Watson’s ship chased after a new Japanese factory whaling ship called Kangei Maru, which Kyodo Senpaku, a whaling company, launched in May.

In sports, the Japan Gymnastics Association announced on Friday the 19th that they forced Shoko Miyata, Japan’s Olympic gymnastics team leader, to withdraw from the team after she admitted to underage drinking and smoking. The nineteen-year-old gymnast said she had drunk and smoked in June and July even though the legal age for both in Japan is twenty.

Miyata had won multiple trophies and a bronze medal in the twenty twenty-two World Championships. Since the entry deadline for the Paris Olympics has already passed, the Japanese gymnastics team won’t be able to add anyone to substitute. That means they’ll compete with just four members instead of five.

Perhaps teen drinking shouldn’t be too surprising since a recent government study showed that nonprescription drug abuse in Japan is highest among teenagers. The study estimated 650,000 people abused nonprescription drugs in the past year, with those aged fifteen to nineteen abusing at a rate of one point five percent. The second highest group was people in their fifties at one point twenty-four percent.

The health ministry plans to ban people under twenty from buying large amounts of addictive over-the-counter drugs and increase education on overdose risks.

The ministry conducted the study through mailed questionnaires and got 3,000 valid responses. Thirty-six percent of respondents said they got the drugs from stores, but over half used an unknown source.

Finally, in an interesting bit of trivia, Kiyotaka Kitajima, a photographer, took a photo from Ishigaki Island of a rare occurrence called a green flash. This refers to when the setting sun briefly glows green as it sinks below the horizon. It only happens when the air is very clear as sunlight bends through the atmosphere. You can see the photo yourself on Kitajima’s Instagram account, link in the show notes!

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

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Mata Ne!