Much of this recent CNN article focuses on Yuka Ogata's contribution to the discussion. -- Kirk
2019-07-12 08:15 JST 2019 Much of this recent CNN article focuses on Yuka Ogata's contribution to the discussion. -- Kirk The child care crisis facing Japan's working momsWhen Japanese politician Yuka Ogata decided to bring her 7-month-old child into Kumamoto's city assembly, she was hoping to set a precedent for working mothers. Instead, she embarked on a battle. https://edition.cnn.com/2019/07/07/asia/japan-childcare-cris … ↗ View original post on Facebook For a link to the original post on Facebook, open this page on a computer. Reactions: 25 · Comments: 1 · Shares: 5 ← 2019-07-11 21:04 JST 2019-07-13 08:38 JST → Around this time … 2019-07-14 12:13 JSTThanks to all 20 players who have supported my pop-up escape room project so far. INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF SPIES will be closing at the end of July, and no further escape rooms are planned in Kumamoto at this stage. If you want to play the game before it closes, or have any questions, you can visit and send a message via Escape from Britz. It costs 1000 yen to play (500 yen for kids/students) and is for teams of 2-6 players. It's family-friendly, and you don't need any experience with escape rooms. You should have at least one English speaker on your team. The escape room is located close to Kencho - just search for Escape from Britz on Google maps!Fiona 2019-07-13 22:14 JSTAs William indicated, Kumamoto City and other parts of the prefecture experienced some extremely intense rain this afternoon. Click on this link in order to see a report in Japanese:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5x-5kWlEic0-- Kirk 2019-07-13 15:28 JSTA short note from the Kumamoto International Meteorology Desk (we have many umbrellas, most of which we "borrowed"): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0i7JU9SijE-- WilliamThe Rain Rain Rain (came Down Down Down) English 2019-07-13 11:37 JSTHere's a little news about the policing of the police. -- Kirk"Japan's National Public Safety Commission has taken disciplinary actions against three police officials for receiving fees from a publisher without going through proper procedures for written work used in workbooks for police promotion tests."One was working in Kumamoto.3 Japan Police Officials Reprimanded for Paid Writing Work 2019-07-13 08:38 JSTI'm glad to see this positive and important step toward resolution of this issue. It seems likely to bring healing to the victims and help the rest of us understand what they went through.Actually, I've had the honor and pleasure of meeting some of the people involved in this struggle. I met Harumi Oku, the person standing in this picture, at a symposium held in 2015, at which I assisted with translation. Here's a very brief summary of her experience as a family member, based on notes I received at the time:Ms. Oku's mother contracted Hansen's disease (leprosy) and was forced to enter a sanatarium when she was 4 years old. Her father did not have leprosy but had a bad leg, which seems to have led to his forced internment as well. Young Harumi was put in Tatsuda Dormintory (Tatsuda Ryo), a special facility for the children of leprosy patients located in Kurokami, near Kumamoto University. At first, the children in this dormitory were not allowed to attend elementary school with other children. Later, the Kumamoto City Board of Education decided to allow them to attend the local school (Kurokami Shoggako) but this brought a vicious backlash from the local community. Local activists brought megaphones to yell hateful slogans ("Leper kids, stay away from our school!") at the dormitory and its occupants. Harumi's father was able to arrange for her to go to Amami Oshima (an island in southern Kagoshima Prefecture, part of the Ryukyu Achipelago) in order to avoid the trouble in Kurokami. However, Harumi interpreted being sent away as abandonment. She had a hard time in Amami Oshima, being treated as either a burden or merely a source of labor by the family that took her in -- not as a child to be cared for.As you can see from even this brief account of Ms. Oku's experience, family members of Hansen's disease patients suffered terribly. Not only were they deprived of parents and loved ones -- they themselves were, by association, treated as social pariahs. The government's policies played a significant role in fostering such prejudice and discrimination, which is one reason that the government was found culpable in the latest court case.-- KirkAbe apologizes to family members of former leprosy patients：The Asahi Shimbun 2019-07-12 08:15 JSTMuch of this recent CNN article focuses on Yuka Ogata's …The child care crisis facing Japan's working moms (this post) 2019-07-11 21:04 JSTA note from the Kumamoto International Desk of Inadvertently Amusing Surveys (we stock up on tissue as we laugh so much): Kumanichi conducted a survey of 100 Kumamoto residents regarding their opinion regarding an increase in non-Japanese workers. Of the respondents, 28 were cool with it, 11 were against, 13 didn't know, 21 were disinclined, and 27 were like "maybe." The Kumanichi article titled itself as "Those Supporting an Increase in Foreign Workers Exceeds 50%." We at the Kumamoto International Desk of Inadvertently Amusing Surveys have retitled the article as \ _(ツ)_/¯. - William外国人労働者「賛成」５割超 参院選くまもと県民アンケート⑤ ｜ 熊本日日新聞 2019-07-10 21:56 JSTHere's an item that has gotten quite a lot of national attention over the past 24 hours. He started running in Kumamoto but the latest report I saw sighted him in Fukuoka and Saga.-- KirkEx-Diet member's secretary flees police in Kumamoto | TokyoReporter 2019-07-10 09:58 JSTAlso, Joe Tomei here again, and this picture is from Jackie Bencke, who saw it at the Hamasen Starbucks and passed it on. It's a listing of all the fireworks displays in Kumamoto prefecture. I put it up without translation cause I think it is simply enough to figure out. For details of each event, you can go tohttps://hanabi.walkerplus.com/list/ar1043/(This is the link for the Kumamoto prefecture list)which gives details of all the fireworks displays in Japan. If you've not attended a fireworks festival, people generally go early and it's a bit crowded getting back, but that's part of the Japanese experience, I suppose. 2019-07-10 09:36 JSTJoe Tomei here. A colleague of mine, Akira Sakai, is working to organize a group called Code for Kumamoto, which is part of the 'Civic Tech' movement, where applications useful to a particular community, using open source data, are written. There are similar initiatives in neighboring prefectures (Code for Saga, Code for Nagasaki) and the kick off event is Saturday, 13 June. A pdf announcing the event is herehttp://www.kumagaku.ac.jp/files/press/press20190709.pdf?fbclid=IwAR37O2t4A2wsWzWsSg7LDrq42kXlzye7glOO6_p7ryKZxhxIZ1wuq9P2u5oObviously, this will be in Japanese, but if this interests you, you may want to check it out. 2019-07-09 21:08 JSTA week or so ago, the Kumamoto District Court issued a decision in favor of family members of leprosy patients who were demanding compensation from the government for the discrimination they suffered. This is the second historic decision regarding leprosy that the Kumamoto District Court has issued and the government has decided not to appeal.-- KirkIn 'rare' move, Abe says government won't appeal damages awarded to leprosy patients' kin | The Japan Times
