Category Archives: Japan

Concrete: the most destructive material on Earth

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After water, concrete is the most widely used substance on the planet. But its benefits mask enormous dangers to the planet, to human health – and to culture itself

In the time it takes you to read this sentence, the global building industry will have poured more than 19,000 bathtubs of concrete. By the time you are halfway through this article, the volume would fill the Albert Hall and spill out into Hyde Park. In a day it would be almost the size of China’s Three Gorges Dam. In a single year, there is enough to patio over every hill, dale, nook and cranny in England.

After water, concrete is the most widely used substance on Earth. If the cement industry were a country, it would be the third largest carbon dioxide emitter in the world with up to 2.8bn tonnes, surpassed only by China and the US.

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Okinawa referendum rejects new US military base but Abe likely to press on

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Tokyo sees controversial plan for new base at Henoko as key to US security alliance

Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, has vowed to push on with the controversial relocation of a US military base in Okinawa, hours after the island’s voters overwhelmingly rejected the move in a referendum.

Just over 70% of voters – or 434,000 people – opposed construction of a new base on Okinawa’s northeast coast that will replace an existing US marine corps base 30 miles away. Just 19% voted in favour of the move, with turnout at 52%.

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Japan’s Hayabusa 2 successfully touches down on Ryugu asteroid

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The probe was due to fire a pellet into the surface of the asteroid to try to capture dust

A Japanese spacecraft has successfully touched down on a speeding asteroid 300 million kilometres from the Earth as it attempts an audacious manoeuvre to collect samples and bring them back for scientists to study.

The Hayabusa 2 probe touched down on the asteroid Ryugu at around 11:30pm GMT on Thursday. Data from the probe showed changes in speed and direction, indicating it had reached the asteroid’s surface, according to officials from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

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Honda’s decision is a vote of no confidence in Britain’s future

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There is a sense that while the Swindon plant’s days were numbered, Brexit tipped the balance

Honda claims Brexit had nothing to do with the decision to shutter its Swindon plant, but almost nobody seems to be buying it.

The consensus among industry pundits is that it suits Honda to avoid dipping its toe into the toxic pool of Brexit.

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Hunt and Fox’s Japanese fumble is a sign of UK’s weakness

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Attempt to hustle Japan into a trade deal highlights the problems facing ‘global Britain’

It takes a lot to anger the unfailingly polite, anglophile Japanese. But Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, and Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, appear to have managed it with their ill-judged attempt to hustle Tokyo into a quick-fire Brexit trade deal.

The diplomatic fumble has highlighted rapidly escalating difficulties facing “global Britain” – the government’s nebulous vision for life after the EU – in forging new business and trade relationships around the world without an agreed post-Brexit strategy.

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Japan almost cancelled Brexit talks due to ‘high-handed’ letter – report

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Trade talks will go ahead despite reported dismay at language used by Liam Fox and Jeremy Hunt

Japanese officials have reportedly accused Jeremy Hunt and Liam Fox of taking a “high-handed” approach towards a post-Brexit free trade deal, and briefly considered cancelling bilateral talks due to take place this week.

The Financial Times cited unnamed officials in Tokyo who reacted with dismay to a letter sent on 8 February in which Hunt, the foreign secretary, and Fox, the international trade secretary, insisted that “time is of the essence” in securing a trade deal with Japan, the world’s third-biggest economy.

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Same-sex couples in Japan launch Valentine’s Day bid for marriage equality

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Five lesbian and eight gay couples seek damages from government for denying them same rights as heterosexual spouses

Chizuka Oe and Yoko Ogawa have been together for 25 years, but when they submitted their marriage registration at a Tokyo town hall they knew it would be rejected.

“We were told that they cannot accept our registration because we are both women,” said Ogawa, standing in the winter sun outside the building in Nakano in western Tokyo.

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Taiji dolphin hunt: activists to launch unprecedented legal challenge

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Exclusive: lawsuit in Japan contends that dolphins are wrongly classified as fish and should be protected as mammals

Animal rights activists have launched an unprecedented legal challenge to the slaughter of dolphins in Japan, claiming that fishermen are routinely violating animal welfare laws and exceeding government-set quotas.

The London-based organisation Action for Dolphins and the Japanese NGO Life Investigation Agency on Wednesday submitted evidence they hope will halt the annual dolphin hunts in Taiji, a whaling town on Japan’s Pacific coast, the Guardian can reveal.

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Japanese women push back against Valentine’s tradition of ‘obligation chocolate’

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For many, pressure to avoid causing offence by spending thousands of yen on treats for coworkers is becoming intolerable

Japanese women are pushing back against a tradition that dictates they must give chocolates to male colleagues on Valentine’s Day, with growing anger at the practice of “forced giving”.

Until recently, women in the workplace were expected to buy chocolates for their male workmates as part of a tradition called giri choco – literally, obligation chocolates.

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No-deal Brexit: UK exporters risk being locked out of world’s harbours

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Goods dispatched in coming days may not arrive until after 29 March deadline

British exporters sending goods to far-flung destinations in the coming days risk being locked out of harbours around the world as a no-deal Brexit looms, business leaders have warned.

Independent trade experts and the UK’s biggest business groups said exporters could be dispatching goods from UK ports imminently that would not arrive until after the 29 March deadline. This raised the prospect of goods being stuck in ports or facing hefty additional costs in the event of a disorderly Brexit.

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Japan’s deputy PM blames women for nation’s falling population

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Anger after Taro Aso appears to say women not giving birth are the ‘problem’

Japan’s gaffe-prone deputy prime minister, Taro Aso, has been forced to retract remarks that appeared to blame women who do not have children for problems associated with the country’s low birthrate and ageing population.

Aso, who doubles as finance minister, told a constituency meeting in Fukuoka, south-west Japan, at the weekend that older people were being unfairly singled out to explain the country’s demographic crisis.

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Tokyo 2020 organisers cut crowds at sailing events over tsunami risk

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Olympic authorities reduce crowd size to make evacuations easier

The organisers of next year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo have decided to cut the number of spectators for the sailing events by a third so they can be quickly evacuated to higher ground in the event of a tsunami.

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics organising committee had initially planned to allow up to 5,000 people to watch the sailing events off Enoshima island, just south of the Japanese capital, according to the public broadcaster NHK.

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Ariana Grande mocked for Japanese tattoo typo: ‘Leave me and my grill alone’

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Singer was hoping for a Japanese translation of the title of her hit 7 Rings. Instead she ended up with a tattoo which means ‘small charcoal grill’

Too bad pop star Ariana Grande is vegan – she just tattooed an accidental homage to a Japanese barbeque grill on her palm.

The US singer’s attempt to ink an ode to her hit single 7 Rings backfired Wednesday after social media quickly chimed in to tell her the characters actually translated to “shichirin”: a small charcoal grill.

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Naomi Osaka sponsor apologises for ‘whitewashing’ tennis star in ad

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Noodle company Nissin says it will ‘pay more attention to diversity issues in the future’

One of Naomi Osaka’s sponsors has been forced to apologise after depicting the Japanese tennis star, who is half-Haitian, with pale skin in an advertisement.

Nissin featured Osaka in an ad for its Cup Noodle range of instant ramen. It depicts Osaka, who holds dual Japanese and American citizenship, with pale skin, wavy brown hair and Caucasian facial features.

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World’s oldest man dies in Japan aged 113

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Masazo Nonaka, who enjoyed watching sumo wrestling and eating sweets, died at home

The world’s oldest man has died at his home, a hot springs on Japan’s northern main island of Hokkaido, at the age of 113.

His family said Masazo Nonaka died peacefully from natural causes in the early hours of Sunday while sleeping in the inn in Ashoro, which has been run by his family for four generations.

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Victim-blaming outcry as Japan pop star says sorry after alleged assault by fans

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Band manager criticised for silence after Maho Yamaguchi, a singer with NGT48, said she was attacked at her home

Japan’s harsh treatment of its female celebrities has again come under scrutiny following outcry over the music industry’s handling of an alleged assault on a member of a popular girl band.

Social media users and TV commentators have joined the barrage of criticism targeting AKS, a music management agency, after Maho Yamaguchi, a singer with NGT48, went public this month with allegations she had been assaulted by two obsessive fans at the end of last year.

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Carlos Ghosn indicted on fresh financial misconduct charges in Japan

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Former Nissan head says he is innocent, meaning he could remain in detention until trial begins

Carlos Ghosn could remain in detention for several months after prosecutors indicted him on two new charges of financial misconduct, days after the former Nissan chairman insisted he had been wrongly accused.

Ghosn was charged with aggravated breach of trust and for understating his pay by 4.3 billion yen for three years through March 2018, the Tokyo district court said.

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Renault finds no illegal payments to Carlos Ghosn in past two years

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Investigation will now examine payments made to former Nissan chairman before 2017

Renault has said it has so far found no evidence of illegal or fraudulent payments to Carlos Ghosn, despite the chief executive of the French carmaker remaining under arrest in Japan.

Ghosn was arrested in November by Japanese authorities over allegations he under-reported income from Nissan, the carmaker he formerly led alongside Renault. He remains in the custody of Japanese authorities in Tokyo.

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May hopes Japanese PM will back Brexit stance in London visit

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Shinzō Abe will first visit the Netherlands, where many Japanese firms are relocating ahead of Brexit

Japan’s prime minister, Shinzō Abe, who is to meet Theresa May in London on Thursday, will underscore the damage Brexit is likely to have on Japanese investment in Britain by first visiting the Netherlands, the country to which many UK-based Japanese firms are redeploying ahead of the UK’s departure from the EU.

The choice of the Netherlands as the other stop on Abe’s mini-European tour is not a coincidence since he will also be given a chance to be briefed on how a no-deal Brexit could clog the flow of trade into Rotterdam, the main gateway for Japanese and British firms into the EU single market.

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Snoozing on the job: Japanese firms tackle epidemic of sleeplessness

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Companies offer napping at work as lack of proper rest is estimated to cost economy $138bn a year

Imagine working for an employer who, aware that you’re probably not sleeping enough at night, allows you to down tools and nap as part of your regular work duties – and not just forty winks at your desk, but a restorative snooze in a quiet room.

These are some of the measures being used by a growing number of companies in Japan to counter an epidemic of sleeplessness that costs its economy an estimated $138bn (£108bn) a year.

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