Category: 未分類

TOKYO, Sept. 8, 2022—Pro-Putin Russian hackers, Killnet, have attacked and temporarily disabled the core Japanese government site, e-Gov, and the local tax collection/payment site, eLtax, Japanese media reports have said, quoting the National Center of Incident Readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity .
Killnet also hacked the Tokyo and Osaka subway public company websites, the reports said.
NISC’s website has no posting on the hacking.
The Japanese government is in the years-long process of having the entire population of 125 million to register for its My Number national on-line ID system for the ease of tax collection and other administrative procedures. Because of the government’s ineptitude and ignorance about cyber security, barely 30 percent of the public so far have signed on to it.
NISC, which supposedly is responsible for all cyber crimes, clearly is intentionally refraining from posting the Killnet hacking activities on its website out of concern that the Japanese public won’t register to My Number – which would link taxpayer information on assets, medical records, residence and all others with all government networks.
Prime minister’s residence, National Police Agency, and other government websites also were mum about the incident.

-0-

Following is the Sept. 6, 2022 Kyodo News english article:

The Japanese government’s web portal e-Gov was hit by a cyberattack and became inaccessible Tuesday, its cybersecurity response center said, with a pro-Russian hacker group appearing to claim responsibility for the incident.
The National Center of Incident Readiness and Strategy for Cybersecurity said the website came under a so-called DDoS attack, in which a network is overwhelmed by hackers sending floods of data from multiple sources over a short period. It became inaccessible from around 4:30 p.m. and remained disrupted into the night.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications also reported that access to the eLTAX regional tax portal was impeded.
Around the time of the attack, pro-Russian hacker group Killnet posted a message on the Telegram messaging app claiming it had targeted Japan’s online public services and the tax authority’s electronic system.
Additionally, the hacker group also appeared to write that it was revolting against Japan’s “militarism,” and that it was kicking the samurai. The cybersecurity response center says the messages are highly likely to be a declaration of responsibility by the group.
Killnet is believed to have been behind a number of cyberattacks on websites belonging to countries supporting Ukraine during Russia’s invasion of it.
The e-Gov website’s functions include allowing people to apply to local governments for public services, collecting comment on specified issues, displaying laws and legal changes, and providing a directory to various government sites.
Sep 6, 2022 | KYODO NEWS

TOKYO, Sept. 6, 2022—Murayama Inc., which is at the center of public spotlight over the much-disputed state funeral for the late prime minister Shinzo Abe, is an unlisted company it claims as 120 years old since its founding in 1902 – and flush with unanswered questions.
Its website claims the company was founded on August 8, 1902 without reference to its founders saying it was the year when the Wright brothers flew their world-first manpower-driven aircraft from the Kitty Hawk hill. It was incorporated November 19, 1958, it said. It’s capitalized at 427 million yen and has 408 employees.
On March 31, 2022, Murayama Holdings Inc., which owns Murayama Inc., which was capitalized at 100 million yen, was fully acquired by Nippon Television Holdings Inc. from Rising Japan Equity Inc. Murayama Holdings was established on June 21, 2017.
Nippon Television’s March 31, 2022 news release said Murayama, which was fully owned by Murayama Holdings, was ‘a leading company’ with ample experiences at managing sports, ‘government related’ events and exhibition, and others, as well as amusement park management.
Murayama Holdings’ CEO as of March 31, 2021 was Toshihiko Yagura, the release said. Yagura’s detailed information was not available. An Internet site said he seemed to be instrumental in managing Nippon Television’s annual ’24-Hour Television’ show held Aug. 27-28 this year.
Murayama was the sole bidder for the Abe state funeral competitive tender, winning it for 176 million yen, according to the Sept. 2 Mainichi newspaper article. The government of prime minister Fumio Kishida budgeted only 250 million yen, clearly omitting to include other relevant costs. On Sept. 5, the government told opposition parties that the real budget was more than 1.7 billion yen.
Murayama had been winning government public tenders for the annual cherry blossom viewing ceremony that Abe hosted between 2015 and 2019, the year when the ceremony’s budget tripled, raising the specter of Diet (parliament) questioning of the Abe administration.
Murayama manages public museums, both national and regional, extensively, including the War memorial hall and the Police museum in Tokyo.
Murayama was the suppliers of cardboard-made partitions used at large-scale COVID-19 vaccination centers.

###

TOKYO, Sept. 3, 2022—An allay in one Tokyo district is a popular spot for cherry blossom viewing in the spring. The flowers are long gone, supposedly replaced by leaves that have turned to rich green in the late summer, but the many trees bear no leaves and look to be dying or died.
This summer in Tokyo had been brutally hot and sun shines were like laser beams capable of burning what are targeted. Temperatures had been well above 35 degrees celsius many days since early June and sometimes shot above 40.
I have observed other spots of the city for withered sakura trees. While many seemed to have withstood the heat wave, some trees – and there are many – seem to be leading the same fate as my neighborhood ally trees.
Could this be a coincidence, with weak sakura trees dying of diseases or succumbing to the heat wave, and others are surviving and their flowers will spring out next season? I have no idea but it certainly deserves an observation.

###

TOKYO, Aug. 31, 2022—In the most recent brief, I quoted the the Japanese government’s National Institute of Science and Technology Policy report that Japan’s ST academic level had fell off the global top 10, to 12th. Perhaps by coincidence, I had a hands-on experience about the rapid degradation of Japan’s once-world revered skills over the repairing of my car brakes.
My Honda SUV, a heavily-used X-years old having run on unpaved rough roads, had right front-brake disk rotor wears, so both right and left disk rotors and brake pads needed to be replaced. I thought it was a pretty straight mechanical job that a novice auto mechanic can accomplish in a couple of hours. So I took the car to a Honda dealer, and after waiting for nearly two hours, they gave me an analysis and cost estimate paper. It was clearly a part of private-sector bureaucracy inherited from the Japanese government bureaucracy, which seeks to put down everything written on paper. In fact, the dealer prepared an invoice for a small bolt or nut priced 30-40 yen for my car a few years ago, a classic private-sector bureaucracy at work by wasting so much time and sacrificing productivity.
They said that, in addition to replacing the rotors and the pads, the car’s disk calipers – the arms that hold the pads – also needed to be replaced because the car is so old that the pistons in the calipers are most likely rusty and oil could leak. The cost of parts and labor was 120,000 yen and it would take nearly two days. ‘It’s a major repair work!,’ the dealer’s chief mechanic told me.
Okay, I told them, without asking them to do the work because I wanted to cross-check, like seeking a second opinion when your doctor diagnoses you for a blood pressure-rising illness, wether there’s a less costly, quicker way to do it. So I perused for generic brand-new disc rotors, pads and so on, while consulting my old auto mechanic (now retired) friend. He said that we can fix the car by ourselves. I ordered the parts from Rakuten, a local Japanese Amazon-like vendor for a total of 16,000 yen.
The parts were delivered to me the day after next and I took them to my friend’s house. We jacked up the car and replaced the parts in a cool, less than three hours, including the job of honing the brake caliper cylinders and pistons. The car was fixed perfectly. So much of the dealer’s hullabaloo that it was a major piece of work!
That experience made me hark back decades ago to the days when employees of Japanese manufacturing companies, from Toyota to Panasonic, were toiling day and night to craft products or fix mechanical problems of what’s already are on the market. Essentially, they were making products from scratch and dissecting products to fix the problems, like disconnecting switches on the television sets or leaky car oil pans. In those days, replacing parts were the last thing that did in fixing problems.
But now, like buying new fridges, washing machines, television sets, and microwaves when they cease to function, or smart phones and PCs when models become outdated, repairing products has almost become extinct. And that is dangerous for ST advancement because many things still are manufactured with human hands and hardly anything virtually. Human brain evolution occurs in interaction with the real world, not really in a VR world.
That China, and behind it, many Southeast Asian countries are making a rapid catchup with the United States, Europe, Japan and other OECD economies, certainly owes to their technology thefts, particularly IT, from the developed economies. But that doesn’t explain the whole thing.
After the first batch of automobiles were imported to Japan in the closing period of the 19th century, Japanese entrepreneurs experimented making their own, and in 1904, one Torao Yamabane test-drove Japan’s first steam engine-powered car. It took less than 10 years for the accomplishment since the import of cars from Europe, the achievement made when there were no computers, sophisticated machine tools or any other contemporary technology. It owed, I believe, to the real, hands-on errors and successes of the people resolved to make cars of their own. Thirty years later, Sakichi Toyota, founder of Toyota Motor, began mass automobile production. His also was one of trial and error.
Fast-forward to 2022 Japan, young entrepreneurs draw schematic designs and business plans on-line mobilizing IT, VR, 3D printer and other techs. Their targets are raising capital and earning big bucks. But workshops across Japan are mostly devoid of real chats and shouts. They can be seen on-line over Zoom, SNSs and other fora. Would that be enough? Look at Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and other countries, where workers in un-A/Ced workshops are refreshing used white electrical goods and cars from rich countries into what look like new products or converted to be used for other purposes. They have skills to work on real products.
My neighborhood, a machine buff who owns a 20-year-old Range Rover, Mercedes 12-cylinder S, Toyota Crown, Toyota Prius, and a half a dozen exotic vehicles and motorcycles, repairs and refits them all. Not only he has a passion for machines, he also doesn’t trust Japanese mechanics. He recently replaced all his house water piping himself, a feat that took him almost half a year to achieve. He sounded very proud.
I heard a couple of very young men talking about their work over lunch at a restaurant the other day. They were saying something about becoming a city government employee, running for a city assembly, and whether to start a ramen noodle shop. Clearly, the conversation was how best to make money. They did not talk at all about how to achieve something important for society or the country or the world.

###

TOKYO, Aug. 28, 2022—Confirming that Japan is slipping behind OECD economies on many fields, a government science institute has reported that the country’s science research as measured by the number of academic papers cited by third party researches fell to 12th, falling off the global 10 for the first time since 1981 when the institute began collecting data.
The number of third-party citations of Japanese academic research documents over the three-year period through 2020 totaled 3,780, falling from 10th in the previous data tallying period to 12th and dropping below South Korea, according to the National Institute of Science Technology and Policy.
The report was quoted and reported Aug. 28, 2022 by the national broadcasting station NHK.
In terms of the number of academic papers produced by Japanese academic entities, the country fell to 5th in the latest period from 4th in the previous tallying time.
National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies researcher Hiroshi Nagano was quoted by NHK as analyzing the Japanese demotion trend was resulting from the shrinking academic researcher population in parallel with shrinking government budgets for science. ‘Only in Japan can PhDs have difficulty finding jobs,’ Nagano said.
Would the sorry condition turn around? Demographics of rapidly decreasing young populations suggest negative. The number of new born in 2021 totaled 810,000, smallest since 1899 and down 3.5 percent from 2020.

###

TOKYO, Aug. 13, 2022—Sanrio Co. founder and former chairman Shintaro Tsuji cuts a rare, almost unusual mold among contemporary Japanese business leaders for creating the world-renowned Hello Kitty cat character after quitting as a junior municipal public servant and with a firm resolution not to repeat the war.
Tsuji has been publishing his ‘Strawberry News’ for decades, in which he had written essays about his live-or-die wartime experiences and, more importantly, emphasized the importance of living and happiness through Hello Kitty.
At 94, he’s retired from his post, entrusting to his grandson, Tomokuni, to run the company in 2020. H’s continuing his mission as a story-teller, purveyor, of not starting a war with ‘cuteness’ of Hello Kitty. ‘War shall not occur,’ is the message.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=m-Ftl6-4Iwo

###

TOKYO, Aug. 8, 2022—It’s sort of a tale of two cities: The United States is set to continue EV subsidies up to $7,500 while, in stark contrast, the Japanese government’s subsidy program that extends up to 850,000 yen ($6,500) would be discontinued at the end of October for budget constraints – as had been the case for solar power and other Japanese government climate change mitigation programs.
The governmental Next Generation Vehicle Promotion Center (http://www.cev-pc.or.jp/english/) had released a statement that the center ended accepting EV and charging equipment installation subsidy applications on Aug. 2 because the program’s budget (17.7 billion yen) had been consumed.
It’s a revisit to Japan’s subsidy programs for a broad area of industry including climate change mitigation, manufacturing facility modernization, labor productivity enhancement and other initiatives.
Back in the late 1970s to early 1980s, when solar power generation was almost unheard of in the world, Japan’s Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry launched a subsidy program to encourage solar power system installation on private homes and corporate buildings as part of the ministry’s 1974 ‘Sunshine Plan.’ The plan, seeking to produce solar, geothermal, hydrogen power, was aimed at diversifying energy production away from fossil fuel in response to the 1970s two ‘oil shocks.’
The plan extended subsidies for those energy source development but no sooner than installations gained impetus the Japanese government discontinued them all, concluding that critical mass had been achieved to drive energy diversification on their own inertia.
The real reason was the Ministry of Finance’s budget policy to discontinue subsidy programs after head starts.
So, with no subsidies and at a time of low oil prices, all those undertakings faltered – miserably – while China literally stole relevant technologies from Japan and dethroned Japan as then the No. 1 solar power producer and now had become the unrivaled, ultra-scale solar panel producer. And now, the Chinese have done it on EVs and threatening to do the same on hydrogen fuel cell technology.

###

TOKYO, Aug. 7, 2022–The Aug. 7, 2022 New York Times article on Xi Jnping’s scare tactics confirms that China’s military drills surrounding Taiwan was spurred by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, short of physical invasion of the island state lest the operations falter like Russia’s.
But Xi hasn’t altered his policy an inch, rather gained confidence with the 4-day military drills as it successfully fired 11 missiles, including five into the Japanese waters, receiving only meek response from Japan and the United State.

###

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/06/world/asia/xi-jinping-china-security.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuomT1JKd6J17Vw1cRCfTTMQmqxCdw_PIxftm3iWka3DFDm4ciPsSGYyMvE7WZKMkd9p23TWdXN5HP_okRP10x6pEMkdwUQi0s92EhJEBaW0TmL6EY1kXjdjLTKxqtnjjdHW4I-Nyg-ez4xjXPDLgRKyI1yU-IAg1o481Ilv8xSNblaaVF-d13IN72-wzRcwvHUd2byGBv_bsDBR0KY_GOkmasl9qLrkfDTLDntec6KYCeRFQDz_ETHB952U84LBMKY9dffa_f1N7Jp2I0fhGAXdoLYypG5Q6W4HQ8rxpurfIoheHo9GkEnTLyHVuFU0dCPqsKYvdqg&smid=url-share

TOKYO, Aug. 5, 2022—The late prime minister Shinzo Abe’s faction members within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party were closely connected to Sun Myong Moon’s Unification Church’s Japan chapter, receiving campaign financing, other grafts and probably ballots.
Nobuo Kishi, younger brother of Abe, who serves as defense minister, said Aug. 2 that he would ‘need to review the relationship’ with the World Peace Unification Family Federation, the Japan chapter of the Unification Church renamed several years ago.
Trade minister Koichi Hagiuda, former education minister Hirofumi Shimomura, LDP secretary-general Toshimitsu Motegi, and several other incumbent ministers and LDP heavyweights admitted receiving donations, campaign financing and other grafts.
Yet, opposition party members also acknowledged connections with the church.
Article 20 of the Japanese constitution provides the freedom of religion for all people in Japan and that ‘Any religious entities shall not receive special favors from the state and/or execute political power.’ It also says the state and its institutions shall not engage in religious educations or any other religious activities.

####

TOKYO, Aug. 3, 2022—China’s announcement to hold 4-day military drills in six zones encircling Taiwan from Aug. 4, 2022 include Japan’s exclusive economic zones, Japan’s chief cabinet spokesman Hirokazu Matsuno told reporters Aug. 3, saying that the Japanese government ‘expressed concerns to China.’
Matsuno said that the Japanese government urged China for a peaceful solution of the Taiwan issue, which is threatening to ripple into Japanese territorial areas, notably Okinawa that hosts the largest U.S. military presence in Asia, as well as Senkaku Island, which is claimed by both Japan and China.
A spokesman for Japan’s 11th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters told The Prospect last week that a fleet of 4 heavily-armed Chinese coast guard ships had been entering Japan’s contiguous waters every day since July 16 and occasionally infringed into Japan’s territorial waters. He confirmed that Chinese patrol boats also had been frequently spotted in waters around the Okinawa main island and Ishigaki Island, south of Okinawa.

###