U.S. should engage with North Korea economy: report
Thu Oct 22, 2009 4:55pm EDT
By Paul Eckert, Asia Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ambitious U.S. economic engagement with North Korea would help end Pyongyang's isolation and moderate its behavior, aiding efforts to rid that country of nuclear arms, a task force report said on Thursday.
The study by leading U.S. experts on North Korea, released as Washington weighs whether to engage in bilateral talks with Pyongyang, argues that sanctions alone will not denuclearize the North and will tend to strengthen hostile forces there.
"Sanctions alone cannot provide protection from the threat posed now or in the future by North Korea," said the report by the Asia Society and the University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation.
"Instead, economic engagement starts a process that may lead to significant benefits without enhancing the DPRK's military capabilities or making the U.S. or its allies more vulnerable," it said.
A U.S. outreach -- through academic exchanges, development projects, and helping North Korea work with the International Monetary Fund and Asian Development Bank -- could spur better behavior by Pyongyang while helping its impoverished citizens, the task force argues.
With approaches similar to those the Obama administration is attempting with Iran and Myanmar, Pyongyang could be shown incentives that "generate vested interests in continued reform and opening, and in less hostile foreign relations," it said.
The task force acknowledges that North Korea has not shown much interest in economic reform or opening, and that a delicate leadership transition to succeed leader Kim Jong-il means Pyongyang's hardliners appear to be ascendant.
North Korea held its second nuclear test in May and conducted a series of missile tests, drawing fresh U.N. Security Council sanctions designed to restrict its arms sales and proliferation activities.
But the North also signaled it wanted better relations with Washington, freeing two jailed U.S. journalists in August and signaling that it could return to multilateral region talks but wanted to talk to the United States first.
Washington should be patient and determined and take steps to bolster forces in North Korea that want to engage, while promoting interactions that increase the importance of markets in the North's economy, said the report.
"Military and civilian hardliners in Pyongyang flourish in an international atmosphere of hostility, distrust, and isolation; pragmatists will be unable to advance their agenda without contact with the world outside," it said.
The State Department last week said it had decided to grant a visa to Ri Gun, North Korea's No. 2 official at six-party talks, to attend unofficial meetings in New York and San Diego at which U.S. officials are also expected to appear.
The task force recommended Washington expand official contacts "as widely as possible with North Korea," while also utilizing so-called "track two" unofficial dialogues like the ones Ri will attend later this month.
In addition, academic exchanges with North Korea should be expanded, U.S. aid and development groups should be encouraged to work there, and the United States should end policies aimed at keeping Pyongyang out of the IMF and other international financial institutions, it said.
(Editing by Eric Walsh)
© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Pusan fest revels in all films Asian
Friday, Oct. 23, 2009
Festival faves: Gao Yuanyuan in "City of Life and Death" MEDIA ASIA FILM LTD.
Pusan fest revels in all films Asian
By PHILIP BRASOR
Special to The Japan Times
South Korea's biggest box-office hit of the year is the disaster movie "Haeundae," which has been seen by 11.3 million Koreans. The title refers to the beach-resort area of Pusan, where from Oct. 8-16 the 14th annual Pusan International Film Festival took place. In fact, most of the festival is held in Haeundae, and on the second night I watched a computer-generated reproduction of the hotel where I was staying toppled by a 50-meter-high "megatsunami."
"Haeundae" is the Korean film industry's latest challenge to Hollywood hegemony, at least in Asia. It is also one of the most pirated movies in the region, and each of the 354 movies screened at the festival, considered Asia's most significant film event, was preceded by a public-service announcement in which laughing movie stars encourage viewers to be "good downloaders."
They can afford to be gentle. Asian films, and Korean films in particular, are doing well right now. Production financing remains robust and ticket sales are rising. Following the removal of the government's quota for domestic movies several years ago, Korean films slumped, but are now back with a vengeance. July-September box office receipts topped $281 million, making it the biggest third quarter in the history of Korean cinema.
This success is qualified. Western markets are buying fewer Asian films. Despite comments made by comedian-director Hitoshi Matsumoto that he made his surrealist comedy "Symbol" for "an international audience," the mood at PIFF was that there's nothing wrong with designing movies for the home crowd. As a spectacle, "Haeundae" may not compete in the West with Roland Emmerich's upcoming blockbuster "2012," but the better Korean films at the festival weren't out to compete with anyone, which is why they're beating Hollywood on their own turf.
"Thirst," the latest from director Park Chan Wook ("Old Boy"), which won the Jury Prize at Cannes, was shown at PIFF in a new expanded version. Park's baroque style and fondness for gore was well served by the tale of a Catholic priest (Song Kang Ho) who volunteers for a vaccine test and ends up as a vampire. The movie's mixture of big themes, acrobatic sex, fountains of blood and black comedy is a structural mess, but it's unlike any horror movie you'll see anywhere.
Two other world-class Korean directors had films at the festival. Hong Sang Soo's newest cynical sex comedy, "Like You Know It All," may be his most self-reflexive. Its hero is a director who is asked to participate in a jury at a film festival and spends his time drinking and getting into trouble. This art-imitates -reality idea was turned around during the postscreening Q&A when Hong apologized for being incoherent, saying he'd been drinking the night before. Bong Joon Ho, whose 2004 monster movie, "The Host," was one of the few Korean films ever to be a hit overseas, returned with a nifty murder mystery called "Mother" that perverted the standard maternal image presented in Asian movies.
China has such a huge potential audience that it doesn't worry about the West, and some of the Chinese-language movies at PIFF were lavish historical epics. Director Yonfan's "Prince of Tears," the first film he's made in his native Taiwan, deals with that island's "white terror" in the mid-1950s, when the Nationalist government executed thousands for suspected Communist ties. Yonfan focuses on four individuals caught in the upheaval and films it as a lush romance that would have impressed David Lean.
The most discussed Chinese film at the festival was "City of Life and Death," which tells the human story behind the 1937 Rape of Nanking. The movie is already a hit in China, though some Chinese are offended by what they see as an over-sympathetic portrayal of the Japanese invaders. Director Lu Chuan even received death threats. An impartial viewer may be confused by this reaction. Japanese soldiers impassively kill Chinese prisoners en masse and gleefully rape civilian women, but Lu's main purpose is to show how wartime fervor easily tips over into group madness.
Lu's accomplishment is especially impressive compared to a non-Asian movie at PIFF that covered the same story: Germany's "John Rabe" focuses on the Nazi businessman who tried to protect civilians in Nanking. It's more of a hero story than an overview of a historical event, and it appears that "City" is being picked up for distribution in Japan while "Rabe" is not, at least for now. Another film about a military atrocity, "A Little Pond," addresses the massacre of dozens of peasants by the U.S. Army at No Gun Ri during the Korean War, an incident the Americans still dispute.
More recent wars were the subject of several Central Asia films. "Opium War," directed by Afghanistan's Siddiq Barmak, whose "Osama" won the 2004 Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film, chronicles the unlikely meeting between two U.S. helicopter soldiers and a family of opium cultivators living in abandoned military vehicles. The displaced civilians in Iraq's "Kick Off," which won the New Currents Award and the FIPRESCI International Film Critics Award at PIFF, are mostly Kurds living in an abandoned stadium while suicide bombers terrorize the nearby city of Kirkuk. Neither, however, was as viscerally powerful as Israel's "Lebanon," which looks at the 1982 Israeli invasion of that country from inside a tank.
But the film that best represented the Asian ascendance was "New York," a big-budget Indian movie produced by PIFF's 2009 Asian Filmmaker of the Year, Yash Chopra. Though not strictly a Bollywood movie, it contains enough musical montages to satisfy Bollywood's prerogatives. It's a post-9/11 terrorist melodrama that partly sympathizes with the terrorists, a sentiment that would be unacceptable in Hollywood action films, whose production values "New York" mimics with considerable skill. It's the other side of a now familiar story.
"Mother" opens in Japan Oct. 31. "Thirst" will be the closing film of Tokyo Filmex (Nov. 21-29). Check www.filmex.net/index-e2009
Festival faves: Gao Yuanyuan in "City of Life and Death" MEDIA ASIA FILM LTD.
Pusan fest revels in all films Asian
By PHILIP BRASOR
Special to The Japan Times
South Korea's biggest box-office hit of the year is the disaster movie "Haeundae," which has been seen by 11.3 million Koreans. The title refers to the beach-resort area of Pusan, where from Oct. 8-16 the 14th annual Pusan International Film Festival took place. In fact, most of the festival is held in Haeundae, and on the second night I watched a computer-generated reproduction of the hotel where I was staying toppled by a 50-meter-high "megatsunami."
"Haeundae" is the Korean film industry's latest challenge to Hollywood hegemony, at least in Asia. It is also one of the most pirated movies in the region, and each of the 354 movies screened at the festival, considered Asia's most significant film event, was preceded by a public-service announcement in which laughing movie stars encourage viewers to be "good downloaders."
They can afford to be gentle. Asian films, and Korean films in particular, are doing well right now. Production financing remains robust and ticket sales are rising. Following the removal of the government's quota for domestic movies several years ago, Korean films slumped, but are now back with a vengeance. July-September box office receipts topped $281 million, making it the biggest third quarter in the history of Korean cinema.
This success is qualified. Western markets are buying fewer Asian films. Despite comments made by comedian-director Hitoshi Matsumoto that he made his surrealist comedy "Symbol" for "an international audience," the mood at PIFF was that there's nothing wrong with designing movies for the home crowd. As a spectacle, "Haeundae" may not compete in the West with Roland Emmerich's upcoming blockbuster "2012," but the better Korean films at the festival weren't out to compete with anyone, which is why they're beating Hollywood on their own turf.
"Thirst," the latest from director Park Chan Wook ("Old Boy"), which won the Jury Prize at Cannes, was shown at PIFF in a new expanded version. Park's baroque style and fondness for gore was well served by the tale of a Catholic priest (Song Kang Ho) who volunteers for a vaccine test and ends up as a vampire. The movie's mixture of big themes, acrobatic sex, fountains of blood and black comedy is a structural mess, but it's unlike any horror movie you'll see anywhere.
Two other world-class Korean directors had films at the festival. Hong Sang Soo's newest cynical sex comedy, "Like You Know It All," may be his most self-reflexive. Its hero is a director who is asked to participate in a jury at a film festival and spends his time drinking and getting into trouble. This art-imitates -reality idea was turned around during the postscreening Q&A when Hong apologized for being incoherent, saying he'd been drinking the night before. Bong Joon Ho, whose 2004 monster movie, "The Host," was one of the few Korean films ever to be a hit overseas, returned with a nifty murder mystery called "Mother" that perverted the standard maternal image presented in Asian movies.
China has such a huge potential audience that it doesn't worry about the West, and some of the Chinese-language movies at PIFF were lavish historical epics. Director Yonfan's "Prince of Tears," the first film he's made in his native Taiwan, deals with that island's "white terror" in the mid-1950s, when the Nationalist government executed thousands for suspected Communist ties. Yonfan focuses on four individuals caught in the upheaval and films it as a lush romance that would have impressed David Lean.
The most discussed Chinese film at the festival was "City of Life and Death," which tells the human story behind the 1937 Rape of Nanking. The movie is already a hit in China, though some Chinese are offended by what they see as an over-sympathetic portrayal of the Japanese invaders. Director Lu Chuan even received death threats. An impartial viewer may be confused by this reaction. Japanese soldiers impassively kill Chinese prisoners en masse and gleefully rape civilian women, but Lu's main purpose is to show how wartime fervor easily tips over into group madness.
Lu's accomplishment is especially impressive compared to a non-Asian movie at PIFF that covered the same story: Germany's "John Rabe" focuses on the Nazi businessman who tried to protect civilians in Nanking. It's more of a hero story than an overview of a historical event, and it appears that "City" is being picked up for distribution in Japan while "Rabe" is not, at least for now. Another film about a military atrocity, "A Little Pond," addresses the massacre of dozens of peasants by the U.S. Army at No Gun Ri during the Korean War, an incident the Americans still dispute.
More recent wars were the subject of several Central Asia films. "Opium War," directed by Afghanistan's Siddiq Barmak, whose "Osama" won the 2004 Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film, chronicles the unlikely meeting between two U.S. helicopter soldiers and a family of opium cultivators living in abandoned military vehicles. The displaced civilians in Iraq's "Kick Off," which won the New Currents Award and the FIPRESCI International Film Critics Award at PIFF, are mostly Kurds living in an abandoned stadium while suicide bombers terrorize the nearby city of Kirkuk. Neither, however, was as viscerally powerful as Israel's "Lebanon," which looks at the 1982 Israeli invasion of that country from inside a tank.
But the film that best represented the Asian ascendance was "New York," a big-budget Indian movie produced by PIFF's 2009 Asian Filmmaker of the Year, Yash Chopra. Though not strictly a Bollywood movie, it contains enough musical montages to satisfy Bollywood's prerogatives. It's a post-9/11 terrorist melodrama that partly sympathizes with the terrorists, a sentiment that would be unacceptable in Hollywood action films, whose production values "New York" mimics with considerable skill. It's the other side of a now familiar story.
"Mother" opens in Japan Oct. 31. "Thirst" will be the closing film of Tokyo Filmex (Nov. 21-29). Check www.filmex.net/index-e2009
Halloween events planned throughout Japan
Friday, Oct. 23, 2009
Halloween events planned throughout Japan
By ERIKO ARITA
Staff writer
Halloween events are taking place in many cities in Japan.
Boo!: Hundreds turn out for Kawasaki's 2008 Halloween parade.
Tokyo's Omotesando will hold a parade titled "Hello Halloween Pumpkin Parade 2009." In the parade, 1,000 children in various costumes will march and show off their fancy outfits.
Passes for joining the parade have sold out, but it will still be fun to see the children all dressed up.
The parade starts at 1 p.m. on Omotesando street and finishes at 2:15 p.m. Omotesando street is near Omotesando Station on the Ginza and Hanzomon subway lines and five minutes from JR Harajuku Station.
At Space O in Omotesando Hills, professional photographers will take pictures of children in costumes aged 12 and under, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Oct. 25. For more information, visit www.harajuku-halloween.com
According to Kiddy Land, a toy company helping to organize the events, the first Halloween parade in Japan was held by the company in Omotesando in 1983.
In Yokohama, Motomachi Shopping Street will hold a Halloween event on Oct. 30. Children in costumes can visit the shops on the street and give them a traditional "Trick or Treat!" The shops will start giving out sweets to children around 4 p.m. on that day. Motomachi Shopping Street is connected to Motomachi Chukagai Station on the Minatomirai Line or it is a two-minute-walk from Ishikawacho Station on the JR Keihintohoku Line.
In Kawasaki, a lot of Halloween- themed events will take place from Oct. 24 to Nov. 1. A market selling Halloween goods will open Oct. 24-25 and 3,000 people in costumes are set to parade on Oct. 31. For more information, visit lacittadella.co.jp/halloween
In Kyoto's Kitayama area, a Halloween party will be held Oct. 23 and a costume parade will take place on Oct. 25.
There will also be a workshop on making jack-o'-lanterns Oct. 23-24. The venues of the events are close to Kitayama Station on the Karasuma Subway Line. For more information, visit www.kitayama-halloween.com/
Halloween events planned throughout Japan
By ERIKO ARITA
Staff writer
Halloween events are taking place in many cities in Japan.
Boo!: Hundreds turn out for Kawasaki's 2008 Halloween parade.
Tokyo's Omotesando will hold a parade titled "Hello Halloween Pumpkin Parade 2009." In the parade, 1,000 children in various costumes will march and show off their fancy outfits.
Passes for joining the parade have sold out, but it will still be fun to see the children all dressed up.
The parade starts at 1 p.m. on Omotesando street and finishes at 2:15 p.m. Omotesando street is near Omotesando Station on the Ginza and Hanzomon subway lines and five minutes from JR Harajuku Station.
At Space O in Omotesando Hills, professional photographers will take pictures of children in costumes aged 12 and under, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Oct. 25. For more information, visit www.harajuku-halloween.com
According to Kiddy Land, a toy company helping to organize the events, the first Halloween parade in Japan was held by the company in Omotesando in 1983.
In Yokohama, Motomachi Shopping Street will hold a Halloween event on Oct. 30. Children in costumes can visit the shops on the street and give them a traditional "Trick or Treat!" The shops will start giving out sweets to children around 4 p.m. on that day. Motomachi Shopping Street is connected to Motomachi Chukagai Station on the Minatomirai Line or it is a two-minute-walk from Ishikawacho Station on the JR Keihintohoku Line.
In Kawasaki, a lot of Halloween- themed events will take place from Oct. 24 to Nov. 1. A market selling Halloween goods will open Oct. 24-25 and 3,000 people in costumes are set to parade on Oct. 31. For more information, visit lacittadella.co.jp/halloween
In Kyoto's Kitayama area, a Halloween party will be held Oct. 23 and a costume parade will take place on Oct. 25.
There will also be a workshop on making jack-o'-lanterns Oct. 23-24. The venues of the events are close to Kitayama Station on the Karasuma Subway Line. For more information, visit www.kitayama-halloween.com/
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Defense Secretary's Firm Stance On Okinawa Good For Guam Buildup
Defense Secretary's Firm Stance On Okinawa Good For Guam Buildup
News Analysis
Written by Jeff Marchesseault, Guam News Factor Staff Writer
Wednesday, 21 October 2009 10:40
Gates Lays It Straight: Defense Secretary Defends Security Alliance In Talks With Japan Foreign Minister
GUAM - When it comes to Guam's forthcoming $15 billion military buildup, the Department of Defense must balance its plans on island with the security of Asia, the Pacific, the Eastern Hemisphere and the world. Although Guam's civilian and economic needs are paramount for residents, there's a lot more at play when it comes to protecting the interests of our nation and the freedom of the world.
Staying On Message
Nevertheless, the 71 percent* of islanders who support Guam's buildup in the name of patriotism and opportunity can be grateful that U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is standing by his word in Japan this week. He told reporters on the plane to Tokyo that he would tell Japan's top officials that America aims to uphold its end of the bargain on U.S. troop reconfiguration between Okinawa and Guam and on other bilateral defense issues and that he expects Japan to do the same. And that's just what he did yesterday while meeting with Japan Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada. He reportedly plans to tow the Pentagon line again today in his meeting with new Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.
Buildup In The Balance
Gates realizes that much is at stake if the U.S. doesn't draw the line with Hatoyama's new left-of-center government. The Democratic Party of Japan and its liberal coalition have stuck to pre-election plans to begin reconsidering the value of certain aspects of the U.S.-Japan security alliance and to start crafting and implementing a uniquely Japanese foreign policy, without weakening Japan's strong economic and defense ties to the U.S.
Among the coalition's concerns are details of a 2006 accord in which Japan's previous, more-conservative government agreed with the United States that the Marine Corps' Futenma Air Staion would be shut down and relocated from the crowded Okinawa city of Ginowan and moved to remote Camp Schwab in a coastal, peninsular area of Okinawa.
Some leading Japanese officials still want the air base removed from Okinawa entirely. But Gates and other U.S. officials insist that no viable alternative exists and that once any such key, interdependent component of the accord is changed, the whole plan becomes null and void. And Gates surmises that Congress won't let the Guam buildup happen until they know Japan's new government supports keeping Futenma's replacement facility within some reasonable spot in Okinawa.
*Note: A recent Guam Chamber of Commerce survey showed that as much as 71 percent of Guam's population supports the military buildup.
Here is the State Department's official news report covering Secretary Gate's visit with Japan Foreign Minister Okada:
Gates: 'No Alternatives' To US-Japan Security Accord
By Al Pessin, Tokyo
Voice Of America / 20 October 2009 - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Japan's new leaders Tuesday the Obama administration is committed to implementing a wide-ranging defense agreement reached by the previous American and Japanese governments, which some in Japan's new ruling party would like to change. Secretary Gates says there are "no alternatives" to the complex agreement.
Like the Obama Administration, Japan's new government ran hard against its predecessor's policies and put many of them under review when it took office. Secretary Gates says he understands that, but he told Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada the United States is committed to moving forward with the existing security realignment.
"We in President Obama's administration understand what it is like to go through a transition period. And, as your government exercises its new responsibilities, I want you to know the United States stands with you and we are committed to advancing and implementing our agreed alliance transformation agenda," he said.
Earlier, on board his aircraft flying to Tokyo, Secretary Gates was more direct.
"We need to progress with the agreement that was negotiated. This has been a negotiation in the works for 15 years,"he stated. "All of the elements of it are interlocking. And, so it is important to continue with it. There really, as far as we're concerned, are no alternatives to the arrangement that was negotiated."
Secretary Gates says all possible alternatives were explored during the long negotiations and all are either "politically untenable or operationally unworkable." And although U.S. officials say small adjustments may be possible in the specific plan for an air base in northern Okinawa, Secretary Gates said he doubts the U.S. Congress would agree to significant changes in the agreement, particularly if they would cost the United States more money.
Among many changes to the configuration of U.S. forces in Japan, the agreement involves moving nearly half the 18,000 Marines now stationed on Okinawa to Guam; closing an air field in a populated area and building a new one on an existing U.S. base in the northern part of the island. American officials say the agreement benefits both sides, and any significant change could unravel the whole deal.
The newly ruling Democratic Party of Japan ran in part on a platform that advocated a more assertive policy toward the United States. One of its first acts was to announce it would end Japan's naval operation that refuels coalition supply ships heading to and from Afghanistan - a move seen by some in Japan as an expression of independence from U.S. policies.
But Secretary Gates - on the first visit to Tokyo by a senior U.S. official since the new Japanese government took office - says he will remind the new Japanese leaders that Afghanistan is a NATO and coalition effort and that Japan's refueling mission did more to help other countries than it did to help the United States directly.
"A number of countries benefit more from the refueling than the United States does. And, so I don't see the refueling as being a favor to the United States but rather a contribution that the Japanese have made that is commensurate with its standing as in the world as the second wealthiest country and one of the great powers," he said.
Still, Secretary Gates says he went to Japan with a "menu" of options for how the country can be helpful by, among other things, providing trainers for the Afghan security forces and donating money for development projects.
Here is the Defense Department's official news report covering Secretary Gate's visit with Japan Foreign Minister Okada:
Gates To Urge Japan To Stand By Existing Security Pacts
By Donna Miles, American Forces Press Service
TOKYO, Oct. 20, 2009 - Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said he looks forward to building on the strong U.S.-Japan security relationship during his meetings here with the new Japanese government, but that he plans to urge its leaders to leave intact security arrangements that have been years in the making.
Gates, the first U.S. Cabinet member to visit since the new Japanese Democratic Party government took office last month, told reporters he understands Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's interest in reviewing certain policies. "President [Barack] Obama's administration has done the same thing," he said.
But during his meeting today with Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada, and tomorrow's sessions with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa, Gates said he would urge the new leaders to leave existing security agreements in place.
"We are committed to advancing and implementing our agreed alliance transformation agenda," Gates told Okada today at the Foreign Ministry.
At issue is Hatoyama's interest in re-examining the 2006 U.S.-Japan Roadmap for Realignment and Implementation, which outlines a major strategic repositioning of alliance forces.
The agreement includes plans to move thousands of U.S. forces from southern Okinawa, consolidate numerous bases, build a new runway to the north at Camp Schwab to replace Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, and relocate 8,000 Marines and their families to Guam.
Ultimately, the plan would relocate U.S. servicemembers from the heavily populated southern part of Okinawa and reduce the Marine troops on Okinawa from 18,000 to 10,000, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell explained. The deadline for the plan to be implemented is 2014 -- "a very ambitious goal" that's achievable, he said, but only if it continues moving forward on schedule.
Gates told reporters during the flight here the security agreements can't be picked apart piece by piece.
"This has been a negotiation in the works for 15 years," he said. "All of the elements of it are interlocking, and so it is important to continue with it."
The agreement is highly complex, the result of extensive negotiations that resolved numerous strategic, military and political issues, a senior defense official traveling with Gates told reporters. "If one starts into minor adjustments, it's not a minor adjustment," he said. "It becomes a cascading series of other decisions that have to be made."
Gates said options being voiced to change agreed-upon plans - from changing the location of the proposed runway at Camp Schwab to cancelling its construction altogether and moving Futenma's operations to Kadena Air Base -- simply won't work.
"We've looked over the years at all these alternatives, and they are either politically untenable or operationally unworkable, so we need to proceed with the agreement as negotiated," Gates said. "There really ... are no alternatives to the arrangement that was negotiated."
Not going forward as previously agreed to would have a ripple effect, Gates said.
"It is hard for me to believe that the [U.S.] Congress would support going forward in Guam without real progress with respect to the Futenma replacement facility," he said.
Ultimately, Gates said he has "every confidence" that both the United States and Japan "will fulfill the commitments they have made in this agreement" as they work toward strengthening their bilateral relationship.
"I think there are some real opportunities going forward," he said, with "further cooperation and partnership with one of our strongest allies."
During his meeting today with Okada, Gates called the upcoming 50th anniversary of the treaty of mutual cooperation and security between the United States and Japan an appropriate time to recognize "all we have achieved together, and more importantly, all that we will accomplish together in the future."
News Analysis
Written by Jeff Marchesseault, Guam News Factor Staff Writer
Wednesday, 21 October 2009 10:40
Gates Lays It Straight: Defense Secretary Defends Security Alliance In Talks With Japan Foreign Minister
GUAM - When it comes to Guam's forthcoming $15 billion military buildup, the Department of Defense must balance its plans on island with the security of Asia, the Pacific, the Eastern Hemisphere and the world. Although Guam's civilian and economic needs are paramount for residents, there's a lot more at play when it comes to protecting the interests of our nation and the freedom of the world.
Staying On Message
Nevertheless, the 71 percent* of islanders who support Guam's buildup in the name of patriotism and opportunity can be grateful that U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is standing by his word in Japan this week. He told reporters on the plane to Tokyo that he would tell Japan's top officials that America aims to uphold its end of the bargain on U.S. troop reconfiguration between Okinawa and Guam and on other bilateral defense issues and that he expects Japan to do the same. And that's just what he did yesterday while meeting with Japan Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada. He reportedly plans to tow the Pentagon line again today in his meeting with new Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama.
Buildup In The Balance
Gates realizes that much is at stake if the U.S. doesn't draw the line with Hatoyama's new left-of-center government. The Democratic Party of Japan and its liberal coalition have stuck to pre-election plans to begin reconsidering the value of certain aspects of the U.S.-Japan security alliance and to start crafting and implementing a uniquely Japanese foreign policy, without weakening Japan's strong economic and defense ties to the U.S.
Among the coalition's concerns are details of a 2006 accord in which Japan's previous, more-conservative government agreed with the United States that the Marine Corps' Futenma Air Staion would be shut down and relocated from the crowded Okinawa city of Ginowan and moved to remote Camp Schwab in a coastal, peninsular area of Okinawa.
Some leading Japanese officials still want the air base removed from Okinawa entirely. But Gates and other U.S. officials insist that no viable alternative exists and that once any such key, interdependent component of the accord is changed, the whole plan becomes null and void. And Gates surmises that Congress won't let the Guam buildup happen until they know Japan's new government supports keeping Futenma's replacement facility within some reasonable spot in Okinawa.
*Note: A recent Guam Chamber of Commerce survey showed that as much as 71 percent of Guam's population supports the military buildup.
Here is the State Department's official news report covering Secretary Gate's visit with Japan Foreign Minister Okada:
Gates: 'No Alternatives' To US-Japan Security Accord
By Al Pessin, Tokyo
Voice Of America / 20 October 2009 - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told Japan's new leaders Tuesday the Obama administration is committed to implementing a wide-ranging defense agreement reached by the previous American and Japanese governments, which some in Japan's new ruling party would like to change. Secretary Gates says there are "no alternatives" to the complex agreement.
Like the Obama Administration, Japan's new government ran hard against its predecessor's policies and put many of them under review when it took office. Secretary Gates says he understands that, but he told Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada the United States is committed to moving forward with the existing security realignment.
"We in President Obama's administration understand what it is like to go through a transition period. And, as your government exercises its new responsibilities, I want you to know the United States stands with you and we are committed to advancing and implementing our agreed alliance transformation agenda," he said.
Earlier, on board his aircraft flying to Tokyo, Secretary Gates was more direct.
"We need to progress with the agreement that was negotiated. This has been a negotiation in the works for 15 years,"he stated. "All of the elements of it are interlocking. And, so it is important to continue with it. There really, as far as we're concerned, are no alternatives to the arrangement that was negotiated."
Secretary Gates says all possible alternatives were explored during the long negotiations and all are either "politically untenable or operationally unworkable." And although U.S. officials say small adjustments may be possible in the specific plan for an air base in northern Okinawa, Secretary Gates said he doubts the U.S. Congress would agree to significant changes in the agreement, particularly if they would cost the United States more money.
Among many changes to the configuration of U.S. forces in Japan, the agreement involves moving nearly half the 18,000 Marines now stationed on Okinawa to Guam; closing an air field in a populated area and building a new one on an existing U.S. base in the northern part of the island. American officials say the agreement benefits both sides, and any significant change could unravel the whole deal.
The newly ruling Democratic Party of Japan ran in part on a platform that advocated a more assertive policy toward the United States. One of its first acts was to announce it would end Japan's naval operation that refuels coalition supply ships heading to and from Afghanistan - a move seen by some in Japan as an expression of independence from U.S. policies.
But Secretary Gates - on the first visit to Tokyo by a senior U.S. official since the new Japanese government took office - says he will remind the new Japanese leaders that Afghanistan is a NATO and coalition effort and that Japan's refueling mission did more to help other countries than it did to help the United States directly.
"A number of countries benefit more from the refueling than the United States does. And, so I don't see the refueling as being a favor to the United States but rather a contribution that the Japanese have made that is commensurate with its standing as in the world as the second wealthiest country and one of the great powers," he said.
Still, Secretary Gates says he went to Japan with a "menu" of options for how the country can be helpful by, among other things, providing trainers for the Afghan security forces and donating money for development projects.
Here is the Defense Department's official news report covering Secretary Gate's visit with Japan Foreign Minister Okada:
Gates To Urge Japan To Stand By Existing Security Pacts
By Donna Miles, American Forces Press Service
TOKYO, Oct. 20, 2009 - Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said he looks forward to building on the strong U.S.-Japan security relationship during his meetings here with the new Japanese government, but that he plans to urge its leaders to leave intact security arrangements that have been years in the making.
Gates, the first U.S. Cabinet member to visit since the new Japanese Democratic Party government took office last month, told reporters he understands Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama's interest in reviewing certain policies. "President [Barack] Obama's administration has done the same thing," he said.
But during his meeting today with Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada, and tomorrow's sessions with Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa, Gates said he would urge the new leaders to leave existing security agreements in place.
"We are committed to advancing and implementing our agreed alliance transformation agenda," Gates told Okada today at the Foreign Ministry.
At issue is Hatoyama's interest in re-examining the 2006 U.S.-Japan Roadmap for Realignment and Implementation, which outlines a major strategic repositioning of alliance forces.
The agreement includes plans to move thousands of U.S. forces from southern Okinawa, consolidate numerous bases, build a new runway to the north at Camp Schwab to replace Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, and relocate 8,000 Marines and their families to Guam.
Ultimately, the plan would relocate U.S. servicemembers from the heavily populated southern part of Okinawa and reduce the Marine troops on Okinawa from 18,000 to 10,000, Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell explained. The deadline for the plan to be implemented is 2014 -- "a very ambitious goal" that's achievable, he said, but only if it continues moving forward on schedule.
Gates told reporters during the flight here the security agreements can't be picked apart piece by piece.
"This has been a negotiation in the works for 15 years," he said. "All of the elements of it are interlocking, and so it is important to continue with it."
The agreement is highly complex, the result of extensive negotiations that resolved numerous strategic, military and political issues, a senior defense official traveling with Gates told reporters. "If one starts into minor adjustments, it's not a minor adjustment," he said. "It becomes a cascading series of other decisions that have to be made."
Gates said options being voiced to change agreed-upon plans - from changing the location of the proposed runway at Camp Schwab to cancelling its construction altogether and moving Futenma's operations to Kadena Air Base -- simply won't work.
"We've looked over the years at all these alternatives, and they are either politically untenable or operationally unworkable, so we need to proceed with the agreement as negotiated," Gates said. "There really ... are no alternatives to the arrangement that was negotiated."
Not going forward as previously agreed to would have a ripple effect, Gates said.
"It is hard for me to believe that the [U.S.] Congress would support going forward in Guam without real progress with respect to the Futenma replacement facility," he said.
Ultimately, Gates said he has "every confidence" that both the United States and Japan "will fulfill the commitments they have made in this agreement" as they work toward strengthening their bilateral relationship.
"I think there are some real opportunities going forward," he said, with "further cooperation and partnership with one of our strongest allies."
During his meeting today with Okada, Gates called the upcoming 50th anniversary of the treaty of mutual cooperation and security between the United States and Japan an appropriate time to recognize "all we have achieved together, and more importantly, all that we will accomplish together in the future."
In Japan, Gates shows a willingness to adjust
In Japan, Gates shows a willingness to adjust
Tue, 10/20/2009 - 1:06pm
When the Democratic Party of Japan took power last month after decades on the sidelines, Japan watchers wondered what it meant for the United States: Would the DPJ grow too close to China? Did the new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, hold anti-American views? Would Japan be less willing to help out on U.S. foreign-policy priorities, such as the war in Afghanistan?
In Japan today, Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates offered some clues about the Obama administration's thinking when he rolled out his new approach to the new ruling party, showing a mixture of the traditional pressure America applies to its junior partner and a fresh willingness to let the new government change its national-security posture toward the United States. But a senior defense official said this week that there's only so far the administration is willing to go on this front.
The administration is taking a wait-and-see approach to the DPJ, which in September displaced the Liberal Democratic Party for only the second time since World War II. As the first cabinet-level official to visit Japan since the election took place, Gates's presence shows the centrality of the Defense Department in the U.S.-Japan relationship.
Gates gave support to the DPJ's announcement that it would end its refueling mission in the Indian Ocean, which has supported coalition efforts in Afghanistan for years. It's Japan's decision, Gates said, showing a departure from the strong pressure U.S. officials applied on that issue when it came up in Japanese debate in 2007.
But on the issue over the plan to relocate Marine forces at the extremely unpopular Futenma airbase in Okinawa, Gates warned that a change to the plan (which was originally signed in 1996) could disrupt a larger effort to transfer 8,000 Marines to Guam, a major desire of most Okinawa residents.
A senior U.S. defense official said just before the trip that the Okinawa base issue would surely come up in Gates's meetings with Hatoyama, new Foreign Minister Katsuyo Okada, and Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa.
The official said that if Japan starts into minor adjustments to the agreement, it becomes a cascading series of other decisions that have to be made, complicating a host of issues. He also warned that the U.S. Congress might pull funding for the Guam project if there were added delays in the Futenma piece of the puzzle.
The official also said another delay in implementation of the Futenma plan would be a blow to confidence on both sides.
In contrast, on the refueling issue, Gates would come prepared to discuss other ways Japan can contribute to the mission in Afghanistan, the officials said, but won't press the new government to reverse its decision to end refueling.
Meanwhile, the new Japanese government is going through an internal struggle, with factions on the left and right of the DPJ fighting for control of the government's national- security policy. DPJ leaders have said for years that it wants Japan to have a foreign policy more independent of the United States, but skeptics have always believed that once in power, they would be compelled to continue most of the policies the old government had in place.
Hatoyama sent one of the DPJ's newer legislators, Upper House member Kuniko Tanioka, to Washington last week, where she took a survey of the foreign-policy environment and sought to gauge how viable changes in the alliance might be. Tanioka represents the more liberal wing of the DPJ, which also wants to do more to repair strains with Asia caused by controversy over Japanese hard-liners' view of World War II history.
Earlier this year she feuded with DPJ's former shadow defense minister Akihisa Nagashima over whether to deploy Japanese self defense forces to the Horn of Africa. Nagashima represents the conservative wing of the DPJ and has strong ties to Japan hands in Washington, who are largely hoping that U.S.-Japan military agreements can stay somewhere near the status quo.
Traveling with Gates is Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Michael Schiffer, formerly of the Stanley Foundation. Other key Obama Japan officials include Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, the former CNAS CEO who traveled to Japan earlier this month, and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Derek Mitchell, who previously worked for Campbell at CSIS.
Cambell coauthored an op-ed in the Japanese Asashi Shimbun newspaper in 2007 strongly warning Japan not to end its Afghanistan-related refueling mission at that time.
President Obama will visit Japan in November on his way to the APEC regional conference in Singapore.
Tue, 10/20/2009 - 1:06pm
When the Democratic Party of Japan took power last month after decades on the sidelines, Japan watchers wondered what it meant for the United States: Would the DPJ grow too close to China? Did the new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, hold anti-American views? Would Japan be less willing to help out on U.S. foreign-policy priorities, such as the war in Afghanistan?
In Japan today, Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates offered some clues about the Obama administration's thinking when he rolled out his new approach to the new ruling party, showing a mixture of the traditional pressure America applies to its junior partner and a fresh willingness to let the new government change its national-security posture toward the United States. But a senior defense official said this week that there's only so far the administration is willing to go on this front.
The administration is taking a wait-and-see approach to the DPJ, which in September displaced the Liberal Democratic Party for only the second time since World War II. As the first cabinet-level official to visit Japan since the election took place, Gates's presence shows the centrality of the Defense Department in the U.S.-Japan relationship.
Gates gave support to the DPJ's announcement that it would end its refueling mission in the Indian Ocean, which has supported coalition efforts in Afghanistan for years. It's Japan's decision, Gates said, showing a departure from the strong pressure U.S. officials applied on that issue when it came up in Japanese debate in 2007.
But on the issue over the plan to relocate Marine forces at the extremely unpopular Futenma airbase in Okinawa, Gates warned that a change to the plan (which was originally signed in 1996) could disrupt a larger effort to transfer 8,000 Marines to Guam, a major desire of most Okinawa residents.
A senior U.S. defense official said just before the trip that the Okinawa base issue would surely come up in Gates's meetings with Hatoyama, new Foreign Minister Katsuyo Okada, and Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa.
The official said that if Japan starts into minor adjustments to the agreement, it becomes a cascading series of other decisions that have to be made, complicating a host of issues. He also warned that the U.S. Congress might pull funding for the Guam project if there were added delays in the Futenma piece of the puzzle.
The official also said another delay in implementation of the Futenma plan would be a blow to confidence on both sides.
In contrast, on the refueling issue, Gates would come prepared to discuss other ways Japan can contribute to the mission in Afghanistan, the officials said, but won't press the new government to reverse its decision to end refueling.
Meanwhile, the new Japanese government is going through an internal struggle, with factions on the left and right of the DPJ fighting for control of the government's national- security policy. DPJ leaders have said for years that it wants Japan to have a foreign policy more independent of the United States, but skeptics have always believed that once in power, they would be compelled to continue most of the policies the old government had in place.
Hatoyama sent one of the DPJ's newer legislators, Upper House member Kuniko Tanioka, to Washington last week, where she took a survey of the foreign-policy environment and sought to gauge how viable changes in the alliance might be. Tanioka represents the more liberal wing of the DPJ, which also wants to do more to repair strains with Asia caused by controversy over Japanese hard-liners' view of World War II history.
Earlier this year she feuded with DPJ's former shadow defense minister Akihisa Nagashima over whether to deploy Japanese self defense forces to the Horn of Africa. Nagashima represents the conservative wing of the DPJ and has strong ties to Japan hands in Washington, who are largely hoping that U.S.-Japan military agreements can stay somewhere near the status quo.
Traveling with Gates is Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Michael Schiffer, formerly of the Stanley Foundation. Other key Obama Japan officials include Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, the former CNAS CEO who traveled to Japan earlier this month, and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Derek Mitchell, who previously worked for Campbell at CSIS.
Cambell coauthored an op-ed in the Japanese Asashi Shimbun newspaper in 2007 strongly warning Japan not to end its Afghanistan-related refueling mission at that time.
President Obama will visit Japan in November on his way to the APEC regional conference in Singapore.
Japan high court hears arguments in Futenma noise pollution lawsuit
Japan high court hears arguments in Futenma noise pollution lawsuit
By Chiyomi Sumida, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Thursday, October 22, 2009
NAHA, Okinawa — Arguments on whether to pay nearly 400 Japanese residents about $1.3 million in damages over noise pollution from Marine Corps Air Station Futenma were heard in high court Tuesday, the same day U.S. and Japanese officials were addressing the future of the air station.
The Japanese government, which the residents claim is responsible for the damages, was ordered in June 2008 by the Naha District Court to pay 396 residents for mental and physical suffering.
The lower court, however, dismissed a demand by residents to reduce the hours each day that flight operations are permitted at the facility. The court said the Japanese government has no control over military operations at the air station.
Both residents and the government appealed, and the first hearing at the high court began in April.
During Tuesday’s session, Ginowan Mayor Yoichi Iha told the three-judge panel that the noise from the air station has increased considerably since the U.S. and Japanese governments agreed in 1996 to close Futenma.
After years of twists and turns on a site selection, the governments agreed to relocate the facility to Camp Schwab in rural northern Okinawa as part of a military realignment pact signed in 2006.
“Flight activities at the air station continue to grow,” Iha told the court, saying the military has violated the 10 p.m.-6 a.m. noise abatement agreement for Okinawa bases.
Iha criticized the Japanese government’s lack of effort to enforce the agreement.
“The government’s whole intention is to keep the military base here, with no thoughts on the sufferings of local community,” he said. He closed his testimony with his appeal to immediately close the facility.
The next hearing is set for Nov. 11.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was in Tokyo on Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss the realignment of U.S. troops.
By Chiyomi Sumida, Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Thursday, October 22, 2009
NAHA, Okinawa — Arguments on whether to pay nearly 400 Japanese residents about $1.3 million in damages over noise pollution from Marine Corps Air Station Futenma were heard in high court Tuesday, the same day U.S. and Japanese officials were addressing the future of the air station.
The Japanese government, which the residents claim is responsible for the damages, was ordered in June 2008 by the Naha District Court to pay 396 residents for mental and physical suffering.
The lower court, however, dismissed a demand by residents to reduce the hours each day that flight operations are permitted at the facility. The court said the Japanese government has no control over military operations at the air station.
Both residents and the government appealed, and the first hearing at the high court began in April.
During Tuesday’s session, Ginowan Mayor Yoichi Iha told the three-judge panel that the noise from the air station has increased considerably since the U.S. and Japanese governments agreed in 1996 to close Futenma.
After years of twists and turns on a site selection, the governments agreed to relocate the facility to Camp Schwab in rural northern Okinawa as part of a military realignment pact signed in 2006.
“Flight activities at the air station continue to grow,” Iha told the court, saying the military has violated the 10 p.m.-6 a.m. noise abatement agreement for Okinawa bases.
Iha criticized the Japanese government’s lack of effort to enforce the agreement.
“The government’s whole intention is to keep the military base here, with no thoughts on the sufferings of local community,” he said. He closed his testimony with his appeal to immediately close the facility.
The next hearing is set for Nov. 11.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was in Tokyo on Tuesday and Wednesday to discuss the realignment of U.S. troops.
Two 15-yr-old boys sent to family court for assaulting 8-yr-old boy
Two 15-yr-old boys sent to family court for assaulting 8-yr-old boy
Wednesday 21st October, 10:16 AM JST
FUKUOKA —
Two 15-year-old boys arrested last month for assault and attempted murder after they allegedly beat up and threw an 8-year-old boy into the sea in Omuta City had their case referred to the Kurume branch of the Fukuoka Family Court on Tuesday.
Police said the two boys, along with three other boys aged 11-12, accosted the third-grade elementary school boy in a store on Aug 6 and took him to a park where they punched and kicked him, and burned him with lit cigarettes. They then took the boy to a harbor about 700 meters away and threw him into the water.
The boy managed to climb up a ladder back onto the pier, but he sustained bone fractures and other serious injuries in the prolonged attack. He was spotted by an officer on patrol after his parents had reported him missing.
One of the boys arrested was quoted by police as saying: “We didn’t want the injuries we gave him to be discovered, so we tried to kill him.”
Police added the other boy arrested recorded the violence with his mobile phone camera, which showed the victim crying and being attacked for several minutes in the park.
Wednesday 21st October, 10:16 AM JST
FUKUOKA —
Two 15-year-old boys arrested last month for assault and attempted murder after they allegedly beat up and threw an 8-year-old boy into the sea in Omuta City had their case referred to the Kurume branch of the Fukuoka Family Court on Tuesday.
Police said the two boys, along with three other boys aged 11-12, accosted the third-grade elementary school boy in a store on Aug 6 and took him to a park where they punched and kicked him, and burned him with lit cigarettes. They then took the boy to a harbor about 700 meters away and threw him into the water.
The boy managed to climb up a ladder back onto the pier, but he sustained bone fractures and other serious injuries in the prolonged attack. He was spotted by an officer on patrol after his parents had reported him missing.
One of the boys arrested was quoted by police as saying: “We didn’t want the injuries we gave him to be discovered, so we tried to kill him.”
Police added the other boy arrested recorded the violence with his mobile phone camera, which showed the victim crying and being attacked for several minutes in the park.
Hyundai supplanting Toyota in U.S.
Hyundai supplanting Toyota in U.S.
David Beidny's choice between a Japanese and Korean car was easy: Hyundai Motor Co. gave him $3,500 in cash to make the purchase, a deal that money-losing Toyota Motor Corp. could ill afford to offer.
"I stopped by Toyota and I even sat in a Camry, but they were asking $4,500 more than the Hyundai I bought," said the 46-year-old computer graphics designer from Rockland County, New York, who purchased an Elantra.
"Hyundai was cutting the best deal."
Japan, which barely emerged from recession in the second quarter, may see its expansion cut short as the exporters it depends on for growth cede business to Korean rivals. Toyota is contending with a yen that has risen against all 16 major currencies in the past two years, including the dollar, euro and Korean won, eroding profit and leaving little room for price cuts. The won's 22 percent slide versus the dollar let Hyundai give discounts and almost double its U.S. market share.
"Korea's done much better over the last year and the exchange rates tell you a lot of the reason," said Richard Jerram, chief economist at Macquarie Securities Ltd. in Tokyo. "Look at the earnings coming out of the two countries: the ones from Korea are strikingly better."
The yen has soared 62 percent over its Korean counterpart over the past two years, trading at 13 won at 2:53 p.m. in Tokyo.
Seoul-based Hyundai posted record profit of 812 billion won ($697 million) in the three months through June. In the same period, Toyota lost 77.8 billion yen ($861 million). Nagoya- based Toyota, the world's largest automaker, is forecasting its second consecutive loss.
Japanese electronics makers aren't faring any better. Sony Corp. predicts an annual loss of 120 billion yen, with an appreciating currency threatening a deeper slump. The Tokyo-based company calculated its forecast assuming the yen will trade at 93 per dollar, weaker than the rate of 90.35 at the close in Tokyo on Tuesday.
"It's a tough environment," Sony vice chairman Ryoji Chubachi said in an interview this month in Chiba, near Tokyo.
"We don't have any room to breathe," he said, citing the yen's gain and reduced U.S. demand. Sony's income statement shows its loss will widen by 1 billion yen for every 1 yen the currency appreciates.
In contrast, the won's drop has allowed Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc. to lop off more than $100 from the price of a $1,000 television and stay profitable. Earnings at Suwon-based Samsung climbed 5.2 percent to 2.3 trillion won in the quarter through June. LG, which posted record profit of 1.1 trillion won in the period, says it will overtake Sony this year as the world's second-largest TV maker.
"I don't really see the competitive edge of Japanese companies right now," said Peter Yu, a technology analyst at BNP Paribas SA in Seoul. Korean firms are better at managing costs and quicker to market than Sony, which "takes months to make a decision and implement it," he said.
Vexing for Japanese exporters is that the yen may not be overvalued. A Bank of Japan index comparing the currency with those of the nation's top trading partners showed it rose 22 percent to 118.5 in September from 96.8 two years before. That's still cheaper than the average of 122.5 the past two decades. A separate gauge compiled by Westpac Banking Corp. showed the yen rose 32 percent from two years ago while the won sank 37 percent.
"That's a very significant advantage for Hyundai or Samsung or LG," said Uwe Parpart, chief Asia strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald LP in Hong Kong.
"It's something that the Japanese are beginning to learn to live with."
The contrasting fortunes of the countries' exporters have determined the speed at which their economies have rebounded. Korea's gross domestic product grew 2.6 percent in the second quarter, the fastest pace since 2003. Japan's 0.6 percent expansion barely lifted the economy out of its worst postwar recession.
The Kospi stock index has gained 47 percent this year, about seven times more than Japan's Topix. Hyundai has more than doubled, while Toyota has risen 23 percent.
Korea's success may in turn cause the won to appreciate as international investors flock to the nation's assets. The won has the best prospects in 2010 among 34 currencies ranked by Bloomberg forecast surveys. Median projections show the won rising 6 percent against the dollar by Sept. 30, 2010. The yen is predicted to lose 7.8 percent per dollar and 13 percent versus the won.
Japan's exporters, whose shipments overseas fell 36 percent in August from a year earlier, have received little sympathy from their government over the yen's appreciation so far. Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii says companies shouldn't rely on a weaker yen to prop up sales abroad. Japan hasn't intervened in the foreign-exchange market with yen sales since 2004.
By contrast, Korean officials are acting to keep their currency cheap. The country's foreign-exchange reserves soared 9.7 percent to $254 billion last quarter as officials sold won to contain an 8.1 percent rally against the dollar.
The collapse of General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC created an opening in the U.S. market that the South Koreans were quick to seize. Hyundai has won U.S. customers with a marketing blitz and incentives that include cash rebates, gasoline discounts and an offer to repurchase cars from buyers who lose their jobs.
"For the last five or 10 years, the question has always come up, when do the Koreans finally become competitive? When do they pose a threat to the Japanese automobile makers?" said Stephen Usher, a San Diego-based analyst for equity-research firm Japaninvest Plc.
"That time is here."
While Toyota's U.S. market share held at about 17 percent through the first nine months of 2009, Hyundai increased its share by 1.3 percentage points to 4.4 percent, the industry's biggest gain, according to Autodata Corp. The company was ranked ahead of Japanese makers Nissan Motor Co. and Mazda Motor Corp. in a survey this year of vehicle dependability by market researcher J.D. Power and Associates.
"For the money, it's a fantastic car," said Biedny, the graphics designer who in July traded his Ford Motor Co. vehicle for the Hyundai Elantra. (Bloomberg)
2009.10.22
David Beidny's choice between a Japanese and Korean car was easy: Hyundai Motor Co. gave him $3,500 in cash to make the purchase, a deal that money-losing Toyota Motor Corp. could ill afford to offer.
"I stopped by Toyota and I even sat in a Camry, but they were asking $4,500 more than the Hyundai I bought," said the 46-year-old computer graphics designer from Rockland County, New York, who purchased an Elantra.
"Hyundai was cutting the best deal."
Japan, which barely emerged from recession in the second quarter, may see its expansion cut short as the exporters it depends on for growth cede business to Korean rivals. Toyota is contending with a yen that has risen against all 16 major currencies in the past two years, including the dollar, euro and Korean won, eroding profit and leaving little room for price cuts. The won's 22 percent slide versus the dollar let Hyundai give discounts and almost double its U.S. market share.
"Korea's done much better over the last year and the exchange rates tell you a lot of the reason," said Richard Jerram, chief economist at Macquarie Securities Ltd. in Tokyo. "Look at the earnings coming out of the two countries: the ones from Korea are strikingly better."
The yen has soared 62 percent over its Korean counterpart over the past two years, trading at 13 won at 2:53 p.m. in Tokyo.
Seoul-based Hyundai posted record profit of 812 billion won ($697 million) in the three months through June. In the same period, Toyota lost 77.8 billion yen ($861 million). Nagoya- based Toyota, the world's largest automaker, is forecasting its second consecutive loss.
Japanese electronics makers aren't faring any better. Sony Corp. predicts an annual loss of 120 billion yen, with an appreciating currency threatening a deeper slump. The Tokyo-based company calculated its forecast assuming the yen will trade at 93 per dollar, weaker than the rate of 90.35 at the close in Tokyo on Tuesday.
"It's a tough environment," Sony vice chairman Ryoji Chubachi said in an interview this month in Chiba, near Tokyo.
"We don't have any room to breathe," he said, citing the yen's gain and reduced U.S. demand. Sony's income statement shows its loss will widen by 1 billion yen for every 1 yen the currency appreciates.
In contrast, the won's drop has allowed Samsung Electronics Co. and LG Electronics Inc. to lop off more than $100 from the price of a $1,000 television and stay profitable. Earnings at Suwon-based Samsung climbed 5.2 percent to 2.3 trillion won in the quarter through June. LG, which posted record profit of 1.1 trillion won in the period, says it will overtake Sony this year as the world's second-largest TV maker.
"I don't really see the competitive edge of Japanese companies right now," said Peter Yu, a technology analyst at BNP Paribas SA in Seoul. Korean firms are better at managing costs and quicker to market than Sony, which "takes months to make a decision and implement it," he said.
Vexing for Japanese exporters is that the yen may not be overvalued. A Bank of Japan index comparing the currency with those of the nation's top trading partners showed it rose 22 percent to 118.5 in September from 96.8 two years before. That's still cheaper than the average of 122.5 the past two decades. A separate gauge compiled by Westpac Banking Corp. showed the yen rose 32 percent from two years ago while the won sank 37 percent.
"That's a very significant advantage for Hyundai or Samsung or LG," said Uwe Parpart, chief Asia strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald LP in Hong Kong.
"It's something that the Japanese are beginning to learn to live with."
The contrasting fortunes of the countries' exporters have determined the speed at which their economies have rebounded. Korea's gross domestic product grew 2.6 percent in the second quarter, the fastest pace since 2003. Japan's 0.6 percent expansion barely lifted the economy out of its worst postwar recession.
The Kospi stock index has gained 47 percent this year, about seven times more than Japan's Topix. Hyundai has more than doubled, while Toyota has risen 23 percent.
Korea's success may in turn cause the won to appreciate as international investors flock to the nation's assets. The won has the best prospects in 2010 among 34 currencies ranked by Bloomberg forecast surveys. Median projections show the won rising 6 percent against the dollar by Sept. 30, 2010. The yen is predicted to lose 7.8 percent per dollar and 13 percent versus the won.
Japan's exporters, whose shipments overseas fell 36 percent in August from a year earlier, have received little sympathy from their government over the yen's appreciation so far. Finance Minister Hirohisa Fujii says companies shouldn't rely on a weaker yen to prop up sales abroad. Japan hasn't intervened in the foreign-exchange market with yen sales since 2004.
By contrast, Korean officials are acting to keep their currency cheap. The country's foreign-exchange reserves soared 9.7 percent to $254 billion last quarter as officials sold won to contain an 8.1 percent rally against the dollar.
The collapse of General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC created an opening in the U.S. market that the South Koreans were quick to seize. Hyundai has won U.S. customers with a marketing blitz and incentives that include cash rebates, gasoline discounts and an offer to repurchase cars from buyers who lose their jobs.
"For the last five or 10 years, the question has always come up, when do the Koreans finally become competitive? When do they pose a threat to the Japanese automobile makers?" said Stephen Usher, a San Diego-based analyst for equity-research firm Japaninvest Plc.
"That time is here."
While Toyota's U.S. market share held at about 17 percent through the first nine months of 2009, Hyundai increased its share by 1.3 percentage points to 4.4 percent, the industry's biggest gain, according to Autodata Corp. The company was ranked ahead of Japanese makers Nissan Motor Co. and Mazda Motor Corp. in a survey this year of vehicle dependability by market researcher J.D. Power and Associates.
"For the money, it's a fantastic car," said Biedny, the graphics designer who in July traded his Ford Motor Co. vehicle for the Hyundai Elantra. (Bloomberg)
2009.10.22
Festival shows hanbok for everyday
Festival shows hanbok for everyday
The traditional Korean dress, hanbok, has been a valuable cultural asset that has long-represented Korea. Yet, despite Koreans' love for the outfit and its growing international recognition, large-scale events featuring the costume are hard to come by.
The 2009 Hanbok Sarang Festival, taking place Friday and Saturday at Deoksugung Palace in central Seoul, is an effort to give hanbok the chance in the spotlight it deserves. Also, the event is to promote hanbok as an everyday clothing rather than something to be worn only on traditional holidays. This is the second year of the annual event.
"Hanbok Sarang Festival is aimed towards engraving hanbok in people's minds as a daily wear, not just for special occasions," said Toh Shin-woo, the president of Model Center International. The company hosts the event as well as the biannual Pret-a-Porter Busan.
"Popularizing hanbok will not be easy but we hope to change people's perception at least a little through the event. We think hanbok can be internationalized only when Koreans first start wearing them a lot."
The festival will feature collections by local hanbok designers including Lee Rhee Za and Kim Hye-soon, first-generation designers who are renowned for having contributed to making the outfit more high-end and thus used for contemporary weddings.
Visitors can also enjoy different styles of hanbok from the different periods of Korean history through designs which have been featured on popular local television dramas. The list includes "Hwangjini," "The Great Queen Seondeok" and "Jumong." Some scenes from the dramas will also be recreated.
Around 200 models, including actors Lim Ho and Kim Seung-soo, will walk down the runway. Some foreign ambassadors to Korea and their spouses are also included on the list, according to organizers.
Meanwhile, up-and-coming designers and student's creations selected through a preliminary will be shown at Onnuri Fashion Show on Saturday. The winner from the show will receive an award by the culture minister and a prize of 5 million won ($4,247).
Toh said the festival will present some modernized hanbok as well.
Although he worries that modernized hanbok might lose their Korean identity, Toh said he thinks that developing new styles and modifying designs are desirable for making hanbok more wearable.
Other traditional Korean activities like natural dyeing, tea making and make-up will also be offered to visitors to experience more of Korean culture.
"We think holding this kind of quality festival regularly is most important at the moment to draw people's attention to hanbok," said a festival spokesperson.
Visitors dressed in hanbok can enter the festival free of charge and also receive a gift. Entrance is also free for those who have downloaded and printed their tickets from www.hanboksarang.kr, the show's website.
For details on the 2009 Hanbok Sarang Festival, call (02) 528-0888.
(youngaah@heraldm.com)
By Koh Young-aah
2009.10.22
The traditional Korean dress, hanbok, has been a valuable cultural asset that has long-represented Korea. Yet, despite Koreans' love for the outfit and its growing international recognition, large-scale events featuring the costume are hard to come by.
The 2009 Hanbok Sarang Festival, taking place Friday and Saturday at Deoksugung Palace in central Seoul, is an effort to give hanbok the chance in the spotlight it deserves. Also, the event is to promote hanbok as an everyday clothing rather than something to be worn only on traditional holidays. This is the second year of the annual event.
"Hanbok Sarang Festival is aimed towards engraving hanbok in people's minds as a daily wear, not just for special occasions," said Toh Shin-woo, the president of Model Center International. The company hosts the event as well as the biannual Pret-a-Porter Busan.
"Popularizing hanbok will not be easy but we hope to change people's perception at least a little through the event. We think hanbok can be internationalized only when Koreans first start wearing them a lot."
The festival will feature collections by local hanbok designers including Lee Rhee Za and Kim Hye-soon, first-generation designers who are renowned for having contributed to making the outfit more high-end and thus used for contemporary weddings.
Visitors can also enjoy different styles of hanbok from the different periods of Korean history through designs which have been featured on popular local television dramas. The list includes "Hwangjini," "The Great Queen Seondeok" and "Jumong." Some scenes from the dramas will also be recreated.
Around 200 models, including actors Lim Ho and Kim Seung-soo, will walk down the runway. Some foreign ambassadors to Korea and their spouses are also included on the list, according to organizers.
Meanwhile, up-and-coming designers and student's creations selected through a preliminary will be shown at Onnuri Fashion Show on Saturday. The winner from the show will receive an award by the culture minister and a prize of 5 million won ($4,247).
Toh said the festival will present some modernized hanbok as well.
Although he worries that modernized hanbok might lose their Korean identity, Toh said he thinks that developing new styles and modifying designs are desirable for making hanbok more wearable.
Other traditional Korean activities like natural dyeing, tea making and make-up will also be offered to visitors to experience more of Korean culture.
"We think holding this kind of quality festival regularly is most important at the moment to draw people's attention to hanbok," said a festival spokesperson.
Visitors dressed in hanbok can enter the festival free of charge and also receive a gift. Entrance is also free for those who have downloaded and printed their tickets from www.hanboksarang.kr, the show's website.
For details on the 2009 Hanbok Sarang Festival, call (02) 528-0888.
(youngaah@heraldm.com)
By Koh Young-aah
2009.10.22
Ancient Seoul gate set to be restored
Ancient Seoul gate set to be restored
The ancient gate "Doneuimun," which was removed in 1915 during the Japanese colonial occupation, will be rebuilt in central Seoul by 2013, Seoul Metropolitan Government said yesterday.
The landmark gate, also known as Seodaemun, is one of the four major ancient gates in Seoul. The city plans to rebuild the gate, which will measure 12 meters in width and 12 meters in height, based on thorough historical research with experts and scholars.
The city also plans to build a 16,666-square-meter "historical and cultural" park around the gate to provide citizens with another spot for leisure activities.
The city plans to refurbish the areas near the four gates and make special zones - a "performance and arts zone" near Doneuimun, a "fashion zone" near Heunginjimun, a "festival zone" near Sungnyemun and a "prospect zone" near Sukjeongmun.
The city also plans to restore seven sections (2,175 meters) of the fortress wall of Seoul, which stretches from Mount Bukak, Mount Naksan, Mount Namsan and Mount Inwang, by 2013. The fortress wall was built during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) to safeguard the capital from invasions.
When the restoration work on Doneuimun and the fortress wall is competed in 2013, the city plans to seek the registering of the fortress wall on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
"With the restoration of Doneuimun, we will have all four ancient gates that are key relics of the fortress wall," Kwon Hyeok-so, a senior official in the city's culture division.
"Seoul's unique cultural completiveness will be further strengthened with the revival of the fortress wall, which is one of the city's representative historic symbols."
(sshluck@heraldm.com)
By Song Sang-ho
2009.10.22
The ancient gate "Doneuimun," which was removed in 1915 during the Japanese colonial occupation, will be rebuilt in central Seoul by 2013, Seoul Metropolitan Government said yesterday.
The landmark gate, also known as Seodaemun, is one of the four major ancient gates in Seoul. The city plans to rebuild the gate, which will measure 12 meters in width and 12 meters in height, based on thorough historical research with experts and scholars.
The city also plans to build a 16,666-square-meter "historical and cultural" park around the gate to provide citizens with another spot for leisure activities.
The city plans to refurbish the areas near the four gates and make special zones - a "performance and arts zone" near Doneuimun, a "fashion zone" near Heunginjimun, a "festival zone" near Sungnyemun and a "prospect zone" near Sukjeongmun.
The city also plans to restore seven sections (2,175 meters) of the fortress wall of Seoul, which stretches from Mount Bukak, Mount Naksan, Mount Namsan and Mount Inwang, by 2013. The fortress wall was built during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) to safeguard the capital from invasions.
When the restoration work on Doneuimun and the fortress wall is competed in 2013, the city plans to seek the registering of the fortress wall on the UNESCO World Heritage list.
"With the restoration of Doneuimun, we will have all four ancient gates that are key relics of the fortress wall," Kwon Hyeok-so, a senior official in the city's culture division.
"Seoul's unique cultural completiveness will be further strengthened with the revival of the fortress wall, which is one of the city's representative historic symbols."
(sshluck@heraldm.com)
By Song Sang-ho
2009.10.22
Chinese, US presidents in phone link on ties, climate change
Chinese, US presidents in phone link on ties, climate change
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-10-21 19:41
BEIJING: Chinese President Hu Jintao and his U.S. counterpart, Barack Obama, exchanged views on bilateral ties and climate change during a phone conversation Wednesday morning.
Obama expressed appreciation over China's contribution to the success of the G20 Pittsburgh summit in September, saying that he looked forward to visiting China in November and discussing with Hu issues of mutual concern.
Looking forward to exchanging views on their bilateral relations and important regional and international issues with Obama, Hu said, "China is ready to work with the U.S. side to ensure a successful visit by President Obama and further promote the positive, cooperative and comprehensive relationship between the two countries."
On climate change, Hu said the Copenhagen Conference to be held in December would be an important meeting of the international community in efforts to tackle climate change.
It conforms to the interests of all parties concerned, including China and the United States, to strive for a wide consensus and a successful Copenhagen Conference on the basis of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol, under the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities" among developed and developing countries, and in line with the Bali Roadmap, Hu said.
"Although problems remain in talks for a final deal, there are hopes for a positive result at the Copenhagen Conference as long as the convening parties work together closely," he said.
It is essential that any result of the conference should embody the basic principles of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol, and lock on the achievements of the Bali Roadmap, he added.
"With shared challenges and interests in dealing with climate change, cooperation between China and the United States not only benefits collective global efforts against the problem, but also is highly significant for the progress of their relations," said the Chinese president.
China was ready to work with all sides concerned, including the United States, to enhance coordination and cooperation for a positive result at the Copenhagen Conference, a better collective fight against climate change and a greater contribution to sustainable development worldwide, he said.
For his part, Obama said as the Copenhagen Conference is imminent, the United States is willing to work with all parties concerned to push for achievements of the meeting. Both the Untied States and China have taken important measures in dealing with climate change. The two sides should make concerted efforts to push for the adoption of concrete and meaningful steps in facing up to the challenges of climate change at the Copenhagen Conference, and to make the conference a success, he said.
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-10-21 19:41
BEIJING: Chinese President Hu Jintao and his U.S. counterpart, Barack Obama, exchanged views on bilateral ties and climate change during a phone conversation Wednesday morning.
Obama expressed appreciation over China's contribution to the success of the G20 Pittsburgh summit in September, saying that he looked forward to visiting China in November and discussing with Hu issues of mutual concern.
Looking forward to exchanging views on their bilateral relations and important regional and international issues with Obama, Hu said, "China is ready to work with the U.S. side to ensure a successful visit by President Obama and further promote the positive, cooperative and comprehensive relationship between the two countries."
On climate change, Hu said the Copenhagen Conference to be held in December would be an important meeting of the international community in efforts to tackle climate change.
It conforms to the interests of all parties concerned, including China and the United States, to strive for a wide consensus and a successful Copenhagen Conference on the basis of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol, under the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities" among developed and developing countries, and in line with the Bali Roadmap, Hu said.
"Although problems remain in talks for a final deal, there are hopes for a positive result at the Copenhagen Conference as long as the convening parties work together closely," he said.
It is essential that any result of the conference should embody the basic principles of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol, and lock on the achievements of the Bali Roadmap, he added.
"With shared challenges and interests in dealing with climate change, cooperation between China and the United States not only benefits collective global efforts against the problem, but also is highly significant for the progress of their relations," said the Chinese president.
China was ready to work with all sides concerned, including the United States, to enhance coordination and cooperation for a positive result at the Copenhagen Conference, a better collective fight against climate change and a greater contribution to sustainable development worldwide, he said.
For his part, Obama said as the Copenhagen Conference is imminent, the United States is willing to work with all parties concerned to push for achievements of the meeting. Both the Untied States and China have taken important measures in dealing with climate change. The two sides should make concerted efforts to push for the adoption of concrete and meaningful steps in facing up to the challenges of climate change at the Copenhagen Conference, and to make the conference a success, he said.
Chinese army to recruit 130,000 university graduates
Chinese army to recruit 130,000 university graduates
BEIJING: A total of 130,000 graduates from Chinese universities and colleges are expected to join the army this winter, a record number in the country that wants to uplift the quality of servicemen while grappling with job crisis.
Ministry of Education said Wednesday that graduates who had signed up in June for military service should report to recruiting stations across the country early next month when annual conscription work begins.
Those who did not register beforehand could also apply for joining the army. If recruited, every student-turned soldier will receive a one-off refund of up to 24,000 yuan ($3,500) as a compensation to college tuition fees or student loans.
The money, paid by central government's budget, roughly equals to the tuition fee for the four-year university education in China.
"This means the state pays for university education of those servicemen," said Zhang Haoming, deputy director of the ministry's department for college student affairs.
And this was just part of privilege policies announced this year to encourage more Chinese youth with higher education background to serve in the People's Liberation Army (PLA).
They will have more chances of getting promoted or receiving education at military academies. After finishing the two-year compulsory service, they are promised to enjoy preference while seeking jobs at police and other law-enforcement departments.
The PLA recruits are usually young men aged between 18 and 20 and young women of 18 or 19. But the age limit can be extended to 24 for those with a bachelor degree.
The Chinese army previously relied mostly on high school graduates and the unemployed, although all males aged 18 to 22 are nominally obliged to undergo two years of service according to the country's conscription law.
Most college students just take part in month-long military training, usually in their first month of campus life.
China's State Council, or Cabinet, revised the government's recruitment regulations in September 2001 to enlist college students for the first time in a pilot scheme. More than 2,000 students were recruited in that year.
The move to recruit more college graduates has been seen as Chinese army's efforts to sharpen its high-tech edge.
The crunch of job market since last year due to global economic downturn and extra supply of graduates was also driving many youth to choose the army as an alternative employment.
A Defense Ministry survey in July found that among over 6 million college and university graduates, about 1.44 million male graduates were interested in military service.
Copyright By chinadaily.com.cn. All rights reserved
BEIJING: A total of 130,000 graduates from Chinese universities and colleges are expected to join the army this winter, a record number in the country that wants to uplift the quality of servicemen while grappling with job crisis.
Ministry of Education said Wednesday that graduates who had signed up in June for military service should report to recruiting stations across the country early next month when annual conscription work begins.
Those who did not register beforehand could also apply for joining the army. If recruited, every student-turned soldier will receive a one-off refund of up to 24,000 yuan ($3,500) as a compensation to college tuition fees or student loans.
The money, paid by central government's budget, roughly equals to the tuition fee for the four-year university education in China.
"This means the state pays for university education of those servicemen," said Zhang Haoming, deputy director of the ministry's department for college student affairs.
And this was just part of privilege policies announced this year to encourage more Chinese youth with higher education background to serve in the People's Liberation Army (PLA).
They will have more chances of getting promoted or receiving education at military academies. After finishing the two-year compulsory service, they are promised to enjoy preference while seeking jobs at police and other law-enforcement departments.
The PLA recruits are usually young men aged between 18 and 20 and young women of 18 or 19. But the age limit can be extended to 24 for those with a bachelor degree.
The Chinese army previously relied mostly on high school graduates and the unemployed, although all males aged 18 to 22 are nominally obliged to undergo two years of service according to the country's conscription law.
Most college students just take part in month-long military training, usually in their first month of campus life.
China's State Council, or Cabinet, revised the government's recruitment regulations in September 2001 to enlist college students for the first time in a pilot scheme. More than 2,000 students were recruited in that year.
The move to recruit more college graduates has been seen as Chinese army's efforts to sharpen its high-tech edge.
The crunch of job market since last year due to global economic downturn and extra supply of graduates was also driving many youth to choose the army as an alternative employment.
A Defense Ministry survey in July found that among over 6 million college and university graduates, about 1.44 million male graduates were interested in military service.
Copyright By chinadaily.com.cn. All rights reserved
Smoke ban puts focus on children
Smoke ban puts focus on children
Created: 2009-10-22 1:20:09
Author:Dong Zhen
CITY lawmakers are expanding the scope of total bans on smoking in the latest draft of Shanghai's first public tobacco control law.
Increased emphasis has been placed on minors endangered by passive smoking.
The law, with fines for offenders, is expected to be enacted before the end of this year, well ahead of the start of the Shanghai World Expo next May.
The latest version of the draft released to the media yesterday has incorporated suggestions from a public hearing held last month.
Many at that hearing called for clarification of the law's enforcement mechanism.
Lawmakers have now decided to make the Health Promotion Commission the chief overseer.
The commission will coordinate and supervise government departments to ensure the law is enforced.
Under the latest draft, a total smoking ban will apply to all children's activity centers.
Liu Yungen, chairman of the Standing Committee of the Shanghai People's Congress, said yesterday at a round of talks over the legislation that middle schools should also face total bans as updates on the draft continue.
The draft in its present form only bans smoking indoors at middle schools but has a total ban inside and around kindergartens, children's care centers and primary schools.
Liu said students at middle schools should receive the same protection.
"Teachers should not smoke anywhere at a middle school complex," Liu said.
"Their public behavior influences students. Teachers should be good role models."
A middle school teacher had suggested at the public hearing that the law allow some designated smoking rooms for educators.
The teacher said it would be embarrassing for him to be seen by students smoking in the grounds of his school.
The smoking teacher's idea has been dismissed but lawmakers have heeded another suggestion to enforce total bans in Internet cafes.
A leader of the city's Internet cafe business told lawmakers at last month's hearing thatit would be impossible toset up separate smoking rooms in the facilities.
Copyright © 2001-2009 Shanghai Daily Publishing House
Created: 2009-10-22 1:20:09
Author:Dong Zhen
CITY lawmakers are expanding the scope of total bans on smoking in the latest draft of Shanghai's first public tobacco control law.
Increased emphasis has been placed on minors endangered by passive smoking.
The law, with fines for offenders, is expected to be enacted before the end of this year, well ahead of the start of the Shanghai World Expo next May.
The latest version of the draft released to the media yesterday has incorporated suggestions from a public hearing held last month.
Many at that hearing called for clarification of the law's enforcement mechanism.
Lawmakers have now decided to make the Health Promotion Commission the chief overseer.
The commission will coordinate and supervise government departments to ensure the law is enforced.
Under the latest draft, a total smoking ban will apply to all children's activity centers.
Liu Yungen, chairman of the Standing Committee of the Shanghai People's Congress, said yesterday at a round of talks over the legislation that middle schools should also face total bans as updates on the draft continue.
The draft in its present form only bans smoking indoors at middle schools but has a total ban inside and around kindergartens, children's care centers and primary schools.
Liu said students at middle schools should receive the same protection.
"Teachers should not smoke anywhere at a middle school complex," Liu said.
"Their public behavior influences students. Teachers should be good role models."
A middle school teacher had suggested at the public hearing that the law allow some designated smoking rooms for educators.
The teacher said it would be embarrassing for him to be seen by students smoking in the grounds of his school.
The smoking teacher's idea has been dismissed but lawmakers have heeded another suggestion to enforce total bans in Internet cafes.
A leader of the city's Internet cafe business told lawmakers at last month's hearing thatit would be impossible toset up separate smoking rooms in the facilities.
Copyright © 2001-2009 Shanghai Daily Publishing House
High-rise litterbugs difficult to nab as complaints mount
High-rise litterbugs difficult to nab as complaints mount
Created: 2009-10-22 1:22:31
Author:Zha Minjie
CITY property-management companies are in a dilemma over how to stop people living in high-rise buildings from throwing litter out of balconies and windows.
Apartment owners in lower levels are increasing pressure on the firms to take action - easier said than done.
"It has been a headache for society for a long time," said Xu Yubiao, vice secretary general of a Shanghai property-management association. "It is just so hard to pinpoint offenders."
The practice is not only socially unacceptable but also potentially lethal for pedestrians.
The problem resurfaced last Saturday when an apartment owner posted a notice in his building accusing neighbors living upstairs of twice throwing used condoms onto his balcony.
"I have never had such a disgusting 'windfall,'" said the owner, surnamed Yu, who lives in a Putuo District complex.
Yu nailed the condoms onto the community notice board, which caused controversy among neighbors and online.
Property management officials of Yu's residence said they would try to locate the condom thrower.
"We will have staff closely monitoring high-rise windows," officials said in a statement to residents.
However, officials said they had no jurisdiction to hand out penalties.
Warnings and education in manners were their only courses of action.
"They could easily offend again," said Xu.
Throwers inevitably deny involvement and as there is generally no direct evidence, government authorities find it difficult to impose penalties.
Under anti-litter legislation, high-rise litterbugs face fines of up to 200 yuan (US$29.30).
Normally, police officers only become involved if people are killed or injured or property is damaged, according to Xu.
There is one notable exception.
A high-rise resident who twice dumped litter in a residential complex in 2007 was detained for 10 days by Huangpu District police.
The litterbug was caught in the act by a surveillance camera.
Copyright © 2001-2009 Shanghai Daily Publishing House
Created: 2009-10-22 1:22:31
Author:Zha Minjie
CITY property-management companies are in a dilemma over how to stop people living in high-rise buildings from throwing litter out of balconies and windows.
Apartment owners in lower levels are increasing pressure on the firms to take action - easier said than done.
"It has been a headache for society for a long time," said Xu Yubiao, vice secretary general of a Shanghai property-management association. "It is just so hard to pinpoint offenders."
The practice is not only socially unacceptable but also potentially lethal for pedestrians.
The problem resurfaced last Saturday when an apartment owner posted a notice in his building accusing neighbors living upstairs of twice throwing used condoms onto his balcony.
"I have never had such a disgusting 'windfall,'" said the owner, surnamed Yu, who lives in a Putuo District complex.
Yu nailed the condoms onto the community notice board, which caused controversy among neighbors and online.
Property management officials of Yu's residence said they would try to locate the condom thrower.
"We will have staff closely monitoring high-rise windows," officials said in a statement to residents.
However, officials said they had no jurisdiction to hand out penalties.
Warnings and education in manners were their only courses of action.
"They could easily offend again," said Xu.
Throwers inevitably deny involvement and as there is generally no direct evidence, government authorities find it difficult to impose penalties.
Under anti-litter legislation, high-rise litterbugs face fines of up to 200 yuan (US$29.30).
Normally, police officers only become involved if people are killed or injured or property is damaged, according to Xu.
There is one notable exception.
A high-rise resident who twice dumped litter in a residential complex in 2007 was detained for 10 days by Huangpu District police.
The litterbug was caught in the act by a surveillance camera.
Copyright © 2001-2009 Shanghai Daily Publishing House
City Century-Breakers Honored
City century-breakers honored
Created: 2009-10-22 1:23:08
Author:Lu Feiran
SHANGHAI'S centenarians believe the keys to reaching the milestone are good living habits and a loving family.
The city yesterday selected 10 "longevity stars" to mark the Double Nine Festival, five men and five women.
The festival on the ninth day of the ninth month of the lunar calendar pays homage to the elderly.
The eldest "star" is Li Suqing, 110, and the youngest are two 104-year-old men.
Two among the 10 selected one year ago have died, thus this year, two new stars, both from Hongkou District, emerged, the Gerontological Society of Shanghai said.
The society said its studies showed "longevity stars" shared the same characteristics: they are kind and optimistic, go to bed and get up at a fixed time, are not picky eaters and do not drink or smoke.
Li, from Pudong New Area, lives with her caring daughter Tian Yulan.
Tian, 69, bathes her mother every morning, and has been studying herbal remedies aimed at the elderly for several decades. Every winter, Tian prepares a tonic for Li to keep her healthy.
This summer, almost all Li's family members caught a cold - but not her.
"We were amazed by my mother's good health at her age," said Tian.
"Star" Ge Hanmin, 104, lives in Xuhui District, and underwent a cataract operation two years ago so he could take care of his wife, 95.
"My wife suffered a stroke," said Ge. "I can look after her better with full vision."
Hongkou District has three "stars," the most in the city.
Jing'an District, however, had the most centenarians, said the society.
In Jing'an District, about 16 people in 100,000 lived for more than 100 years, officials said.
Up to the end of last year, the city had 836 seniors 100 years and above, 661 women and 175 men.
A zone where seven people in 100,000 live over 100 years is defined as a "longevity area." Up to last year, Shanghai had six people in 100,000, according to the society.
Copyright © 2001-2009 Shanghai Daily Publishing House
Created: 2009-10-22 1:23:08
Author:Lu Feiran
SHANGHAI'S centenarians believe the keys to reaching the milestone are good living habits and a loving family.
The city yesterday selected 10 "longevity stars" to mark the Double Nine Festival, five men and five women.
The festival on the ninth day of the ninth month of the lunar calendar pays homage to the elderly.
The eldest "star" is Li Suqing, 110, and the youngest are two 104-year-old men.
Two among the 10 selected one year ago have died, thus this year, two new stars, both from Hongkou District, emerged, the Gerontological Society of Shanghai said.
The society said its studies showed "longevity stars" shared the same characteristics: they are kind and optimistic, go to bed and get up at a fixed time, are not picky eaters and do not drink or smoke.
Li, from Pudong New Area, lives with her caring daughter Tian Yulan.
Tian, 69, bathes her mother every morning, and has been studying herbal remedies aimed at the elderly for several decades. Every winter, Tian prepares a tonic for Li to keep her healthy.
This summer, almost all Li's family members caught a cold - but not her.
"We were amazed by my mother's good health at her age," said Tian.
"Star" Ge Hanmin, 104, lives in Xuhui District, and underwent a cataract operation two years ago so he could take care of his wife, 95.
"My wife suffered a stroke," said Ge. "I can look after her better with full vision."
Hongkou District has three "stars," the most in the city.
Jing'an District, however, had the most centenarians, said the society.
In Jing'an District, about 16 people in 100,000 lived for more than 100 years, officials said.
Up to the end of last year, the city had 836 seniors 100 years and above, 661 women and 175 men.
A zone where seven people in 100,000 live over 100 years is defined as a "longevity area." Up to last year, Shanghai had six people in 100,000, according to the society.
Copyright © 2001-2009 Shanghai Daily Publishing House
Taiwan's military blasts China's proposed peace pact
Taiwan's military blasts China's proposed peace pact
A proposed peace pact between China and Taiwan was a ploy by Beijing to weaken Taipei's resistance, said a Taiwan defence ministry report yesterday (October 20).
It also noted that China has stepped up military exercises and patrols in the sea near Taiwan after the United States announced weapon sales to the island in October last year.
The island's biannual national defence report was released just a day after President Ma Ying-jeou said China had to remove missiles aimed at Taiwan before both sides can embark on a peace pact. China is said to have 1,500 missiles which can be used against the island.
In an interview with Reuters on Monday, Mr Ma also said he did not rule out meeting China leaders like President Hu Jintao, but did not say when this was likely. There has been speculation about a Hu-Ma meeting, especially after Ma was sworn in as chairman of the Kuomintang (KMT) last Saturday. He could meet Chinese leaders in his less formal KMT capacity rather than as President.
Taiwan and China split at the end of a civil war in 1949. Beijing continues to claim the island as part of its territory and threatens to use force to stop it from declaring de jure independence.
In recent years, China has fast caught up with Taiwan in terms of military power, the defence report noted. China's defence budget has been growing by double-digit figures over the last 21 years. Its budget this year reached 480.7 billion yuan (US$70.4 billion), a 14.9 per cent increase from last year's.
In recent years, China has also focused on approaches such as grooming military talent skilled in communication to help in influencing public opinion. Its military soft power poses a greater threat than its hard power, the report noted.
On a more positive note, the 188-page report mentioned the importance of developing confidence-building measures between China and Taiwan.
Leaders from both sides have mentioned the issue, and US officials have also voiced cautious encouragement.
"Without any mutual trust mechanism, an accidental occurrence might be misconstrued as an act of provocation and lead to a full-blown military conflict," the report noted. Such measures could include setting up a hotline as well as limits on military deployments to reduce the risk of war.
But the report also noted it was no go for these measures unless China reduces military pressure against Taiwan.
By Ho Ai Li
The Straits Times/Asia News Network
A proposed peace pact between China and Taiwan was a ploy by Beijing to weaken Taipei's resistance, said a Taiwan defence ministry report yesterday (October 20).
It also noted that China has stepped up military exercises and patrols in the sea near Taiwan after the United States announced weapon sales to the island in October last year.
The island's biannual national defence report was released just a day after President Ma Ying-jeou said China had to remove missiles aimed at Taiwan before both sides can embark on a peace pact. China is said to have 1,500 missiles which can be used against the island.
In an interview with Reuters on Monday, Mr Ma also said he did not rule out meeting China leaders like President Hu Jintao, but did not say when this was likely. There has been speculation about a Hu-Ma meeting, especially after Ma was sworn in as chairman of the Kuomintang (KMT) last Saturday. He could meet Chinese leaders in his less formal KMT capacity rather than as President.
Taiwan and China split at the end of a civil war in 1949. Beijing continues to claim the island as part of its territory and threatens to use force to stop it from declaring de jure independence.
In recent years, China has fast caught up with Taiwan in terms of military power, the defence report noted. China's defence budget has been growing by double-digit figures over the last 21 years. Its budget this year reached 480.7 billion yuan (US$70.4 billion), a 14.9 per cent increase from last year's.
In recent years, China has also focused on approaches such as grooming military talent skilled in communication to help in influencing public opinion. Its military soft power poses a greater threat than its hard power, the report noted.
On a more positive note, the 188-page report mentioned the importance of developing confidence-building measures between China and Taiwan.
Leaders from both sides have mentioned the issue, and US officials have also voiced cautious encouragement.
"Without any mutual trust mechanism, an accidental occurrence might be misconstrued as an act of provocation and lead to a full-blown military conflict," the report noted. Such measures could include setting up a hotline as well as limits on military deployments to reduce the risk of war.
But the report also noted it was no go for these measures unless China reduces military pressure against Taiwan.
By Ho Ai Li
The Straits Times/Asia News Network
All downtown Shanghai buses will be air-conditioned
All downtown Shanghai buses will be air-conditioned
Created: 2009-10-21 16:47:06
Author:Jane Chen
ALL public buses operating in downtown Shanghai will be updated to air-conditioned vehicles before the 2010 World Expo opens in May, today's Shanghai Morning Post reported.
Currently, 85 percent of the 16,347 buses on the 1,084 downtown routes are air-conditioned, according to Shanghai Transport and Port Authority officials quoted in the paper.
In the rural areas, buses on the Haiwan No. 3 and Fengcheng No. 1 routes in Fengxian District have been replaced with air-conditioned vehicles.
Meanwhile, new-style shelters will be set up at local bus stops, and bus stops are being set up every 1,000 meters along rural routes to give a clear guide for passengers.
Copyright © 2001-2009 Shanghai Daily Publishing House
Created: 2009-10-21 16:47:06
Author:Jane Chen
ALL public buses operating in downtown Shanghai will be updated to air-conditioned vehicles before the 2010 World Expo opens in May, today's Shanghai Morning Post reported.
Currently, 85 percent of the 16,347 buses on the 1,084 downtown routes are air-conditioned, according to Shanghai Transport and Port Authority officials quoted in the paper.
In the rural areas, buses on the Haiwan No. 3 and Fengcheng No. 1 routes in Fengxian District have been replaced with air-conditioned vehicles.
Meanwhile, new-style shelters will be set up at local bus stops, and bus stops are being set up every 1,000 meters along rural routes to give a clear guide for passengers.
Copyright © 2001-2009 Shanghai Daily Publishing House
Essential Travel Info from the Japan National Tourist Organization
The Japan National Tourist Organization has a helpful "Essential Info" with information on many topics about which you need to know as you plan your travel to Japan. Topics include:
* Visa Information
* Tokyo Immigration Bureau
* Money
* Healthcare
* Customs
* Emergency Info
* Tourist Information Centers
* Guide Services
* Telephone & Postal Services
* Climate
* Time Differences
* Business Hours & Holidays
* Electricity
* For Budget Travelers
* Japanese Embassies & Consulates Overseas
* Foreign Embassies & Consulates in Japan
* FAQ
* Visa Information
* Tokyo Immigration Bureau
* Money
* Healthcare
* Customs
* Emergency Info
* Tourist Information Centers
* Guide Services
* Telephone & Postal Services
* Climate
* Time Differences
* Business Hours & Holidays
* Electricity
* For Budget Travelers
* Japanese Embassies & Consulates Overseas
* Foreign Embassies & Consulates in Japan
* FAQ
Stars share secrets of longevity
Shanghai's oldest living resident, 110-year-old woman Li Suqing, appears at the award ceremony this morning. The annual top 10 centenarians in Shanghai were revealed today. The youngest were two 104-year-old men. The oldest person Shanghai resident ever was Hu Amei, who died in 2007 at age 113.
Rise of Mandarin Changes the Sound of Chinatown
Rise of Mandarin Changes the Sound of Chinatown
Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times
By KIRK SEMPLE
Published: October 21, 2009
He grew up playing in the narrow, crowded streets of Manhattan’s Chinatown. He has lived and worked there for all his 61 years. But as Wee Wong walks the neighborhood these days, he cannot understand half the Chinese conversations he hears.
Cantonese, a dialect from southern China that has dominated the Chinatowns of North America for decades, is being rapidly swept aside by Mandarin, the national language of China and the lingua franca of most of the latest Chinese immigrants.
The change can be heard in the neighborhood’s lively restaurants and solemn church services, in parks, street markets and language schools. It has been accelerated by Chinese-American parents, including many who speak Cantonese at home, as they press their children to learn Mandarin for the advantages it may bring as China’s influence grows in the world.
But the eclipse of Cantonese — in New York, China and around the world — has become a challenge for older people who speak only that dialect and face increasing isolation unless they learn Mandarin or English. Though Cantonese and Mandarin share nearly all the same written characters, the pronunciations are vastly different; when spoken, Mandarin may be incomprehensible to a Cantonese speaker, and vice versa.
Mr. Wong, a retired sign maker who speaks English, can still get by with his Cantonese, which remains the preferred language in his circle of friends and in Chinatown’s historic core. A bit defiantly, he said that if he enters a shop and finds the staff does not speak his dialect, “I go to another store.”
Like many others, however, he is resigned to the likelihood that Cantonese — and the people who speak it — will soon become just another facet of a polyglot neighborhood. “In 10 years,” he said, “it will be totally different.”
With Mandarin’s ascent has come a realignment of power in Chinese-American communities, where the recent immigrants are gaining economic and political clout, said Peter Kwong, a professor of Asian-American studies at Hunter College.
“The fact of the matter is that you have a whole generation switch, with very few people speaking only Cantonese,” he said. The Cantonese-speaking populace, he added, “is not the player anymore.”
The switch mirrors a sea change under way in China, where Mandarin, as the official language, is becoming the default tongue everywhere.
In North America, its rise also reflects a major shift in immigration. For much of the last century, most Chinese living in the United States and Canada traced their ancestry to a region in the Pearl River Delta that included the district of Taishan. They spoke the Taishanese dialect, which is derived from and somewhat similar to Cantonese.
Immigration reform in 1965 opened the door to a huge influx of Cantonese speakers from Hong Kong, and Cantonese became the dominant tongue. But since the 1990s, the vast majority of new Chinese immigrants have come from mainland China, especially Fujian Province, and tend to speak Mandarin along with their regional dialects.
In New York, many Mandarin speakers have flocked to Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and Flushing, Queens, which now rivals Chinatown as a center of Chinese-American business and political might, as well as culture and cuisine. In Chinatown, most of the newer immigrants have settled outside the historic core west of the Bowery, clustering instead around East Broadway.
“I can’t even order food on East Broadway,” said Jan Lee, 44, a furniture designer who has lived all his life in Chinatown and speaks Cantonese. “They don’t speak English; I don’t speak Mandarin. I’m just as lost as everyone else.”
Now Mandarin is pushing into Chinatown’s heart.
For most of the 100 years that the New York Chinese School, on Mott Street, has offered language classes, nearly all have taught Cantonese. Last year, the numbers of Cantonese and Mandarin classes were roughly equal. And this year, Mandarin classes outnumber Cantonese 3 to 1, even though most students are from homes where Cantonese is spoken, said the principal, Kin S. Wong.
Some Cantonese-speaking parents are deciding it is more important to point their children toward the future than the past — their family’s native dialect — even if that leaves them unable to communicate well with relatives in China.
“I figure if they have to acquire a language, I wanted them to have Mandarin because it makes it easier when they go into the workplace,” said Jennifer Ng, whose 5-year-old daughter studies Mandarin at the language school of the Church of the Transfiguration, a Roman Catholic parish on Mott Street where nearly half the classes are devoted to Mandarin. Her 8-year-old son takes Cantonese, but only because there is no English-speaking Mandarin teacher for his age group.
“Can I tell you the truth?” she said. “They hate it! But it’s important for the future.” Until recently, Sunday Masses at Transfiguration were said in Cantonese. The church now offers two in Mandarin and only one in Cantonese. And as the recent arrivals from mainland China become old-timers, “we are beginning to have Mandarin funerals,” said the Rev. Raymond Nobiletti, the Cantonese-speaking pastor.
At the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, which has been the unofficial government of Chinatown for generations and conducts its business in Cantonese, the president, Justin Yu, said he is the first whose mother tongue is Mandarin to lead the 126-year-old organization. Though he has been taking Cantonese lessons in order to keep up at association meetings, his pronunciation is sometimes a source of hilarity for his colleagues, he said.
“No matter what,” he added, laughing, “you have to admire my courage.”
But even his association is being surpassed in influence by Fujianese organizations, said Professor Kwong of Hunter College.
Longtime residents seem less threatened than wistful. Though he is known around Chinatown for what he calls his “legendarily bad” Cantonese, Paul Lee, 59, said it pained him that the dialect was disappearing from the place where his family has lived for more than a century.
“It may be a dying language,” he acknowledged. “I just hate to say that.”
But he pointed out that the changes were a natural part of an evolving immigrant neighborhood: Just as Cantonese sidelined Taishanese, so, too, is Mandarin replacing Cantonese.
Mr. Wong, the principal of the New York Chinese School, said he had tried to adjust to the subtle shifts during his 40 years in Chinatown. When he arrived in 1969, he walked into a coffee shop and placed his order in Cantonese. Other patrons looked at him oddly.
“They said, ‘Where you from?’ ” he recalled. “ ‘Why you speak Cantonese?’ ” They were from Taishan, he said, so he switched to Taishanese and everyone was happy.
“And now I speak Mandarin better than Cantonese,” he added with a chuckle. “So, Chinatown — it’s always changing.”
Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times
By KIRK SEMPLE
Published: October 21, 2009
He grew up playing in the narrow, crowded streets of Manhattan’s Chinatown. He has lived and worked there for all his 61 years. But as Wee Wong walks the neighborhood these days, he cannot understand half the Chinese conversations he hears.
Cantonese, a dialect from southern China that has dominated the Chinatowns of North America for decades, is being rapidly swept aside by Mandarin, the national language of China and the lingua franca of most of the latest Chinese immigrants.
The change can be heard in the neighborhood’s lively restaurants and solemn church services, in parks, street markets and language schools. It has been accelerated by Chinese-American parents, including many who speak Cantonese at home, as they press their children to learn Mandarin for the advantages it may bring as China’s influence grows in the world.
But the eclipse of Cantonese — in New York, China and around the world — has become a challenge for older people who speak only that dialect and face increasing isolation unless they learn Mandarin or English. Though Cantonese and Mandarin share nearly all the same written characters, the pronunciations are vastly different; when spoken, Mandarin may be incomprehensible to a Cantonese speaker, and vice versa.
Mr. Wong, a retired sign maker who speaks English, can still get by with his Cantonese, which remains the preferred language in his circle of friends and in Chinatown’s historic core. A bit defiantly, he said that if he enters a shop and finds the staff does not speak his dialect, “I go to another store.”
Like many others, however, he is resigned to the likelihood that Cantonese — and the people who speak it — will soon become just another facet of a polyglot neighborhood. “In 10 years,” he said, “it will be totally different.”
With Mandarin’s ascent has come a realignment of power in Chinese-American communities, where the recent immigrants are gaining economic and political clout, said Peter Kwong, a professor of Asian-American studies at Hunter College.
“The fact of the matter is that you have a whole generation switch, with very few people speaking only Cantonese,” he said. The Cantonese-speaking populace, he added, “is not the player anymore.”
The switch mirrors a sea change under way in China, where Mandarin, as the official language, is becoming the default tongue everywhere.
In North America, its rise also reflects a major shift in immigration. For much of the last century, most Chinese living in the United States and Canada traced their ancestry to a region in the Pearl River Delta that included the district of Taishan. They spoke the Taishanese dialect, which is derived from and somewhat similar to Cantonese.
Immigration reform in 1965 opened the door to a huge influx of Cantonese speakers from Hong Kong, and Cantonese became the dominant tongue. But since the 1990s, the vast majority of new Chinese immigrants have come from mainland China, especially Fujian Province, and tend to speak Mandarin along with their regional dialects.
In New York, many Mandarin speakers have flocked to Sunset Park, Brooklyn, and Flushing, Queens, which now rivals Chinatown as a center of Chinese-American business and political might, as well as culture and cuisine. In Chinatown, most of the newer immigrants have settled outside the historic core west of the Bowery, clustering instead around East Broadway.
“I can’t even order food on East Broadway,” said Jan Lee, 44, a furniture designer who has lived all his life in Chinatown and speaks Cantonese. “They don’t speak English; I don’t speak Mandarin. I’m just as lost as everyone else.”
Now Mandarin is pushing into Chinatown’s heart.
For most of the 100 years that the New York Chinese School, on Mott Street, has offered language classes, nearly all have taught Cantonese. Last year, the numbers of Cantonese and Mandarin classes were roughly equal. And this year, Mandarin classes outnumber Cantonese 3 to 1, even though most students are from homes where Cantonese is spoken, said the principal, Kin S. Wong.
Some Cantonese-speaking parents are deciding it is more important to point their children toward the future than the past — their family’s native dialect — even if that leaves them unable to communicate well with relatives in China.
“I figure if they have to acquire a language, I wanted them to have Mandarin because it makes it easier when they go into the workplace,” said Jennifer Ng, whose 5-year-old daughter studies Mandarin at the language school of the Church of the Transfiguration, a Roman Catholic parish on Mott Street where nearly half the classes are devoted to Mandarin. Her 8-year-old son takes Cantonese, but only because there is no English-speaking Mandarin teacher for his age group.
“Can I tell you the truth?” she said. “They hate it! But it’s important for the future.” Until recently, Sunday Masses at Transfiguration were said in Cantonese. The church now offers two in Mandarin and only one in Cantonese. And as the recent arrivals from mainland China become old-timers, “we are beginning to have Mandarin funerals,” said the Rev. Raymond Nobiletti, the Cantonese-speaking pastor.
At the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association, which has been the unofficial government of Chinatown for generations and conducts its business in Cantonese, the president, Justin Yu, said he is the first whose mother tongue is Mandarin to lead the 126-year-old organization. Though he has been taking Cantonese lessons in order to keep up at association meetings, his pronunciation is sometimes a source of hilarity for his colleagues, he said.
“No matter what,” he added, laughing, “you have to admire my courage.”
But even his association is being surpassed in influence by Fujianese organizations, said Professor Kwong of Hunter College.
Longtime residents seem less threatened than wistful. Though he is known around Chinatown for what he calls his “legendarily bad” Cantonese, Paul Lee, 59, said it pained him that the dialect was disappearing from the place where his family has lived for more than a century.
“It may be a dying language,” he acknowledged. “I just hate to say that.”
But he pointed out that the changes were a natural part of an evolving immigrant neighborhood: Just as Cantonese sidelined Taishanese, so, too, is Mandarin replacing Cantonese.
Mr. Wong, the principal of the New York Chinese School, said he had tried to adjust to the subtle shifts during his 40 years in Chinatown. When he arrived in 1969, he walked into a coffee shop and placed his order in Cantonese. Other patrons looked at him oddly.
“They said, ‘Where you from?’ ” he recalled. “ ‘Why you speak Cantonese?’ ” They were from Taishan, he said, so he switched to Taishanese and everyone was happy.
“And now I speak Mandarin better than Cantonese,” he added with a chuckle. “So, Chinatown — it’s always changing.”
Q+A: New Japan PM to seek equal partnership with U.S
Q+A: New Japan PM to seek equal partnership with U.S
Wed Sep 16, 2009 3:53am EDT
By Isabel Reynolds
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, has vowed to steer a more independent diplomatic course from top security ally Washington, sparking concern about possible friction in the relationship.
Though he has promised to keep the United States at the core of foreign policy, a number of security issues could ruffle ties as Hatoyama prepares for his diplomatic debut in the United States next week.
Following are questions and answers on some of the issues:
WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO U.S. FORCES IN JAPAN?
Japan hosts about 47,000 U.S. military personnel, a source of irritation for communities near military bases, with many complaints of crime, noise, pollution and accidents.
Former Democratic Party leader Ichiro Ozawa drew criticism when he said this year that most of the troops were not needed.
But the party's election manifesto made no mention of such an idea, instead promising to propose amendments to the Status of Forces Agreement under which U.S. troops operate in Japan and to rethink a planned redeployment of U.S. troops.
Washington and Tokyo have agreed to ease the burden of U.S. bases on the southern island of Okinawa by moving a 4,000-strong U.S. Marine Corps base from the center of a town to a less populated area in the north of the island.
The deal means 8,000 Marines will also be moved from Okinawa, partly at Japan's expense, to the U.S. territory of Guam.
Washington is keen to press ahead with the project, which is supposed to be completed by 2014, partly because the issue has dragged on since an initial agreement on the bases in 1996.
But many residents of Okinawa, which suffered one of the bloodiest battles of World War Two, are dissatisfied with the plan for environmental and other reasons.
Hatoyama has said the Marine base at Futenma should be moved away from Okinawa but he has not proposed an alternative location.
The party's proposed changes to the agreement would include a requirement that U.S. forces make good any damage to the environment caused by their activities, a Japanese newspaper reported recently.
Several cases of contamination have been discovered at sites returned to Japan by the U.S. military.
HOW FAR WILL JAPAN BACK U.S. MILITARY ACTIVITIES?
Hatoyama has said a Democratic government would not renew the mandate for Japanese ships on a refueling mission in the Indian Ocean in support of U.S.-led military activities in Afghanistan, although ships would not be brought home immediately.
The legal mandate for the mission, which the Democrats opposed in parliament, expires in January.
The United States wants to encourage Japan to continue the mission, U.S. Defense Department press secretary Geoff Morrell said last week.
Hatoyama's predecessor, Ozawa, had mentioned an alternative option of sending troops to Afghanistan under a United Nations mandate, but the idea of putting soldiers' lives at risk is unlikely to gain popular support. No Japanese troops have been killed in action since World War Two.
WHAT LINE WILL THE NEW GOVT TAKE ON NUCLEAR WEAPONS?
Japan has long been ambivalent about nuclear arms.
Many Japanese use the fact that Japan is the only country to have suffered nuclear attacks as a platform to campaign for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Hatoyama backs President Barack Obama's calls for a world free of nuclear arms and has promised to uphold Japan's three "non-nuclear principles" banning the making, possession or introduction into the country of nuclear arms.
Hatoyama will likely call for a nuclear arms-free world in a speech at the U.N. General Assembly in September, Japanese media say. Hatoyama has also said he will seek a U.S. pledge not to bring nuclear-armed vessels into Japanese ports.
But Japan benefits from a nuclear "umbrella" provided by Washington, something many see as increasingly important, given China's growing military might and North Korea's nuclear arms programme.
WILL JAPAN STILL SEEK TO BUY F-22 FIGHTER PLANES?
Under the previous government, led by the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Japan sought to replace some of its aging fighter planes with Lockheed-Martin Corp's radar-evading F-22.
But exports of the plane from the U.S. are currently banned, and it is unclear whether the Democrats would favor the state-of-the-art F-22 over alternatives on the market such as BAE Systems' Eurofighter Typhoon or Boeing's F15.
HOW WILL JAPAN'S ASIA STRATEGY CHANGE?
Hatoyama advocates a new East Asian Community modeled after the European Union, though he concedes that it would take more than ten years to set up a unified regional currency.
He wants to deepen ties with China and has said he will stay away from Yasukuni, the war shrine seen by many in Asia as a symbol of Japan's military aggression across the region in the early 20th century.
(Editing by Rodney Joyce)
Wed Sep 16, 2009 3:53am EDT
By Isabel Reynolds
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, has vowed to steer a more independent diplomatic course from top security ally Washington, sparking concern about possible friction in the relationship.
Though he has promised to keep the United States at the core of foreign policy, a number of security issues could ruffle ties as Hatoyama prepares for his diplomatic debut in the United States next week.
Following are questions and answers on some of the issues:
WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO U.S. FORCES IN JAPAN?
Japan hosts about 47,000 U.S. military personnel, a source of irritation for communities near military bases, with many complaints of crime, noise, pollution and accidents.
Former Democratic Party leader Ichiro Ozawa drew criticism when he said this year that most of the troops were not needed.
But the party's election manifesto made no mention of such an idea, instead promising to propose amendments to the Status of Forces Agreement under which U.S. troops operate in Japan and to rethink a planned redeployment of U.S. troops.
Washington and Tokyo have agreed to ease the burden of U.S. bases on the southern island of Okinawa by moving a 4,000-strong U.S. Marine Corps base from the center of a town to a less populated area in the north of the island.
The deal means 8,000 Marines will also be moved from Okinawa, partly at Japan's expense, to the U.S. territory of Guam.
Washington is keen to press ahead with the project, which is supposed to be completed by 2014, partly because the issue has dragged on since an initial agreement on the bases in 1996.
But many residents of Okinawa, which suffered one of the bloodiest battles of World War Two, are dissatisfied with the plan for environmental and other reasons.
Hatoyama has said the Marine base at Futenma should be moved away from Okinawa but he has not proposed an alternative location.
The party's proposed changes to the agreement would include a requirement that U.S. forces make good any damage to the environment caused by their activities, a Japanese newspaper reported recently.
Several cases of contamination have been discovered at sites returned to Japan by the U.S. military.
HOW FAR WILL JAPAN BACK U.S. MILITARY ACTIVITIES?
Hatoyama has said a Democratic government would not renew the mandate for Japanese ships on a refueling mission in the Indian Ocean in support of U.S.-led military activities in Afghanistan, although ships would not be brought home immediately.
The legal mandate for the mission, which the Democrats opposed in parliament, expires in January.
The United States wants to encourage Japan to continue the mission, U.S. Defense Department press secretary Geoff Morrell said last week.
Hatoyama's predecessor, Ozawa, had mentioned an alternative option of sending troops to Afghanistan under a United Nations mandate, but the idea of putting soldiers' lives at risk is unlikely to gain popular support. No Japanese troops have been killed in action since World War Two.
WHAT LINE WILL THE NEW GOVT TAKE ON NUCLEAR WEAPONS?
Japan has long been ambivalent about nuclear arms.
Many Japanese use the fact that Japan is the only country to have suffered nuclear attacks as a platform to campaign for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Hatoyama backs President Barack Obama's calls for a world free of nuclear arms and has promised to uphold Japan's three "non-nuclear principles" banning the making, possession or introduction into the country of nuclear arms.
Hatoyama will likely call for a nuclear arms-free world in a speech at the U.N. General Assembly in September, Japanese media say. Hatoyama has also said he will seek a U.S. pledge not to bring nuclear-armed vessels into Japanese ports.
But Japan benefits from a nuclear "umbrella" provided by Washington, something many see as increasingly important, given China's growing military might and North Korea's nuclear arms programme.
WILL JAPAN STILL SEEK TO BUY F-22 FIGHTER PLANES?
Under the previous government, led by the long-ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Japan sought to replace some of its aging fighter planes with Lockheed-Martin Corp's radar-evading F-22.
But exports of the plane from the U.S. are currently banned, and it is unclear whether the Democrats would favor the state-of-the-art F-22 over alternatives on the market such as BAE Systems' Eurofighter Typhoon or Boeing's F15.
HOW WILL JAPAN'S ASIA STRATEGY CHANGE?
Hatoyama advocates a new East Asian Community modeled after the European Union, though he concedes that it would take more than ten years to set up a unified regional currency.
He wants to deepen ties with China and has said he will stay away from Yasukuni, the war shrine seen by many in Asia as a symbol of Japan's military aggression across the region in the early 20th century.
(Editing by Rodney Joyce)
Q+A: Japan and U.S. differ over defense issues
Q+A: Japan and U.S. differ over defense issues
Wed Oct 21, 2009 6:56am EDT
By Isabel Reynolds
TOKYO (Reuters) - A visit to Japan by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates will put the focus on security issues between the two allies.
Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who won a landslide election victory in August, has vowed to steer a more independent diplomatic course from Washington. That has sparked concern among investors about possible friction in the relationship.
Following are questions and answers on some of the issues:
WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO U.S. FORCES IN JAPAN?
Japan, whose own forces are restricted by its pacifist constitution, hosts about 47,000 U.S. military personnel, a source of irritation for communities near military bases, with many complaints about crime, noise, pollution and accidents.
The ruling Democratic Party's election manifesto promised to rethink a planned redeployment of U.S. troops and propose amendments to the agreement under which U.S. troops operate in Japan.
Washington and Tokyo have agreed to ease the burden of U.S. bases on the southern island of Okinawa by moving a 4,000-strong U.S. Marine Corps air base from the center of a town to a less populated area in the north of the island.
The deal means 8,000 Marines will be moved from Okinawa, partly at Japan's expense, to the U.S. territory of Guam.
Washington is keen to press ahead with the project, which is supposed to be completed by 2014, partly because the issue has dragged on since an initial agreement in 1996.
But many residents of Okinawa, which suffered one of the bloodiest battles of World War Two and remained under U.S. control until 1972, are dissatisfied with the plan for environmental and other reasons.
Hatoyama has said the Marine base at Futenma should be moved off Okinawa but has not proposed an alternative location.
The party's proposed changes to the Status of Forces Agreement would include a requirement that U.S. forces make good any damage to the environment caused by their activities, a Japanese newspaper has said.
Several cases of contamination have been discovered at sites returned to Japan by the U.S. military.
HOW FAR WILL JAPAN BACK U.S. MILITARY ACTIVITIES?
Hatoyama said he will not renew the mandate for Japanese ships on a refueling mission in the Indian Ocean in support of U.S.-led operations in Afghanistan, which expires in January.
U.S. officials say the decision is up to Japan, but that they would welcome an alternative contribution to Afghan security.
Officials including Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada have hinted that Japan's future contributions would be civilian rather than military. But Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa said last week he was concerned that civilian activities alone might not be a suitable alternative.
WHAT LINE WILL THE NEW GOVT TAKE ON NUCLEAR WEAPONS?
Japan has long been ambivalent about nuclear arms.
Many Japanese use the fact that Japan is the only country to have suffered nuclear attacks as a platform to campaign for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Hatoyama backs U.S. President Barack Obama's calls for a world free of nuclear arms and has promised to uphold Japan's three "non-nuclear principles" banning the making, possession or introduction into the country of nuclear arms.
He has also said he will seek a U.S. pledge not to bring nuclear-armed vessels into Japanese ports.
But Japan benefits from a nuclear "umbrella" provided by Washington, something many see as important given China's growing military might and North Korea's nuclear program.
HOW WILL JAPAN'S ASIA STRATEGY CHANGE?
Hatoyama advocates a new East Asian Community modeled after the European Union, although he concedes it would take more than 10 years to set up a unified regional currency.
He wants to deepen ties with China and has said he will stay away from Yasukuni, a war shrine in Tokyo seen by many in Asia as a symbol of Japan's military aggression in the early 20th century.
(Editing by Dean Yates)
© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
Wed Oct 21, 2009 6:56am EDT
By Isabel Reynolds
TOKYO (Reuters) - A visit to Japan by U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates will put the focus on security issues between the two allies.
Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, who won a landslide election victory in August, has vowed to steer a more independent diplomatic course from Washington. That has sparked concern among investors about possible friction in the relationship.
Following are questions and answers on some of the issues:
WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO U.S. FORCES IN JAPAN?
Japan, whose own forces are restricted by its pacifist constitution, hosts about 47,000 U.S. military personnel, a source of irritation for communities near military bases, with many complaints about crime, noise, pollution and accidents.
The ruling Democratic Party's election manifesto promised to rethink a planned redeployment of U.S. troops and propose amendments to the agreement under which U.S. troops operate in Japan.
Washington and Tokyo have agreed to ease the burden of U.S. bases on the southern island of Okinawa by moving a 4,000-strong U.S. Marine Corps air base from the center of a town to a less populated area in the north of the island.
The deal means 8,000 Marines will be moved from Okinawa, partly at Japan's expense, to the U.S. territory of Guam.
Washington is keen to press ahead with the project, which is supposed to be completed by 2014, partly because the issue has dragged on since an initial agreement in 1996.
But many residents of Okinawa, which suffered one of the bloodiest battles of World War Two and remained under U.S. control until 1972, are dissatisfied with the plan for environmental and other reasons.
Hatoyama has said the Marine base at Futenma should be moved off Okinawa but has not proposed an alternative location.
The party's proposed changes to the Status of Forces Agreement would include a requirement that U.S. forces make good any damage to the environment caused by their activities, a Japanese newspaper has said.
Several cases of contamination have been discovered at sites returned to Japan by the U.S. military.
HOW FAR WILL JAPAN BACK U.S. MILITARY ACTIVITIES?
Hatoyama said he will not renew the mandate for Japanese ships on a refueling mission in the Indian Ocean in support of U.S.-led operations in Afghanistan, which expires in January.
U.S. officials say the decision is up to Japan, but that they would welcome an alternative contribution to Afghan security.
Officials including Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada have hinted that Japan's future contributions would be civilian rather than military. But Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa said last week he was concerned that civilian activities alone might not be a suitable alternative.
WHAT LINE WILL THE NEW GOVT TAKE ON NUCLEAR WEAPONS?
Japan has long been ambivalent about nuclear arms.
Many Japanese use the fact that Japan is the only country to have suffered nuclear attacks as a platform to campaign for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
Hatoyama backs U.S. President Barack Obama's calls for a world free of nuclear arms and has promised to uphold Japan's three "non-nuclear principles" banning the making, possession or introduction into the country of nuclear arms.
He has also said he will seek a U.S. pledge not to bring nuclear-armed vessels into Japanese ports.
But Japan benefits from a nuclear "umbrella" provided by Washington, something many see as important given China's growing military might and North Korea's nuclear program.
HOW WILL JAPAN'S ASIA STRATEGY CHANGE?
Hatoyama advocates a new East Asian Community modeled after the European Union, although he concedes it would take more than 10 years to set up a unified regional currency.
He wants to deepen ties with China and has said he will stay away from Yasukuni, a war shrine in Tokyo seen by many in Asia as a symbol of Japan's military aggression in the early 20th century.
(Editing by Dean Yates)
© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
Gates pushes Japan on U.S. troop shift plan
Gates pushes Japan on U.S. troop shift plan
Wed Oct 21, 2009 7:22am EDT
By Phil Stewart and Isabel Reynolds
TOKYO (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates pressed Japan on Wednesday to implement quickly a deal to reorganize the U.S. military presence in the country, an issue that could test ties with Tokyo's new government.
"It is time to move on," Gates said at a news conference with Japanese Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa after they held talks on alliance issues. "This may not be the perfect alternative for anyone, but it is the best alternative for everyone."
Gates left a possible compromise open by saying minor changes to the proposed position of two U.S. Marine runways on the coast of the southern island of Okinawa were a matter for Japan to decide.
A broad plan to reorganize U.S. forces in Japan was agreed in 2006 with Japan's long-dominant conservative party after a 1996 deal failed to gain support of local residents, many of whom associate the bases with crime, noise, pollution and accidents.
Kitazawa said he had pointed out the political difficulties involved in the deal, but added he felt spending a lot of time reaching a decision would not be healthy for the alliance.
Japan's month-old Democratic Party-led government has pledged to steer a diplomatic course less dependent on close security ally Washington.
That has prompted concern that security relations between the world's two biggest economies could suffer at a time when China's economic clout and military power are growing and North Korea remains as unpredictable as ever.
"Under the circumstances in which uncertainties remain in this Northeast Asia region, I think it is imperative to maintain and develop our alliance even further," Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama told Gates in a meeting earlier in the day.
OBAMA VISIT, NUCLEAR UMBRELLA
Gates' visit is intended to lay the groundwork for U.S. President Barack Obama's November 12-13 trip to Tokyo, his first as president to the key trade partner.
Gates stressed the benefits of the alliance for Japan, whose pacifist constitution restricts its military's role and which relies on the U.S. nuclear umbrella.
"It seems to me that the primary purpose of our alliance from a military standpoint is to provide for the security of Japan. This defense umbrella has protected Japan for nearly 50 years," he said.
Japan is host to about 47,000 U.S. military personnel as part of the decades-old security alliance. Analysts say the troops' forward deployment is critical to the American military presence in the region.
The troop realignment pact is meant to reduce the U.S. military "footprint" on Okinawa while improving the ability of the two forces to cooperate.
Central to the deal is a plan to shift a U.S. Marine air base on Okinawa to a less crowded part of the island.
Hatoyama has said he wants the base moved off the island, but U.S. officials have ruled that out, saying it would undermine broader security arrangements that took years to negotiate.
Gates told reporters on his plane before arriving in Tokyo on Tuesday that he saw no alternative to the original plan, but Japan has suggested it needs more time to work out its stance.
"Of course we absolutely don't plan on wasting time," Hatoyama told reporters after his meeting with Gates.
"There isn't necessarily an agreement yet even within Okinawa, so while it's important to reach a final solution, I've said that we need more time."
Some analysts said the Pentagon's tough stance reflected the difficulty of adjusting to Japan's new political reality after half a century of almost unbroken rule by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which put the alliance at the core of its diplomacy.
Hatoyama's Democrats trounced the LDP in an August 30 election.
The United States was the biggest destination for Japan's exports last year. The two countries accounted for about a third of global GDP in 2007, although analysts predict China could overtake Japan as the world's No.2 economy next year.
Few analysts expect the bilateral strains to spill over into economic ties between the two countries, but some say geopolitical uncertainty in the region could eventually affect investment decisions.
Gates later left for South Korea.
(Additional reporting by Yoko Kubota; Writing by Linda Sieg, Editing by Dean Yates and Paul Tait)
Wed Oct 21, 2009 7:22am EDT
By Phil Stewart and Isabel Reynolds
TOKYO (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates pressed Japan on Wednesday to implement quickly a deal to reorganize the U.S. military presence in the country, an issue that could test ties with Tokyo's new government.
"It is time to move on," Gates said at a news conference with Japanese Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa after they held talks on alliance issues. "This may not be the perfect alternative for anyone, but it is the best alternative for everyone."
Gates left a possible compromise open by saying minor changes to the proposed position of two U.S. Marine runways on the coast of the southern island of Okinawa were a matter for Japan to decide.
A broad plan to reorganize U.S. forces in Japan was agreed in 2006 with Japan's long-dominant conservative party after a 1996 deal failed to gain support of local residents, many of whom associate the bases with crime, noise, pollution and accidents.
Kitazawa said he had pointed out the political difficulties involved in the deal, but added he felt spending a lot of time reaching a decision would not be healthy for the alliance.
Japan's month-old Democratic Party-led government has pledged to steer a diplomatic course less dependent on close security ally Washington.
That has prompted concern that security relations between the world's two biggest economies could suffer at a time when China's economic clout and military power are growing and North Korea remains as unpredictable as ever.
"Under the circumstances in which uncertainties remain in this Northeast Asia region, I think it is imperative to maintain and develop our alliance even further," Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama told Gates in a meeting earlier in the day.
OBAMA VISIT, NUCLEAR UMBRELLA
Gates' visit is intended to lay the groundwork for U.S. President Barack Obama's November 12-13 trip to Tokyo, his first as president to the key trade partner.
Gates stressed the benefits of the alliance for Japan, whose pacifist constitution restricts its military's role and which relies on the U.S. nuclear umbrella.
"It seems to me that the primary purpose of our alliance from a military standpoint is to provide for the security of Japan. This defense umbrella has protected Japan for nearly 50 years," he said.
Japan is host to about 47,000 U.S. military personnel as part of the decades-old security alliance. Analysts say the troops' forward deployment is critical to the American military presence in the region.
The troop realignment pact is meant to reduce the U.S. military "footprint" on Okinawa while improving the ability of the two forces to cooperate.
Central to the deal is a plan to shift a U.S. Marine air base on Okinawa to a less crowded part of the island.
Hatoyama has said he wants the base moved off the island, but U.S. officials have ruled that out, saying it would undermine broader security arrangements that took years to negotiate.
Gates told reporters on his plane before arriving in Tokyo on Tuesday that he saw no alternative to the original plan, but Japan has suggested it needs more time to work out its stance.
"Of course we absolutely don't plan on wasting time," Hatoyama told reporters after his meeting with Gates.
"There isn't necessarily an agreement yet even within Okinawa, so while it's important to reach a final solution, I've said that we need more time."
Some analysts said the Pentagon's tough stance reflected the difficulty of adjusting to Japan's new political reality after half a century of almost unbroken rule by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which put the alliance at the core of its diplomacy.
Hatoyama's Democrats trounced the LDP in an August 30 election.
The United States was the biggest destination for Japan's exports last year. The two countries accounted for about a third of global GDP in 2007, although analysts predict China could overtake Japan as the world's No.2 economy next year.
Few analysts expect the bilateral strains to spill over into economic ties between the two countries, but some say geopolitical uncertainty in the region could eventually affect investment decisions.
Gates later left for South Korea.
(Additional reporting by Yoko Kubota; Writing by Linda Sieg, Editing by Dean Yates and Paul Tait)
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Many 'missing' after China riots
Many 'missing' after China riots
By Michael Bristow
BBC News, Beijing
Dozens of ethnic Uighurs have disappeared since being detained in the wake of the riots in China's Xinjiang region, a human rights group has said.
Human Rights Watch said the 43 men and teenaged boys were taken in police sweeps of Uighur districts of Urumqi, and had since vanished without a trace.
The riots and protests in the city in early July left nearly 200 people dead.
China's central government declined to answer questions about those detained by the authorities in Xinjiang.
It referred questions about the ethnic unrest to the regional government, which also did not respond to enquiries from the BBC.
'Not global leadership'
"The cases we documented are likely just the tip of the iceberg," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
The rights group is calling for the Chinese government to give details of everyone it is holding in detention.
In a report on the disappeared people, HRW said the police had searched two Uighur areas of Urumqi immediately after the riots. At least 43 people were taken away and had not been heard of since, it added.
"According to witnesses, the security forces sealed off entire neighbourhoods, searching for young Uighur men," the group said.
“ The cases we documented are likely just the tip of the iceberg ”
Brad Adams Human Rights Watch
HRW said most of those taken away were young Uighur men in their 20s, although the youngest are reported to have been 12 and 14.
In many cases, families had been unable to find out what had happened to their relatives, said Human Rights Watch, whose report was based on interviews with local people.
"China should only use official places of detention so that everyone being held can contact family members and legal counsel," said Mr Adams.
"Disappearing people is not the behaviour of countries aspiring to global leadership."
Ethnic Uighurs, the original inhabitants of Xinjiang, went on the rampage after reports of Uighur deaths in southern China.
They mainly targeted Urumqi's Han Chinese community - a group that has moved into the western region more recently - killing scores of people.
Uighurs say their culture has been undermined since the arrival of millions of Han people from other parts of China.
Two months after the riots by Uighurs, Hans staged their own protests.
Afterwards, a confused pictured emerged about exactly how many people had been arrested, partly due to a reluctance by the authorities to provide detailed figures.
At one point the authorities said more than 1,500 people were in detention, but so far only a handful have been prosecuted.
The first trials began last week. A total of nine people have been sentenced to death for their involvement in the riots.
Critics claim the trials do not meet international standards.
By Michael Bristow
BBC News, Beijing
Dozens of ethnic Uighurs have disappeared since being detained in the wake of the riots in China's Xinjiang region, a human rights group has said.
Human Rights Watch said the 43 men and teenaged boys were taken in police sweeps of Uighur districts of Urumqi, and had since vanished without a trace.
The riots and protests in the city in early July left nearly 200 people dead.
China's central government declined to answer questions about those detained by the authorities in Xinjiang.
It referred questions about the ethnic unrest to the regional government, which also did not respond to enquiries from the BBC.
'Not global leadership'
"The cases we documented are likely just the tip of the iceberg," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
The rights group is calling for the Chinese government to give details of everyone it is holding in detention.
In a report on the disappeared people, HRW said the police had searched two Uighur areas of Urumqi immediately after the riots. At least 43 people were taken away and had not been heard of since, it added.
"According to witnesses, the security forces sealed off entire neighbourhoods, searching for young Uighur men," the group said.
“ The cases we documented are likely just the tip of the iceberg ”
Brad Adams Human Rights Watch
HRW said most of those taken away were young Uighur men in their 20s, although the youngest are reported to have been 12 and 14.
In many cases, families had been unable to find out what had happened to their relatives, said Human Rights Watch, whose report was based on interviews with local people.
"China should only use official places of detention so that everyone being held can contact family members and legal counsel," said Mr Adams.
"Disappearing people is not the behaviour of countries aspiring to global leadership."
Ethnic Uighurs, the original inhabitants of Xinjiang, went on the rampage after reports of Uighur deaths in southern China.
They mainly targeted Urumqi's Han Chinese community - a group that has moved into the western region more recently - killing scores of people.
Uighurs say their culture has been undermined since the arrival of millions of Han people from other parts of China.
Two months after the riots by Uighurs, Hans staged their own protests.
Afterwards, a confused pictured emerged about exactly how many people had been arrested, partly due to a reluctance by the authorities to provide detailed figures.
At one point the authorities said more than 1,500 people were in detention, but so far only a handful have been prosecuted.
The first trials began last week. A total of nine people have been sentenced to death for their involvement in the riots.
Critics claim the trials do not meet international standards.
Signing Hague treaty no cure-all for parental abduction scourge
Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2009
THE ZEIT GIST
Signing Hague treaty no cure-all for parental abduction scourge
'Best interests of the bureaucracy' standard applies in Japan
By COLIN P. A. JONES
The recent arrest of Christopher Savoie for attempting to "kidnap" his two children in Fukuoka has brought much-needed international media attention to one of Japan's dirty secrets — its status as the developed world's leading destination for international parental child abduction.
Mr. Savoie was stopped by Japanese police on Sept. 28 trying to enter the U.S. consulate with his two children (aged 6 and 8) who had been brought to Japan in violation of a Tennessee court order by their Japanese mother, Mr. Savoie's ex-wife.
Since he had been awarded sole custody in the United States, where the international abduction of a child by a parent is also a federal crime, some might think that Japanese authorities arrested the wrong person. Yet it is Mr. Savoie who had to endure weeks of detention. Although recently released, he still faces the threat of indictment and the possibility of a criminal trial in a court system famous for a 99 percent conviction rate.
Some people familiar with Japan's abduction problem may consider Mr. Savoie's case to have exposed a staggering degree of hypocrisy (not to mention racism) on the part of those running the Japanese legal system. After all, "taking your own child is not a crime" has been the mantra recited to the legions of foreign parents and consular officials who have sought the return of children abducted by a Japanese parent from abroad in the past. With the police refusing to get involved, the foreign parent is left to flail away in Japan's ineffectual family court system which, having no real power to enforce its own judgments, tends to ratify the status quo, even if it means the children involved are suddenly living in a different country, being taught in a different language at a different school, and had a loving parent and other relatives suddenly extinguished from their lives.
The truth is both simple and brutal: If your children are taken to Japan, you may never see them again.
Japan is not a party to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, but this is probably only a secondary issue. Domestic abductions are also a widespread problem, and Japanese parents too suffer in a system that simply does not seem to care if a parent is unilaterally removed from a child's life before or after a divorce. They hear the same mantra — "go to family court," "mediate" and "the police do not get involved."
Well, except that sometimes the police do get involved.
A few years ago a Japanese father was arrested for doing the same thing as Mr. Savoie — grabbing his kids at their school. In that case there were no court orders in place, so arguably he was entitled to do so. But he was arrested and duly convicted for the same offense as Mr. Savoie (abducting a minor). Yet what he was doing was essentially a variation of what is a common practice by Japanese mothers prior to divorce — taking the kids and going back to live with their parents.
As for the apparent hypocrisy involved in Mr. Savoie's arrest, it is only hypocrisy if one assumes that the law is intended to function as a well-defined, consistently applied set of rules by which citizens and visitors alike can know in advance and act accordingly. Yet law also serves as one of the mediums through which Japan's famous bureaucracies preserve and enhance their authority. From this standpoint, whether the law is applied logically or consistently is entirely secondary to whether it provides an excuse for a particular group of bureaucrats to act (or not) — it just needs to be in their interests to do so.
Thus, the fact that police have recently started to arrest parents like Mr. Savoie despite the Japanese penal code remaining unchanged may simply reflect the police having decided that parental abduction is a problem they should do something about either in general, or in specific cases. Having made this decision, what the law actually says or is intended to address doesn't really matter, so long as there is a vaguely drafted statute they can point to as justification.
A similar dynamic plays out in Japanese courts. In custody disputes, courts purport to apply a "best interests of the child" standard. Fortunately for the courts, this standard remains undefined by either statute or clearly announced judicial rules, meaning that judges are free to resolve cases in whatever way is most convenient for the court — which more often than not is the status quo, which they have little power to change. Thus, the real standard being applied is probably what is in the best interests of the court.
A similarly bureaucratic approach may also explain the apparent willingness of Japanese courts to cooperate with other bureaucracies such as police and prosecutors by ratifying seemingly novel applications of criminal law arrests and prosecutions that seem to stretch the law. In another parental abduction case earlier this decade a Dutch man was arrested for trying to leave Japan with his daughter. He was prosecuted for violating an obscure human trafficking statute and duly convicted. In rejecting his appeal, Japan's Supreme Court noted that there is a high degree of unlawfulness in taking a child whose life is established in one country to another country, even if the person doing so is one of that child's parents. Apparently, neither this statute nor this logic has ever been applied to any of the scores of cases of abduction to Japan.
My own view is that as a matter of law, Japan could start returning abducted children tomorrow without having signed the Hague Convention — just as children who have been abducted to countries like the United States or England have been returned to Japan notwithstanding the country's nonsignatory status. Mr. Savoie's case clearly demonstrates that it is not actually necessary to waste time and money in futile family court proceedings to get your child back: The police will do it for you if it is in their interests to arrest the abducting parent. The converse is that they may not do anything if it is not, and this is also why it is conceivable that Japan could sign the Hague Convention and immediately appear on the U.S. State Department's list of noncompliant treaty partners.
Whatever the law says, it is very hard to imagine it being in the interests of the police and prosecutors to be seen taking crying half-Japanese children away from distraught Japanese mothers.
This is why the media attention is so important on this issue. Because law in Japan tends to serve the bureaucrats first and the people second, legislation and litigation may not lead to solutions if the bureaucrats are part of the problem. Thus, it will likely be criticism — relentless pressure and attention from both domestic and foreign sources — that will probably carry the day in Japan shedding its shameful status as an abduction haven. If so, it will be because the criticism risks damaging the authority of the bureaucrats by making them look bad.
This is sad, because appeals to law, reason and parental love should have worked a long time ago.
Colin P. A. Jones is a professor at Doshisha Law School in Kyoto. Send comments on this issue to community@japantimes.co.jp
THE ZEIT GIST
Signing Hague treaty no cure-all for parental abduction scourge
'Best interests of the bureaucracy' standard applies in Japan
By COLIN P. A. JONES
The recent arrest of Christopher Savoie for attempting to "kidnap" his two children in Fukuoka has brought much-needed international media attention to one of Japan's dirty secrets — its status as the developed world's leading destination for international parental child abduction.
Mr. Savoie was stopped by Japanese police on Sept. 28 trying to enter the U.S. consulate with his two children (aged 6 and 8) who had been brought to Japan in violation of a Tennessee court order by their Japanese mother, Mr. Savoie's ex-wife.
Since he had been awarded sole custody in the United States, where the international abduction of a child by a parent is also a federal crime, some might think that Japanese authorities arrested the wrong person. Yet it is Mr. Savoie who had to endure weeks of detention. Although recently released, he still faces the threat of indictment and the possibility of a criminal trial in a court system famous for a 99 percent conviction rate.
Some people familiar with Japan's abduction problem may consider Mr. Savoie's case to have exposed a staggering degree of hypocrisy (not to mention racism) on the part of those running the Japanese legal system. After all, "taking your own child is not a crime" has been the mantra recited to the legions of foreign parents and consular officials who have sought the return of children abducted by a Japanese parent from abroad in the past. With the police refusing to get involved, the foreign parent is left to flail away in Japan's ineffectual family court system which, having no real power to enforce its own judgments, tends to ratify the status quo, even if it means the children involved are suddenly living in a different country, being taught in a different language at a different school, and had a loving parent and other relatives suddenly extinguished from their lives.
The truth is both simple and brutal: If your children are taken to Japan, you may never see them again.
Japan is not a party to the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction, but this is probably only a secondary issue. Domestic abductions are also a widespread problem, and Japanese parents too suffer in a system that simply does not seem to care if a parent is unilaterally removed from a child's life before or after a divorce. They hear the same mantra — "go to family court," "mediate" and "the police do not get involved."
Well, except that sometimes the police do get involved.
A few years ago a Japanese father was arrested for doing the same thing as Mr. Savoie — grabbing his kids at their school. In that case there were no court orders in place, so arguably he was entitled to do so. But he was arrested and duly convicted for the same offense as Mr. Savoie (abducting a minor). Yet what he was doing was essentially a variation of what is a common practice by Japanese mothers prior to divorce — taking the kids and going back to live with their parents.
As for the apparent hypocrisy involved in Mr. Savoie's arrest, it is only hypocrisy if one assumes that the law is intended to function as a well-defined, consistently applied set of rules by which citizens and visitors alike can know in advance and act accordingly. Yet law also serves as one of the mediums through which Japan's famous bureaucracies preserve and enhance their authority. From this standpoint, whether the law is applied logically or consistently is entirely secondary to whether it provides an excuse for a particular group of bureaucrats to act (or not) — it just needs to be in their interests to do so.
Thus, the fact that police have recently started to arrest parents like Mr. Savoie despite the Japanese penal code remaining unchanged may simply reflect the police having decided that parental abduction is a problem they should do something about either in general, or in specific cases. Having made this decision, what the law actually says or is intended to address doesn't really matter, so long as there is a vaguely drafted statute they can point to as justification.
A similar dynamic plays out in Japanese courts. In custody disputes, courts purport to apply a "best interests of the child" standard. Fortunately for the courts, this standard remains undefined by either statute or clearly announced judicial rules, meaning that judges are free to resolve cases in whatever way is most convenient for the court — which more often than not is the status quo, which they have little power to change. Thus, the real standard being applied is probably what is in the best interests of the court.
A similarly bureaucratic approach may also explain the apparent willingness of Japanese courts to cooperate with other bureaucracies such as police and prosecutors by ratifying seemingly novel applications of criminal law arrests and prosecutions that seem to stretch the law. In another parental abduction case earlier this decade a Dutch man was arrested for trying to leave Japan with his daughter. He was prosecuted for violating an obscure human trafficking statute and duly convicted. In rejecting his appeal, Japan's Supreme Court noted that there is a high degree of unlawfulness in taking a child whose life is established in one country to another country, even if the person doing so is one of that child's parents. Apparently, neither this statute nor this logic has ever been applied to any of the scores of cases of abduction to Japan.
My own view is that as a matter of law, Japan could start returning abducted children tomorrow without having signed the Hague Convention — just as children who have been abducted to countries like the United States or England have been returned to Japan notwithstanding the country's nonsignatory status. Mr. Savoie's case clearly demonstrates that it is not actually necessary to waste time and money in futile family court proceedings to get your child back: The police will do it for you if it is in their interests to arrest the abducting parent. The converse is that they may not do anything if it is not, and this is also why it is conceivable that Japan could sign the Hague Convention and immediately appear on the U.S. State Department's list of noncompliant treaty partners.
Whatever the law says, it is very hard to imagine it being in the interests of the police and prosecutors to be seen taking crying half-Japanese children away from distraught Japanese mothers.
This is why the media attention is so important on this issue. Because law in Japan tends to serve the bureaucrats first and the people second, legislation and litigation may not lead to solutions if the bureaucrats are part of the problem. Thus, it will likely be criticism — relentless pressure and attention from both domestic and foreign sources — that will probably carry the day in Japan shedding its shameful status as an abduction haven. If so, it will be because the criticism risks damaging the authority of the bureaucrats by making them look bad.
This is sad, because appeals to law, reason and parental love should have worked a long time ago.
Colin P. A. Jones is a professor at Doshisha Law School in Kyoto. Send comments on this issue to community@japantimes.co.jp
Foreign parents face travel curbs?
Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2009
Foreign parents face travel curbs?
By COLIN P. A. JONES
I think it is safe to say that the countdown has begun — the countdown to it becoming more difficult for you to leave Japan with your children. Difficult, that is, if you are non-Japanese and traveling without their other parent (or his or her written consent).
The recent arrest of Christopher Savoie in Fukuoka for trying to "abduct" his children back to the United States (or into the U.S. consulate, at least) has highlighted what is being characterized in the Japanese media as a new and growing problem: foreigners abducting their children back to their home countries. If they aren't forcibly grabbing the kids like Mr. Savoie, they are taking them back home for a "visit" and then never coming back.
These are often children who were born and raised in Japan, yet their fates are being decided in foreign courts where the Japanese parents are often handicapped by distance, language and expense. If this sounds familiar, it is because it is just a reversal of the experience of scores of foreign parents whose children have been unilaterally brought to abduction-friendly Japan.
In addition to supposedly being a kidnapper, Mr. Savoie has been pilloried in the Japanese media for allegedly having two nationalities, for "tricking" his ex-wife to the United States so he could divorce her and, laughably, even for being a bigamist. But the abduction part of the story simply builds upon what appears to be a media campaign that has been under way since earlier this year, a campaign doubtless intended to help build a domestic consensus for signing the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.
That this is a government-led media campaign is suggested by the fact that it was NHK, the country's government- sponsored broadcaster, which led the pack by running a special segment on the problem of international divorce and child custody on its morning TV news on July 15. Other less captive Japanese media organizations have duly followed suit, but the stories have all generally followed the same theme, with Japanese parents as the victims. From that standpoint, the high profile of the Savoie case is probably a bonanza for the Japanese cause.
Of course, it is on the degree of victimization where Japan and other advanced countries part ways. Certainly, there are some tragic cases of children who have been taken by a foreign father to countries like Iran or Bangladesh, where the Japanese mother loses all contact. Yet, when children are taken to the U.S., for example, remedies are likely to be prompt, and access ensured while proceedings are under way — hardly as dramatic as the scores of cases of foreigners who have been denied contact with their children in Japan for years.
This may explain why a Sept. 5 article in the online edition of the Mainichi Shimbun was reduced to relating the cases of two Japanese women whose children were taken to England and the United States, respectively (doubtless by fathers who feared a failing marriage would result in them losing their children in Japan). Yet both were able to have their children returned through legal proceedings in these countries — despite Japan not being a party to the Hague Convention. It cost them a lot of money, though, and the article contains the questionable assertion that "Japan not being a party to the Convention results in an excessive financial burden on individuals."
It almost seems as though the main benefit to Japan joining the treaty would be to make it less expensive for Japanese parents to benefit from foreign court systems that value the parent-child relationship more highly than in Japan. There is not much in this or other Japanese media coverage of the issue that will give much comfort to parents (foreign and Japanese alike) who may well continue to be victimized by the Japanese legal system whether it is signed or not.
While Japan signing the Hague Convention is certainly a desirable goal, it is probably convenient for everyone on the Japanese government side of the issue for foreigners to be the bad guys. That way they appear to be dealing with a "new" problem, rather than one that they have already ignored for far too long. From there, the easiest way to prevent further abductions is to require foreign residents seeking to exit Japan with their children to show proof that the other parent consents to the travel. This requirement, I believe, will be the most immediate tangible result of Japan signing the Hague Convention (if in fact it ever does).
If such a requirement is imposed, will it apply to Japanese people? Probably not: Japanese citizens have a constitutional right to leave their country. And foreigners? They apparently lack this right — the re-entry permit foreigner residents are required to have is proof that they are not equally free to come and go as they please!
Ironic, yes, but how Japan "resolves" its abduction problem may itself prove to be a veritable smorgasbord of irony.
Foreign parents face travel curbs?
By COLIN P. A. JONES
I think it is safe to say that the countdown has begun — the countdown to it becoming more difficult for you to leave Japan with your children. Difficult, that is, if you are non-Japanese and traveling without their other parent (or his or her written consent).
The recent arrest of Christopher Savoie in Fukuoka for trying to "abduct" his children back to the United States (or into the U.S. consulate, at least) has highlighted what is being characterized in the Japanese media as a new and growing problem: foreigners abducting their children back to their home countries. If they aren't forcibly grabbing the kids like Mr. Savoie, they are taking them back home for a "visit" and then never coming back.
These are often children who were born and raised in Japan, yet their fates are being decided in foreign courts where the Japanese parents are often handicapped by distance, language and expense. If this sounds familiar, it is because it is just a reversal of the experience of scores of foreign parents whose children have been unilaterally brought to abduction-friendly Japan.
In addition to supposedly being a kidnapper, Mr. Savoie has been pilloried in the Japanese media for allegedly having two nationalities, for "tricking" his ex-wife to the United States so he could divorce her and, laughably, even for being a bigamist. But the abduction part of the story simply builds upon what appears to be a media campaign that has been under way since earlier this year, a campaign doubtless intended to help build a domestic consensus for signing the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction.
That this is a government-led media campaign is suggested by the fact that it was NHK, the country's government- sponsored broadcaster, which led the pack by running a special segment on the problem of international divorce and child custody on its morning TV news on July 15. Other less captive Japanese media organizations have duly followed suit, but the stories have all generally followed the same theme, with Japanese parents as the victims. From that standpoint, the high profile of the Savoie case is probably a bonanza for the Japanese cause.
Of course, it is on the degree of victimization where Japan and other advanced countries part ways. Certainly, there are some tragic cases of children who have been taken by a foreign father to countries like Iran or Bangladesh, where the Japanese mother loses all contact. Yet, when children are taken to the U.S., for example, remedies are likely to be prompt, and access ensured while proceedings are under way — hardly as dramatic as the scores of cases of foreigners who have been denied contact with their children in Japan for years.
This may explain why a Sept. 5 article in the online edition of the Mainichi Shimbun was reduced to relating the cases of two Japanese women whose children were taken to England and the United States, respectively (doubtless by fathers who feared a failing marriage would result in them losing their children in Japan). Yet both were able to have their children returned through legal proceedings in these countries — despite Japan not being a party to the Hague Convention. It cost them a lot of money, though, and the article contains the questionable assertion that "Japan not being a party to the Convention results in an excessive financial burden on individuals."
It almost seems as though the main benefit to Japan joining the treaty would be to make it less expensive for Japanese parents to benefit from foreign court systems that value the parent-child relationship more highly than in Japan. There is not much in this or other Japanese media coverage of the issue that will give much comfort to parents (foreign and Japanese alike) who may well continue to be victimized by the Japanese legal system whether it is signed or not.
While Japan signing the Hague Convention is certainly a desirable goal, it is probably convenient for everyone on the Japanese government side of the issue for foreigners to be the bad guys. That way they appear to be dealing with a "new" problem, rather than one that they have already ignored for far too long. From there, the easiest way to prevent further abductions is to require foreign residents seeking to exit Japan with their children to show proof that the other parent consents to the travel. This requirement, I believe, will be the most immediate tangible result of Japan signing the Hague Convention (if in fact it ever does).
If such a requirement is imposed, will it apply to Japanese people? Probably not: Japanese citizens have a constitutional right to leave their country. And foreigners? They apparently lack this right — the re-entry permit foreigner residents are required to have is proof that they are not equally free to come and go as they please!
Ironic, yes, but how Japan "resolves" its abduction problem may itself prove to be a veritable smorgasbord of irony.
New jury system fails to meet expectations
New jury system fails to meet expectations
The jury system, introduced last January for the first time in the nation's judicial history, may not be meeting expectations, according to a ruling party lawmaker.
As of the end of this August, only 409 among 231,508 criminal case trials had been filed to the court as participatory trials, said Rep. Chang Yoon-seok of the ruling Grand National Party at the parliamentary audit yesterday.
Of them, only 104 cases percent were actually tried in the requested format, among which 77 cases concerned felonies such as murder (49 cases) and robbery (28 cases), the prosecutor-turned-lawmaker said.
Sex offenses followed with 17 cases.
"Environment or public health-related lawsuits have not yet been included in the participatory trial list, though they also form a major social issue, concerning a large number of victims," he said.
In 43.4 percent of cases, either party would appeal to the higher court, but 72.7 percent end up being dismissed, the lawmaker also said.
A total of 3,397 jurors or 31.6 percent dutifully showed up in court and except in 12 cases, the jury's verdict was in accord with that of the bench, according to the data.
The average time taken from filing the suit to final verdict was 79 days, slightly shorter than the general average of 88.5 days for arrest cases and 125.1 for nonarrest cases.
The participatory trial system, though its effects are non-binding, marked a major judicial reform in the Korean court since the modern judicial system was established in 1895.
It was introduced to reinforce fairness of verdicts and promote the basic rights of citizens.
"The participatory trial system has over the past 22 months failed to induce the true judicial participation of the people," Chang said. "It may end up as a superficial public performance unless it actively enlarges its coverage."
The court, however, will make further efforts so that the present jury system, though limited in function at its initial stage, may work as an important tool to reflect public legal sentiment in the trials, said a court official.
When a child rapist was recently sentenced to 12 years in jail, public outrage flared over the relatively light sentence and blamed the present law system along with the court's leniency.
(tellme@heraldm.com)
By Bae Hyun-jung
2009.10.21
The jury system, introduced last January for the first time in the nation's judicial history, may not be meeting expectations, according to a ruling party lawmaker.
As of the end of this August, only 409 among 231,508 criminal case trials had been filed to the court as participatory trials, said Rep. Chang Yoon-seok of the ruling Grand National Party at the parliamentary audit yesterday.
Of them, only 104 cases percent were actually tried in the requested format, among which 77 cases concerned felonies such as murder (49 cases) and robbery (28 cases), the prosecutor-turned-lawmaker said.
Sex offenses followed with 17 cases.
"Environment or public health-related lawsuits have not yet been included in the participatory trial list, though they also form a major social issue, concerning a large number of victims," he said.
In 43.4 percent of cases, either party would appeal to the higher court, but 72.7 percent end up being dismissed, the lawmaker also said.
A total of 3,397 jurors or 31.6 percent dutifully showed up in court and except in 12 cases, the jury's verdict was in accord with that of the bench, according to the data.
The average time taken from filing the suit to final verdict was 79 days, slightly shorter than the general average of 88.5 days for arrest cases and 125.1 for nonarrest cases.
The participatory trial system, though its effects are non-binding, marked a major judicial reform in the Korean court since the modern judicial system was established in 1895.
It was introduced to reinforce fairness of verdicts and promote the basic rights of citizens.
"The participatory trial system has over the past 22 months failed to induce the true judicial participation of the people," Chang said. "It may end up as a superficial public performance unless it actively enlarges its coverage."
The court, however, will make further efforts so that the present jury system, though limited in function at its initial stage, may work as an important tool to reflect public legal sentiment in the trials, said a court official.
When a child rapist was recently sentenced to 12 years in jail, public outrage flared over the relatively light sentence and blamed the present law system along with the court's leniency.
(tellme@heraldm.com)
By Bae Hyun-jung
2009.10.21
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