Posts

Much of this recent CNN article focuses on Yuka Ogata's contribution to the discussion.
-- Kirk
The child care crisis facing Japan's working moms
When 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.

A 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
熊本日日新聞の県民１００人アンケートの今回の質問は「外国人労働者が増えることに賛成ですか、反対ですか...

Here'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.
-- Kirk
Ex-Diet member's secretary flees police in Kumamoto | TokyoReporter
Kumamoto police are seeking the whereabouts of a former secretary of a Diet member after he fled from officers in Kumamoto City on Tuesday

Also, 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 to
https://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.

Joe 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 here
http://www.kumagaku.ac.jp/files/press/press20190709.pdf?fbclid=IwAR37O2t4A2wsWzWsSg7LDrq42kXlzye7glOO6_p7ryKZxhxIZ1wuq9P2u5o
Obviously, this will be in Japanese, but if this interests you, you may want to check it out.

A 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.
-- Kirk
In 'rare' move, Abe says government won't appeal damages awarded to leprosy patients' kin | The Japan Times
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tuesday that the government will not file an appeal against a recent court ruling in Kumamoto awarding damages to former lep

中国語と日本語の逐次通訳による講演の案内です。感謝を持ちそうな方へのシェア大歓迎！
In this post, I'm introducing a public lecture that will be conducted in Chinese with consecutive interpretation to Japanese. The topic is the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone and the speaker is an economist from Shenzhen University. As many of you are aware, Shenzhen is known as China's silicon valley. It was China's first special economic zone and has grown at an amazing rate. It has been in the news as a major site for the production of Apple products and as the home of Huawei. If you understand either Japanese or Chinese, I think you'll find the content to be very interesting. Also, if you could please share this with anyone who you might be interested, I'd appreciate it.
-- Kirk

Just a quick reminder that INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF SPIES, Kumamoto's only escape room game, will be closing at the end of this month. If you want to try to knock Team Jutaku Five from the top of the leaderboard, you'd better be quick! You can book a timeslot for your team (2-6 players, 1000 yen each/500 yen children and students) by visiting Escape from Britz. You don't need any prior escape room experience but you will need speed, skill and dexterity to solve the mystery and save Kumamoto from a deadly plot!
Fiona

Sorry for the last-minute notice but I'd like to share some information about two events, one Saturday afternoon and one Sunday morning, that Yuka Ogata has planned for this weekend. Both events are in Japanese.
On Saturday, the topic will be the mainstreaming of children with disabilities in elementary school. （土曜日のテーマは特別支援を必要とする子どもとそうでない子どもが一緒に学ぶ小学校に関する講演です。）On Sunday, the topic will be increasing the participation of women in local politics. （ 日曜日のテーマは女性議員を増やす環境整備となります。）There will be student presentations Sunday morning.
Yuka Ogata is the local politicians who made international news by attempting to attend a City Council meeting with her baby. If you would be interested in meeting her, this might be a good opportunity.
-- KIrk
P.S. You can find more information in Japanese here:
https://www.facebook.com/yuukahagukumu/posts/2669473439747423

Now that the storm is over and the sun has come out, here's a little update on the 5-level warning system that is intended to make it easier for people to understant when and if they need to evacuate.
First, I found one article in English that presents a version of the new table:
https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-data/h00466/new-five-level-warning-system-introduced-for-heavy-rain-disasters.html
The attached image of an English-language table is roughly equivalent to the more colorful Japanese table. Unfortunately, however, even though the information is the same, the scale is in the opposite order (in Japanese, the highest level of alert is on the top while in the English table it's on the bottom) and the color scheme is different.
I called the JMA today about this and spoke with a nice man who seemed quite sympathetic to my request for an official English version of the Japanese chart. He said he would pass my opinion to his superiors.
In the meantime, I'd like to encourage everyone to make sure you understand what the various levels mean so that if they come up in the future, you can make sense of them -- even if you don't happen to understand the Japanese words used in the chart.
-- Kirk
P.S. I think the meaning of level 5 isn't explained fully in the article. The article says that "level 5 indicates the need to take whatever action is necessary to safeguard one’s own life." In plain English, this means that, by this point, trying to get to an evacuation center may be more dangerous than hunkering down where you are. So, if you didn't evacuate at level 4, then at level 5 you're probably better off to just try to find that safest place in your immediate vicinity.
https://www.nippon.com/en/japan-data/h00466/new-five-level-warning-system-introduced-for-heavy-rain-disasters.html

My corner of Kumamoto City is surprisingly quiet now (not much rain). I seem to be in a pocket of white in the radar image you see below. The nastier colors (green, yellow and red) are likely to come this way from the west, however, so it ain't over 'till it's over, so to speak. I think that's probably why my university (Kumamoto Gakuen University) and Kumamoto University (and perhaps others -- I haven't checked) have canceled classes this afternoon.
The image is from the following site:
https://weather.yahoo.co.jp/weather/zoomradar/
-- Kirk

The image you see is NOT from today but from seven years ago when the Shirakawa, which flows through Kumamoto City, flooded. We don't seem to be in any danger of that today but this video compares the situation at the river today with the flooding that occurred then. If you haven't seen the footage of what happened in Kumamoto seven years ago, you might want to check it out.
-- Kirk
https://www.fnn.jp/posts/00420192CX/201907031152_TKU_CX

Here's a link to a video about how more than 80,000 people have been called to evacuate, mostly in the Hitoyoshi and Amakusa areas. For more about how to get information in English about which areas are being evacuated please see my previous post.
-- Kirk
http://www.news24.jp/nnn/news162134366.html

Kirk here with more rain news. Evacuations have been called for in several parts of Kumamoto. By "evacuations have been called for" I mean Level 4. There are many more places at Level 3 (get ready to evacuate). To get a more-or-less comprehensive list of calls for evacuation, I recommend
https://crisis.yahoo.co.jp/evacuation/43/
This site is in Japanese but if you can use the translate extension on the Chrome browser
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/google-translate/aapbdbdomjkkjkaonfhkkikfgjllcleb?hl=en
You can not only view an English translation but also check the original Japanese by placing your cursor over the translation, you can check the original Japanese. Most of the translation is pretty good but occasionally a place name is rendered incorrectly so this can be helpful, especially if you or someone nearby is able to make sense of the Japanese when the English doesn't sound right.
For example, 錦町 in Kumagun has been rendered Kamo-cho, instead of Nishiki-machi.
Be safe!

Hi Joe Tomei here, This is the flyer for a Japanese musical to be held in Uto-shi on July 15th and I pass it on not only if any folks are interested in attending, but also because it's a group that puts on a musical every year, with practices and professional guidance, so there may be parents with children who might be interested.

These images are from today's RKK news show (around 6 PM). For a short time, you will be able to see the segment on YouTube at the following address.
-- Kirk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=23&v=vg4VjgDyDhI

Parts of Kumamoto are still at elevated risk for landslides but the situation is worse in Kagoshima. There was a report on the news of one landslide and a possible fatality. I hope things settle down without more damage.
-- Kirk
P.S. The English side of the JMA site has useful maps like this one that you may want to take a look at.
https://www.jma.go.jp/en/doshamesh/

I said I would stop posting but I can't resist. It looks like some "training" may be developing right now. Fortunately, however, the bulk of it seems to be over the ocean but it's too close for comfort -- especially for Amakusa and Kagoshima.
-- Kirk
https://weather.yahoo.co.jp/weather/zoomradar/

This will be my last post about the rain for now.
Earlier today, Atsuko shared a web site that provides information about evacuation sites and about areas that are vulnerable to landslides. Thanks Atsuko!
Even if we don't experience extreme rain in the next 24 hours, we've had enough already to significantly heighten the danger of landslides. The website is only in Japanese and you can't even use Google translate with it. Still yellow is risky and red is very risky. So, if you can figure out where you are, you can see if there are slopes that are deemed to be at risk for landslides, etc. nearby. Also, the green sites are evacuation sites.
I think there are probably relatively few non-Japanese readers of this page that live at the foot of a dangerous slope or on the banks of a raging river. I think it's probably more likely that one or two of our readers might decide to drive along a path that could put them in danger. People have died in Kumamoto when their cars have been hit by landslides. So, if you're not sure exactly what areas on a route you are considering are risky, you might want to delay your trip until the weather gets better and the slopes have died out a bit.
-- Kirk
http://sabo.kiken.pref.kumamoto.jp/website/sabo/kuiki/?fbclid=IwAR1AAh5hIeAAaAbE4HTukHw9aBnIi9zBz28MvxpIgde0p7CMK_K3HKtTL6A

These photos are from a nationally broadcast news program called "Bankisha" and all related to the rain in Kumamoto. I'll write comments on each one so, if you're interested, please click or tap on the photos to see my explanations.
-- Kirk