JAPAN: Food and drink

Published: 3:31PM GMT 21 Jan 2010

Lovers of fine cuisine will revel in Japan's varied styles of cooking, from tempura, sushi and teppanyaki to the feast of all feasts, kaiseki.

What's more, all of Japan's provinces have their own local specialties, which can range from seasonal mountain vegetables and other delicacies to locally caught seafood. Gourmets seeking cuisines from many other countries will find these in Japan as well, whether it's a tiny French restaurant or one offering delectable Indian curries.

Foodies interested in finding out more about Japan’s most famous drinks - green tea and sake - can experience a sake brewery tour or visit a green tea farm in Uji or the Mt. Fuji area.

Sashimi

There are many lesser-known beverages to try on a trip to Japan including umeshu (plum wine) and shochu (a distilled spirit commonly made from rice, sweet potatoes, wheat and/or sugar cane). Izakaya (Japanese pubs) are great places to try Japan’s range of interesting drinks.

Tokyo has more Michelin stars than any city in the world and as of October 2009, Kyoto and Osaka now also sparkle with Michelin stars. However, you don’t need to pay a lot to eat well in Japan. Sushi can easily be found for 100 yen per plate (67 pence) and a big steaming bowl of delicious ramen noodles costs from just 750 yen (£5).

Ramen

Foodie cities

Osaka: Many Japanese see Osaka as the food capital of Japan. The locals are so passionate about food that they have an expression called "kuidaore," literally meaning "to eat till you drop.”

Osaka’s regional specialties include takoyaki octopus balls and puffer fish sashimi. Any foodie visiting Japan should not miss Osaka’s Dotonbori area, a neon-filled street where you can sample all the culinary delights Osaka has to offer.

Kaiseki restaurant

Kyoto: Kyo-ryori (Kyoto cuisine) is the template upon which Japanese culinary culture grows from. The cuisine places great importance on seasonal ingredients and subtle flavours.

Regional specialities of Kyoto include shojin-ryori, vegetarian dishes developed by Buddhist monks and kaiseki-ryori, cuisine stemming from the tea ceremony.

A dining and cultural experience not to be missed in Kyoto is a night in a ryokan (traditional inn) complete with a kaiseki dinner, a feast of at least 10 beautifully presented courses of seasonal, regional food.

View Article in the Telegraph

N. KOREA: N Korea fires shots near South

 

The disputed sea border has been a constant source of tension

Page last updated at 13:10 GMT, Wednesday, 27 January 2010

North and South Korea have exchanged fire close to their disputed maritime border, say reports.

North Korea twice fired artillery shells into the sea off the South's western coast, said South Korean media.

South Korean coastal bases responded to the first volley with warning shots, but no injuries were reported.

The North said the firing had been part of an annual military drill and firing would continue, but Seoul said the action was "provocative".

It came after North Korea declared a no-sail zone in waters off its coast on Tuesday, media reports say.

The North fired into waters near the border just after 0900 local time (2400 GMT), a spokesman for South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff told the AFP news agency.

"Our military immediately fired back in response," a Seoul presidential official said, on condition of anonymity.

He said the North's initial artillery rounds landed north of the sea border, while Seoul's forces fired at the rounds while they were in the air, AFP reports.

A statement carried by the official North Korean Central News Agency says its drills "will go on in the same waters in the future, too".

Constant tension

Just hours after the initial exchange, reports from South Korea said that the North had fired more shells in the direction of the disputed border. It is not clear where they landed.

South Korea officials said the exchange caused no casualties or damage.

ANALYSIS

John Sudworth, BBC News, Seoul

As the first 30 or so North Korean shells splashed down into the Yellow Sea, the plumes of water were close enough to have been visible from South Korea's coastal gun positions.

South Koreans live with the knowledge that the North has thousands of artillery pieces along the border that could destroy much of Seoul in a matter of hours.

But this incident is being seen as a crude piece of military diplomacy rather than a direct threat, another example of the North's strategy of escalating tension to strengthen its negotiating hand.

The defence ministry in Seoul said the North had "committed a gravely provocative act" by declaring the no-sail zones in the region.

"We expressed grave concerns over the North's threatening behaviour and demanded an immediate halt to all such activities," AFP quoted the ministry as saying.

"The military will strongly react to any provocative acts by the North and all the responsibility for consequences will rest with the Northern side."

The western sea border is a constant source of military tension between the two Koreas.

There have been three deadly exchanges between the two Koreas along the sea border in the past decade.

In the most recent incident, last November, their navies fought a brief gun battle that left one North Korean sailor dead and three others wounded.

The BBC's John Sudworth in Seoul says the latest incident is being seen as an attempt by North Korea to increase tension in order to gain diplomatic concessions.

South Korea recognises the Northern Limit Line, drawn unilaterally to by the US-led United Nations Command to demarcate the seas border at the end of the 1950-53 Korean War. The line has never been accepted by North Korea.

Relations between the two Koreas have fluctuated in recent months. Talks about their jointly-run Kaesong industrial estate closed without agreement on 21 January.

The attempt at dialogue took place amid fresh tensions apparently provoked by a South Korean think tank's analysis of a likely military coup or mass uprising in the North when the North's leader Kim Jong-il dies.

North Korea did recently accept a small amount of aid from South Korea however.

The US, China, Russia, Japan and South Korea speak regularly of their hopes that North Korea will rejoin international talks about ending its nuclear programme.

View Article on BBC News

RUSSIA: Rights group: Racist violence drops in Russia

Wednesday, January 27, 2010; 10:04 AM

By PETER LEONARD
The Associated Press

MOSCOW -- Racially motivated violence in Russia dropped sharply in 2009 due to a more vigorous effort by police and a shift in tactics by extremist groups, a human rights group said Wednesday.

The Moscow-based group Sova, which monitors hate crimes in Russia, said 71 people were killed and 333 wounded in racist attacks last year, down from 110 killed and 487 wounded in 2008.

Galina Kozhevnikova, deputy head of Sova, called it the first significant drop in such attacks since the group began collating statistics in 2004.

"We cannot but be happy about the fact that the number of deaths is decreasing," she said.

The findings appear to vindicate government claims it is trying to combat racist violence, although they appear to contradict a statement by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin this week. He said that the number of racist crimes decreased twofold last year.

As in previous years, most of the victims in 2009 were dark-skinned, non-Slavic migrant laborers from former Soviet republics in Central Asia, mainly Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, and the Caucasus.

The number of ultranationalist and neo-Nazi groups mushroomed after the 1991 Soviet collapse as a dramatic economic decline and a collapse of the old values spread social frustration, particularly among youths.

Soaring numbers of migrants traveling to Russia from ex-Soviet subjects for poorly paid work in recent years have created lingering resentment among some of the country's most deprived sectors of society.

Putin has in the past strongly condemned xenophobic movements, describing them as "a time bomb under the country's statehood."

Sova's annual report says the decline in reported attacks was mostly due to police efforts to break up the largest and most aggressive extremist groups in Moscow and the surrounding region.

Prosecution and conviction rates for racist violence and propaganda also are increasing, Sova said.

But racist violence remains rampant across most regions of Russia and still claims hundreds of victims annually, Sova said.

Kozhevnikova said ultranationalists have switched tactics and targets, increasingly turning to bombings, arson and vandalism rather than random assaults on suspected foreigners.

Increasingly, attackers target police stations, officers investigating hate crimes, government offices and non-governmental organizations, she said.

"Last year, we can say with some certainty that we registered 20 such incidents," Kozhevnikova said.

Sova's report noted that while explicitly racist propaganda is on the wane, extreme right-wing groups have publicly adopted the rhetoric of more mainstream patriotic groups.

"Racist propaganda is becoming a matter for closed meetings," the report said.

At the same time, some mainstream political parties have adopted xenophobic rhetoric to draw recruits, the report said.

Pro-Kremlin youth groups, in particular, have come under attack for using openly racist and nationalist messages in their government-sponsored campaigns.

An activist of Young Guard, the youth wing of the dominant Kremlin party United Russia, last year published a revisionist article about the Holocaust on the group's official Web site.

View Article in The Washington Post

RUSSIA: Vladivostok Fortress: labyrinths of defensive constructions

January 25, 2010

Vladivostok is a well-known Russian port on the Pacific Ocean, the destination point of the Trans-Siberian Railroad. It was closed for all the foreigners from 1958 until 1991. The city is rather young (founded in 1860), but it disposes an architectural monument which is worth to be visited anyway if you are found of industrial and military tourism or not. It is defensive constructions, visible from the city, the theme for numerous legends and rumors. Everybody who has ever been in the city noticed the strange concrete constructions on the tops of the hills, on the feet of the rocks, along the roads and on the seashore. If you look attentively, you can recognize direct lines of breast works, made of concrete. You can walk around them all alone with your camera, or address to the local diggers’ club: they give you a real tour. It is rather interesting, even if you are not a fan of military tourism.

All these constructions are called Fortress. There is no consistent version according to that, who has built it. Some people are sure that it was Japanese invaders (in the war between Russia and Japan in 1905 – 1907). Others suppose it was Gulag prisoners. Almost all would tell stories about the builders, mured in the walls of the Fortress. I hope the legends like this are simply influenced with ones about construction of the Great Chinese Wall: Primorsky Territory, where Vladivostok is situated, shares boarder with China. Anyway, there is no reliable information towards these questions. We can state that the city of Vladivostok was initially founded as a fortress on the Pacific, and it should have fortification constructions. The first invasion attempt to Vladivostok happened in the first year of its existing, so the fortifications were necessary. The first ones could be made of earth and wood and were being improved during the time till the Fortress has got its contemporary physiognomy. The names of the engineers who projected the early versions of the Fortress and its components are known, but the autors and constructors of the last development are still unknown.

The Fortress consists of forts, breast-works, defensive ditches, casemated spaces and military barracks, connected with each other with underground corridors. The walls and vaults are incredibly thick and mighty. The tourists, visiting the fortification constructions on the Russkiy Isle walk more than one kilometer under ground only. The system of the underground connecting tunnels of the Fortress is really very sophisticated and developed. Unfortunately, the Fortress looks not so good it could, because of the years of breakdown of the late 80-s – 90-s. Some pieces of artillery of the early 20th century have however, survived and are to be observed. Moreover, they function. These guns had an outstanding level of accuracy of aim. The buoy moorings with diameter of 2 meters was annihilated during the last practice fire (1992) from the distance of 6 sea miles (1 sea mile contains 1852 meters). With the other words, the gun target was almost invisible with the naked eye.

The Fortress is partly a museum, but most of its labyrinths are not tourist objects, but real labyrinths, so be careful. The city of Vladivostok is available by air and by Trans-Siberian railroad, the tickets for which can be booked here.

Yulia Buzykina

Sources:
www.rostur.ru

View Article in the Russia-InfoCentre

Highway will bring Nepal and Tibet 'in from the cold'

It's hoped that the road will lead eventually to a trans-Asian highway that will cut through the Himalayas

Page last updated at 00:41 GMT, Wednesday, 27 January 2010

By Joanna Jolly
BBC News, on the Nepal-Tibet border

The Himalayan mountains on the Nepal-Tibet border are some of the most remote and inaccessible in the world.

But deep in the valleys next to the green, flowing waters of the Kyirong River, Chinese construction workers are blasting through the jagged landscape to turn an ancient trading track into a modern road.

This small stretch of road - just 17km (10.5 miles) long - from the border to the Nepalese town of Syabrubesi is costing the Beijing government almost $20m.

But it's an important investment because this mountain pass not only connects Tibet to Nepal - it's also the most direct land route to India's capital, Delhi.

Huge difference

"There is an old Chinese saying, 'To get rich, build roads first'," says the Chinese team's engineer Zhang Peng.

When this road is built, I won't have to carry this heavy backpack up and down  - Mingma Dorje Ghale

"When this road is ready, living standards and the economy around here will improve," he says.

"Nepalese people will be able to visit Lhasa, in Tibet, and other parts of China, and Chinese tourists and businessmen will come here."

The road will make a huge difference to communities on both sides of the border.

Traders still walk the old path that runs alongside the new road - an ancient thoroughfare across the roof of the world that connects Nepal to the historic Silk route.

Thirty-five-year old Mingma Dorje Ghale has walked this small, rocky path since he was a child.

He and his friend have just trekked back from Tibet, a day's walk away, carrying bottles of Chinese brandy on their backs.

They plan to sell their goods in Nepal's border towns.

"When this road is built, I won't have to carry this heavy backpack up and down," he says.

His friend's five-year-old daughter leads their yak.

'Easier'

Until now, yaks and mules have been the only way to transport heavy goods across the border and children often take the job of leading them.

Long hikes over the Himalayas are likely to become a thing of the past

Mingma Dorje Ghale hopes that the new road will mean he can drive in and out of China and that his children will be spared the journey, so they can stay at home and attend school.

"Life for the next generation will be easier," he says.

Squeezed between the growing economies of China and India, the Nepalese government welcomes this sort of infrastructure project that it hopes will bring wealth to an impoverished nation.

The government is keen to maintain a good relationship with its giant neighbour to the north.

Nepal is home to a sizeable Tibetan community, many descended from refugees who've been fleeing Chinese rule since Beijing occupied Tibet 60 years ago.

China is worried that opening up the border could enflame an already unstable Tibetan plateau.

Nepalese Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal says he has reassured Beijing that his government will not allow Tibetan dissidents to operate in his country.

"China has only one concern, that is the concern of Tibet," he says.

TIBET DIVIDE

China says Tibet was always part of its territory

Tibet enjoyed long periods of autonomy before the 20th Century

China launched a military assault in 1950

Opposition to Chinese rule led to a bloody uprising which began on 10 March 1959

Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, fled days later and crossed into India on 31 March 1959

China's position on Tibet

"That is why our policy towards China has been consistent. We believe in the One China policy, Tibet is an integral part of China and the soil of Nepal will not be allowed to be used against Tibet and China."

For those living in the remote border region, this policy is not a problem.

Phurpu Tsering Tamang, a local turned trekking guide who is himself part-Tibetan, says for the local community gaining access to Chinese wealth is more important than politics.

"After Chinese occupied Tibet, some people told us the Chinese are very rude and very tricky," he says.

"But what I see when I visit Tibet is that they are building roads everywhere and they're building houses for the people, so they have an easier life."

Nepal will need to continue to reassure China even after this road is finished next year.

It's hoping to attract more Chinese investment - and eventually create a trans-Asian highway that will cut through the Himalayas, linking China to India and opening up this secluded country.

View Article on BBC News

CHINA: The Future Of Coal Power Will Require Hard Choices

Workers ride past cooling towers at a coal-fired power plant on the outskirts of Beijing. Such power plants are at the center of a debate about the future of energy production in China and the U.S.  Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images

January 27, 2010

by Christopher Joyce

Workers ride past cooling towers at a coal-fired power plant on the outskirts of Beijing. Such power plants are at the center of a debate about the future of energy production in China and the U.S.

TRANSCRIPT

Next Monday, governments of some of the world's biggest emitters of greenhouse gases are scheduled to announce how much they'll limit the emissions that warm the planet. That's the deal they made at the Copenhagen climate conference in December.

No matter what cuts they promise, they'll all have to take a long, hard look at how much coal they use.

It used to be that coal was king in the U.S. But now, coal is guo wang — that's "king" in Chinese.

"Coal is 80 percent of all power generation in China," says Richard Morse, an energy analyst at Stanford University. "And the Chinese use of coal is really one of the largest drivers of global coal consumption and, hence, global emissions."

The Top Source Of Greenhouse Gases

Coal is the biggest single source of greenhouse gases. China and India are now huge consumers of coal, and their appetite is growing. "As long as economic development is a priority," says Morse, "I think climate takes a back seat, and in that situation, coal is going to win every time."

That's the conventional wisdom. But the deal made in Copenhagen may change all that. By Monday, as many as two dozen countries will have listed their emissions targets. China and the U.S. — the two biggest coal users — are leading the group. India is expected to join them, and so will South Africa — a major coal exporter.

So it's governments whose economies depend on coal who are now driving climate diplomacy by saying that they'll cut their greenhouse gas emissions.

And that means these countries will have to wrestle with the coal conundrum — we can't live without it, but we can't live with it.

China Could Benefit From Alternative Fuels

One energy expert who's watched this unfold is Trevor Houser, with the research firm RHG in New York. Houser advised the U.S. climate team in Copenhagen. He says China actually might like to get off the coal train.

"The coal in China is mined primarily in the northwest of the country, but the demand for that coal is in the east, and getting that coal from the mine to the power plant on the coast is a challenging and expensive undertaking," Houser says.

Two years ago, an epic snowstorm shut down that supply chain. Power went out for millions of Chinese. Even China's trains stood still, stranding tens of thousands of people — and a lot of coal.

Houser says it's the lack of a reliable and cheap way to transport coal that is pushing China to look for alternatives fuels.

A Politically Risky Endeavor

As for the other big consumer of coal — the U.S. — the Obama administration has pledged to encourage more green energy from things like wind and solar power, and to subsidize more efficient use of energy. But as energy economist Henry Jacoby of MIT points out, displacing coal is politically risky.

"There are something like 22 states in the U.S. that have some level of coal production," Jacoby says. "And, of course, that's not all the states that care about it, because there are a number of other states whose electric power systems are heavily dependent on coal."

Jacoby points out something that politicians are loath to admit: Switching away from coal, which is cheap so long as its negative environmental effects aren't counted, will cost some consumers more on their utility bills.

But the Obama administration thinks there's an answer: clean coal. That means extracting hydrogen and carbon monoxide from the coal to make syngas, a fuel that can be used to make electricity without emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The Department of Energy is spending $404 million this fiscal year to figure out how to do that. The Chinese government is also investing in the technology.

So, if coal does remain a big part of the energy mix for a few decades more, it may be by virtue of a new, untested technology whose final cost can only be guessed at.

View Article on NPR

CHINA: Closeted lives

Page last updated at 01:09 GMT, Tuesday, 26 January 2010

A week ago China's first gay pageant was cancelled, on orders from the police.

The event had been hailed as a new chapter of openness towards the gay community in China, where homosexuality was illegal until 1997 and defined as mental disorder until 2001.

Here three gay men in China describe the pressures they have to live with and the compromises they have to make.

Michael Tsai, 23, restaurant manager, Beijing

I was going to be the host for the gay pageant Mr Gay China, but unfortunately the government has once again oppressed its people silently. It would have been a wonderful step but there is much more fear than understanding.

Although I wouldn't call it discrimination, there's definitely a pressure to conformity in Chinese society. The goal is to to marry and produce male offspring. Since the Chinese are allowed to have only one child there is even more pressure to conform.

Thankfully I come from a family of two boys and the need to carry on the family name has already been fulfilled. I am out to all my family, my friends and colleagues.

Although I do feel that the country as a whole has become a lot more tolerant, it isn't necessarily more understanding.

My family feels that if something is not spoken about then it either doesn't exist or it will be forgotten. Even though they know I'm gay they still say things like "When you find your wife..."

I'm sure my parents are not thrilled by my sexual orientation but they seem to be dealing with it through denial and that's perfectly fine with me.

China has become a get-rich-fast society, a society where you build up power and forget about everyone else. There are more things to worry about than who's attracted to who.

Most of the older Chinese feel that being gay is just a phase and that eventually it will work itself out.

I don't feel that there are any problems in China that I've come across. If we aren't too loud and proud about it then the subject doesn't even cross anyone's mind.

Although I do feel that the country as a whole has become a lot more tolerant, it isn't necessarily more understanding.

Anonymous man, Guangzhou

I'm 35, I work as an environment researcher and I am married with two children. I am also gay.

Organisers hoped the pageant would mark a step towards greater awareness

I come from the countryside, where most people don't even know what gay means.

Several years ago, I came out to my three closest friends. I haven't, and will never, come out to my parents, wife and children.

There's a strong tradition in China you can't go against - to get married. I think most of the gay people in China are married. There's a lot of pressure from the family to do that.

The Chinese family is very traditional and it's not based on so-called love. My wife and I have a good relationship, we love each other like a brother and sister. I am happy in my family, we are the true family.

I don't need freedom. I need to keep this secret, so that I can live normally.

We need to keep to that, but I also have the freedom to make friends outside. Me and my gay friends have our own meetings, we go to a badminton club and have dinner together. That's all I need.

Happiness is not about desiring things you cannot have, but enjoying the things you have.

I have two children, one three-year old boy and an eight-year old girl. I would never come out to them - I don't want them to know that I am gay.

I hope that my children can have a normal life and I think to be gay is not normal because it's different from everybody else. I've accepted what I am because I cannot change.

I support our government's decision to cancel the gay pageant. Freedom is perhaps the most important thing in the Western world, but for us Chinese people, the most important thing is harmony.

I don't need freedom. I need to keep this secret, so that I can live normally.

There has been a change of attitude lately towards homosexuality, there's more acceptance and understanding. There's still lots of prejudice but I think it will take time for that to be eliminated.

Miles, 30, Shenyang

I was born in a small village in Liaoning Province in north-east China. Currently I work for a China-based multinational in Dubai, but I go back to China every four months.

Last year, China's first gay pride festival was praised in the state media

I have been in a relationship with a guy since I started working in Shenyang in 2001. We now live apart because of my current job.

I've never come out to my colleagues, family and friends. In my opinion, keeping a low profile is the real way of life, especially when your sexual preference is not the mainstream one.

Both my father and sister met my boyfriend, which is kind of dangerous. I am afraid one day they might discover that I am gay. I won't come out to them, as I don't want to hurt them.

In my opinion, the younger generations are more open to homosexuality than the older ones.

There is one problem all gay people face in China - that's marriage.

I wish to stay abroad, so that I can escape the fate of having to start a family.

This tradition is deeply rooted in most Chinese people's minds. The pressure is particularly strong on those born in a one-child family as they have to fulfil their God-given mission to maintain the family continuity.

I am trying to stay far away from marriage. While I am in Dubai, I don't sense the pressure from my family for the time being. But that day will come if I return to China. I wish to stay abroad, so that I can escape the fate of having to start a family.

With the young generations growing into adults, I believe Chinese society will become more tolerant towards homosexuality. I have young friends who don't care at all.

Even though homosexuality is legal, large-scale events are still not possible. But in our everyday life gay people are, in most cases, accepted by their close peers and colleagues because most gay people are friendly and have good personalities.

We have many gay websites, we have gay night clubs in the big cities and we have a professor of a top Chinese university, named Li Yinhe, who is an advocate of gay rights.

China is changing to accept new ideas and develop in many different areas and so I believe that one day gay marriage will become legal.

View Article in BBC News

JAPAN: JAL intervention to 'leave stain on Japanese history,' Takenaka warns

Taking exception: Heizo Takenaka, a former economic and fiscal policy minister, is interviewed in Tokyo on Monday. KYODO PHOTO

Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2010

By KANA INAGAKI

Kyodo News

The government intervention into the affairs of Japan Airlines Corp. will "leave a stain on Japanese history" and risk crippling the nation's aviation industry, according to former economic and fiscal policy minister Heizo Takenaka.

In a recent interview, the key architect of Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's economic and postal reforms suggested Japan should concentrate on creating a single powerful "megacarrier" with rival All Nippon Airways Co. to survive intensifying global competition.

"The only way to justify the government intervention in JAL would be if the opportunity is used to beef up the industry as a whole," said Takenaka, now a professor at Keio University in Tokyo.

The comments came after Japan's biggest airline and its two principal subsidiaries filed for bankruptcy protection last week with combined liabilities totaling more than ¥2 trillion, setting off a government-led rehabilitation process backed by public funds.

Takenaka warned the Democratic Party of Japan will suffer "a massive failure" if it wipes out the losses from JAL's balance sheet without drastic restructuring, which could hamper market competition through price-dumping by JAL.

"JAL should restructure 90 percent of its international routes and survive as a domestic low-cost carrier, while ANA should manage the international routes," said Takenaka, who was a Cabinet member when the Liberal Democratic Party was in power.

"That would, in fact, be an industrial policy to create a megacarrier in Japan."

Under the current rehabilitation plan crafted by the government-backed turnaround body, JAL is expected to halve the number of its subsidiaries, cut 30 percent of its group workforce, and scrap 31 unprofitable domestic and international routes.

Experts have often called for rethinking Japan's current aviation market setup, where two major carriers dominate. They say only one of the two will be able to survive as airlines across the globe target the expanding Asian market.

Even transport minister Seiji Maehara recently said, "We need to carefully assess the need as to whether two carriers can exist as megacarriers."

Takenaka added the "too big to fail" logic, which was applied in the U.S. to bail out auto giant General Motors Corp., would not work for JAL because GM had more than 250,000 employees while JAL alone only has about 23,000 employees.

"Can we really use taxpayer money for this?" he asked. "Before we even talk about rescuing JAL, government intervention in itself is wrong."

View Article in The Japan Times

TRAVEL: First-timer finds that there might be something to this

To date, I have sailed on the Sun Princess, Diamond Princess, and Royal Princess.  The Sun is one of the older ships in the fleet, and the Diamond is one of the larger ships in the fleet.  The Royal is part of Princess’ “small ship cruising” and has been my favorite ship to date.  I am looking forward to sailing on its sister ship, the Ocean Princess, next month.  Like the author of this article, I appreciate the intimacy of the smaller ships.  -HHC

By Celeste Moure

January 24, 2010

When a trusted friend told me she loved her last cruise, my curiosity piqued. After all, she lives in a downtown loft and knows her Claret from her Cabernet. Still, I could hardly believe she willingly boarded (more than once) one of those vessels built for thousands.

Determined to find out whether the meals, the yoga classes and the interesting passengers she reminisced about were figments of her screenwriter's imagination, I began my research.

"The mainstream cruise business has become significantly young," says Danny Genung, owner of Harr Travel in Redlands. In 2009, half of his clients were younger than 40. "There's an overall increase in family travel," adds Bob Sharak, executive vice president of marketing and distribution at Cruise Lines International Assn.

Put another way: "No one is really looking for shuffleboard or the 24-hour buffets anymore," says Margie Jordan of ASAP Travel in Florida .

We certainly weren't -- "we" being my 58-year old mother and my 18-month old daughter.

"If your apprehension about going on a cruise is being stuck with thousands of others, then bigger is not better," my trusted friend advised.

So last September we boarded a weeklong Mediterranean cruise from Venice, Italy, to Athens aboard the Seabourn Odyssey, a stylish 450-guest vessel featuring 225 suites outfitted with verandas (only 10% are not), plasma TVs, iPod docking stations and marble bathrooms with separate shower and soaking tub. Shortly after Odyssey's first two sold-out voyages, Seabourn boasted that almost half of its passengers were not only younger (under 45) but also first-timers.

The predominant decor throughout the ship was more like a hipster hotel: creamy whites and chocolate browns and lots of natural wood (teak deck furniture, blond wood desks and dressers in bedrooms) and stylish but cozy furnishings that would not look entirely out of place at the Roosevelt in Hollywood or the Mondrian in Scottsdale, Ariz.

"We took the personalized service and attention to detail that Seabourn has always offered," says Pamela Conover, Seabourn's president and chief executive, "and added features and amenities that younger guests appreciate."

I appreciated the fact that the staff seemed to know what I wanted before I did. "Anything to drink? A vodka tonic, perhaps?" a waiter asks. "Don't mind if I do," I reply.

I was sitting on a plush sofa in a kind of lounge-y concierge area called Seabourn Square, decorated with vintage nautical photographs and bookshelves lined with hundreds of historical novels, popular fiction in several languages and glossy coffee table books. A cool electronic tango tune drifted from the speakers -- was that Gotan Project?

My fellow passengers were an eclectic mix of women of a certain age accessorized with lots of Louis Vuitton and younger couples in perfectly distressed jeans and immaculate Adidas.

At one end of the Square was a European-style cafe (the croissants are as good as any you'd find in Paris) outfitted with an Art Deco mahogany bar where a couple in their late 30s sipped lattes and handed an iPhone back and forth (perhaps updating their Facebook page). This was not, I realized, your grandma's cruise ship.

But it isn't a Disney Cruise either. The Odyssey does attract a younger audience, but these are not the kind of people who want deck parties or want to learn to surf in a massive wave pool. Never garish (you won't hear any announcements over the public address system) or over-the-top, Seabourn is about understated privileges and pampering that includes free-flowing champagne, personalized stationery and Hermès soaps.

There's also a heavy focus on the cuisine, which is outstanding and swiftly discredits the long held stereotype (at least in my eyes) that you can't eat well on a ship. Restaurant 2, with its scarlet drapes in thick velvet, black plush carpeting and fuchsia pillows, is a tour de force in décor. But it's the experimental small portions menu conceived by Chef Charlie Palmer that has everyone talking next day by the pool.

"Didn't you just love the roasted salmon with that sake ginger sauce?" a woman asks her friend.  "I loved everything," he says.

Another hit is the Spa, which spans two decks and even features two massive villas -- outfitted with oversized bathtubs, living areas with day beds and balconies for private sunbathing -- that can be booked for two-hour treatments or for a full day of pampering. Treatments at the spa range from the expected (Thai massage, sea salt scrub) to the extravagant (24-Karat-Gold Facial).

Highlights for me were the yoga classes and the opportunity to try the state-of-the-art Kinesis wall during complimentary group classes.

"I love the fact that I can look forward to eating an amazing seven-course meal after I work out for an hour at the gym," says a petite blond woman as we made our way to the herbal steam room.

Like the rest of the staff, the fitness instructors are young, attractive and charming. Earlier at breakfast, a waiter rushed over as I served myself from the fruit bar and insisted on carrying the plate to my table. Every night at dinner, my mother got a kick out of being escorted to our table by an attendant. I, on the other hand, found the constant attention to be a tad much and imagined that if the goal were to attract a younger audience, some subtle adjustments might be necessary.

Not that Seabourn isn't trying. Cruise Director John Barron, 33, was hired because the company wanted someone in step with the entertainment tastes of a younger demographic. "Someone who would grow with their guests," Barron told me. Nevertheless, the nightly entertainment options -- a magic show, a classical pianist, a Las Vegas music act that covers hits from the '80s and '90s -- were not my cup of tea. An up-and-coming singer-songwriter might have been more interesting for me, although my mom was quite happy to hear Norah Jones cover songs.

In the end, the nightly entertainment options didn't really matter. I was so tired after spending my days exploring the ports with my mom and daughter or partaking in the excursions that we were happy to relax in the room with a movie -- and a sweet treat.

"Should we try the chocolate dessert tonight?" my mom would ask, knowing perfectly well that the answer was always a resounding yes.

On my last day, I stumbled upon an outdoor whirlpool I had not seen before. It was not the first time I got to delight in a little corner of the ship all by myself, as if I were on a private yacht. As if by magic, a fresh towel and a glass of champagne awaited me when I slipped out of the water.

There might be something to this cruising thing after all.

View Article in The Los Angeles Times

CHINA: Chinese euphoria at women's double

Zheng reached the Wimbledon semifinals in 2008 and is now through to the last eight of the Australian Open.

January 25, 2010 11:05 p.m. EST

By Jaime FlorCruz, CNN Beijing Bureau Chief

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Women's tennis players Zheng Jie and Li Na have sent the whole of China into euphoria
• The pair have reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, the first time two Chinese players have achieved feat
• Hailed by Chinese tennis fans as "golden flowers", Zheng and Li are earning plenty of plaudits at home

Beijing, China (CNN) -- Zheng Jie and Li Na have sent the whole of China into euphoria after both players reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open -- the first time in history that the nation has provided more than one player in the last eight of a grand slam tennis event.

Zheng, the 2008 Wimbledon semifinalist, swept past Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko after earlier eliminating seeds Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez and Marion Bartoli -- and will next play Russian Maria Kirilenko for a place in the semifinals.

Meanwhile, in the other half of the draw, compatriot and 16th seed Li upset fourth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki in straight sets and must now overcome the legendary Venus Williams to reach the last four stage.

Hailed by Chinese tennis fans as "golden flowers," Zheng and Li are earning plenty of plaudits at home.

"Zheng's victory is very encouraging," quoted Sina.com. "Though physically exhausted after three tough games, she managed to hold up her spirit and persevere till the end. Her strong spirit is the key to all her success."

The Huaxi City post noted that while Zheng Jie is not the top ranked Chinese player, "she is definitely the best in China in terms of her will to win, the ability to attract sponsorship money and to regularly pull off good results."

Sports officials in Beijing say they are elated but not surprised by the Chinese breakthrough in Melbourne.

Though physically exhausted after three tough games, she managed to hold up her spirit and persevere till the end.
--Sina.com

Gao Shenyang, a director at China's sports commission, told Chinese media: "Given the competitive form of Zheng Jie and Li Na, what they have achieved in Melbourne is not surprising to us.

"Their success shows that Chinese tennis players can find their rightful place in the tennis world."

The breakout for Chinese women tennis came in 2004, when little-known duo Sun Tiantian and Li Ting snatched gold in the doubles at the Athens Olympics.

Zheng, a doubles expert, then produced a stunning run to the Wimbledon semifinals in 2008. The same year, she teamed-up with Yan Zi to win the bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics.

Lu Ang, a commentator at CCTV's tennis and golf channel, credits the record of Chinese players to the revamp of China's sports system, which now encourages more individual initiative and more international competition.

"The state-sponsored sport system restrained players from competition abroad in the past, which was bad for a player's growth."

But in 2008 the Chinese government loosened its day-to-day control of top athletes, allowing them to manage their own careers, choose coaches and training regimen, and arrange travel schedules.

They cover their own expenses but are expected to hand over to the government sports agency a smaller part of their earnings.

Li and Zheng are now big business in China, earning plaudits in the media and attracting valuable commercial endorsements.

Last year, Zheng signed a lucrative endorsement deal with ANTA, a sportswear company in China with ambitions to break out overseas. She also endorses Mercedes Benz.

The success of these players is expected to spawn more interest in tennis, especially among the youth.

Tennis courts and academies are sprouting up in many Chinese cities, attracting youths who aspire to become the country's next big stars.

Given China's 1.3 billion population, more tennis prodigies are expected to emerge in the near future.

JAPAN: Shiseido Details Offer For Bare Escentuals

01.25.10, 09:51 PM EST 

By The Associated Press

Japanese cosmetics maker Shiseido Co. said Monday it has started a tender offer to buy all outstanding shares of Bare Escentuals in its effort to acquire the company for $1.7 billion.

Bare Escentuals ( BARE - news - people ) Inc., based in San Francisco, makes bareMinerals foundation and products under the RareMinerals, Buxom and md brands.

Shiseido's tender offer is for $18.20 per share in cash. The Japanese makeup and skin care products company, whose shares are listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, announced the deal on Jan. 15.

The acquisition will be Shiseido's biggest purchase since its founding in 1872 as Japan's first Western-style pharmacy. It aims to use the acquisition to strengthen its U.S. presence and expand its products to mineral-based cosmetics.

The tender offer is scheduled to expire on March 8, with the possibility of extensions. A majority of Bare shares must be tendered as a condition of the offer. Also, the deal depends on Bare CEO Leslie Blodgett staying with the company and the deal gaining regulatory approval.

Bare's board has approved the deal.

Bare Escentuals' shares fell 1 cent to $18.11 Monday. They have traded in a range of $2.45 to $18.20 in the past 52 weeks.

View Article in Forbes

MACAU: MGTO representatives gather in Macau

27/01/2010 00:27:00

The Macau Government Tourist Office (MGTO) Interim Marketing Meeting, gathering 50 representatives around the world to discuss “strategies and tactics for this time of adversity”, kicked off their meeting here on Monday, with a welcome dinner attended by Chief Executive Fernando Chui Sai On.

Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Cheong U meeting with MGTO officials and representatives in the afternoon pointed out that the number of visitor arrivals to Macau has grown to 21 million in 2009 (from 7.5 million in 1999) and that “under the guidance of the Central Government’s policy and in line with the SAR Government’s policy direction, the diversification of tourism will be boosted with a higher and wider perspective and vision”.

Presenting the “Outline of the Plan for the Reform and Development of the Pearl River Delta”, Secretary Cheong U remarked that the plan “consolidates Macau’s position as an international tourism and leisure destination”.

The Government will “tune and advance the marketing promotional strategies while cooperating with the travel trade to improve the overall service quality of the tourism industry to achieve a healthy and moderately diversified development of Macau’s tourism industry, from which other related industries as well as the economy of the region will benefit,” he added.

Following visits to the newly opened hotels, the Mandarin’s House and the Macau Science Center the 50 MGTO representatives will cross the Lotus Bridge today heading to Guangzhou and Shenzhen for a 3-day visit aiming to show the development and tourism resources of Pearl River Delta region, and promote regional tourism. The group includes a delegation of MGTO management team led by director João Costa Antunes.

At present, there are 17 representation offices of MGTO around the world, Australia  and New Zealand; Hong Kong, China; India; Indonesia; Japan; Mainland China; Malaysia; the Philippines; Singapore; South Korea; Taiwan, China; Thailand; Belgium; Germany; Portugal; United Kingdom and Ireland, United States.

View Article in Macau Daily Times

CHINA: The City of the Future Echoes the Past

The Huangpu River  Staffan Holgersson

JANUARY 26, 2010

By JULIE V. IOVINE

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

New York

Beijing burnished its international reputation with a handful of acclaimed icons built for the Olympics. But Shanghai is still the Chinese city that appeals most to foreigners, thanks to its checkered past, colonial architecture and mercantile drive—qualities that don't need translating for most Westerners.

Shanghai's Skyscrapers

A look at 'China Prophecy: Shanghai,' at the Skyscraper Museum through April.

View Slideshow

And yet, in recent years, the pace of change in Shanghai has accelerated at such a blistering rate—400 skyscrapers rising in the historic core alone since 1990—that holding on to a coherent impression of the contemporary city is almost impossible.

The relentless escalation seems daunting, even a little scary. A visit to "China Prophecy: Shanghai," now at the Skyscraper Museum [in New York]through April, is a handy way to get a better grip on the changes under way in this clamoring, glamorous city.

Built around the plausible conceit that Shanghai today is experiencing the explosive urban creativity and convulsive growth last seen during the skyscraper age of New York in the '30s, the show sets out to "juxtapose a retrospective of American visions of the skyscraper city of the future from the early 20th century with an exploration of Chinese cities today, pursuing the parallel conditions of rapid modernization and urbanization."

If Shanghai today "reproduces and surpasses New York in the '30s," when it was home to seven million people and sprouting up with 200 skyscrapers (at that time more than in all other cities in the world combined),

its cosmopolitan status can be attributed in part to the American architects at work there. The show focuses on a cluster of three skyscrapers, or "supertalls" between 88 and 128 stories, all designed by American firms: Jin Mao by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; Shanghai World Financial Center by Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF); and Shanghai World Financial Center by Gensler.

The oldest and shortest, 88-story Jin Mao, completed in 1999, assumes the shape of a stretched pagoda; while the tallest, Shanghai Tower, which is under construction and due for completion in 2014, is already leaping ahead technologically and aesthetically with a twisting glass and steel cape wrapped around nine stacked atriums at its core. Not incidentally, all three are Manhattan-like in their proximity to water as they rise in Pudong, a peninsula jutting into the Huangpu River that was designated by Deng Xiaoping in 1990 to be the pulsing heart, and financial center, of the metropolis.

More celebratory than skeptical, "China Prophecy" notes the irrepressible energy, the posturing, and the power plays that it takes to translate ambition into a skyline. Plaza 66, a two-tower commercial project completed in 2006 on busy Nanjing Road, has the kind of sky bridges once envisioned for a future Manhattan according to an accompanying photograph of a 1931 Regional Plan of New York. Another high-rise complex of offices, hotels, retail and restaurants, Jing An Kerry Centre, also designed by KPF, was explicitly modeled after Rockefeller Center with towers arrayed around a 32,000-square-foot central plaza; at the show, a model of the center is set in front of a historic rendering of the real Rockefeller Center to underscore the similarities.

Looking back at the jazzy age of New York skyscraper-building, we might imagine the mood back then was pure excitement and swagger, forgetting that there was probably also the anxiety of displaced residents, official disregard for old building stock, and developers' bullying techniques. Watching Shanghai grow even from afar, we can capture that dual sense of optimism and fear that accompanies most ambitious development.

When Deng publicly blessed the development plan transforming mudflats and warehouses into Pudong, he pronounced it the "Head of the Dragon," while some million village people were swept out of the way without much notice.

The show is small but knowing and loaded with riveting minutiae, including a video panning across an official 8,000-square-foot model of the city showing all existing and even future building projects in Shanghai. (Surely, one of the perks of owning all the land is that the state knows what's going to go where way ahead of everyone else.) Details about how materials found their way into the show—for example, a German photographer found on Flickr was commissioned to make a compelling you-are-there video, filmed while traveling through town on a Changjiang motorcycle—hint that the museum subscribes to the same ad hoc opportunistic spirit of the skyscraper-builders themselves.

Does "China Prophecy" offer more than an exercise in compare, contrast and celebrate? One final video is actually quite provocative. Spliced together side by side, the clip juxtaposes a film from the Democracity and Futurama displays at the 1939 World's Fair in New York with a promotional video for Shanghai 2010 Expo, with its theme "Better City, Better Life." Both extol elevated highways and skyscrapers rising from verdant green acres. To our contemporary eyes, Futurama may look rather quaint, but in Shanghai those same visions are already reaching for the sky and beyond.

Ms. Iovine is the executive editor of The Architect's Newspaper.

View Article in the Wall Street Journal

JAPAN: Japan interest rates kept on hold

The Bank of Japan says prices could fall for three years

Page last updated at 12:02 GMT, Tuesday, 26 January 2010

Japan's central bank has kept its key interest rate unchanged at just above zero and underlined its determination to overcome deflation.

As widely expected, the board of the Bank of Japan unanimously opted to keep interest rates at 0.1%.

It said the world's second largest economy was improving, but further government support was needed to maintain the recovery.

The board also said overcoming deflation was a "critical challenge".

Falling prices

"Japan's economy is picking up mainly due to various policy measures taken at home and abroad, although there is not yet sufficient momentum to support a self-sustaining recovery in domestic private demand," it said.

[The central bank] should expand its quantitative easing policies and be more aggressive, like Western banks were during the crisis

Darius Kowalczyk, chief investment strategist, SJS Markets

The board added it expected Japan's economy to shrink by 2.5% in the current financial year, an improvement on its previous estimate of a 3.2% contraction.

It also forecast growth of 1.3% for the 2010-2011 financial year, up from its previous estimate of 1.2%.

The bank was less optimistic about deflation, saying that prices were likely to continue falling for three years.

"The bank recognises that it is a critical challenge for Japan's economy to overcome deflation and return to a sustainable growth path with price stability," it said.

Revised outlook

Some analysts expressed disappointment at the government's attempts to stop prices falling.

"I think deflation will be deeper than they think. I find it very disappointing that the central bank has decided not to change its policy," said Darius Kowalczyk, chief investment strategist at SJS Markets in Hong Kong.

"They should expand their quantitative easing policies and be more aggressive, like Western banks were during the crisis."

Standard & Poor's credit rating agency also expressed concern about both deflation and the high levels of Japanese government debt.

It affirmed the economy's AA rating, but revised its outlook down from "stable" to "negative".

"The outlook change reflects our view that the Japanese government's diminishing economic policy flexibility may lead to a downgrade unless measures can be taken to stem fiscal and deflationary pressures," it said.

View Article on BBC News

S. KOREA & JAPAN: S. Koreans arrested for illegal entry using false fingerprints

Jan 25 08:51 AM US/Eastern

YOKOHAMA, Jan. 25 (AP) - (Kyodo)—Police arrested two South Korean women Monday on suspicion of illegally entering Japan by evading the biometric identification system by using tapes containing other peoples' fingerprints.

The women aged 32 and 31 allegedly slipped through the immigration process at Tokyo's Haneda airport on different occasions, in May and October 2008, police said. It is the first case of arrests involving illegal entrants who used "fingerprint tapes," according to the Immigration Bureau of Japan.

The cases came to light after both women received deportation orders in January 2008 for overstaying their visas while working as nightclub hostesses in Kanagawa Prefecture, and had their fingerprints taken by the immigration bureau.

They then told the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau last December that they bought the tapes from a broker in South Korea and turned themselves in to the authorities because they wanted to go back to their country, the Kanagawa police said.

Their arrests come at a time when the immigration bureau is planning to put in place in March new biometric ID devices capable of detecting authentic fingerprints even if such tapes are used.

View Article on Breitbart

CHINA: More Tainted-Milk Cases are Highlighted in China

JANUARY 25, 2010, 8:55 P.M. ET

Zheng Shuzhen holds a photo of her granddaughter, who died after drinking tainted milk, in Beijing last May.  Associated Press

By JAMES T. AREDDY

SHANGHAI—Chinese state-run media said the industrial chemical melamine was found again in milk products early last year, the latest report to suggest the government's crackdown on potentially dangerous practices in the dairy industry after a major 2008 food-safety scandal didn't fully solve the problem.

Milk products made by three companies, Shandong Zibo Lusaier Dairy Co., Liaoning Tieling Wuzhou Food Co. and Laoting Kaida Refrigeration Plant, were found to have included excessive melamine and removed from store shelves in the southwestern province of Guizhou, according to a Jan. 19 news report in the province. The article, which indicated the action took place in early 2009, was reported Monday by the English-language China Daily newspaper, giving it national attention.

A Guizhou government spokeswoman declined to comment. A spokesman for the provincial health bureau didn't return a telephone call and a person answering his phone denied knowledge of a problem. The companies couldn't be reached.

Chinese state media have reported two other times in recent weeks cases of tainted milk discovered elsewhere in the country last year, including in Shanghai. In some of the cases now coming to light, including the latest revelations from Guizhou, authorities appear to have removed the tainted product from store shelves in early 2009, just months after Beijing vowed a vast restructuring of its dairy industry to protect the public. It isn't clear why the incidents are surfacing now.

After 300,000 people were sickened by melamine-tainted milk in 2008, including six babies who died, Beijing passed a food-safety law that included promises of stronger testing and recall regimes. The government said it wouldn't tolerate cover-ups.

Two of the dairies recently implicated in state media, including Laoting Kaida and Shanghai Panda Dairy Co., were also among the 22 companies identified by government inspectors in 2008 as producers of dairy products with melamine, which has widespread commercial applications and can improve readings for protein in tests of milk.

News reports say that among the problems now is repackaging of melamine-tainted milk removed from markets in 2008 but not destroyed.

In the Shanghai case, Chinese media reported problems with Shanghai Panda on New Year's Eve, although the problems had occurred last April.

In the Shanghai municipal government's first confirmation of the case, a spokesman on Jan. 11 conceded delays in publicly announcing the action—including a national recall of the problem milk and closure of the dairy that produced it—by saying the case was complicated because it straddled provincial borders.

View Article in the Wall Street Journal

CHINA: China renames 'Avatar' mountain in honour of the film

Officials said the film's images (R) were based on photos of the mountain

Page last updated at 13:40 GMT, Tuesday, 26 January 2010

A Chinese mountain has reportedly been renamed in honour of the sci-fi film Avatar, after claims it had inspired scenery in the fantasy blockbuster.

The Southern Sky Column in Zhangjiajie, Hunan province, will now be known as the Avatar Hallelujah Mountain.

Local officials said photographs of the mountain had been used as the basis for Avatar's fictional world of Pandora.

Avatar has become the most popular film ever in China, making $80m (£50m) at the box office so far.

Xiaoxiang Morning News said the mountain was officially renamed at a ceremony on Monday.

The paper said a photographer from Hollywood had visited the Wulingyuan Scenic Area, the location of the mountain, in 2008.

"Many pictures he took then become prototypes for various elements in the Avatar movie, including the 'Hallelujah Mountains'," Reuters quoted the website as saying.

Avatar tours

The renaming of the mountain is one of the several attempts by Zhangjiajie to capitalise on the success of Avatar.

The film has been a huge success throughout China

The municipal government website has also adopted the slogan "Pandora is far but Zhangjiajie is near", while tourists are being offered tours of the locations which allegedly inspired the film, Reuters reports.

Avatar follows the plight of the blue N'avi people as they fight to protect their land from a mining operation.

The film has been showing on 2,500 screens across China. One-third were Imax and 3D screens while the rest were regular 2D screens.

But earlier this month, China pulled 2D versions of the film from cinemas, saying they were not doing well commercially.

Critics said the move was to make way for domestic films - especially the state-backed biopic of the philosopher Confucius - and because the plot too closely mirrored forced land evictions in the country.

View Article on BBC News

JAPAN: Japan Rail looks to build bullet trains throughout the U.S.

Japan Rail hopes to sell its bullet train systems, known as the Shinkansen, to the U.S.  (photo / Joshua Williams)

January 25, 11:21 PM

By Joshua Williams

Central Japan Rail Co. announced on Jan. 25th that they are aiming to build bullet train systems in multiple regions around the U.S. with the help of two U.S. venture companies. The companies are touting the Japanese technologies as safe and environmentally friendly.

In a press release, JR-Central announced that it was partnering with venture U.S.-Japan High-Speed Rail to sell its latest system, the N700-I Bullet, which is capable of moving at over 200mph. The companies say they are looking at track options that include Florida (Tampa – Orlando – Miami), Los Angeles – Las Vegas, and Texas.

JR-Central is also partnering with venture U.S.-Japan MAGLEV to sell its Superconducting Magnetic Levitation Transportation System, which is capable of going over 300mph, for tracks between Baltimore and Washington D.C, Chattanooga and Atlanta, and in Pennsylvania, among others.

The companies are pushing both systems as safe and environmentally friendly, hoping to receive part of the $8 Billion dollars President Obama is looking to invest in nationwide high-speed rail as part of the “Green New Deal” stimulus package.
While JR-Central and its partners are aiming big, they see a potential for over 100 tracks nationwide, they realize that there is stiff competition for the money from other major companies, including some in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. As a result, they plan to initially focus their efforts on a few locations.

CEO of U.S.-Japan High-Speed Rail, Richard Lawless, stated “Of all the corridors we looked at, the one that looks the most promising and immediate is Florida,” according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.

The Chairman of JR-Central, Yoshiyuki Kansai, promoted the company’s activities at a press conference on the 25th in Tokyo, saying “Japan’s Shinkansen is completely independent of existing tracks; and while being used as a specialized line there have been zero passenger deaths in the past 45 years. Japan’s high-speed rail is the world’s best total system,” as reported by SankeiBiz.

The Shinkansen is the local Japanese name for the bullet train, which was the world’s first when it was built in the 1960s. It originally opened just in time for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and connected Japan’s two largest cities, Tokyo and Osaka. Since then tracks have expanded around Japan. JR-central reports over 150 million annual passengers on its Shinkansen system.

View Article in Japan Headlines Examiner

TAIWAN: Taiwan's economy forecast to grow 4.81% in 2010

Shoppers at a local boutique. Taiwan's economy will grow by 4.81 percent this year, thanks to a rebound in private investment amid an overall economic recovery, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) said yesterday. (CNA)

Updated Wednesday, January 27, 2010 10:35 am TWN

By Cheng Yun-hsuan and Y.L. Kao, CNA

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Taiwan's economy will grow by 4.81 percent this year thanks to a rebound in private investment amid an overall economic recovery, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) forecast Tuesday.

The institute also forecast economic growth of 8.65 percent, 5.33 percent, 4.17 percent and 1.74 percent, respectively, for the four quarters of this year, according to its president David S. Hong at a seminar on the 2010 economic outlook.

Taiwan's 2010 fixed investment growth rate will reach 4.64 percent because of local businesses' increasing interest in investment and the government's promotion of six emerging industries, which is expected to attract investment from government and state-run enterprises, Hong said.

This year, Taiwan's exports are projected to grow 10.51 percent and imports by 10.13 percent, which would translate into a trade surplus of US$32.74 billion, Hong said.

With consumer confidence climbing because of the stock market rally and improved unemployment, private consumption is expected to grow 2.07 percent this year, he said.

However, a 2.07 growth rate would be still very low compared with the average 8.4 percent between 1952 and 2000, and the average 2.28 percent between 2000 and 2008, he added.

TIER has also forecast that the Taiwan currency will stand at an average of NT$31.395 against the greenback this year, and the annual growth rate of the Consumer Price Index will be 1.54 percent.

The institute gave an optimistic forecast for the manufacturing and the service sectors in the next six months based on an economic outlook survey released Tuesday.

The survey results show that the business climate index in the manufacturing industry last December stood at 117.15 points, representing a rise of 0.05 points from the previous month.

The December business climate index in the services industry stood at 125.21 points -- a growth of 2.79 points from the previous month, according to the survey.

As the global economy is recovering, the demand for downstream products is picking up and the manufacturing sector is expected to see a slight boost in sales in the next six months, although it will be low season, according to TIER.

Meanwhile, retail sales are expected to soar during that period on the strength of booming restaurant and retail business during the Chinese New Year, TIER forecast.

View Article in The China Post

CHINA: More death sentences in Xinjiang

The fighting was some of the worst unrest in China for decades

Page last updated at 11:55 GMT, Tuesday, 26 January 2010

China says four more people have been sentenced to death over last year's ethnic unrest in Xinjiang province.

At least 25 people are now thought to have received death sentences over the violence - nine of the executions have already been carried out.

Nearly 200 people were killed in July during fighting between ethnic Uighurs and members of China's Han majority in the regional capital, Urumqi.

The violence was some of the worst ethnic unrest in China for decades.

The latest sentences were handed down at a court in the provincial capital on Monday, state media reported.

Xinhua did not say which ethnic group those sentenced belonged to, but their names indicated they were members of the Uighur population.

Eight other people were sentenced to life and one person was given a death sentence with a two-year reprieve, a court spokesman told the AFP news agency.

A death sentence with reprieve is usually commuted to life in prison in China, say reports.

Revenge

Fighting broke out in Urumqi in July 2009, when a crowd of Uighurs - a Muslim minority which has long complained of repression under Chinese rule - attacked members of China's Han ethnic majority.

Shops were smashed and vehicles set alight, with passers-by being set upon by Uighur rioters.

Two days later, groups of Han went looking for revenge as police struggled to restore order.

Officials say most of those killed in the unrest were Han, and Urumqi's Han population demanded swift justice.

All those convicted over the unrest have been found guilty of crimes such as murder, damage to property, arson and robbery.

The violence came amid an increase in tensions between the Uighurs and Han in recent years.

Many Uighurs want more autonomy and rights for their culture and religion - Islam - than is allowed by Beijing's strict rule.

Millions of Han have moved to the region in recent decades, and while the majority of residents used to be Muslim Uighurs, Han now outnumber them in some areas, including Urumqi.

View Article on BBC News

HONG KONG: HK lawmakers quit for democracy

The five lawmakers are making a stand for democracy

Page last updated at 10:29 GMT, Tuesday, 26 January 2010

Five pro-democracy legislators in Hong Kong have resigned their seats in a bid to pressure Beijing for full democracy.

The group says the resulting by-election will serve as a referendum on universal suffrage in the territory.

Democrats want full direct elections by 2012 - several years ahead of the timetable set by China's government.

Currently, only half of Hong Kong's legislators are directly elected; the rest are chosen by special interest groups, most of whom are pro-Beijing.

De-facto referendum?

The five lawmakers handed their resignation letters to members of Hong Kong's Legislative Council on Tuesday morning.

Pro-democracy activists want a universal vote introduced

Alan Leong and Tanya Chan from the Civic Party, and Leung Kwok-hung, Albert Chan and Raymond Wong from the League of Social Democrats, said their actions would force by-elections that were a "de facto referendum" on democracy.

"My resignation is in keeping with my campaign promise. I want to fight for direct elections," the Associated Press quoted Mr Leong as saying.

But some pro-Beijing lawmakers have already said they will boycott the by-elections, making it harder for the polls to be seen as a legitimate vote on the importance of democracy.

Analysts say the resignation plan highlights the deep divide in Hong Kong politics.

Under British rule for more than 150 years, the territory was returned to China in 1997 under a special agreement that promised to retain Western-style practices.

The Basic Law, Hong Kong's mini-constitution, stipulates that the legislative council should eventually be elected by universal suffrage - but this will only happen by 2020 at the earliest.

While some people in Hong Kong are keen for complete democracy as soon as possible, many believe that other factors are more important.

Recent opinion polls show tepid public support for actions by pro-democracy groups.

View Article on BBC News

CHINA: China's super-rich look for love online

Brides to be? Young women selected for their eligibility pose in wedding gowns at an event for millionaire bachelors.

January 25, 2010 10:01 p.m. EST

By Lara Farrar, for CNN

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• China's millionaires are turning to specialist online dating services to find a bride
• Online dating site caters just for wealthy; membership costs $44,000
• Internet dating market has doubled in China in last two years
• China has a growing gender imbalance with millions more men than women

Beijing, China (CNN) -- In China it can be hard for millionaires to find love. Just ask Xu Tianli.

"These people are very excellent themselves, which leads to their high standards for partners," Xu said. "And those who can meet those standards are few."

Xu is the founder of Golden Bachelor, an online dating site catering to an expanding class of super-wealthy Chinese singletons who have it all except for one thing: a bride.

So they pay, a lot, to find one. The Golden Bachelor "Diamond Love" membership goes for 300,000 Yuan ($44,000).

The Web site states in Chinese the qualifications for joining: a personal or family wealth of at least 2 million yuan ($292,000); a background that is extremely superior, wealthy and aristocratic; very good personal qualities or young, talented and beautiful.

"More and more Chinese people are finding love from Web sites," said Xu, 36. "The difference between us from other dating sites is we only focus on high-level clients -- those with a high social status or superior physical condition. We don't focus on the mass general public."

Golden Bachelor says it has 5 million registered members and employs psychologists and special matchmaking consultants to personally assist multi-millionaires in their pursuit of romance.

In China men at the bottom of the social hierarchy are going to have very few chances to meet women.
--James Farrer, Sociology professor

And then there also are the so-called "love hunters" -- staff who travel around the country in search of China's most beautiful bachelorettes to bring to the lavish matchmaking parties the company throws.

The last one was on December 20 in Beijing in a luxury hotel. The ticket price was 100,000 yuan, ($14,600); 21 single women and 22 single men attended. Ladies took part in a wedding gown show and also sang, danced, even cooked for their moneyed suitors during a talent program. Eighty percent of those who came found a date, according to the company.

Behind Golden Bachelor's extravagance is a telling trend of what the future of finding love in China could look like. In a society where 24 million Chinese men will find themselves lacking wives by 2020 because of the country's gender imbalance, according to a recent study by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, it could get highly competitive.

"Men at the bottom of the social hierarchy are going to have very few chances to meet women," said James Farrer, author of "Opening Up: Youth Sex Culture and Market Reform in Shanghai."

"This is going to be very apparent in the future as poor men with few economic resources just won't find women," Farrer said. "Women won't benefit from this imbalance either. These are the women who are highly educated and have high career ambitions. They will be competing for men at the top of the social hierarchy."

Rapid urbanization is eroding more traditional ways of finding partners through relatives and friends and is pressing young people to seek out new avenues for romance. In a society that is increasingly living life on the Internet, online services are poised to capitalize on the looming scarcity of love matches.

"People will still meet in all kinds of ways but the development of the relationship online is more important than ever," said Farrer. "It is a way of overcoming shyness, maintaining constant communication with and monitoring of the partner and trying to develop a relationship when you don't have much time to see people. It is definitely extremely important."

China's Internet dating market was already estimated to be worth $43.9 million in 2008 and is expected to nearly double to $83.4 million this year, according to data from China-based technology research firm iResearch.

While small compared to the U.S. online dating market, which Forrester Research expects to grow from $957 million in 2008 to $1.6 billion by 2013, the pressure for 1.3 billion Chinese to get married should give the online romance business in China a rosy future.

"As the country with the largest population in the world, we try to address one of its most important issues -- trying to solve people's dating problems," said Song Li, founder of Zhenai (meaning "Cherish Love" in English) one of the country's largest matchmaking sites.

Zhenai says it has more than 23 million members and monthly revenues of around $2 million. Song, who is also known as "Dr. Love," offers a service that combines the traditional business of Chinese matchmaking with the power of a search engine.

A 2,000 yuan ($300) deposit gets members six months of individualized attention from one of the company's 400 matchmakers who work in a call center in the city of Shenzhen.

The matchmakers advise men and women on how to tweak their profiles, what to wear to dinner, even how to fix their hair based on a large database of empirical evidence collected from members who were -- and were not -- asked out on a second date.

"For example, we find most men like women who wear black pantyhose," Song said. "It is overwhelming. So we tell them you don't have to do that, but these are the statistics."

It is sort of like buying an apartment, says Song: "You can do it one of two ways. You look in the classified sections of the newspapers or you hire a real estate agent and then they will spend time fixing things for you. We are like the brokers."

Yet there are some who still would rather not use an online broker to find love because they say it would make them feel like a piece of property.

"What do I think about this? Waste of time," Xue Jingjing, a 26-year-old Chinese teacher who lives in Shanghai, told CNN. She tried an online dating Web site. But only once.

"I tried. Many guys sent me messages on the Web site, and then we arranged a meeting. When we met, I felt like it wasn't realistic. I didn't like them." Xue remains single.

"What am I going to do to find a boyfriend? I don't know. I have a lot of pressure now from my parents and my niece just got married last Saturday," she said.

"I am not the typical Chinese. I am like the independent lady. But it is very, very difficult for girls older than 25. It is difficult."

View Article on CNN

JAPAN: No. of foreign tourists visiting Japan plunges 18.7% in 2009

Jan 24 10:15 PM US/Eastern

TOKYO, Jan. 25 (AP) - (Kyodo)—

The number of foreign tourists who visited Japan in 2009 plunged 18.7 percent from the previous year to 6.79 million, the first fall in six years, due to the global recession and the spread of the H1N1 strain of influenza in Asia, the Japan National Tourism Organization said Monday.

It was the first double-digit decline since 1986 when the yen spiked against the dollar after five major industrial nations agreed in 1985 to let the U.S. currency depreciate in the so-called Plaza Accord to reduce U.S. trade deficits.

The government earlier set a goal of attracting 10 million foreign visitors this year but the latest statistics suggest the target will be hard to meet.

In 2009, the largest number of foreign tourists came from South Korea at 1,587,000, followed by Taiwan at 1,024,000 and China at 1,006,000. The top three rankings remained unchanged from a year earlier.

While the number of tourists from most countries declined, those from China rose 0.6 percent to hit a record high because Japan eased regulations and began issuing tourist visas to some Chinese individuals in July.

View Article on Breitbart