USA Puts Yakuza Groups on Crime Sanctions List

The White House unveiled Monday a new strategy to combat organised crime, putting the Japanese yakuza and three other international crime groups on a list under which the US will freeze their financial assets and block entry of their members into the country.


President Barack Obama said that the expanding size, scope and influence of transnational organised crime and its impact on U.S. and international security and governance represents one of the most significant challenges in the 21st century.

"We encourage our partners and allies to echo the commitment we have made here and join in building a new framework for international cooperation to protect all our citizens from the violence, harm, and exploitation wrought by international organised crime," Obama said.

 
David Cohen, undersecretary of treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence, told reporters that about 80,000 people are estimated to be members of Japanese crime syndicates and involved in a variety of crime such as drug trafficking and arms smuggling.


http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9OMVGR00&show_article=1

2011 - Minimum Wage Rises Slow - Working Poor top 10 million

A government advisory panel on Tuesday decided increases in hourly minimum wages this fiscal year should range from 1 yen to 18 yen depending on the prefecture.

Under the proposal, the rise in fiscal 2011 would stand at a national average of 6 yen, a significant drop from 15 yen the previous fiscal year, according to a Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry estimate.

The subcommittee of the Central Minimum Wages Council, an advisory panel to the labor minister, concluded that it would be difficult to greatly increase minimum wages because a number of companies, especially in eastern Japan, have been seriously affected by the March 11 disaster, which has been compounded by restrictions placed on electricity usage this summer.

If wages are raised within the panel's proposed range, the national average hourly minimum wage is estimated at 736 yen.

For the disaster-hit Tohoku prefectures, the average hourly minimum wage is likely to rise from 644 yen to 645 yen in Iwate, with Miyagi and Fukushima likely to see increases of 1 yen to 675 yen and 658 yen, respectively.

The proposal on the wage increase range is expected to be officially approved by the council Wednesday. Prefectures nationwide will then introduce their new hourly minimum wages in October after local-level discussions on the matter.

One labor union official said, "To help rebuild the lives of workers in the disaster-hit areas, we need to raise minimum wages."

However, it has been difficult for employers to boost wages, with one saying: "The impact [of the disaster] is also serious in areas other than the Tohoku region. Companies don't have the capability of significantly increasing wages."

===
Working poor on the increase
With the national average minimum wage estimated to fall by 9 yen this fiscal year, the panel's proposal will weigh on laborers such as part-time workers whose wages are already at minimum levels.

Since fiscal 2007, the national average hourly minimum wage has risen by more than 10 yen per year. The revised Minimum Wages Law, which took effect in 2008 to prevent workers from receiving minimum wages that would put them within earnings levels requiring welfare support, was a major factor in the increases. In June last year, the government and representatives of labor unions also reached an agreement to try to establish the national average minimum wage at 800 yen as early as possible.

However, the March disaster has changed the landscape of the nation's labor situation.
In the Tohoku prefectures that were hit hard by the disaster, many companies are struggling to even maintain their current employees.

Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima prefectures saw their minimum wages rise about 12 yen to 13 yen in fiscal 2010, but they are expected to see a mere 1 yen increase in the current fiscal year.

The number of so-called working poor--laborers who earn less than 2 million yen a year--has exceeded 10 million. Among minimum wage earners nationwide, only those in Tokyo, Kyoto and Hiroshima would be able to avoid living under the levels that require public welfare assistance, if the advisory panel's proposal is implemented.

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/business/T110726006066.htm

Tokyo Court Rules Valid Renewal Fees in Household Rental Contracts

The Supreme Court ruled Friday it is reasonable for landlords to seek renewal fees in renewing housing rental agreements with their tenants.
In the ruling on three lawsuits, in which it was claimed the fees run counter to the consumer contracts law to protect consumers' benefits, Yuki Furuta, presiding justice of the top court's second petty bench said, "The charges do not run counter to the law unless they are too high in comparison with rent or rental agreement periods."
Many apartments or houses mainly in the Tokyo and Osaka areas are rented to tenants under a contract which typically requires a fee equal to two-months' rent in renewing a two-year agreement.
In earlier rulings, the Osaka High Court rejected as being invalid a renewal fee of 76,000 yen for a one-year agreement with rent at 38,000 yen per month, and 100,000 yen for a similar agreement with rent at 45,000 yen, saying they lacked reasonable grounds.
But the high court endorsed a fee of 104,000 yen for a two-year agreement with rent at 52,000 yen, ruling the tenant could secure a place to live and the amount of payment was reasonable.
In the cases taken to the Supreme Court, tenants claimed that apartment or house owners could obtain unfair benefits by imposing the rental agreement renewal fees.
The owners argued for their part that renewal fees have been established for more than 40 years and should be viewed as a reasonable supplement to rents.
The Supreme Court endorsed renewal fees as supplementary to rent and payable for renewal, concluding their economic rationality cannot be denied.



http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9OFVD4O0&show_article=1

July - Continuing Impact on Beef industry of Fukushima Cesium Tainted Beef

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110722004942.htm

July - Radiated Meat Sold - Radiation worries continue

Fukushima beef contaminated with radiation has been sold in supermarkets and restaurants continuing the Japanese Government's appalling record in ensuring food safety and consumer confidence -

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T110714005206.htm

Seven & I March-May Net Profit Plunges 46% on EQ

Seven & I Holdings Co., which owns the Ito-Yokado and Seven- Eleven Japan retail store and Denny's Japan restaurant chains, said Thursday its group net profit in the March-May period plunged 46.1 percent from a year earlier to 13.11 billion yen, due partly to the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan. 


Pretax profit rose 29.5 percent to 68.21 billion yen. But the bottom line showed a year-on-year decline after the company booked an 18.1 billion yen special loss in disaster-related costs, and a 22.5 billion yen debit due to accounting standard changes.

Group first-quarter sales declined 9.9 percent to 1.12 trillion yen, partly reflecting a change in procedures for booking sales for its U.S. convenience store business, the company said.
Seven & I revised upward its earnings estimates for the year to February 2012, as the first-quarter results were better than expected.

Full year net profit is now projected to decline only 6.2 percent to 105.00 billion yen, compared to 87.50 billion yen forecast earlier. Sales are expected to fall 8.6 percent to 4.68 trillion yen, against 4.60 trillion yen forecast earlier.


http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9OAM3CO0&show_article=1

June - Prius Back to Number 1

Prius takes back no1 sales position in June following supply chain problems

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20110707a2.html?

Men Born in 70s stuck in non permanent jobs

Men born in the latter half of the 1970s tend to be mired in nonregular jobs compared with those of other generations as work status such as temporary employment has spread since the 1990s, the labor ministry said in an annual report on labor economy released Friday. 


The Health, Labour and Welfare Ministry's white paper called for support for such people to encourage them to switch to regular employment, including expanding job training opportunities, as they have been unable to secure a more stable employment status after starting out in part-time jobs during the so-called ice age for recruiting.

The employment situation for people born in the 1970s and later has been affected by company moves to cut back on hiring and opt for contract, temporary and other nonregular workers following the collapse of the asset-inflated bubble economy in the early 1990s.

In particular, men born in the latter half of the 1970s are now in their 30s, while the proportion of nonregular workers among them still hovers at high levels of roughly 15 percent, according to the white paper.

The share of nonregular workers among men born in the first half of the 1970s and the first half of the 1980s have decreased. While the proportion of nonregular employees among women was generally higher than that for men, there was no clear differentiation by generation, the report said.
On employment conditions on the whole, the white paper said the situation has become more severe in the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami disaster.


http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9OB51FG0&show_article=1

2010 - Land Prices Fall (3.1%) for 3rd Straight Year

Land prices fell for the third straight year in calendar 2010, but by a smaller margin as recovery in company earnings and investments put the brakes on declines in the real estate market, the National Tax Agency said Friday.

Land prices at some 370,000 benchmark points across Japan fell an average of 3.1 percent, a smaller fall than the average decline of 4.4 percent the year before, the agency said.

Because the latest assessment of "roadside land prices," which serve as a basis for tax calculations, is dated prior to the March earthquake and tsunami, the agency plans to decide and announce by November adjustment rates for nine stricken prefectures, taking into account disaster-induced falls in their land prices.

Rates reflecting the impact of the calamity will give land owners a tax break.

But real estate dealers are concerned they may spur falling land prices by affecting transactions in disaster areas.

The average percentage change fell in all 47 prefectures for the third consecutive year, but the margin of decline was smaller in 31 of them, centering on the three biggest metropolitan areas of Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka.

The biggest decline in rate was marked in Kochi Prefecture, at 8.0 percent, followed by 7.2 percent in Tokushima and 5.9 percent in Yamaguchi.

Of the 47 prefectural capitals, only Fukuoka saw an increase in its highest land price, while the highest prices in Nagoya, Nara and Tsu, Mie Prefecture, stayed the same.

Of the 43 other capitals, where the highest land prices sagged, Sendai, Akita and Matsue, Shimane Prefecture, logged double-digit falls.

An area in front of the Kyukyodo stationery store in Tokyo's Ginza shopping district remained the most expensive in Japan for the 26th year in a row at ¥22 million per sq. meter, though it sank ¥1.2 million, or 5.2 percent, from the year before.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20110702a6.html

July 1 - Major Japanese Firms Start Weekend Shifts

Major companies on Saturday began operating on weekends to reduce demand for electricity use on weekdays in the face of possible power shortfalls this summer.

The start came a day after the government imposed restrictions on electricity consumption by large-lot users in eastern and northeastern Japan.

Eight automakers, including Nissan Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co., operated factories, while firms such as NTT DoCoMo Inc. opened some of their offices.

Employees arrived at Honda's factory in Sayama, Saitama Prefecture, by 6:30 a.m. to begin the day's work. A male employee said he came to work "as if today was Monday," adding that he didn't have any special feelings about working on the weekend.

Although the government's curb on power consumption applies only to large-lot users in the service areas of Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Tohoku Electric Power Co., some factories and companies in other regions will also operate weekends because the automobile industry's supply chain is spread across the country.

The industry has designated Thursdays and Fridays as substitute days off for working on weekends. DoCoMo offices that open Saturdays and Sundays will be closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20110703a1.html

2010 Census - Single Households Top 30% for first time

The number of single-member households have exceeded 30 percent of total households in Japan, becoming the largest category for the first time, the government said Wednesday in a preliminary tabulation of last October's population census.
The share of single-member households came to 31.2 percent as of last October as their number increased some 10 percent from the previous census in 2005 to 15,885,000.
The number of couple-and-child households, which had been the most dominant household category until the previous census, fell slightly to 14,588,000, accounting for 28.7 percent of the total.
The total number of households surpassed 50 million for the first time since Japan's population census began in 1920 due to an increase in smaller households. The average number of persons per household declined to a record low of 2.46.
The government also said the population share of persons 65 years old and above rose by 2.9 percentage points from 2005 to 23.1 percent in remaining the highest in the world, followed by 20.4 percent in both Italy and Germany.
The proportion of young people below the age of 15 declined 0.6 point to 13.2 percent.


http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9O5F0OO1&show_article=1

Fukushima Children Show Caesium in Urine

Small amounts of radioactive cesium were found in the urine of 10 children in the city of Fukushima, confirming their internal exposure to radiation, citizens' groups that carried out a survey said Thursday.

The groups, including Fukushima Network for Saving Children from Radiation, asked ACRO, a French independent radiation monitoring and sampling laboratory, to conduct tests on its members' own children. ACRO conducted tests in Belarus after the Chernobyl accident.

The groups said they couldn't judge whether the level of contamination was large or small, and urged the government to conduct thorough tests on all Fukushima children to find the precise levels of their internal exposure and take necessary measures to avoid any further contamination.

Cesium-134 and cesium-137 were detected in the urine samples of all 10 children aged between 6 and 16 who participated in the survey. The largest amount of cesium-134, which has a half-life of two years, was 1.13 becquerels per liter, found in the urine of an 8-year-old girl.

As for cesium-137, which has a half-life of 30 years, the largest amount was 1.30 becquerels per liter detected in a 7-year-old boy. No traces of iodine-131 were found in the test.

The government has set a safety limit of 200 becquerels of cesium per liter of water.

The samples were taken in late May in the city of Fukushima, more than 50 km from the Fukushima No. 1 plant.

"All (tested) kids are contaminated. . . . Currently the (government's) policy is mainly on external exposure, but internal exposure should be taken into consideration," ACRO Chairman David Boilley told a news conference in Tokyo.

Boilley said the exact levels of contamination can't be judged by urine tests alone because there is no direct correlation between contamination found in urine and contamination in the entire body. It was difficult to judge the contamination level because the amounts of cesium detected were small, he added.

"If it's mainly due to the plume (from the initial explosions at the Fukushima No. 1 reactors), considering samples were taken two months after the exposure, that means two months before, it was quite a large contamination," Boilley said. "If it's mainly due to the food, then it is minor contamination."

To get a grasp on their contamination levels, continuing urine tests as well as more comprehensive internal tests for radiation known as whole-body counter exams are needed, he said.

Asked to convert the detected becquerel levels to sieverts, Boilley said: "We were not able to do (such a) calculation, because it depends on many parameters. And figures (we would get) may be wrong and we prefer not to give wrong figures," he said.

Masahiro Fukushi, a professor of radiological science at Tokyo Metropolitan University, told The Japan Times it is very difficult to ascertain the dose of internal exposure when radioactivity found in the urine is very small.

"It's very difficult to calculate when the detected amount is very small. Without knowing when and how the detected cesium got into their bodies, there is a huge possibility of making either an overestimation or an underestimation," Fukushi said.

He said that the speed of absorption into and exiting from one's body are different depending on whether the radioactive substances were ingested or inhaled.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110701a2.html

July 1 - Power Restrictions Start - Companies to be fined for failure to cut by 15%

Japan on Friday began restricting electricity consumption in the Tokyo and Tohoku regions, more than three months after a tsunami sent nuclear reactors into meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

The power-saving drive, which for many began shortly after the huge March 11 quake and tsunami but which became official Friday, will last through the peak summer months to September to cut blackout risks after the loss of capacity.

Large companies that violate the decree to cut useage by 15 percent will face fines of up to one million yen ($12,400). Smaller users and households have also been asked to voluntarily cut power use by 15 percent.

To cope, Japan has taken its annual summer "Cool Biz" campaign -- aimed at limiting air conditioner use and encouraging workers to ditch jackets and ties -- to a new level.

Factories have changed shifts to make use of cooler evenings, early mornings and lower-demand weekends, prompting nursery schools to also open weekends to cater for the needs of working parents.

Companies such as Sony have brought their business days forward by an hour in order to finish earlier.
Railway operators have increased train services in the early morning to coincide with moves by Japanese firms to start the work day earlier.

The power-saving restrictions will be in effect through to September 22 in Tokyo Electric's service area and through September 9 in Tohoku Electric's territory.

Hospitals providing emergency treatment and shelters for evacuees from the March 11 disaster are exempted. The reduction target will be relaxed to up to 10 percent for medical, nursing-care and transportation service providers.

On Wednesday temperatures soared to 35 degrees Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) in Tokyo and air conditioner use pushed consumption to 93 percent of capacity, raising fears that the capital may yet face blackouts as the summer heats up.

Even utilities not directly affected by the earthquake and tsunami have not restarted nuclear reactors that were undergoing maintenance at the time, due to objections from local governments amid a wave of anti-nuclear sentiment.

Only 19 of Japan's 54 reactors are now operating, with more due to shut down for regular checks. Japan usually generates about 30 percent of its power from nuclear plants.

Ratings agency Moody's on Friday said it had downgraded the ratings of nine Japanese utilities, citing increased regulatory uncertainty following the accident at the Fukushima nuclear plant.

There are worries that restrictions on power consumption may slow the country's recovery from recession, after the earthquake and tsunami hammered Japanese production and the economy contracted by an annualised 3.5 percent in January-March.

http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110701/wl_asia_afp/japanaccidentnucleardisasterenergy