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Financial institution of Japan Will Loosen up Its Market Stimulus: Stay Updates

Folgendes müssen Sie wissen:

Anerkennung…Kim Kyung-Hoon / Reuters

Die Bank of Japan kündigte am Freitag an, dass sie ihr jährliches Mindestziel für den Kauf von Aktienfonds streichen werde. Diese Entscheidung wird getroffen, da die japanischen Aktienmärkte seit dem Zusammenbruch der Wirtschaftsblase des Landes Anfang der neunziger Jahre ein unsichtbares Niveau erreicht haben.

Die Entscheidung wurde im Rahmen einer dreimonatigen Überprüfung der Politik bekannt gegeben, um der Zentralbank mehr Flexibilität bei der Bewältigung der wirtschaftlichen Auswirkungen der Coronavirus-Pandemie zu geben.

Im Rahmen ihrer bisherigen Politik hatte die Bank das Ziel, jährlich rund 55 Milliarden US-Dollar in börsengehandelte Fonds zu investieren – Körbe mit Aktien, die an der Börse gekauft und verkauft werden können. Dies war Teil einer Politik der geldpolitischen Lockerung, die die Inflation stimulieren sollte, um sinkenden Preisen entgegenzuwirken, die die Unternehmensgewinne schmälern.

Seit 2010, als die Käufe begannen, ist die Bank Japans größter Einzelaktionär geworden. Die Aktienkurse haben jetzt ihren höchsten Stand seit über drei Jahrzehnten erreicht. Die Entscheidung am Freitag gibt der Bank die Flexibilität, künftige Einkäufe zu günstigeren Preisen zu tätigen. Dies wird auch dazu beitragen, Bedenken auszuräumen, dass das Programm die japanischen Aktienmärkte verzerrt hat.

Die Bank wird weiterhin in Aktien investieren, die den japanischen Topix-Aktienindex “nach Bedarf” abbilden. Es wird die Obergrenze von 110 Milliarden US-Dollar für Einkäufe pro Jahr beibehalten, die zu Beginn der Pandemie als Teil von Sofortmaßnahmen zur Ankurbelung der Wirtschaft festgelegt wurde.

Die Bank sagte auch, dass sie ihre aktuellen Zinsziele beibehalten und den langfristigen Zinssätzen etwas mehr Raum zum Atmen geben würde, wodurch die Bandbreite von 0,2 Prozent auf 0,25 Prozent erhöht würde.

Charles Rettig, der Beauftragte für den Internal Revenue Service, im vergangenen Jahr.  Er sagte, die IRS plane, Steuerzahlern, die für neue Steuererleichterungen in Frage kämen, automatisch Rückerstattungen zu gewähren.Anerkennung…Anna Moneymaker für die New York Times

Steuerzahler, die bereits ihre 2020-Steuererklärung eingereicht haben, sollten sie nicht ändern, um Steuervergünstigungen zu nutzen, die durch das neue Pandemie-Erleichterungsgesetz in Höhe von 1,9 Billionen US-Dollar geschaffen wurden, sagte der Beauftragte des Internal Revenue Service, Charles Rettig, am Donnerstag gegenüber dem Gesetzgeber und sagte, dass die IRS automatisch senden würde Rückerstattungen an diejenigen, die sich qualifizieren.

Herr Rettig bezog sich bei einer Kongressanhörung auf eine Bestimmung im Gesetz, die eine Steuerbefreiung für die ersten 10.200 US-Dollar an Arbeitslosengeld vorsieht, die im Jahr 2020 von Arbeitslosen, deren Haushalte weniger als 150.000 US-Dollar verdienten, bezogen wurden.

“Wir glauben, dass wir automatisch Rückerstattungen im Zusammenhang mit den 10.200 US-Dollar ausstellen können”, sagte Rettig.

Laut The Century Foundation haben im vergangenen Jahr rund 40 Millionen Amerikaner eine Arbeitslosenversicherung erhalten.

Die Steueränderungen, die in der jüngsten Gesetzesvorlage enthalten sind, die Anfang dieses Monats verabschiedet wurde, sowie Steueränderungen im Dezember-Hilfspaket und die Eile, Zahlungen für wirtschaftliche Auswirkungen auszuzahlen, haben die IRS stark unter Druck gesetzt. Die Agentur sagte am Mittwoch, dass der Steuertag sein würde vom 15. April bis 17. Mai um einen Monat zurückgedrängt, um sich und den Steuerzahlern mehr Zeit für die Bearbeitung von Rückgaben und Rückerstattungen zu geben.

Die Finanzabteilung und die IRS bemühen sich ebenfalls um die Entwicklung neuer Vorschriften und Aktualisierungssysteme, um andere Aspekte des März-Hilfsgesetzes widerzuspiegeln.

Finanzbeamte sagten bei einem Briefing am Donnerstag, dass sie mit dem IRS zusammenarbeiten, um ein neues Online-Portal zur Auszahlung von Vorauszahlungen für die erweiterte Steuergutschrift für Kinder zu entwickeln, das bis zu 3.600 USD pro Kind unter 6 Jahren und 3.000 USD für Kinder zwischen 6 und 3.000 Jahren vorsieht 17, unabhängig davon, ob eine Familie genug verdient, um Einkommenssteuern zu zahlen.

Über das Portal können Steuerzahler relevante Daten für Zahlungsanpassungen zur Jahresmitte hochladen, beispielsweise für die Geburt eines Kindes.

Finanzbeamte sagten auch, die Abteilung arbeite an zusätzlichen Leitlinien, wie Staaten Geld verwenden können, das im Hilfsgesetz enthalten ist. Dazu gehört auch die Klarheit darüber, wie Staaten Hilfsgelder zurückzahlen müssen, wenn sie nach Erhalt der Hilfe beschließen, die Steuern zu senken.

Regierungsangestellte sind von der Pandemie besonders stark betroffen. Fast 1,4 Millionen der 9,5 Millionen Arbeitsplätze, die im vergangenen Jahr verschwunden sind, stammten von staatlichen und lokalen Arbeitskräften.

Staatliche und lokale Regierungspositionen machen etwa 13 Prozent der Arbeitsplätze des Landes aus, und der Sektor war in der Vergangenheit für Frauen und Afroamerikaner einladender und bot einen Einstieg in die Mittelschicht.

Ein Bericht von GovernmentJobs.com, einer Rekrutierungsseite für Stellen im öffentlichen Sektor, legt jedoch nahe, dass Bewerber, die keine weißen Männer sind, auch in dieser Ecke der Wirtschaft benachteiligt sein können.

Die Studie, in der 2018 und 2019 mehr als 16 Millionen Bewerber nach Rasse, ethnischer Zugehörigkeit und Geschlecht analysiert wurden, ergab, dass schwarze Frauen unter Kandidaten, die für einen Job in einer Stadt-, Kreis- oder Landesregierung als qualifiziert gelten, mit einer um 58 Prozent geringeren Wahrscheinlichkeit eingestellt werden als weiße Männer. Insgesamt war die Wahrscheinlichkeit, dass qualifizierte Frauen eingestellt wurden, um 27 Prozent geringer als bei qualifizierten Männern.

Die Ungleichheit war überraschend. In einer Umfrage unter 2.700 Bewerbern gab fast ein Drittel an, dass sie der Ansicht sind, dass sie im privaten Sektor eher diskriminiert werden als in der Öffentlichkeit. Schwarze Amerikaner, die 13 Prozent der Bevölkerung ausmachen, sind überproportional auf staatliche und lokale Regierungsstellen angewiesen und machen 28 Prozent der Bewerber um Stellen aus.

Es gibt Schritte, die die Verzerrung verringern könnten. Die Studie ergab, dass viel mehr schwarze Frauen zu Interviews eingeladen wurden, als alle personenbezogenen Daten während des Bewerbungsprüfungsprozesses zurückgehalten wurden. Daher kannten die Personalvermittler den Namen, die Rasse und das Geschlecht eines Bewerbers nicht. Die Verwendung einer standardisierten Rubrik mit spezifischen Richtlinien für jede Punktzahl erhöhte auch die Anzahl der angerufenen schwarzen Frauen erheblich.

Penisha Richardson, 35 Jahre alt und in Newport News, Virginia, wohnhaft, ist Spezialistin für technischen Support in einem Unternehmen, das Drucker und Kopierer herstellt. Sie erinnert sich, dass sie auf der Suche nach Jobs – im öffentlichen und im privaten Sektor – viel mehr Antworten erhielt, als sie ihren Namen als Penny anstelle von Penisha auflistete.

“Ich hatte eine Person, die mir sagte, ich sollte mit Penny fahren, weil es einfacher auszusprechen ist”, sagte Frau Richardson.

  • Alexi McCammond, die sich als Politikreporterin auf der Washingtoner Nachrichtenseite Axios einen Namen gemacht hatte, hatte geplant, am kommenden Mittwoch als Chefredakteurin der Teen Vogue zu beginnen. Nachdem Mitarbeiter von Teen Vogue rassistische und homophobe Tweets, die Frau McCammond vor einem Jahrzehnt veröffentlicht hatte, öffentlich verurteilt hatten, ist sie von ihrem Job zurückgetreten. Condé Nast, der Herausgeber von Teen Vogue, kündigte die abrupte Wende am Donnerstag in einer internen E-Mail an, die unter dem Druck der Mitarbeiter, Leser und mindestens zwei Werbetreibenden der Veröffentlichung gesendet wurde, nur zwei Wochen nachdem das Unternehmen sie in die Position berufen hatte.

  • Chinas Internet-Regulierungsbehörde tadelte LinkedIn-Führungskräfte in diesem Monat, weil sie politische Inhalte nicht kontrolliert hatten, so drei Personen, die über die Angelegenheit informiert wurden. Obwohl nicht genau klar ist, welches Material das Unternehmen in Schwierigkeiten gebracht hat, sagte die Regulierungsbehörde, sie habe in der Zeit um ein jährliches Treffen der chinesischen Gesetzgeber unzulässige Stellen gefunden, sagten diese Personen, die um Anonymität baten, weil das Thema nicht öffentlich sei . Zur Strafe forderten die Beamten von LinkedIn, dass LinkedIn eine Selbstbewertung durchführt und der Internetregulierungsbehörde des Landes einen Bericht vorlegt. Der Dienst war auch gezwungen, Neuanmeldungen von Benutzern in China für 30 Tage auszusetzen, fügte einer der Befragten hinzu, obwohl sich dieser Zeitraum je nach Urteil der Verwaltung ändern könnte. LinkedIn war das einzige große amerikanische soziale Netzwerk, das in China operieren durfte.

Amazon zeigt Spiele am Donnerstagabend in seinem Amazon Prime Video-Dienst.Anerkennung…Jennifer Stewart / Associated Press

Die NFL unterzeichnete mit CBS, NBC, Fox, ESPN und Amazon neue Medienrechtsvereinbarungen im Gesamtwert von rund 110 Milliarden US-Dollar über einen Zeitraum von 11 Jahren, wodurch sich der Wert ihrer früheren Verträge nahezu verdoppelte, berichten Ken Belson und Kevin Draper für die New York Times.

CBS, Fox und NBC werden jeweils mehr als 2 Milliarden US-Dollar zahlen, um an ihren Slots festzuhalten, wobei NBC etwas weniger als CBS und Fox zahlt, so vier Personen, die mit den Vereinbarungen vertraut sind und um Anonymität gebeten haben, weil sie von der NFL nicht autorisiert wurden, öffentlich zu sprechen über die Angebote. ESPN wird etwa 2,7 Milliarden US-Dollar pro Jahr zahlen, um die Ausstrahlung von Monday Night Football fortzusetzen, aber auch in die Rotation für die Ausstrahlung des Super Bowl ab 2026 aufgenommen zu werden. Die Vereinbarung mit ESPN beginnt ein Jahr früher, im Jahr 2022, da der derzeitige Vertrag ausläuft Jahr früher als die anderen.

Jedes Angebot der Sender enthält Vereinbarungen für ihre jeweiligen Streaming-Plattformen, während Amazon am Donnerstagabend Spiele auf seinem Amazon Prime Video-Dienst zeigt.

„In den letzten fünf Jahren haben wir mit der Migration zum Streaming begonnen. Unsere Fans wollen diese Option, und die Liga versteht, dass Streaming die Zukunft ist “, sagte Robert K. Kraft, Inhaber der New England Patriots und Vorsitzender des Medienkomitees der NFL.

Die NFL hat noch nicht bekannt gegeben, wer das Sunday Ticket ausstrahlen wird, einen Abonnementdienst, mit dem Fans nicht am Markt befindliche Wochenendspiele ansehen können, die nicht national ausgestrahlt werden. DirecTV hat die Rechte an diesem Dienst bis 2022.

Die Verträge schaffen auch die Voraussetzungen dafür, dass die Besitzer der Liga ihre Pläne zur Erweiterung der regulären Saison um ein 17. Spiel umsetzen können. Es wird die erste größere Erweiterung der NFL-Saison seit mehr als vier Jahrzehnten sein, als die Teams 1978 16 von 14 Spielen bestritten.

Die Preise für Gebrauchtwagen sind während der Pandemie gestiegen.  Einige Anleger befürchten, dass die Aussicht auf eine übermäßige Inflation in der Gesamtwirtschaft dazu führen wird, dass die Beamten der Federal Reserve ihre Konjunkturanstrengungen lockern.Anerkennung…Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Europäische und asiatische Aktien fielen am Freitag nach einem starken Rückgang der Aktien an der Wall Street am Vortag.

Der Stoxx Europe 600 Index fiel um 0,4 Prozent, angeführt von Finanz- und Verbraucheraktien. Das CAC 40 in Frankreich fiel um 0,6 Prozent, nachdem die Regierung angekündigt hatte, dass Paris und mehrere andere Regionen in Frankreich ab Mitternacht eine weitere Sperrung vornehmen würden, die einen Monat dauern soll, um die steigende Anzahl von Virusfällen zu beheben, die einige französische Krankenhäuser füllen.

Der S & P 500 sollte am Freitag kaum verändert eröffnen, nachdem er am Vortag um 1,7 Prozent gefallen war. Der Rückgang kam, als die Renditen von Staatsanleihen stiegen und Bedenken aufkommen ließen, dass ein schnelleres Wirtschaftswachstum zu einer höheren Inflation und dem Rückzug der geldpolitischen Anreize durch die Zentralbank führen würde. Beamte der Federal Reserve haben wiederholt erklärt, sie würden keine Anreize beseitigen, ohne die Märkte ausreichend zu warnen.

Die Renditen 10-jähriger Schatzanweisungen fielen am Freitag unter 1,70 Prozent. Am Donnerstag hatten sie sogar 1,75 Prozent erreicht.

  • Aktien Takung Art Co., ein in Hongkong ansässiges Unternehmen, das eine Online-Handelsplattform für Kunst betreibt, legte im US-amerikanischen Premarket-Handel um mehr als 10 Prozent zu. Der Aktienkurs ist diese Woche bereits um mehr als 600 Prozent gestiegen, da Händler nach Wegen suchen, um auf dem Markt für digitale Kunst Fuß zu fassen. Letzte Woche wurde eine JPG-Datei des als Beeple bekannten Künstlers auf einer Auktion für 69,3 Millionen US-Dollar verkauft, was einen Boom auf dem Kunstmarkt für NFTs oder nicht fungible Token auslöste.

  • Die Aktien der Oriental Culture Holding, einem weiteren Online-Marktplatz für Kunst, stiegen diese Woche um 140 Prozent und stiegen im Premarket-Handel um rund 13 Prozent.

  • Die Aktien von JD Wetherspoon, einer großen britischen Pub-Kette, fielen für einen dritten Tag, nachdem das Unternehmen in den sechs Monaten bis Mitte Januar einen Verlust von 61 Millionen Pfund (85 Millionen US-Dollar) gemeldet hatte. Im gleichen Zeitraum des Vorjahres hatte das Unternehmen einen Gewinn von 42 Mio. GBP ausgewiesen. Tim Martin, der Gründer und Vorsitzende des Unternehmens, war ein heftiger Kritiker der Pandemie-Reaktion der Regierung, die das Gastgewerbe geschlossen hat. “Die Zukunft der Branche und der britischen Wirtschaft hängt von einer konsistenten Reihe vernünftiger Strategien ab, die auf wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnissen beruhen und nicht auf politischer Zweckmäßigkeit”, sagte Martin über die Aussichten des Unternehmens.

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Why Japan Is Holding Again because the World Rushes Towards Electrical Automobiles

TOKYO – Just over a decade ago, Nissan was the first automaker to offer a production car that ran on batteries only. The hatchback, the Leaf, was a huge success, at least for electric cars. More than 500,000 copies had been sold by the end of last year.

But as the road that Nissan has taken becomes ever denser, Japan’s powerful auto industry is at risk of being left behind. As governments and automakers around the world make bold pledges to transition to all-electric vehicles, Japanese automakers and regulators are hedging their bets.

Japan dominates the global market for the current generation of climate-friendly vehicles – gasoline-electric hybrids – and hopes to capitalize on its huge investment in technology for as long as possible. However, with this short-term focus, there is a risk that the country’s most important industry will miss a transformative moment, said Masato Inoue, the lead designer of the original sheet.

“When it comes to disruptions, there is always fear,” said Inoue, who retired from Nissan in 2014. But, ready or not, he added, “a big wave of electric vehicles is really coming.”

Right now it’s just a wave. Electric cars account for less than 3 percent of global sales. Many buyers shy away from higher costs, limited range and long loading times. With the exception of a few luxury models, it is not easy to make a profit from the cars.

Still, the race for an all-electric future, long spearheaded by Tesla, has accelerated and broadened this year. In January, General Motors became the first major automaker to declare that it would eliminate all tailpipe emissions from its cars by 2035. Last week, Volvo promised to outperform its bigger competitors by promising to be all electric by 2030.

Alongside traditional automakers, startups like the Chinese company Nio and titans from other industries like Apple are looking for parts of the burgeoning market.

Automakers in the US, China, Europe and South Korea are already sprinting past their Japanese competitors. Toyota didn’t bring its first battery electric vehicle to the consumer market until early 2020, and then only in China. Honda relies on GM to manufacture electric vehicles for the US market.

Last year, Japanese automobiles made up less than 5 percent of battery electric vehicles sold worldwide, according to EV-volumes.com, a company that analyzes the electric car market. That proportion was largely due to the Leaf’s continued popularity: the automobile accounted for nearly 65 percent of all Japanese battery electric vehicles sold.

The electric vehicle rush has been fueled in part by plans in China, European countries and elsewhere to either require higher sales of electric cars or ban gasoline-burning vehicles in the coming years. Scientists say the transition from gas-powered vehicles is critical to tackling climate change and reducing smog.

Those moves have created a huge potential market for all-electric vehicles that investors clearly see as the cars of tomorrow: Tesla is more valuable than the next six automakers combined, despite only having a tiny fraction of their sales.

In Japan, however, automakers and the government are questioning some of the basic assumptions that power the electric train. They are skeptical – at least in the short to medium term – of the potential profitability and environmental superiority of electric cars.

In December, Japan announced that it would stop selling new gas-only cars by 2035. However, the government continues to view hybrids as an important technology and does not intend to follow the lead of places like the UK and California who plan to ban them. A Commerce Department official said in a recent interview. Japanese regulators announce that they will release details this year.

The opposition to the elimination of hybrids has found its strongest voice in Akio Toyoda, chairman of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association and president of Toyota, the world leader in hybrid car sales.

The company sets the tone for the entire Japanese auto industry. The company owns Daihatsu and in recent years has partnered with three smaller automakers – Subaru, Suzuki and Mazda – a group that makes more than half of all Japanese cars to develop electric vehicles, including hybrids. It has also heavily promoted cars that run on clean-burning hydrogen, a technology that has not yet caught on in Japan or elsewhere.

During a press conference in December in his capacity as head of the automobile association, Toyoda derided the idea of ​​replacing Japan’s hybrids with all-electric vehicles and accused the Japanese media of increasing their economic and environmental viability.

Electric cars, Toyoda emphasized, are only as clean as the electricity that drives them and the factories in which they are built. Japan, Toyota’s second largest market, plans to become carbon neutral by 2050. However, as long as it continues to rely on fossil fuels to generate electricity, the environmental benefits of vehicles will remain a mirage.

Japanese automakers are “hanging on their fingernails,” he added, and if Japan mandates a move to all-electric vehicles, which have fewer components and are easier to manufacture, it could cost millions of jobs and destroy an entire ecosystem of auto parts suppliers.

According to a report from market research company IDTechEx, sales of gasoline-electric hybrids are expected to continue to grow through 2027. It is understandable, therefore, that Japanese companies – and regulators – want to try to recoup the country’s huge investments in hybrid technology and wait to see how consumer preferences and foreign regulatory systems develop, said James Edmondson, an analyst for the company.

“For manufacturers like Toyota and Nissan, the hybrids are so productive that there is a good business model for them. It is therefore in the government’s interest to keep pushing for them,” he said.

Kota Yuzawa, an auto industry analyst at Goldman Sachs, said it wasn’t about whether Japan’s automakers could make the transition. They have world-class technology and invest significant resources in developing more of it. “But they’re waiting for the timing to be right,” he said.

“The biggest questions are: Can you make a mass market vehicle? Can you break even? ” he added.

The answer is yes, said Mr Inoue, the leaf designer who now splits his time between running a consulting firm and teaching sustainable mobility design at IAAD, a design institute in Italy.

The transition from building hybrids to building all-electric vehicles is not easy, however. The two types of cars cannot be inexpensively manufactured on the same platforms, Inoue said. “If a lot of companies don’t change now, the efficient production of electric vehicles will be quite difficult in the future.”

With a history of mass producing electric vehicles, Nissan is arguably the best positioned Japanese automaker to compete in the zero-emission car market. But the company says it has lost its lead and is now trying to catch up.

Last summer it announced its most ambitious battery-electric vehicle since the Leaf, an SUV called the Ariya. And in January, the company said it would be carbon neutral by 2050, a decision that reflected a new change in national policy late last year.

But like the other Japanese automakers, it is moving cautiously.

“For Nissan’s key markets, every brand new vehicle offering will be electrified in the early 2030s,” the company’s chief sustainability officer Joji Tagawa said in an email. “In other markets, however, we will gradually switch to electrified vehicles.”

In the meantime, the company will be heavily promoting its newer hybrid technology it calls e-Power: essentially an electric motor powered by a gas generator.

In Japan, the government’s lack of enthusiasm for zero-emission cars is likely to put automakers at a serious disadvantage, said Kazuo Yajima, a former chief engineer at Leaf who now runs Blue Sky Technology, a company that develops micro-electric vehicles.

China and the European Union have lost the hybrid technology race, Yajima said. Hence, their governments have made a strategic decision to invest in the development of electric cars, including key technologies such as batteries.

Japanese automakers’ reluctance to take the plunge to all-electric vehicles could lead them to suffer the same fate as the country’s consumer electronics companies, which have largely become irrelevant for not staying ahead of market trends, according to Yajima.

Mr. Inoue agrees. The automotive sector is “the final battlefield” for Japanese industry, he said.

“Now Japan is winning,” he said, “but I think if we lose the opportunity to switch to electric vehicles in 10 years, we may lose.”

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Japanese manners and customs that each traveler to Japan ought to know

Customs and manners are so important to Japanese culture that many travel websites have sections devoted to the subject.

Japan is currently closed to international travelers, but the country is looking for ways to safely reopen before the Tokyo Summer Olympics begin, which is slated for late July. Tourists are not expected to understand all of Japan’s complex social rules, but they can avoid the most common gaffe.

Here’s a guide on what to do – and what to avoid – based on advice from the Japanese government-affiliated tourism organizations.

Don’t touch the geisha

What many travelers call “geisha” is called “maiko” or “geiko” in Kyoto. This is considered to be one of the best places in Japan to see the decorated female entertainers.

If anyone is spotted, the Kyoto City Tourism Association (KCTA) travel website advises travelers not to stop or ask Maiko to pose for photos.

“Don’t bother her or grab her by the kimono sleeves,” the website said.

A maiko or appentice geisha walks in the snow in the Gion district of Kyoto, Japan.

Koichi Kamoshida | Getty Images News | Getty Images

This is one of Kyoto’s Akimahen Manners, a list of 18 tips, recommendations, and warnings for those traveling in Japan’s Capital of Culture.

The list of “Akimahen” (which means “not” in the local dialect) ranges from tips on automatic taxi doors (“Make sure you stand far enough for the door to open without bumping into you”) to trash can result in a fine of 30,000 Japanese yen (US $ 280).

Emoticon ratings indicate the severity of each crime. Tipping, which is frowned upon in all of Japan instead of thanking people in the local dialect (“okini”), takes on a sad face. Riding a bike drunk gives you three angry faces – the worst rating – not to mention a possible prison sentence of up to five years.

Expect pushing but not talking on trains

Travelers should expect to push and push on crowded trains, according to Go Tokyo, the Tokyo Convention & Visitors Bureau’s travel guide website.

“But remember that this is not aggressive behavior, just the product of daily life in a metropolis,” the website says.

Japanese people rarely talk or eat on trains, especially when they are crowded.

Junko Kimura | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Videos of white-gloved train attendants cramming people into Japanese trains have delighted travelers for years. They also make it easy to understand one of the most important rules of Japanese public transport: no cell phone calls. In fact, travelers are advised not to even let them ring the doorbell.

“If you have a phone with you, leave it in silent mode,” the Go Tokyo website said.

“Etiquette in public places is serious business in Japan,” said the travel website of the government-affiliated Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO). “Public observance of these rules is probably the main reason a big city like Tokyo can function so smoothly.”

Eat sushi with your hands

Travelers unfamiliar with chopsticks can request cutlery, advises the JNTO travel website, although they “may not be available, especially in more traditional locations”.

Instead of fighting with chopsticks, the tourism organization recommends travelers to follow another local custom.

In Japan, it is common to eat sushi with your hands, especially nigiri sushi, which translates as “two fingers”.

Makiko Tanigawa | DigitalVision | Getty Images

“If you came to Japan for sushi, remember that you can eat it with your hands,” the website says.

Shrines and temples

A tourist attraction for one person is a sacred place of worship for another person. According to the KCTA website, travelers should “be calm and respectful in shrines and temples”.

The Kyoto Tourism Association also asks visitors to remove hats and sunglasses in places of worship.

Dai Miyamoto, founder of Tokyo Localized Tour Company, said he often saw tourists “sitting all over the place … shrines and temples”, even in places “where there is no bank or place to rest.” He also sees tourists taking photos of Buddha statues and places where photography is prohibited.

Go Tokyo recommends travelers to enjoy the “full cultural experience” of the Shinto shrines by walking along the sides of the path leading to the shrine, as the center is “technically reserved for the anchored deity”.

At the entrance to the site, travelers can rinse their hands and mouth with “cleansing water” before approaching the main hall. There they can “bow slightly, ring the bells, put a small offer of money in the box, bow twice, clap twice, and bow again to complete the ritual,” according to the website.

The rules of the ryokan

Staying in a traditional inn or ryokan is a popular way to experience Japanese hospitality, but this involves more social rules than staying in a hotel.

Ryokans tend to be neither cheap nor exceptionally classy, ​​which may surprise travelers who associate higher prices with sprawling suites and plush bedding. Ryokans are typically one-bedroom accommodations that are spartan and lined with straw tatami mats.

Ryokan prices are often quoted per person rather than per night.

Recep-BG | E + | Getty Images

KCTA has a list of guidelines for ryokan guests, including changing into (provided) slippers before entering. Luggage wheels must not touch the inner floor. And bags should never be kept on the wall molding or the tokonoma where flowers and scrolls are displayed.

Meals are often served in rooms and visitors dress in casual kimonos called yukata to eat. After dinner, plates are cleared and futon-style mattresses are placed on the floor for sleeping.

Onsen etiquette

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s How to Enjoy Tokyo: Manners & Custom Handbook advises travelers to remove all clothing and use onsens, which are bathing areas associated with Japan’s natural hot springs.

As a volcanically active country, Japan has thousands of onsens, many of which are part of a hotel or ryokan and are segregated by gender.

John S Lander | LightRocket | Getty Images

According to the government manual, bathers must rinse off before entering and not swim, jump, or dive into the water. Hair and towels must not touch the water.

People with tattoos may be denied access to more traditional onsens as tattoos are linked to Japan’s “yakuza” or organized crime groups, Miyamoto said. This is on the decline due to the popularity of tattoos among younger generations and foreign travelers.

Sightseeing and shopping

Cutting lines is banned in most countries, but in Japan, keeping a place for friends or family members is also considered inappropriate, according to Tokyo’s Manner Guide.

It also advises travelers not to go up or down escalators. If you are in a hurry, you should use the stairs.

Negotiating better prices is not common when shopping. And the clothing sizes differ from those in western countries. An oversized men’s shirt in Japan is similar to a medium-sized US men’s shirt.

Miyamoto, 5 feet 9 inches tall and 185 pounds, wears a Japanese size XL because “big is too small”. However, he said Americans who need larger sizes are out of luck.

“Uniqlo, the most famous casual brand in Japan, sells over XXL sizes … in online stores,” he said.

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Business

A tidal turbine inbuilt Scotland is now producing energy in Japan

The AR500 turbine is waiting to be installed in waters off the Japanese islands.

A tidal turbine built and tested in Scotland was installed in waters off a chain of Japanese islands. This is the latest example of the East Asian country studying the potential of marine forms of energy production.

In a statement on Monday, London-listed Simec Atlantis Energy said its pilot turbine generated 10 megawatt hours in the first 10 days of operation.

The AR500 turbine was assembled at a factory in Scotland before being shipped to Japan, where it was installed in waters off Naru Island, which is part of the larger Goto Island chain.

According to SAE, the overall project includes the leasing of tidal generation systems and the provision of offshore construction services for the Japanese company Kyuden Mirai Energy.

Graham Reid, CEO of SAE, described the installation as “a major milestone in the use of clean, renewable energy from tidal currents and we hope it will be the first of many tidal turbines installed in Japan”.

Monday’s news is the latest example of companies in Japan, an island nation with thousands of kilometers of coastline, turning to projects dealing with tidal and wave energy.

In January it was announced that the shipping giant Mitsui OSK Lines will be working with a company called Bombora Wave Power to develop potential project locations in Japan and the surrounding regions.

The collaboration between Tokyo-based MOL and Bombora focuses on finding possible locations for the latter’s mWave system as well as hybrid projects combining mWave and wind energy.

In simple terms, the technology developed by Bombora, which has offices in the UK and Australia, is based on the idea of ​​using rubber membrane cells that are filled with air and attached to a structure submerged in water.

According to a video by the company describing how its system works, the “flexible rubber membrane design pumps air through a turbine to generate electricity” when waves run across the system.

The International Energy Agency describes marine technologies as “great potential,” but adds that additional policy support is needed for research, design and development to “enable the cost reductions that come with bringing larger commercial plants up and running”.

For its part, Japan wants renewables to account for 22% to 24% of its energy mix by 2030.

In October last year, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said the country would target zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. By 2030, Japan aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 26% compared to 2013.

However, work remains to be done to ensure that the country achieves its goals. In 2019, the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy said the country was “largely dependent on fossil fuels” such as coal, oil and liquefied natural gas.

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World News

Japan Earthquake: No Deaths Reported, Prime Minister Says

TOKYO – A large earthquake shook a large area in eastern Japan with its epicenter off the coast of Fukushima late on Saturday evening, near which three nuclear reactors were melted down after a quake and tsunami almost 10 years ago.

No deaths from the quake had been reported by Sunday morning, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said. However, according to the state broadcaster NHK, more than 100 people were injured.

The quake left nearly one million households across the Fukushima area without power, forcing roads to be closed and trains to be suspended. While residents braced themselves for aftershocks, a landslide cut off part of a main artery through Fukushima Prefecture.

Japan’s weather service reported the magnitude of the quake at 7.3 versus its initial 7.1 rating, but said there was no risk of a tsunami.

A little less than a month before the 10th anniversary of the so-called Great Earthquake in eastern Japan and the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the quake struck an area that stretched from Hokkaido to the Chugoku region in western Japan.

Greater Tokyo felt the quake for about 30 seconds from 11:08 p.m., but the tremors were felt most in Fukushima and Miyagi.

The quake was a disturbing reminder of the far more powerful 8.9 magnitude earthquake and tsunami that devastated Japan in 2011, killing more than 16,000 people. After the subsequent nuclear disaster in Fukushima, 164,000 people fled or were evacuated from the vicinity of the plant.

In comments following a meeting on the Sunday morning quake, Mr Suga warned residents to be prepared for aftershocks and take precautionary measures.

“Please remain vigilant for the possibility of other similar sized earthquakes for the next week,” he said, adding, “Don’t be negligent.”

The quake on Saturday happened as Tokyo and nine other major prefectures are in a state of emergency to contain the coronavirus. Residents are encouraged to work from home and not go out at night, while restaurants and bars close at 8 a.m. each evening.

Japan is also preparing to host the Summer Olympics, which will be postponed for a year from 2020. The games are scheduled to open on July 23.

In response, the authorities are precisely mobilizing the nuclear power plants.

The prime minister’s office immediately set up a crisis management office, and Tokyo Electric Power Company, or Tepco, which maintains the disabled nuclear power plants, said they are checking their surveillance posts in Fukushima to make sure there are no radiation leaks.

Shortly after midnight, the public broadcaster NHK reported that Tepco had not found “no major anomalies” in any of the Dai-ichi reactors where the 2011 meltdown occurred, or at the Dai-ni plant in Fukushima a few miles away.

Early Sunday morning, Tepco said it found water in some of the pools that store spent fuel spilled on the pool decks in the reactors at both the Dai-ichi and Dai-ni plants. But Tepco said no water leaked outside of the reactors.

Tepco also reported that some small leaks from a tank filled with contaminated water had occurred on the Dai-ichi site, but the leak was contained in a small area.

The Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant on the west coast did not suffer any damage, reported NHK.

According to Katsunobu Kato, Chief Cabinet Secretary of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, around 950,000 households in the affected areas were without electricity. He said that two thermal power plants in Fukushima Prefecture had gone offline. Several high-speed trains were suspended. People in dozens of households have been evacuated to shelters in several cities in Fukushima.

In brief comments to reporters just before 2 a.m., Mr. Suga advised residents not to go outside and prepare for aftershocks.

Aftershocks: What the hours and days can hold before us.

Takashi Furumura, professor at the Tokyo University Earthquake Research Institute, warned in a lecture on NHK that a quake of this size could be followed by a quake of similar magnitude within two or three days.

The Japan Meteorological Agency said the epicenter of the quake was about 60 kilometers off the coast of Fukushima and about 34 miles deep. On land the strongest strength was 6 plus.

Speaking at a press conference, Meteorological Bureau official Noriko Kamaya said residents should be prepared for magnitude 6 aftershocks in the coming days. She described the Saturday night earthquake as an aftershock of the 2011 quake.

In Minami Soma, one of the villages in Fukushima evacuated after the 2011 nuclear disaster, NHK reported that violent tremors lasted about 30 seconds on Saturday.

Yu Miri, the author of Tokyo Ueno Station, winner of the National Book Award for Translated Literature, posted photos on Twitter of shabby bookshelves in her nearby house and the floors littered with books.

Kyodo News reported that 50 people were injured in the Fukushima and Miyagi areas of the east coast of Japan.

Japan has had a history of devastating earthquakes.

Around a dozen powerful earthquakes have struck Japan in the past decade, some of which triggered tsunamis and landslides that shook parts of the country and destroyed countless buildings.

In 2016, more than 40 people died after two earthquakes hit the southern island of Kyushu. The largest of the two recorded a magnitude of 7.0, close to the intensity of Saturday’s quake, and several died in fires and landslides in the mountainous area.

In 2018, tens and millions died in their homes after a powerful quake caused landslides on the north island of Hokkaido. This summer’s quake came just days after Japan’s largest typhoon in 25 years.

Makiko Inoue, Hisako Ueno, Hikari Hida and Elian Peltier contributed to the coverage.

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Business

2 Individuals Tied to Carlos Ghosn’s Escape to Be Extradited to Japan

TOKYO – Two American men alleged to have helped former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn escape Japan in a loudspeaker box in 2019 when he was facing criminal charges lost their last offer of extradition from the United States to Japan on Saturday to block.

Without comment, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer denied a motion by lawyers for the two men – Michael Taylor, 60, a former Green Beret, and his son Peter Maxwell Taylor, 27 – to suspend a lower court order that cleared the way for them to be sent to Japan to be tried.

The two men are wanted for their role in a caper straight out of a Hollywood movie. The country’s most famous criminal defendant is fleeing right under the noses of the authorities.

In December 2019, Mr Ghosn was transferred from his Tokyo home to the Osaka area, where he was smuggled onto a private plane destined for Turkey. He then flew on to Beirut and took him out of the reach of the Japanese authorities who had accused him of financial misconduct.

The Japanese public prosecutor’s office issued an arrest warrant for the Taylors last January. US officials arrested her in Massachusetts in May when the younger Mr. Taylor was preparing to fly to Lebanon, where Mr. Ghosn now lives.

The Taylors spent the intervening months in a county jail to prevent them from being sent to Japan, where they have an extradition treaty with the United States. The men were denied bail after US prosecutors classified them as “an enormous risk to escape” and cited their role in Mr Ghosn’s escape.

The men did not deny that they were involved in Mr Ghosn’s escape. The Japanese authorities have provided extensive documentation of the two men’s roles, including detailed reports of their movements before and during Mr Ghosn’s escape.

According to the Japanese authorities, Peter Taylor traveled to Japan three times in 2019 to meet with Mr Ghosn, who was waiting for a trial at his home in Tokyo, including the day before his escape.

The next day, Mr. Ghosn went to a nearby Tokyo hotel where he met Michael Taylor and another man, George Antoine Zayek, a veteran of the Lebanese Civil War. The two men accompanied Mr. Ghosn to Osaka before hiding him in a large speaker box with holes in the floor and putting him on board the private jet heading for Turkey.

Taylor lawyers have argued that the charges against them are not a crime in Japan. They also say the men would be detained and treated arbitrarily, which amounts to torture under Japan’s legal system.

The country has been criticized domestically and internationally for a system of “hostage justice” in which criminal suspects who deny guilt can be held for long periods without charge.

Mr Ghosn, who maintains his innocence, says he was the victim of a politically motivated campaign by Nissan executives and Japanese officials to depose him and that he fled the country to escape a rigged judicial system.

Mr Ghosn’s escape from Japan was planned in collaboration with a team of at least 15 employees around the world, the New York Times previously reported.

Peter Taylor, who works in private security, had helped with other international escape operations in the past. The Times once hired him to save a correspondent, David Rohde, from the Taliban. Mr Rhode escaped alone in 2009.

In the lead up to Mr Ghosn’s escape and in the months that followed, Mr Ghosn and his son Anthony Ghosn made direct payments to Mr Taylor and a company he controlled worth more than $ 1.3 million, US prosecutors said in court files With .

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World News

Covid resurgence in Japan, South Korea may hit Asia’s financial restoration

Snow falls as people wearing face masks walk through the Asakusa district on March 29, 2020 in Tokyo, Japan.

Tomohiro Ohsumi | Getty Images

SINGAPORE – Towards the end of 2020, many investors are viewing Asia as the region with one of the best economic prospects for the next year as the coronavirus outbreak can be relatively better controlled.

However, a recent surge in Covid cases in some countries threatens to dampen the region’s economic outlook, some analysts have warned.

“For some of the Asian giants, this year’s problems with Covid-19 are unlikely to get better when the clock strikes 12 noon on New Year’s Eve,” said research firm Pantheon Macroeconomics.

However, many parts of Asia – where the virus first appeared – remain lower than in Europe and the US, data from Johns Hopkins University showed.

For some of the Asian giants, this year’s Covid-19 problems are unlikely to get better when the clock strikes 12 noon on New Year’s Eve.

But some countries are now struggling with a far worse resurgence than they did earlier in the pandemic. Even areas that have made great strides in containing the virus may not be spared. Taiwan this week reports its first locally transmitted case since April 12 – underscoring the difficulty in eradicating Covid.

Here’s a look at the Asian economies grappling with a renewed spike in coronavirus infections and how that would affect their economic prospects.

Japan

  • Covid-19 balance sheet: 207,007 cumulative confirmed cases and 2,941 deaths as of Wednesday, according to Hopkins data.

The number of daily reported coronavirus infections in Japan rose again in November and topped 3,000 for the first time last week, Hopkins data showed.

According to Reuters, medical groups in the country warned the pandemic will put a significant strain on the health system. However, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has failed to declare a state of national emergency – although he said he was suspending a travel subsidy program to slow the spread of the coronavirus, the news agency reported.

Economists at Pantheon Macroeconomics wrote in a Wednesday report that the Japanese government’s “relatively soft” rules on social distancing don’t appear to be working and that this could lead to tougher measures in the coming months.

“Therefore, a second and more effective nationwide state of emergency in Japan early next year cannot be ruled out,” the economists said. That would weigh on Japan’s economy in the first quarter of 2021, they added.

South Korea

  • Covid-19 Record: According to Hopkins, there were 53,533 cumulative confirmed cases and 756 deaths on Wednesday.

As in Japan, the daily incidence in South Korea reached unprecedented levels this month – above 1,000 for the first time since the outbreak.

But unlike in Japan, the government in South Korea has taken a tougher stance in response to the new wave of Covid cases.

The government on Tuesday announced a nationwide ban on gathering five or more people and ordered the closure of tourist attractions such as ski slopes and other winter sports facilities, Yonhap news agency reported.

This move, according to Pantheon Macroeconomics, would allow most of South Korea’s economic damage to be contained, for the most part, in the fourth quarter of this year.

Malaysia

  • Covid-19 balance sheet: 98,737 cumulative confirmed cases and 444 deaths on Wednesday, according to Hopkins data.

The Southeast Asian country kept Covid cases to a minimum before the recent surge from October, Hopkins data showed. This prompted the government to impose a new round of partial closure measures in some parts of the country.

Economists with consulting firm Capital Economics said the outlook for the Malaysian economy had become “less optimistic” this quarter, particularly in the area of ​​consumer spending.

“A second wave of the virus and the reintroduction of many restrictions on movement have reversed the sharp recovery in home consumption in the third quarter. Google’s high-frequency mobility data suggests social distancing continues to weigh on activity,” a report said Tuesday.

But the other parts of the economy – like exports – should continue to perform strongly, so the macroeconomic success of the recent resurgence is likely to be “much less” than the previous wave, the economists said.