Japan

[AndyinPA]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... o-families

Japan’s government is offering ¥1m ($7,500) per child to families who move out of greater Tokyo, in an attempt to reverse population decline in the regions.

The incentive – a dramatic rise from the previous relocation fee of ¥300,000 – will be introduced in April, according to Japanese media reports, as part of an official push to breathe life into declining towns and villages.

Although Tokyo’s population fell for the first time last year– a trend partly attributed to the coronavirus pandemic – policymakers believe more should be done to lower the city’s population density and encourage people to start new lives in “unfashionable” parts of the country that have been hit by ageing, shrinking populations and the migration of younger people to Tokyo, Osaka and other big cities.


The payment – which comes on top of up to ¥3m already available in financial support – will be offered to families living in the 23 “core” wards of Tokyo and the neighbouring commuter-belt prefectures of Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa.

[RTH10260]

Japan’s PM escapes explosion unharmed after suspected attack
Man detained after what looked like a smoke bomb was thrown at Fumio Kishida just before speech

Justin McCurry in Osaka and agencies
Sat 15 Apr 2023 11.46 BST

The Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, has escaped unhurt after he was apparently targeted by an explosive device on Saturday morning. It comes less than a year after the country’s former prime minister, Shinzo Abe, was shot dead while making a campaign speech.

Kishida was safely evacuated after the incident, while a suspect – named by Japanese media as Ryuji Kimura, 24, a resident of Hyogo prefecture – was arrested at the scene, reports said.

Kishida was visiting Saikazaki port in Wakayama prefecture, western Japan, to support his ruling Liberal Democratic party’s candidate in a local election when a device exploded.

TV footage showed what appeared to be a pipe- or smoke-bomb flying through the air in Kishida’s direction moments before he was due to start his speech. He was shielded by security personnel, while a video clip appeared to show a fisherman tussling with the suspect.

Kishida was seen standing with his back to the crowd in TV footage. When members of his security detail suddenly pointed to the ground near him, he turned around, looking alarmed. The camera quickly switched to the crowd as several people, including uniformed and plainclothes police officers, converged on the suspect, who was wearing a white surgical mask and holding what appeared to be a long silver tube.

As they collapsed on top of the man and tried to remove the tube from his hands, a large explosion was heard near where Kishida had been standing. The crowd scattered in panic as police dragged the man away.

The explosion sent out plumes of white smoke. Footage and photos from the scene showed a silver, pipe-like object on the ground, but it was not immediately clear whether it had caused the blast.

Japan’s public broadcaster NHK said no one was injured in the attack, and Kishida was taken to the Wakayama prefectural police headquarters.

When he resumed his campaign speeches, Kishida said: “Police are investigating the details of the loud explosive sound at the previous speech venue. I am sorry for causing concern to many people. We are in the middle of an important election for our country. We must carry on together.”

Parliamentary byelections and local elections are being held in Japan later this month.

The incident comes only nine months after Abe – Japan’s longest-serving prime minister – was assassinated while delivering a campaign speech in the western city of Nara. The assassination shocked Japan, where gun crime is rare. An investigation found serious flaws in Abe’s security and led to heightened security around politicians and other public figures.

Saturday’s attack occurred as Japan, which holds the G7 presidency, prepared to host a series of international summits, beginning with a meeting of foreign ministers this Sunday and culminating ina leaders’ summit in Hiroshima in May.

Isao Itabashi, an anti-terrorism expert at the Council for Public Policy, told NHK: “The fact that an incident like this happened at this time must be taken seriously.”




https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/ ... last-heard

[Volkonski]

Reuters

Japan's birth rate declined for the seventh consecutive year in 2022 to a record low, the health ministry said, underscoring the sense of crisis gripping the country as the population shrinks and ages rapidly

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-paci ... 023-06-02/

[MsDaisy 2]

I use to live in Japan 1979-82 at Camp Zama. My youngest son was born there and then we went to the hospital. Unfortunately in order for the military to issue a birth certificate the baby had to be actually born in a military facility and Brian arrived before we got there. I woke up at 5:15am with a big cramp and he was born at 6:00am. It took me 6 months going through the American Embassy in Tokyo to get that child a birth certificate. What a PITA !

Aside from that I loved Japan and the Japanese culture. We were supposed to go to Australia & Japan this summer but my sister-in-law in London got sick so we went there instead. But it’s still on the list! The prettiest time of year is springtime when the cherry blossoms bloom, so beautiful! When all those petals fall it looks like pink snow covering the ground.

Mt Fuji.png (269 KiB) Viewed 602 times

[derevan]

I lived in Japan from 1997 to 2006, mostly in Tokyo. I would move back in a second. I think about how great it was almost every day.

And cherry blossom season is amazing.

[MsDaisy 2]

I lived in Japan from 1997 to 2006, mostly in Tokyo. I would move back in a second. I think about how great it was almost every day.

And cherry blossom season is amazing.

AND the Bon Odori festivals


ETA… I actually lost my then 2-year-old son at one of those festivals. I’ve never been so terrified in all my life. His little hand just slipped away in the crowd and boom, he was gone. Two very long hours later I finally found him. He was eating a Popsicle he said “a nice man bought it for me”.

[RTH10260]

Kyoto bans tourists from parts of geisha district amid reports of bad behaviour
Gion residents asked city council to crack down after rise in tourist numbers leads to increased harassment of traditional entertainers

Justin McCurry in Tokyo
Fri 8 Mar 2024 05.26 CET

Visitors to the geisha district of Gion – one of Kyoto’s most popular sightseeing spots – will be banned from entering its picturesque alleyways as authorities in Japan attempt to tackle a dramatic rise in tourism.

Residents of Japan’s ancient capital have struggled to reconcile the financial boost from a return to pre-pandemic visitor numbers with overcrowding and incidents of bad behaviour among tourists.

Gion, where geiko and maiko traditional entertainers can be spotted on their way to evening teahouse appointments, is regularly targeted by smartphone-wielding visitors, some of whom ignore signs requesting that they keep their distance and refrain from touching the women’s expensive kimonos. There have also been complaints about people trespassing on private property.



https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/ ... t-ban-gion

[northland10]

We have the Tourons of Yellowstone, they have Tourons of Kyoto.

[RTH10260]

Tokuryū, the shadowy criminal groups taking over from yakuza in Japan
Organised in a deliberately loose fashion, tokuryū pose fresh problems for police, as years of crackdowns see the appeal of a yakuza life fade

Gavin Blair in Tokyo
Fri 10 May 2024 04.44 CEST

Watching three masked men smash their way into a luxury watch shop in Tokyo’s upmarket Ginza district in broad daylight, some onlookers assumed they were witnessing a TV drama or movie shoot.

But the heist in May 2023 was real. It was carried out by a group of teenagers aged between 16 and 19 who were recruited online, and part of a new crime phenomenon called tokuryū by authorities that is growing as Japan’s yakuza clans decline.

Who are tokuryū?

Formed by the characters for “anonymous” (tokumei) and “fluid” (ryūdo), the term tokuryū refers to ad hoc groups formed to commit crimes, where members often don’t know each other or those planning and directing their activities. They are distinct from the yakuza and less hierarchical, usually with loose organisational structures above those carrying out crimes ranging from robberies and frauds to assaults and murders.

Most of those arrested for such crimes are recruited online for what is known as yami-baito, or shady casual work. Many of them tell police that threats were made against them and their families to ensure they continued to obey orders. Some have said they were recruited via Instagram.

The three young watch robbery suspects and their alleged getaway driver had no history of offending. Despite making off with 74 timepieces worth around 300m yen (£1.55m), all four had been captured within an hour and all the stolen goods recovered.

One of the defendants, an unemployed 18-year-old, was sentenced to four and a half years’ imprisonment in September 2023 after pleading guilty. Two other members, both 19 at the time of the robbery, were given the same sentence the following month, while the 16-year-old was sent to a juvenile facility for evaluation and training.

A Tokyo police official told Gendai Media: “Behind the young men was not a designated yakuza group, but what was mainly a fraud ring made up of members of organised crime groups and quasi-gangsters from the Kanto region [around Tokyo].”

How big a problem are they?

According to the National Police Agency (NPA), more than 10,000 people arrested between September 2021 and February 2023 are classified as tokuryū.

Yasuhiro Tsuyuki, chief of the NPA, said shortly after the 2023 watch theft sentencing: “Such robberies committed in busy shopping streets in the city centre in daylight have reached unprecedented levels. The police nationwide need to cooperate on investigating quickly and effectively.”

In Fukuoka prefecture on the southern island of Kyushu, police last month established a 100-member division to combat the growing tokuryū threat. The prefecture is a former yakuza stronghold.

Violent crime is rare in Japan, and a string of dozens of burglaries across the country from 2021 to 2023, one resulting in the death of a 90-year-old woman, shocked the country.

The burglaries are alleged to have been orchestrated by a Japanese group operating out of the Philippines. Nicknamed “Luffy” after a famous manga character used by one of its leaders on messaging apps, the gang also ran telephone scams and extorted Japanese businesspeople working in Manila.

More than 30 of its members have been extradited to Japan, with a handful still detained in the Philippines. Among the members are former yakuza. Other tokuryū groups have formed alliances with traditional gangsters, and are suspected of sharing profits with them.

Groups have been also been found operating in Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam, all places where yakuza are known to have done business.



https://www.theguardian.com/world/artic ... uza-ntwnfb