JAPAN: Retrial System Reform & more – 24th Dec 2024

Konnichiwa from BA! This is the Rorshok Japan Update from the 24th of December twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Japan.

In a follow-up to a story from previous shows, two former singers of Johnny and Associates, the now-defunct talent agency, filed a 300 million dollar lawsuit in a US court, alleging sexual abuse by Johnny Kitagawa, the agency's late founder. Junya Tanaka, now forty-three years old, and Kyohei Iida, thirty-seven, said they were abused as teenagers with additional regular abuse during their time at the company.

They filed the suit in Nevada, in the US, and also named Kitagawa's niece, Julie Keiko Fujishima, and other company leaders for doing nothing even though they knew Kitagawa was abusing talents. Tanaka and Iida seek fifty million dollars each in compensatory damages and 100 million dollars each in punitive damages.

The case marks the first lawsuit since the company admitted to Kitagawa's misconduct in twenty twenty-two. The plaintiffs hope to raise global awareness about abuse being suppressed in Japan and call for societal change to prevent future incidents.

Unfortunately, Johnny Kitagawa was far from the only person abusing children. On Friday the 20th, the Education Ministry released a survey that found a record high of 320 school staff who were punished in fiscal twenty twenty-three for sexual crime and violence. This was the first time that number had gone over 300.

The survey covered sixty-seven education boards, and also reported almost 5,000 reprimands, 257 more than the previous year, but the majority were about traffic violations.

The survey also said the number of school staff on leave because of mental illness reached a record 7,119, an increase of 580 compared to the previous year. Over 3,000 of those absences were among elementary school staff. The ministry plans to analyze these findings and create strategies to address mental health.

The Justice Ministry is also making some changes to its retrial system, which has faced heavy criticism due to the long hearings and barriers to overturning wrongful convictions. Unlike regular trials, the retrial system lacks specific procedural rules. There were calls for reform after Iwao Hakamada’s twenty fourteen acquittal in a nineteen sixty-six murder case, decades after seeking a retrial.

The ministry aims to consult a panel next spring to figure out the best way to revise the system. The Japan Federation of Bar Associations advocates for rules on evidence disclosure and a ban on prosecutors appealing retrial approvals.

The issue came up again in October after the retrial of Shoshi Maekawa, which we covered in other episodes, convicted of a nineteen eighty-five murder. The ministry seeks steady progress to address the system’s flaws.

Speaking of justice, we have an update to a story from a previous show. Stefan Kaufmann, the former Olympus CEO, admitted in a Tokyo court to purchasing illegal drugs, including cocaine and MDMA, multiple times in twenty twenty-two. Kaufmann said he began using drugs on a friend's recommendation to cope with exhaustion from working sixteen to eighteen hours daily. He also said a drug supplier threatened that he would report his purchases to authorities and the media.

Prosecutors seek a ten-month prison sentence, while defense lawyers have requested leniency. Kaufmann, who joined Olympus in two thousand three and became president and CEO in April twenty twenty-two, resigned in October following reports of the allegations.

In science and tech, Orbital Lasers, a Japanese startup, and InspeCity, an Indian robotics firm, signed an agreement to study regulatory and operational feasibility in Japan and India. They also partnered to make laser-equipped satellites to deal with orbital debris. That’s right; they’re going to pew-pew space garbage. Or to be exact, they are creating a system that uses lasers to stabilize space junk by vaporizing parts of its surface, which will make it easier to dispose of. The company is planning a demonstration for twenty twenty-seven.

The partnership will also focus on other in-space services, like getting defunct satellites out of orbit and making spacecraft last longer. This follows the United Nations' recent call for measures to manage low Earth orbital traffic because of how crowded it’s getting.

In health news, respiratory illnesses, including asthma and bronchitis, have increased in Ishikawa Prefecture's Noto Peninsula, northern Japan, following the January earthquake and the September heavy rainfall. Areas report anywhere from a fifty to 150 percent increase in patients with respiratory illnesses, likely caused by dust and debris from rubble clearance. At Anamizu General Hospital, asthma cases almost doubled, bronchitis rose by 150 percent, and pneumonia by fifty compared to the previous year.

Experts, including Dr. Takeshi Ishizaki of Anamizu General Hospital, said the increase is likely from breathing in dust, rat feces, and bacteria, worsened by mask removal during summer. Ishizaki advises wearing masks, staying hydrated, and seeking early treatment for symptoms like persistent coughs or sore throats.

At least Akihito Emeritus, the emperor, has been healthy. He received a heart failure diagnosis in twenty twenty-two, but fortunately, his condition remains stable. He just celebrated his ninety-first birthday on Monday the 23rd at the Akasaka Estate in Tokyo, receiving well-wishes from Imperial family members and officials. Emperor Naruhito, Empress Masako, and Princess Aiko did not attend as Princess Aiko was unwell.

In business news, Line Yahoo Corporation, or LY Corp, an internet company, will end fully remote work in April twenty twenty-five and require employees to go to the office anywhere from once a week to once a month, depending on their division. The company hopes that face-to-face communication will boost creativity and service.

During the pandemic, Yahoo Japan, before it merged with Line and became LY Corp, allowed full remote work and got rid of requirements to live within a certain distance of the office. This allowed employees to move homes without changing jobs. Now that LY Corp has changed its policy, it’s thinking of paying for any affected staff to relocate.

The return-to-office trend is growing. Some argue that remote work has a lot of benefits and will quit if it ends. Others think the threat to quit is shallow because these are mainly people with a high income who moved to a low-cost area, upset they can no longer game the system.

That’s not the only business news. On Monday the 23rd, the Washington Post, a US news organization, reported the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States recently said it can’t make a decision regarding the national security risks of Nippon Steel's fifteen billion dollar bid to acquire US Steel. The final decision now rests with Joe Biden, the US President, who has fifteen days to act.

Both Biden and Donald Trump, the President-elect, have said they’re not in favor of the deal because it might reduce domestic steel production.

Nippon Steel said it could lower these risks by hiring US citizens in key leadership roles at US Steel, but the committee still couldn’t decide. If the deal doesn’t go through, Nippon Steel might get a 565 million dollar penalty fee.

Shigeru Ishiba, the Japanese Prime Minister, asked Biden to approve the deal. Nippon Steel also said it might pursue legal action if the acquisition is blocked.

Closing this edition with sports, Shohei Ohtani, the Japanese baseball star, won the twenty twenty-four Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year award for the third time, tying with Michael Jordan and only one win behind sports legends like Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods, and LeBron James.

The news organization Associated Press has been giving out this award since nineteen thirty-one. This year, they asked seventy-four sports journalists for their opinion, and forty-eight voted for Ohtani. Recall from previous episodes that the baseball star has had a big year, winning his third MVP award and achieving the first-ever fifty-fifty milestone in baseball with fifty-four home runs and fifty-nine stolen bases in a single season.

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

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Mata Ne!