Notices by Minoru Saba (minorusaba@toad.social), page 5

"#Japan is surrounded by several nuclear-armed neighbors and depends on US extended deterrence rather than its own nuclear deterrent"
"In 2017, former defense minister Shigeru Ishiba proposed hosting US nuclear weapons on Japanese soil..."
"[but] Japanese public opinion remains opposed to nuclear weapons acquisition"
https://asiatimes.com/2023/06/japans-nuclear-weapon-dilemma-growing-more-acute/
🔸Old article, but still very relevant. Japan has to strengthen the taboo & disincentives of using nuclear weapons or it'll face some unpalatable choices

"Tsunehisa Katsumata, who was chairman of TEPCO at the time of the nuclear accident at its Fukushima plant in 2011, died on Oct. 21...He was 84"
"...indicted in 2016, charged with professional negligence resulting in death and injury along with other TEPCO executives"
"...the legal battle continued to the Supreme Court. Due to his death, the case is expected to be terminated"
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20241031/p2g/00m/0bu/047000c
🔸Was once told executives get paid more since they take responsibility for a company's actions🙄

Infection status
Released Nov 1, 2024.
- As of period from Oct 21 - Oct 27, 2024 -

No. of patients per medical facility (nationwide) 1.69
Change from prev. week -0.17
[Source: Health-Labor-Welfare Ministry weekly report]
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/001323615.pdf
🔸Probably reaching end of 11th wave.
Saga at 0.49, Tokyo at 1.17, Akita at 3.0, Hokkaido at 3.87, Okinawa at 0.89.
#Influenza (nationwide) at 0.87. #Okinawa continues to be the outlier at 11.11!!
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/content/001323648.pdf
#CovidIsNotOver #Japan

This meme has become popular on social media, lately.
#satire #billionaires #recycling #humor #economics #press

"#Japan has lodged a protest with a UN human rights watchdog that called for reviewing a domestic law that limits imperial succession to male heirs on the emperor's father side"
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20241030/p2g/00m/0na/018000c
🔸Seems ironic that "conservatives" claim "tradition/history" for their misogynistic stance which threatens an institution they presumably want to preserve, when "female reigns came to be officially prohibited only when the Imperial Household Law was issued in 1889"🤔
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_of_Japan

An obvious question that journalism has failed to ask:

The fascists plan to build and fill vast prisons and "camps" with the people they plan to deport.

If they succeed in their evil plan -- and actually deport millions of people -- do you imagine for a second that they'll tear down the prisons and concentration camps?

They're going to fill them back up again.

"...where the ruling and opposition parties are evenly matched, it is essential to find and reach consensuses oriented toward the public through tense debate"
🔸Might be tough for media used to pushing knee-jerking, click-baiting sound bites, but probably not bad for weaning the public off expecting instant, simplistic solutions to complex, multi-faceted problems.
A chance for people to grow up.
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20241029/p2a/00m/0op/026000c
#Japan #politics #HungParliament

@Atticus1956

Best wishes from across the pond.
On Nov 5th we in UK traditionally burn effigies of the guy who plotted to blow up Parliament (& failed).
I hope you defeat your plotter on Nov 5th too. It's time he was consigned to the past.
Good luck USA.

"Tree-cutting began Monday [28 Oct 2024] in the Jingu Gaien park district of central Tokyo"
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20241028/p2g/00m/0na/043000c

🔸Just like Mitsui Fudosan Co. said they would last week when Japan's media & public were mainly occupied with barking at the squirrel in the election tree🙄
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20241021/p2g/00m/0na/048000c
#Tokyo #JinguGaien #Jingu #Japan

" ”It won't be possible for Ishiba to secure a stable government after the election...” said Masahiro Iwasaki, a professor at Nihon University"
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20241028/p2g/00m/0na/007000c
🔸If LDP/Komeito can't poach the more conservative elements of opposition parties, they'll have to acquire the lost art of horse-trading (ahem...negotiation...) instead of steam-rolling through unpopular policies😎
#Japan #politics

@salyavin Doc recommended COVID shots for the elderly, probably because Kp3 variant is reported to evade immunity acquired from previous injections.
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2024/07/24/japan/science-health/covid-19-11th-wave/

Doc didn't say anything about the new Japanese vaccines; Takeda's recombinant protein & Meiji Seika's replicon types make up 8.4% & 13.2% respectively of the total 32.2M doses ordered in Japan for 2024/2025, so majority of clinics probably have stocks of Pfizer/Moderna/Daiichi Sankyo mRNA type.
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/expert/articles/12d25237c01916e9fef2f0b85b0180ffc91330ba

@salyavin Had booked up for a flu shot and was planning to make a separate COVID shot appointment, but found on the day they had spare COVID shots from cancelled appointments.
Hadn't thought to ask, but it turned out to be Pfizer.
Side effects: delayed muscle pain in area of shot & higher body temperature for a couple of days, but degree of pain & fever seems to differ between individuals.

https://news.yahoo.co.jp/expert/articles/12d25237c01916e9fef2f0b85b0180ffc91330ba

We humans have had a good run, haven't we?

It takes a long time to kill something strong--Sears still has nine stores left, even though it's been dying for 50 years (since before e-commerce!)

As for we humans, #COVID19 continues to mutate, bird flu is gaining traction, global warming is accelerating, billionaires are threatening democracy to increase their wealth, nationalism is rising, and Russia expanded its bioweapon labs. I wonder how long we have--it could be centuries, but maybe not.

"...for North Korea, deploying troops to Russia [gives] its soldiers opportunities to gain combat experience while testing the performance of its weapons supplied to Moscow"
"Pyongyang might also be expecting to gain...technology for missiles and nuclear warheads [which] would pose seriously consequential security risks to Japan and South Korea"
https://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/15482094

@David @DrEvanGowan Always wonder why preventive healthcare gets little or no coverage under Japan's national health insurance.
Have cynically assumed that "a stitch in time saves nine" isn't as glamorous as high-tech, photogenic surgery with all the bells & whistles despite the former making more sense for personal & national health🙄

"It’s impossible to guarantee a 100% match between a vaccine and a circulating variant when a virus is constantly mutating...[but] the newly updated Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines, designed to target KP.2 (the dominant COVID strain this past spring), and the latest Novavax vaccine that targets an earlier strain— JN.1—should also provide protection against XEC"
https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/3-things-to-know-about-xec-the-latest-covid-strain
🔸Vaccines in #Japan for 2024/2025 target JN1 strain
https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/newpage_40879.html
#CovidIsNotOver

"The administration of Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike's ties with real estate giant Mitsui Fudosan...are coming under growing scrutiny...amid a shocking lack of governance"
"[#Tokyo] has handed MF the rights to an increasing number of high-profile public projects [and] the MF Group has hired no fewer than 14 former Tokyo govt officials"
"[In] MF's redevelopment work for #Jingu Gaien [as] with #Tsukiji, rules appear to have been bent...for the construction of skyscrapers"
https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20241024/p2a/00m/0op/026000c
#Japan

@504DR @Quantillion @breadandcircuses @gerrymcgovern @FantasticalEconomics

Thank you, I will check it out.

Pfizer's Japan website stated on 18 Sept 2024 that for 2024/2025 season Japan will use the COVID vaccine selected for the JN1 variant. This is expected to prevent aggravation of symptoms when facing the more recent KP2 & KP3 variants.
https://www.pfizer.co.jp/pfizer/company/press/2024/2024-09-18
🔸Fingers crossed😬
#CovidIsNotOver #Japan

@DrEvanGowan In Tokyo, people over 65 get COVID & flu vaccines subsidized; and the subsidy in some Tokyo wards result in the elderly paying nothing for the COVID vaccine.
However, as you say, for everyone else the vaccines take a hefty chunk out of the monthly budget, which may push people to play dice with Long COVID, flu & grim reaper.