Xデーと呼ばれる日－世界で最も過密な都市の直下で大地震が起きれば、第二次世界大戦以来の甚大な被害が予想される。先端技術は東京を救えるか。
東京都港区。毎日午後5時になると、区内のスピーカーから童謡「夕焼け小焼け」のやさしいメロディーが鳴り渡る。人口3700万人を抱えるこの巨大都市では学校や公園など至る所にこうしたスピーカーが設置され、その数は数百台にものぼる。
毎日鳴るこのメロディーには、夜の訪れを知らせる以上の意味がある。人類史上最悪となりうる自然災害から東京都民を守るためのシステムをテストしているのだ。その災害とは、地球上最も過密な都市を直撃する地震だ。
Continue reading...They call it X Day – a major earthquake striking the heart of the world’s most populous city in the most calamitous event since the second world war. Can hi-tech solutions save Tokyo?
Every day, at 5pm, the gentle melody of the children’s song Yuyake Koyake chimes across the Minato area of Tokyo from a loudspeaker – one of hundreds dotted across schools and parks throughout this megacity of 37 million people.
The daily jingle does more than signify the arrival of evening. It is a test for the system that is designed to save Tokyoites from what would be one of the worst natural disasters in recorded human history: an earthquake striking the centre of the most populous city on Earth.
Continue reading...Had the creators of the underground skyscraper had their way, the Japanese capital might have looked very different indeed
Protected by cylindrical walls of reinforced concrete, the steel and glass “depthscrapers” extend hundreds of metres underground. Only a single floor of each inverted 35-storey skyscraper is visible at ground level.
Giant mirrors mounted directly above the central wells reflect sunlight to the apartments below. Prismatic glass ensures even light throughout the day, while fresh, conditioned air is pumped down from the surface.
Continue reading...日本が移民を受け入れ、その首都がオリンピックの開催準備を進める2019年は、世界最大のメガロポリスが真のグローバル都市になる年かもしれない
暖かい5月の夜、東京・歌舞伎町にある思い出横丁の狭い路地では、背もたれのない椅子に腰かけた旅行者たちが、英語で書かれた焼き鳥のメニューを熱心に眺めている。また、ある者たちは、燃えるようなド派手な「ロボットレストラン」へと押し寄せ、ネオンの光輝く洞窟のようなホールでアニマトロニックなキャラクターたちのダンスを楽しんでいる。そうかと思えば、この街を舞台にしたSF映画に登場したネメシス、「ゴジラ」の前で自撮りにいそしむ人たちもいる。隣町の渋谷の路上では、マリオやルイジといったマリオカートのキャラクターを真似たと思しきコスチュームを着て、ゴーカートの隊列を走らせている。（先週、任天堂は「マリカー」に対する著作権侵害の裁判で二度目の勝訴を得た。）
何十年にもわたり、訪れる者に対して閉鎖的な都市として有名であった日本の首都が、ついに外の世界へと開かれようとしている。昨年、観光客数は記録的な水準にまで増加した。特に中国からの観光客数の伸びが顕著だが、他の欧米諸国からの観光客も同様である。来年の夏には、東京はオリンピックとパラリンピックでその門戸を大きく開放する。日本は、制限的なことで有名であった入国管理法令を緩和したが、この動きは確実に東京の姿を一変させるだろう。東京には、既にコワーキングスペースや本格的なカフェ、海外ブランドのブティックをはじめとして、「グローバル」都市を彩る要素が点在している。
Continue reading...Miyu Kojima creates miniature scenes based on Tokyo apartments her company has cleaned after solitary deaths
Warning: this article contains images some people may find distressing
It was at a trade show for the funeral industry that Miyu Kojima had what might seem at first like a macabre idea.
Kojima, 27, works for To-Do Company, a cleaning firm that specialises in the apartments of the recently deceased. Many of their jobs involve kodokushi (“solitary deaths”), where people die alone and are not found for days, a phenomenon that has recently gripped the Japanese imagination.
Continue reading...The tale of the ‘first samurai’ whose severed head still terrorises Tokyoites today is the story of the city itself
A Tokyo bank once opened an account in the name of a man who had been dead for 1,000 years.
The bank was a branch of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (now part of MUFG, the largest bank in Japan), which looked out over a neighbouring lot that contained the grave where the man was buried. The bank employees were reportedly instructed not to open any windows to the man’s grave, nor to turn their backs on it, even when at their desks; the account was set up to placate him.
Continue reading...Promise by Japan that rooms will stay accessible as Paralympics legacy follows Guardian revelation that hotels wanted payment for conversions
The Japanese government has promised that all hotel rooms that are converted to make them accessible for wheelchair visitors to the 2020 Paralympics will now remain accessible as a legacy of the Games.
The pledge comes after the Guardian revealed in April that British Paralympic officials were stunned when hotels near their training camp in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, demanded they pay to make rooms accessible – and then pay again to convert them back afterwards.
One senior figure said the problem had been a “huge headache” for more than 18 months until the authorities in Yokohama, part of the Greater Tokyo metro area, finally agreed to help. What made the issue harder to solve is that it was beyond the remit of the Tokyo 2020 organising committee or government. Rather, it was down to individual hotels – many of which did not see the social or economic benefits of providing more accessible rooms.
However, the Japanese government insists the issue is now “obsolete”. Jun Mitarai, part of the cabinet secretariat that co-ordinates Olympics planning, said: “After the refurbishments, the hotel rooms will not go back to the original state. That is an agreement between the Yokohama city and the hotels. The rooms will be left as a legacy.”
Mitarai said the government was also addressing concerns from the International Paralympics Committee (IPC) about the lack of accessible rooms in Tokyo by introducing new legislation to ensure all new hotels cater more for people with disabilities, with at least 1% of rooms accessible if the building has more than 50 rooms.
Continue reading...As Japan’s capital welcomes immigrants and prepares to host the Olympics, 2019 could be the year the world’s largest megalopolis goes truly global
On a warm May evening in the narrow alleys of Omoide Yokocho (Memory Lane) next to the Kabukicho district of Tokyo, tourists perched on stools study English-language menus offering skewers of grilled meat and vegetables. Others crowd into the garish, glowing Robot Restaurant, a cavernous hall of flashing neon and dancing animatronic figures, or snap selfies in front of the giant replica head of the city’s sci-fi nemesis, Godzilla. In neighbouring Shibuya they drive convoys of go-karts through the streets wearing costumes bearing a suspicious resemblance to Mario, Luigi and the other Mario Kart characters. (Last week Nintendo successfully sued the “MariCar” company for copyright infringement for the second time.)
After many decades as a famously impenetrable city to visitors, Japan’s capital is finally beginning to face outward. Tourism, particularly from China but also western countries, rose to record levels last year, and next summer the city will slide open its doors for the Olympics and Paralympics. The country has relaxed its restrictive immigration rules, a move that promises to transform Tokyo. The capital is already dotted with co-working spaces, artisanal coffee shops, international brand boutiques and the other accoutrements of a “global” city.
Continue reading...The mayor of Okuma, home of the damaged nuclear power plant, has been in exile for eight years – here he writes about finally returning
The residents of Okuma were among more than 150,000 people who were forced to flee their homes after the March 2011 triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. As one of the wrecked plant’s two host towns, Okuma was abandoned for eight years before authorities declared that radiation levels had fallen to safe levels, allowing residents to return. Even now, 60% of Okuma remains off limits, and only a tiny fraction of the pre-disaster population of 11,500 has returned since their former neighbourhoods were given the all clear in April. A month later, Okuma’s mayor, Toshitsuna Watanabe, and his colleagues returned to work at a new town hall. In the second of a three-part diary for the Guardian, Watanabe recalls the search for a temporary home for Okuma’s nuclear evacuees.
Continue reading...Ministry responds to #KuToo petition calling for end to women having to wear heels at work
Japan’s health and labour minister has defended workplaces that require women to wear high heels to work, arguing it is “necessary and appropriate” after a petition was filed against the practice.
The remark came when Takumi Nemoto was asked to comment on a petition by a group of women who want the government to ban workplaces from requiring female jobseekers and employees to wear high heels.
Continue reading...The mayor of Okuma, home of the damaged nuclear power plant, has been in exile for eight years – here he writes about finally returning
The residents of Okuma were among more than 150,000 people who were forced to flee their homes after the March 2011 triple meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. As one of the wrecked plant’s two host towns, Okuma, was abandoned for eight years before authorities declared that radiation levels had fallen to safe levels, allowing residents to return. Even now, 60% of Okuma remains off-limits, and only a tiny fraction of the pre-disaster population of 11,500 has returned since their former neighbourhoods were given the all clear in April. A month later, Okuma’s mayor, Toshitsuna Watanabe, and his colleagues returned to work at a new town hall. In the first of a three-part diary for the Guardian, Watanabe describes his feelings when, after years of displacement, he and other residents ended their nuclear exile.
Continue reading...Officials wanted ship bearing the name of Trump’s nemesis blocked from view during president’s trip to Japan
The White House made it clear that Donald Trump was not to catch sight of a warship named after his Republican nemesis, the late Arizona senator John McCain, during his visit to a naval base in Japan this week, according to media reports.
Citing an email dated 15 May from an official at the US Indo-Pacific Command to US navy and air force officials, the Wall Street Journal said the USS John McCain “needs to be out of sight” during Trump’s Memorial Day visit to Yokosuka base on Tuesday, the final day of his state visit to Japan.
Continue reading...Young children were waiting for school bus when they were attacked by a man, witnesses say
Two people have died and 16 others, including more than a dozen schoolgirls, have been injured after a man armed with at least one knife went on a stabbing rampage at a crowded bus stop near Tokyo on Tuesday morning.
Japanese media said a 12-year-old girl and man aged 39 had died in hospital from their injuries. The attacker, a 57-year-old man, also died after reportedly stabbing himself following the attack near a park in the city of Kawasaki, south of the capital.
Continue reading...Japanese national flying from Bogota to Tokyo is declared dead from an overdose
A Japanese man with 246 packets of cocaine in his stomach and intestines died mid-flight on his way from Bogota to Tokyo, authorities have said in northern Mexico where the plane made an emergency landing.
The 42-year-old man, identified only as Udo N, began having a seizure after the commercial flight from the Colombian capital made a stopover in Mexico City, the prosecutor’s office for the state of Sonora said. “Flight attendants noticed a person suffering convulsions and requested permission to make an emergency landing in Hermosillo, Sonora,” it said.
Continue reading...Donald Trump presented a trophy to the winner of a sumo tournament, turning to personal diplomacy for the second day of a Japan visit shadowed by tough trade talk. But it was all smiles as the two leaders watched giant sumo wrestlers grapple on the final day of a 15-day tournament won by rising star Asanoyama. Trump, the first US president to watch sumo in the sport's homeland, waved to the audience as he entered the hallowed Kokugikan arena and then saluted them with applause as they waved and raised their phones to take photos.
Trump fetes sumo champ in Japan before grappling with trade
Continue reading...Visit to sumo wrestling’s spiritual home followed by golf and burgers as Abe tries to keep president on side
On one side of the sumo ring stood a tall, hefty man with an unconventional hairstyle, bowing and smiling as the crowd applauded; opposite Donald Trump stood a professional wrestler, who on Sunday became the first recipient of a winner’s trophy awarded by the US president during his state visit to Japan.
Trump had been spared the agony of watching the last five bouts of the 15-day tournament in the customary manner – seated cross-legged on a thin cushion. Instead, sumo authorities broke with tradition and provided near-ringside armchairs for the president and the first lady, Melania, and the Japanese prime minister, Shinzō Abe, and his wife, Akie.
Continue reading...President says recent missile tests bother some people, but not him, and praises regime for calling Joe Biden ‘a fool of low IQ’
Donald Trump has dismissed concerns about North Korea’s recent missile tests, calling them “small weapons”, a day after his national security adviser said there was no doubt the launches violated UN security council resolutions.
The US president tweeted on Sunday: “North Korea fired off some small weapons, which disturbed some of my people, and others, but not me. I have confidence that Chairman Kim will keep his promise to me”.
Continue reading...If Roosh V, rape-apologist and leading voice in the online ‘manosphere’, can change his ways, perhaps psychedelics can advance feminism
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Continue reading...Visit will stress ties between the two countries as tensions over exports rise amid the US-China trade war
Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, landed in Japan on Saturday for a largely ceremonial visit meant to showcase strong ties with Tokyo even as trade tensions loom.
The Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, will treat Trump to an imperial banquet and front-row seats at a sumo tournament during the trip, which lasts until Tuesday.
Continue reading...Digi Police enables victims of molesters to notify fellow passengers of harassment
Almost two decades after the introduction of women-only train carriages, female commuters in Japan are turning to technology to tackle molesters on packed rush-hour trains.
The Digi Police app enables victims of groping to activate a voice shouting “Stop it!” at ear-piercing volume or bring up a full-screen message reading, “There is a molester. Please help” that they can show to other passengers.
Continue reading...