Renewing Japan's air force

On most days for the past several years, pilots from the Japan Air Self-Defence Force have scrambled to stop military aircraft from China and Russia buzzing Japan's air space. It is a reminder of how prickly Japan's ties with its neighbours have become, not least because of contested sovereignty over a few remote islands. Intercepts of Chinese planes almost tripled last year, to 96 (see chart). Russia, meanwhile, recently sent two bombers skirting provocatively around the Japanese archipelago. Amid such taunts, on September 26th Japan received three bids to supply an order of more than 40 fighter jets to replace the oldest part of its fleet. For years Japan had been hoping to buy America's snazzy but expensive F-22 Raptor, a stealth fighter made by Lockheed Martin and Boeing, which has since been partially imitated by China and Russia.
1 Oct The language is unmistakably Japanese, the lyrics delivered in familiar high-pitched tones over a backdrop of electronica. But the wave of pop music sweeping Japan is not the sugar-coated homegrown variety that has long clogged the airwaves. Japanese teens and twentysomethings who once had ears only for J-pop are now transfixed by K-pop, a phenomenon from South Korea that is taking the world's second-biggest music market by storm. Korean pop culture's first foray into Japan was led almost a decade ago by Bae Yong-joon, a TV and film actor whose legions of mainly middle-aged, female devotees nicknamed him Yon-sama, or the Honourable Yon. (guardian.co.uk)
1 Oct With schoolchildren playing in front of her house every day, a tsunami survivor who identifies herself only as "Mrs. Sugawara," says she often thinks about suicide. Her daughter and two sons survived the March 11 disaster, but her husband and three grandchildren did not. "They were my future, and now they are gone and not coming back," says Mrs. Sugawara, 69. "The tsunami took my sense of hope away with them." Her lonely struggle mirrors that of thousands of tsunami survivors, especially seniors now isolated in temporary houses after spending months in crowded but more sociable gymnasiums. Since her children have gone to work elsewhere, Mrs. Sugawara lives alone, in a prefab unit in the parking lot of a junior high school overlooking the obliterated northeastern city of Rikuzen-Takata. (Washington Times)
1 Oct Local ordinances prohibiting companies from trading with organized crime syndicates will be put into force Saturday in Tokyo and Okinawa with the expectation of stopping their cash flow funds and eventually putting the mob out of business. Some legal experts welcome the moves by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the Okinawa Prefectural Government, but they also urge local police to properly disclose to the general public detailed information about gangs so they can avoid trading with them and provide concrete examples of cases being banned by the new ordinances. (Japan Times)
30 Sep Tokyo Metropolitan Police earlier this week arrested the principals involved in the sale and copying of large quantities of uncensored adult video DVDs in Ikebukuro, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Sept. 30). Yoshitaka Iwaki, 45, verbally touted the sale of uncensored discs copied electromagnetically from a store he operated in Ikebukuro, located in Tokyo's Toshima Ward. A signboard with photos allowed customers to select discs they wished to purchase. Eiji Imai, 40, presided over an apartment, also in Toshima Ward, where the discs were stored. During a search of the premises on Wednesday, officers seized approximately 50,000 discs and copying equipment. (Tokyo Reporter)
30 Sep Investigators continue to search for a man who held up a suburban Tokyo bookstore by threatening the manager with a lit firework, the Metropolitan Police Department said Sept. 29. The man described as being about 160 centimeters tall and wearing a gray hoodie and white surgical mask made off with 5,000 yen (around $65) in cash after threatening the bookstore manager in Nishitokyo on Thursday night. (majirox news)

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Strong yen threatens to force Japanese firms to shift production overseas - Mainichi Daily News

Nissan Motor Co.'s Oppama factory in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, is seen on July 2. (Mainichi)

Japanese companies including Toyota Motor Corp. could have no option but to shift production overseas if the yen, which recently hit a post-war record high against the U.S. dollar, remains strong for a long time.

"The strong yen will affect a wide range of businesses. I'm worried that Japan's entire industrial sector could experience a downturn," a top executive at a major electronics company told the Mainichi on Aug. 19. An official of a heavy-equipment manufacturing firm said, "Our international competitiveness will steadily decline."

According to a survey of 119 major Japanese companies conducted by the Mainichi from mid-July to early August, the average exchange rate the companies assumed against the dollar for the current business year (ending at the end of March 2012) was the 82 yen level. Currently, the yen is 6 yen higher than that against the dollar.

As for the auto industry, for every one-yen increase against the dollar Toyota's operating profits are projected to drop by 30 billion yen and Nissan Motor Co.'s by 20 billion yen. Toyota fell into the red in the April-June quarter, and calculates that the strong yen cut profits then by 50 billion yen. Toyota is trying to keep its production lines in Japan, but a senior company official said, "We have no option but to have more parts produced abroad."

Mitsubishi Electric Corp. set its assumed exchange rate at 85 yen to the dollar for the business year ending March 2012. If the rate against the dollar is 1 yen stronger than that, profits will drop by 4 billion yen.

"We have to take conventional measures such as cost-cutting and increasing imports of raw materials, but if the yen continues to be strong for a long time, there are limits to what one company can do to deal with it," said a Mitsubishi Electric official.

Takashi Miyoshi, Executive Vice President of Hitachi Ltd., said, "We have to do more business overseas. Otherwise, we will lose cost competitiveness."

The strong yen has merits: people can travel abroad from Japan and companies in Japan can import raw materials from abroad at lower prices. But most economists believe that the adverse effects of the strong yen on the economy caused by poor business performances will outstrip the merits of the strong yen.

The government and the Bank of Japan intervened in the foreign exchange market to sell the yen on Aug. 4, but the effects of such efforts were limited and business managers have become more frustrated. Prime Minister Naoto Kan has said his government would decide on whether to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade pact, but that decision has yet to be made. While the government has failed to implement measures to help boost corporate competitiveness, the yen has strengthened.

"Under these circumstances, production bases could be moved overseas," said a top official of a steel company.

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