Non-Japanese applicants hoping to become certified nurses could see the government's notoriously rigorous exams get easier with the inclusion of English-language tests and a new set of communication exams based on basic Japanese.
Non-Japanese hoping to become care workers took the certification test for the first time Sunday, while those aspiring to become certified nurses have been applying for the exam since fiscal 2008.
But the low pass rate is prompting the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry to consider changing the system.
(Japan Times)
Foreigners' poor test grades force rethink on nurse tests
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A winter's tale: cold homes, poor lives in wealthy Japan
Question: What am I doing outside my home at 6 a.m. with a gas can, a pump, and stalactites under my nose?
Answer: I'm swearing.
I know, this is only half the answer, but at zero degrees Celsius my brain has the tendency to freeze up. Give me a minute to thaw out and I'll elaborate later . . .
According to some people, Japan is already living in the future. I beg to differ. While Japan is a technological giant and our rabbit-hutch houses are bursting with the latest electronic gadgets, the quality of life in this country could be much better if we enjoyed the same basic services people take for granted in the West. Even in Italy - where I come from - the seemingly never-ending recession rarely prevents many people from enjoying rather high living standards. After all, the average Italian lives in a well-built house, with plenty of space to stretch out and relax, and plenty of free time to actually enjoy it.
Japan, on the other hand, may still be the world's No. 3 economic power, but all too often its people seem to lead relatively poor lives, spending their whole day stressing out on the job, getting drunk afterwards, then going back to houses so small that the washing machine has to sit on the balcony or outside the front door. (Japan Times)
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Japan's pension problem
In its manifesto for the 2009 Lower House election, the Democratic Party of Japan proposed introducing a minimum monthly pension of ¥70,000 or more. In their recent outline for tax and social welfare reforms, the government and the party only stated that they will submit a proposal for a minimum pension of about ¥70,000 to the Diet in 2013. They should make serious efforts to flesh out their proposal, which lacks concrete details.
The 2009 manifesto called for unifying existing pension schemes and having all people participate in the same pension scheme. Everyone would be entitled to a minimum monthly pension of ¥70,000 or more, which would be funded by the consumption tax. (Japan Times)
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A worrisome trade deficit
Japan's trade balance went into the red in 2011 - the first since 1980 when soaring oil prices caused a trade deficit. But the current account balance is still in the black thanks to income generated by Japan's overseas net assets amounting to some ¥250 trillion. This money is reinvested overseas to generate further income. Still, utmost care must be taken to prevent trade deficits from becoming a regular feature of the Japanese economy.
In 2011, Japan's exports decreased 2.7 percent from 2010 to ¥65.554 trillion - the first dip in two years. Behind the fall were such factors as the serious damage inflicted on supply chains by the March 11 disasters and a slowdown of the world economy caused by the sovereign debt crises in Europe. Japan's car exports declined 10.6 percent and exports of electronic parts by 14.2 percent. (Japan Times)
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Fukushima pets in no-go zone face harsh winter
Dogs and cats that were abandoned in the Fukushima exclusion zone after last year's nuclear crisis have had to survive high radiation and a lack of food, and they are now struggling with the region's freezing winter weather.
"If left alone, tens of them will die everyday. Unlike well-fed animals that can keep themselves warm with their own body fat, starving ones will just shrivel up and die," said Yasunori Hoso, who runs a shelter for about 350 dogs and cats rescued from the 20-km evacuation zone around the crippled nuclear plant.
The government let animal welfare groups enter the evacuation zone temporarily in December to rescue surviving pets before the severe winter weather set in, but Hoso said there were still many more dogs and cats left in the area. (Reuters)
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Japan firms in deal to create big new shipbuilder
Two major Japanese conglomerates announced a deal to create one of the country's biggest shipbuilders Monday as the industry faces increasingly tough competition.
Heavy machinery giant IHI and steelmaker JFE Holdings will merge their shipbuilding units IHI Marine United Inc. and Universal Shipbuilding Corporation, they said in a joint statement. Universal will become the surviving entity.
Shipbuilding was once one of the drivers of Japan's post-War economic miracle, but in recent years the industry has been overtaken by those of other Asian countries. (AFP)
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Air Force sergeant pleads guilty in murder
A U.S. airman in Japan pleaded guilty Monday to plotting with the wife of a service member to kill her husband and then slitting the man's throat.
U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Nicholas Cron, 26, of the 733rd Air Mobility Squadron at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy to commit murder, premeditated murder and obstruction of justice in the 2011 death of Tech. Sgt. Curtis Eccleston, 30, Stars and Stripes reported.
The plea came during the opening day of Cron's court-martial in the fatal stabbing, which occurred in an off-base apartment.
(UPI)
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Fujifilm seeks tie-up with Olympus
Japanese film and camera maker Fujifilm has offered scandal-hit Olympus a capital and business tie-up, it said Monday as it announced a slump in third-quarter profits.
Fujifilm said it has formally proposed a link-up to Olympus' advisors, seeing synergies in the pair's medical operations, although it did not reveal details.
"Olympus has a very strong business in endoscopes while Fujifilm is a leading firm in the areas of X-ray image diagnosis and ultrasonic systems," said a Fujifilm spokesman.
Olympus is reportedly seeking a corporate alliance to shore up its finances after admitting covering up $1.7 billion in losses, and several Japanese and foreign firms including Sony have been mentioned as possible partners. (AFP)
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Search goes on for thousands of Japan's tsunami missing
Leaden winter skies lour on a coastguard boat as it cuts its way through the seas off Japan's tsunami-wrecked shores.
Somewhere under these unforgiving grey waters lie hundreds, perhaps thousands of bodies; the unfound, unclaimed dead of one of the country's worst ever disasters.
Even though the hunt on these sullen seas goes on every day, Yoshifumi Suzuki says none of his coastguard colleagues has seen a single corpse since the partial remains of a man were untangled from a fishing net in November.
But they are not prepared to give up.
"If we don't do this, nobody will," Suzuki said.
"We want to continue the search until we find the very last one. I want to return people to their families not because it is my official duty, but because it is my duty as a human being."
"The (missing) person is in the mind of his or her family but they still want proof that the person lived in this world. I think it's hard for them to accept the reality" without a body, he said. (AFP)
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Japan's next asteroid probe approved for development
Japanese government officials last weeek gave the green light to Hayabusa 2, a robotic explorer due for launch in 2014 on a journey to retrieve and return rocks from a near-Earth asteroid.
The Space Activities Commission, a board governing funding for the Japanese space program, formally approved the Hayabusa 2 mission last week. The decision came after a 2010 ruling that directed the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency to continue preliminary design of the probe.
Launch of Hayabusa 2 must occur in 2014 to reach asteroid 1999 JU3, the mission's 3,000-foot-diameter target. Asteroid 1999 JU3, which is still awaiting a name, is a C-type body, the most common form of asteroid in the solar system. Observations by telescopes on Earth indicate the asteroid is roughly spherical and has dark features. (spaceflightnow.com)
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China protests Japan's plan to name uninhabited islands
China said it has filed a protest with Japan over Tokyo's plan to name uninhabited isles near the disputed Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, calling the move "illegal and void."
Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said Monday the Chinese government has lodged a "solemn representation" with Japan.
"Any unilateral action taken by the Japanese side with respect to the Diaoyu Islands and surrounding isles is illegal and void," Liu said in a press release posted on the ministry's website.
The Japan-administered Senkakus are known in China as Diaoyu. It is not clear what name Japan intends for any nearby islets. (Japan Times)
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Despite first loss in 30 years, Nintendo is still a contender
Late last month, Nintendo signaled that for the first time in more than 30 years it was posting an annual loss - of $845 million - something that until recently had seemed virtually impossible.
For three decades, Nintendo has been the company people associate with video games. And during the last few years, Nintendo expanded that notion to a wider audience than ever before with risky and innovative game machines, such as the Nintendo DS and the Wii. So, what has changed? Why are things suddenly difficult for the iconic game company?
During these past 30 years Nintendo has basically held a winning lottery ticket, which paid off year by year. (Japan Times)
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Justice minister feels signing off on hangings just part of job description
Toshio Ogawa is the first justice minister to tacitly support capital punishment since the Democratic Party of Japan came to power in September 2009 and has no intention of engaging in the debate over whether to end the death penalty.
He said the study group weighing the possibility of abolishing capital punishment has run out of things to discuss.
"Whether or not the death sentence should be kept had been discussed in depth before the study group was set up (in September 2010 by then Justice Minister Keiko Chiba).
"It has not yielded any new opinions and it is a waste of time to listen to the same opinions," Ogawa told journalists in his Tokyo office Jan. 23. (Japan Times)
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Defense Ministry endures another Okinawa fracas
The Defense Ministry came under fresh fire Tuesday for allegedly trying to meddle with the upcoming mayoral election in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, the host city for the Futenma U.S. air base.
Defense Minister Naoki Tanaka told reporters his ministry has sent personnel to the prefecture to investigate the matter, which came to light after an opposition lawmaker raised the matter in the Diet.
Seiken Akamine of the Japanese Communist Party, citing email he says he has obtained, told the Lower House Budget Committee that the bureau instructed its various divisions by email to find out which of its personnel's Ginowan-based relatives are eligible to vote and created a list of them in January.
(Japan Times)
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Mother held in daughter's slaying
A 37-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of stabbing her 12-year-old daughter to death at their home in Higashiosaka, Osaka Prefecture, police said.
The slaying occurred Monday after the police had warned a local child counseling center Friday that the mother may have been neglecting her three children.
The woman, whose name is being withheld pending investigation of her mental status, claimed her daughter had "stabbed herself," the police said. (Japan Times)
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Delicate wage negotiations
The annual wage negotiations for 2012 take place in a difficult situation marked by the effects of the March 11 disasters, the floods in Thailand, prolonged deflation and the strong yen. Labor and management must search for a wage level that is not only reasonable but also will eventually contribute to strengthening the Japanese economy as a whole.
Kicking off wage negotiations, Mr. Hiromasa Yonekura, head of the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren), Japan's most influential business lobby, on Jan. 25 met with Mr. Nobuaki Koga, head of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo), Japan's largest labor organization. Rengo seeks to increase the total volume of wages by 1 percent from the previous year.
(Japan Times)
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51 deaths laid to blizzards; more snow forecast
Blizzard conditions had caused 51 deaths nationwide as of Tuesday, and most of the victims died while trying to remove snow accumulations, the government said.
The Fire and Disaster Management Agency found that 35 of the casualties were aged 65 or older and that 42 died while removing snow, including those who fell from roofs while shoveling snow.
The agency, which is part of the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry, warned of more heavy snow along the Sea of Japan later this week and urged people trying to clean the accumulations to wear helmets and work in groups of at least two.
The deaths occurred in nine prefectures between Nov. 1 and Tuesday. (Japan Times)
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Hello Kitty's citizenship controversy: Is she British or Japanese?
Hello Kitty is beloved all around the world, but nowhere is she more revered, celebrated, and protected than in Japan. In fact, she was named Tourism Ambassador to China and Hong Kong by Japan's tourism ministry in 2008. However, the Atlantic Wire reports, the publication of Hello Kitty's Guide to Japan in English and Japanese has been stirring up a bit of drama, bringing Kitty's nationality and essentially her entire history in question.
Her official biography on the Sanrio website explains that she lives in London with her parents and twin sister, Mimmy. We are given her birth date, but it's unclear whether she was born in London or just moved there at some point in time.
(Time)
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Japan jobs treadmill grinds down workers and firms
Third year university student Saki Fujii flips through a meticulously kept diary of her six-month job hunt and eyes the busy week of interviews ahead -- another step on the treadmill for one of Japan's would-be workers.
The 22-year-old knows her best hope of finding a full-time position is by doing exactly the same thing as those before her, in an unending round of interviews, job seminars and employment fairs.
"I don't think it's necessarily a good thing that everyone takes part in the job hunt," she says. "With so many students looking to be recruited at the same time, we can't really expect to be employed at the company we want to work at."
She is following in the footsteps of generations before her -- but a few corporate exceptions are now beginning to offer a different path.
Like most of her fellow students at the prestigious Waseda University, Fujii's school life was one long slog of exam cramming. (mysinchew.com)
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Nuclear crisis bolsters Japan push for utilities reform
Mayor Nobuto Hosaka had more than saving taxpayers' money on his mind when he recently invited bids from rivals of giant utility Tokyo Electric Power Co to supply power to his ward in Japan's capital.
Hosaka, like other advocates of reform, hopes altered public sentiment after the nation suffered the world's worst nuclear crisis in a 25 years will spur reforms of an electricity oligopoly dominated for decades by regional utility fiefdoms.
"Doing this will reduce our electricity costs," said Hosaka, a former lawmaker from a tiny left-leaning party who now runs a area of Tokyo that is home to some 800,000 people.
"But the reason this attracted so much attention was that until now, the voices of ordinary users -- the people, residents of the ward, businesses -- have not been heard," he told Reuters.
(Reuters)
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