JAPAN: The Nobel Peace Prize & more – 12th Dec 2024

Konnichiwa from BA! This is the Rorshok Japan Update from the 12th of December twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what's going down in Japan.

Let’s start with an update to a story from a previous show. The Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers, known as Nihon Hidankyo, went to Oslo to attend an award ceremony on Tuesday the 10th and receive the twenty twenty-four Nobel Peace Prize. The Norwegian Nobel Committee named the group as the winners in October for its efforts to abolish nuclear weapons, but had to hold off on the ceremony to formally hand over the prize until now so that a delegation from the group could fly to Oslo to attend.

Three nuclear bomb survivors, including the ninety-two-year-old co-chair of Nihon Hidankyo, accepted the award. It marked the second time a Japanese person has received the Peace Prize, the first being Eisaku Sato, a prime minister, in nineteen seventy-four.

That's not the only follow-up. On Thursday the 5th, the news organization Kyodo News said that in January twenty twenty-five, it would fire two senior editors for publishing a false report in August twenty twenty-two. Recall that the report said that Akiko Ikuina, now a vice foreign minister but then an actress, visited a controversial shrine honoring Japanese war dead, including war criminals. Kyodo News published the report based on unverified information and retracted it earlier this month after Ikuina denied the allegations.

Toru Mizutani, the Kyodo News president apologized to Ikuina, acknowledging the report had hurt Japan-South Korea relations since South Korea recently boycotted a ceremony because they heard a politician who visited the controversial shrine was attending.

Mizutani reprimanded the involved editors and reporters. He also pledged stricter fact-checking procedures to prevent similar errors in the future.

Meanwhile, a tragedy occurred on Friday the 6th, when Miho Nakayama, a fifty-four-year-old actress and singer, drowned while bathing at her home in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, in eastern Japan. Police investigated and deemed it an accidental death, as there were no signs of illness or foul play.

Nakayama’s most famous role was in the nineteen ninety-five movie Love Letter, for which she won many awards. Her agency thanked fans for their support during this tragic time. Hitonari Tsuji, her ex-husband and fellow musician, shared his grief in a blog post.

Still in the capital, a Tokyo District Court sentenced a former middle school principal to nine years in jail for sexually assaulting students fourteen years ago and having videos of his assaults.

The ex-principal tried to say he wasn’t guilty because he thought they consented. The judge said it was obvious they did not consent, because even if they weren’t minors at the time and unable to consent, they were clearly crying in the videos. The judge went on to say that the former principal’s actions were heinous and that those students must have gone through a lot of mental suffering both due to the assault and because they must have felt that they couldn’t tell anyone what happened to them.

While one person goes to jail, another goes free. The Wakayama District Court in western Japan found twenty-eight-year-old Saki Sudo not guilty of murdering her wealthy husband, seventy-seven-year-old Kosuke Nozaki, in twenty eighteen.

Nozaki, a company president who liked to call himself Japan's Don Juan, died from a stimulant drug overdose, and prosecutors believed Sudo caused his death to inherit his fortune. They sought a life sentence based on Sudo’s motive and her search history containing terms like stimulants and perfect crime.

However, the Wakayama District Court ruled that there wasn’t enough proof. The judge said that based on the evidence, Nozaki might have just overdosed by accident, and there was too much reasonable doubt to say Sudo was guilty.

In tourism news, Shizuoka Prefecture in central Japan plans to turn their voluntary donation system of 1,000 yen (which is seven dollars) for the four Mount Fuji trails into a mandatory fee of 4,000 yen per person, which is twenty-six dollars. This move takes after Yamanashi Prefecture, which created a mandatory thirteen-dollar hiking fee for the Yoshida Trail in twenty twenty-two. Shizuoka also plans to forbid trail entry after two p.m. except for hikers with mountain hut reservations, to discourage climbing through the night.

While international tourists might be able to afford the fee hike because the yen is much weaker compared to many other currencies, it makes things harder for domestic Japanese travelers. Asahi Shimbun, a news organization, also reported that only seven dollars of the twenty-six dollar fee will go toward conservation, with the majority covering administrative costs.

Mount Fuji isn’t the only one looking to increase fees. East Japan Railway or JR East recently asked the government for permission to raise its fares by an average of seven percent starting in March twenty twenty-six. The government is currently looking over the company’s application.

If approved, this fare hike will be the first blanket increase since JR East's founding in nineteen eighty-seven, excluding tax-related changes. The railway company said it’s having a lot of financial difficulties because of Japan's declining population, fewer passengers post-pandemic, and rising operational costs.

Other rail operators are also planning to increase their fares in April twenty twenty-five because they’re having similar financial problems JR Hokkaido plans a seven percent hike, and JR Kyushu, a fifteen percent increase.

Speaking of increases, the House of Representatives approved a supplementary increase in the budget for fiscal twenty twenty-four on Thursday the 12th. The budget is worth nearly fourteen trillion yen, equivalent to ninety-one billion dollars. Four political parties—the ruling Liberal Democratic Party or LDP, Komeito, the Democratic Party for the People, and the Japan Innovation Party—voted for the bill, while the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan or CDP voted against it.

The Lower House revised the bill to include help for restoration projects in earthquake- and flood-hit areas, which was one of the CDP’s proposals. This marked the first budget revisions in the Lower House in twenty-eight years.

On Tuesday the 17th, the LDP will send the bill to the House of Councillors for final approval.

While that’s pending, the government is putting into play revised laws criminalizing the use of cannabis and THC with prison sentences of up to seven years. Before the revision, the law simply banned possessing, sending, or growing cannabis, but didn’t impose penalties for using it.

The revision is meant to address people’s worries about drug use, especially among young people, as cannabis-related cases in twenty twenty-three surpassed methamphetamine cases for the first time, with seventy percent involving individuals under thirty.

The new laws also legalize medical products using cannabis so they can be properly regulated. Previously, such medicines were allowed only in clinical trials.

Next up, Daihatsu Motor issued a recall for approximately 191,000 vehicles due to a suspension spring defect that could lead to breakage and might even puncture a tire. The company is recalling six models produced between August twenty sixteen and October twenty eighteen, including Daihatsu's Move Canbus, Hijet, Subaru's Sambar and Toyota's Pixis Van. While no one has reported any accidents, the company has documented 608 defect cases.

Daihatsu and its partner automakers began replacing the defective parts free of charge at dealerships nationwide on Friday the 6th.

Closing this edition on a lighter note, Niigata city in central Japan will hold a Christmas Candle Night Event for the next two weekends and on the 24th and 25th of December. It will take place in Echigo Hillside Park, which is a thirty-minute bus ride from Nagaoka Station.

The park’s iconic zelkova tree will be strung with lights, and visitors will place candles with messages around the tree. The park has an entrance fee of 450 yen, equivalent to three dollars, and it costs an additional 700 yen or five dollars to decorate a candle. To learn more, check out the park’s official website with the link in the show notes!

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

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Mata Ne!