JAPAN: Missile & more – 23rd Apr 2024

In domestic news, tragedy struck on Saturday the 20th, when two helicopters of Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force, or MSDF, crashed during training near the Izu Islands, a series of islands stretching into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Tokyo. The MSDF and Coast Guard rescued one of the helicopter’s occupants, who later died. They are still looking for the other seven crewmembers who were on board.

The Defense Minister said that they found parts of the aircraft in the sea, including the flight recorders. The helicopters were conducting nighttime training to search for submarines. The ministry said it believes that they might have collided mid-air and, on Monday the 22nd, started analyzing the data from the flight recorders. To be safe, the ministry is grounding all helicopters of the same type until they have finished investigating.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the only recent tragedy. Last week, a fire in a lodging house in Kawasaki City, located near Tokyo, killed two people. Firefighters investigated the scene and said that a portable battery charger likely started the fire. The guest assigned to the room wasn’t there during the fire but said he left his device behind to charge.

The National Institute of Technology and Evaluation warned that chargers can cause a fire when they’re defective or if people leave them somewhere hot. The institute advised people not to leave chargers unattended while charging and to avoid putting them near flammable materials, in direct sunlight, or anywhere likely to heat up.

For the latest in business, on Friday the 19th, the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry said it plans to give seventy-two billion yen, or 470 million dollars, in subsidies to five companies to build supercomputers that can take AI to the next level.

The ministry aims to reduce Japan's reliance on US tech firms for generative AI, which has spread far and wide in a very short time. They said the subsidies are crucial for national security. The subsidies will cover one-third of major companies’ costs and half of smaller firms’ costs. The ministry will give the largest amount to Sakura Internet, an IT firm, at over two million dollars.

Japan’s government isn't the only one with high expectations for Japanese tech. Open AI, the creator of ChatGPT, announced that it would put its first Asian office in Tokyo. They hope to create a new language model specializing in Japanese language and culture. They plan to work with the Japanese government in developing rules and guidelines for generative AI technology.

An expert on tech startups said that this situation is similar to when Google looked to create a new branch in Japan. He also said that, in general, Japan’s government is very open and welcoming to new AI technology, with some municipalities across the country using it to generate schedules, post notices, and so on.

Many of the big tech companies, including Google, are already looking to expand their services in Japan, so Open AI is in for a lot of competition.

But as daunting a competitor as Google is, the government has been scrutinizing it lately for monopolizing the market. Google dominates the keyword-targeted online advertising market in Japan and has provided technical assistance to LY Corporation, best known for its messaging app Line and search engine Yahoo Japan, since twenty ten.

On Monday the 22nd, the Japan Fair Trade Commission said that Google violated Japan’s antitrust law by asking LY Corporation to stop part of their advertising services for seven years, between twenty fifteen and twenty twenty-two.

Google admitted to the allegation and gave the Fair Trade Commission a plan on how it would prevent future violations. Authorities are more wary of tech giants monopolizing the market and are increasing monitoring with on-site inspections and taking strict measures against violations.

Hopefully, authorities will give equal scrutiny to Konan Medical Center, a hospital in the western city of Kobe, where Mr. and Mrs. Takashima, the parents of the late Shingo Takashima, a twenty-six-year-old doctor who worked there, are suing the hospital for one and a half million dollars for the death of their son.

The young doctor committed suicide in May twenty twenty-two, and had logged over 200 hours of overtime in the month before his death. A local labor standards inspection office had warned the hospital to create a better working environment but the hospital did not reduce Takashima’s workload and also made him do self-study that they didn’t count toward his work hours. The parents said that their son developed depression and killed himself because the hospital overworked him.

Moving on, ridesharing services started running in the country earlier this month. Before, the government had banned them in Japan except for areas without public transport. However, as the taxi industry faces an ever-growing problem of driver shortages, the government decided to allow ridesharing in certain areas, including Tokyo.

Even so, Japan’s version of ridesharing has a lot of restrictions. Rideshare companies don’t work directly through an app. They have to partner with taxi companies, which hire drivers and operate the services. The idea is that the taxi company will be able to properly train drivers, carry out inspections, and make sure that the passengers are safe.

The ridesharing apps still work almost the same as in other countries, except that users can choose a taxi or rideshare. If things go well, the government may allow such services to expand and pull back restrictions further.

In sports, baseball star Shohei Ohtani set a new record for most home runs by a Japanese player on Sunday the 21st. Hideki Matsui held the old record, having hit 175 home runs after playing in over 1,200 games. On Sunday the 21st, Ohtani hit his 176th home run when his team, the Los Angeles Dodgers, faced off against the New York Mets. It was Ohtani’s 725th game.

Ohtani isn’t the only one making waves. Yuna Yamada, a first-year junior high school student from Sapporo City in Hokkaido Prefecture, won the top prize in the classical dance category for girls aged nine to eleven at the Youth America Grand Prix finals held in New York this month. Yamada thanked her supporters and said she hoped to become a ballerina who could make everyone smile.

In addition to Yamada, Kohaku Kihara, another first-year junior high school student, won second place in the contemporary dance category for boys aged nine to eleven. Kihara said he wants to become a renowned dancer on the global stage.

And, that’s it for this week! Hey listeners, we have an unusual question for you. Have you ever had to choose a restaurant to go to or a movie or something with a group of friends or family? And it was not so easy to choose? Took a long time, and was just difficult and maybe a bit unpleasant? Rorshok is working on a way to make that much easier. If you are interested we could use your help. If you want to help out or try it out, let us know at info@rorshok.com and thanks!

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