Julian Ryall from South China Morning Post:
Hunters in northern Japan are refusing to take on the surging bear population, warning that “fighting a brown bear is like fighting a US military commando”.
With a record 219 bear attacks, including six fatalities, over the past year, rural communities are desperate for help – but hunters say the dangerous job simply isn’t worth the meagre pay.
Bear hunter is one of the professions that you should never underpay and never get on their bad side.
From The Yomiuri Shimbun:
The Liberal Democratic Party won two races and lost six in Sunday’s by-elections for the Tokyo metropolitan assembly, far worse than the party’s self-set conditions for victory of four or more wins.
Taihei Bito from The Yomiuri Shimbun:
The work consisted of simply printing personal information data on both sides of a white card with a fake IC chip embedded. She would often make 60 cards in a day, which she would then send to specified domestic addresses. For one day’s work, she would receive electronic money equivalent to about ¥12,000 to ¥16,000.
The MPD investigated, suspecting that the person giving instructions was in China. On May 15, they arrested two Chinese nationals on charges including suspicion of forging sealed official documents for allegedly making fake My Number cards at the request of the same group. They believe the forged cards may have been used for purposes such as setting up mobile phone contracts.
The whole point of a digital ID is that the digital bit can prove authenticity of the card itself. The fact that most businesses and banks rely only on the visual information printed on a card without certifying the digital certificate renders the whole enterprise pointless. While the counterfeiting of these cards is certainly a problem, the real issue is that people don't seem to understand or care on how to use this IDs for their intended purpose.
From The Yomiuri Shimbun:
In 2022, the ministry conducted a special inspection of more than 200,000 Self-Defense Forces personnel about “power harassment” after a female former SDF member made accusations of sexual abuse under her real name.
Last December, the ministry announced it would punish 245 employees, mainly SDF staff called “uniformed officials.”
Action should be taken against any harassment but I am hesitant to think that this will make any kind of real difference in actual future change towards more equitable workplaces.
Tomoyuki Tachikawa from Kyodo:
Koike, 71, secured a third consecutive four-year term, defeating Shinji Ishimaru, a 41-year-old social media-savvy former mayor from Hiroshima Prefecture, who closely contested second place with Renho, a 56-year-old former lawmaker backed by the main opposition party.
The election was initially expected to be a neck-and-neck race between Koike and Renho, both former TV anchors. However, Ishimaru, relatively unknown in Tokyo before the official campaign began, significantly boosted his profile by expanding his election activities through social media.
More of the same. Again.