Japan Researchers Aims to Launch World’s First Wooden Satellite, LignoSat

TOKYO, LELEMUKU.COM - Japanese researchers say they are working to build the world’s first satellite made of wood.

The goal is to help fight the problem of space junk. Space junk includes things like dead satellites, lost pieces of equipment and small pieces of paint. Such objects can present threats to spacecraft and satellites operating in space.

The project is a joint effort involving the company Sumitomo Forestry and Japan’s Kyoto University. The development team recently announced plans for the satellite in a news release.

The researchers say the wooden satellite – which they call LignoSat – is one of several planned projects that seek to explore how wood might be used in space in the future.

The developers say wood offers several advantages over other materials commonly used to build satellites, such as aluminum and other metals.

For example, the researchers say wood does not block electromagnetic waves. For this reason, wooden structures could be used to house antenna equipment and other controlling devices, the team said in a statement.

Wooden structures would also be simpler to design and weigh less than current satellite equipment, the researchers added. Such satellites would be better for the environment because they would burn up when reentering Earth’s atmosphere. They would not release polluting particles into the air and oceans.

Space junk: a growing problem

The researchers say space junk is a growing problem. Thousands of non-operating satellites are currently orbiting the Earth, and the number of new satellites continues to grow. Last year, European and United Nations agencies announced they were developing a plan for worldwide action to deal with space junk. The agencies said waste orbiting the earth must be cleaned up to make room for new satellites.

One of the leaders of the project is Japanese astronaut Takao Doi, who is also a professor at Kyoto University. He told BBC News that the driving force behind the project is the need to limit pollutants released from satellites that remain in the upper atmosphere for many years.

"Eventually it will affect the environment of the Earth," Doi said. He added that after the first steps in the research process are completed, the team will begin “developing the engineering model of the satellite.” After that, a satellite flight model will be manufactured.

The first wooden satellite could be launched by 2023.

The researchers admit that the project presents some big technological problems. These include finding a wood material that can keep its shape in severe temperatures and survive intense sunlight over a long period of time.

The Japanese project involves researching different wood-based materials and protective coatings that can hold up in the extreme conditions of space. The team is studying the construction of wooden structures using cedar and birch wood.

The researchers also plan to study how other wood products would perform in space. They want to find out whether trees could help humans in extreme environments such as space stations.

The company backing the project, Sumitomo Forestry, has also developed buildings made mainly of wood. In 2018, the company announced its largest project, a 350-meter wooden skyscraper to be built in Tokyo. It says the goal is to complete the building by 2041. (VOA)

Tick Tock, Tick Tock: Tokyo Olympics Clock Hits 500-day Mark

TOKYO, LELEMUKU.COM - Tick tock, tick tock. The Tokyo Olympic clock has hit 500 days to go. Organizers marked the milestone on Tuesday, unveiling the stylized pictogram figures for next year's Tokyo Olympics. The pictogram system was first used extensively in 1964 when the Japanese capital lasted hosted the Olympics _ just 19 years after the end of World War II.

A crude picture system was first used in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, and later in London in 1948. But the '64 Olympics originated the standardized symbols that have become familiar in every Olympics since then.

Japanese athletes posed with the pictograms and their designer, Masaaki Hiromura. Organizers also toured regions that will host Olympic events, including the area north of Tokyo that was devastated by a 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and resulting damage to nearby nuclear reactors.

Unlike other recent Olympics, construction projects are largely on schedule. The new Olympics stadium, the centerpiece of the games, is to be completed by the by the end of the year at a cost estimated at $1.25 billion.

That's not to say these Olympics are problem free.

Costs continue to rise, although local organizers and the IOC say they are cutting costs — or at least slowing the rise.

As an example, last month organizers said the cost of the opening and closing ceremonies had risen by 40 percent compared with the forecast in 2013 when Tokyo was awarded the games.

Overall, Tokyo is spending at least $20 billion to host the Olympics. About 75 percent of this is public money, although costs are difficult to track with arguments over what are — and what are not — Olympic expenses. That figure is about three times larger than the bid forecast in 2013.

Tsunekazu Takeda, the president of the Japanese Olympic Committee and a powerful International Olympic Committee member, is also being investigated in a vote-buying scandal that may have helped Tokyo land the Olympics.


Takeda has denied wrongdoing and has not resigned from any of his positions with the IOC or in Japan.

He is up for re-election to the Japanese Olympic Committee this summer and could face pressure to step aside. (VOA)

Japanese War Brides, Telling a Mother's Story

NEW YORK, LELEMUKU.COM - Kathryn Tolbert is a journalist, and also one of the directors of the film, ‘Fall Seven Times, Get Up Eight: the Japanese War Brides.’ It’s a subject she knows well, as Tolbert’s mother, Hiroko Furu-kawa, is a native of Japan. A daughter of privilege, Hiroko became a Japanese war bride, marrying an American stationed in Japan.

“My mother married my American father, who was a U.S. soldier. She barely knew him, yet she moved from Tokyo to her in-laws’ chicken farm outside of Elmira, New York,” Tolbert says.

Tolbert says her mom worked at the family egg farm and ran a small grocery store with her father. Tolbert says her father was happy, but her mother was stoic and determined.

“Mother raised us not with warmth or expressions of love. It was one of hard work, studying and getting ahead,” says Tolbert.

Tolbert says her mother didn’t speak or teach Japanese to her children, believing that she was duty bound to integrate as an American.

After college, Tolbert became a journalist, working for the Associated Press in Tokyo.

“Being in Japan in the mid-70s right after graduating from Vassar College was wonderful. I was the first woman that AP had as a reporter there,” Tolbert says.

In the 1990s, Tolbert worked for the Washington Post, and did a number of stories about Japanese women.

“My parents divorced after 30 years of marriage and she continued running the grocery store and turned it into a great success,” says Tolbert. She was known in the community. And I thought it was interesting but I didn't fully understand her story. I mean when you grow up with somebody that you're close to. And in one sense you know a lot about them, but I once wrote this little essay about what it was like having her as a mother and the problems with her English and what we couldn't understand what other people couldn't understand. And how she pushed us. How education was so important to her. But I didn't understand it,” says Tolbert. I didn't understand the context.”

But context would arrive in the form of the film, “Fall Seven Times, Get Up Eight: the Japanese War Brides,” which Kathryn Tolbert produced with fellow journalists Karen Kasmauski and Lucy Craft, who are also daughters of Japanese war brides.

“While there is a bit of difference in our stories, they are also similar,” says Tolbert.

In addition to the film, Tolbert has created an oral history archive of Japanese war brides. To date, she has done over 30 stories and continues to record interviews for it. She plans also to use the material for material for a book.

“Traveling around the country and interviewing other families taught me a huge amount and then I understood her (my mother’s) story Because there were great outcomes and terrible outcomes. Of these marriages. There were a lot of them. I can tell their stories and some of them mirrors my own experience.” (VOA)

Shinzo Abe Seeks Trade Reform as Risks to World Economy Loom

BERN, LELEMUKU.COM - Japan's prime minister says China's slowing growth, Brexit woes and U.S.-China trade disputes pose risks to the world economy, while decrying the World Trade Organization as "behind the curve" and in need of reform to help ease trade tensions.

Shinzo Abe used his return to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, after five years to hail the benefits of two "mega deals" in trade— on the Pacific Rim and between Japan and the European Union— at a time when populism and isolationism have elbowed in on an era of globalism.

"The world economy is gradually and moderately improving. I think without a doubt this is taking place," he said. "Worldwide, however, there are risks. U.S.-China trade friction is one of those risks and Japan traditionally has said tit-for-tat trade-restrictive measures are of no benefit."

Abe said the WTO needs to be changed, calling for a trading system that protects intellectual property rights. That was a veiled reference to China, which the Trump administration and others say is cheating on trade rules and stealing intellectual property from Western companies.

"Major changes are taking place and the WTO is behind the curve— it's not keeping up with pace," Abe said in a brief question-and-answer session with the forum's chief. "We have to make the WTO into a more credible existence. We need to reform it."

Abe's appearance and a later speech by Germany's Angela Merkel were shaping up as a one-two punch by major leaders in favor of global cooperation. A day earlier, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo extolled their governments' renewed focus on national self-interest.

Meanwhile, several other leaders— like those of the United States, Britain, and France— decided to not travel to Davos to deal with political troubles back home, including the U.S. government shutdown, Brexit, and popular protests.

China was set to get its say, too— and possibly retort against Western complaints about its trade policies. Vice President Wang Qishan was set to speak later Wednesday, the second day of the elite Davos gathering.

Away from the Swiss slopes, efforts were looming to defuse the U.S.-China tensions on trade. A high-level Chinese delegation is expected to visit Washington on Jan. 30, as the two sides seek to strike an accord to end their conflict.

However, Hong Kong's Beijing-backed chief executive said Wednesday she's ``quite worried'' that the rules-based system that has governed global trade for decades is under threat.

Carrie Lam said any erosion of traditional rules could lead to rising political tensions.

Worries over the future of the rules governing global trade have been stoked over the past couple of years, particularly since the election of U.S. President Donald Trump. His administration has taken umbrage against China and the two countries have imposed tariffs on hundreds of billions worth of traded goods, igniting a trade war that could seriously hobble the global economy.

Merkel, meanwhile, was to address the gathering amid growing uncertainty in Europe over Brexit after British lawmakers last week voted down Prime Minister Theresa May's deal with the European Union. Since then, speculation has risen that Britain could crash out of the bloc without a deal or that end up extending its date of departure from the current March 29. (VOA)

Ex-Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn Asks for Bail, Promises Not to Flee

TOKYO, LELEMUKU.COM - Former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn on Monday asked for his release on bail from a two-month detention in Japan, promising he will report to prosecutors daily and wear an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet.

"As the court considers my bail application, I want to emphasize that I will reside in Japan and respect any and all bail conditions the court concludes are warranted," he said in a statement shared with The Associated Press through a representative of Ghosn and his family.

"I am not guilty of the charges against me and I look forward to defending my reputation in the courtroom; nothing is more important to me or to my family," he said.

Ghosn, 64, and in custody since his Nov. 19 arrest, is due for a bail hearing Monday after his bail request was denied by a Tokyo court last week.

His latest request includes a lease for a Tokyo apartment, where he promises to live. The offer to wear a monitoring device is not standard for Japanese bail but is often included in U.S. bail conditions. No trial date has been set.

In Japan, suspects are often kept in detention until trials start, especially those who assert innocence, in what's criticized as "hostage justice." Tokyo prosecutors say Ghosn is a flight risk and may tamper with evidence. Legal experts, including Ghosn's lawyers, say preparations for trials as complex as Ghosn's take six months or longer.

Ghosn is also promising to give up his passport and hire security guards acceptable to prosecutors that he would pay for.

He has been charged with falsifying financial reports in underreporting his compensation from Nissan Motor Co., and breach of trust in having Nissan shoulder investment losses and pay a Saudi businessman.

Ghosn has asserted his innocence, saying the compensation was never decided, Nissan never suffered losses and the payments were for legitimate services for Nissan's business in the Gulf.

He has been held in austere conditions at the Tokyo Detention Center, allowed visits only by embassy officials, lawyers and prosecutors. His wife, Carole Ghosn, has expressed worries about his health and appealed to Human Rights Watch about what she saw as his unfair and harsh treatment.

Ghosn led Nissan for two decades, turning it around from near-bankruptcy to one of the world's biggest and most successful auto groups. A Brazilian-born Frenchman of Lebanese ancestry, with work experience in the U.S., Ghosn was admired internationally for his managerial skills. He was sent in 1999 by Renault SA of France, which owns 43 percent of Nissan.

Nissan Chief Executive Hiroto Saikawa has denounced Ghosn, accusing him of using company money and assets for personal gain. But Nissan's oversight has raised serious questions about governance at the automaker behind the Leaf electric car and Infiniti luxury models.

Nissan's internal investigation found Nissan purchased homes and furnishings for Ghosn in Lebanon and Brazil, but only a handful of people at Nissan knew, according to people familiar with the probe. Nissan still owns the homes.

The latest development in the investigation was discussed by the board of Nissan's Japanese alliance partner Mitsubishi Motors Corp. last week, centering on millions of dollars of salary and bonus pay to Ghosn by the automakers' joint venture in Amsterdam last year, which neither Mitsubishi nor Nissan knew about.

No charges have been filed on these payments, which are separate from the compensation from Nissan cited in the charges already filed.

Ghosn's compensation was long a sticking point in Japan, where the income difference between executives and workers is so minimal that company presidents are also called "salarymen." Ghosn has said he deserved pay comparable to other star leaders of global companies.

Ghosn defended his record at Nissan at a Tokyo court earlier this month.

"I have a genuine love and appreciation for Nissan. I believe strongly that in all of my efforts on behalf of the company, I have acted honorably, legally, and with the knowledge and approval of the appropriate executives inside the company," he said. (VOA)

World's Oldest Living Man, Masazo Nomaka of Japan Dies

TOKYO, LELEMUKU.COM - The world's oldest man has died at the age of 113.

Masazo Nomaka of Japan died in his sleep early Sunday in his home in Ashoro, according to his family.

"He was as usual yesterday and passed away without causing our family any fuss at all," his granddaughter Yuko told Kyodo News.

Nomaka was born in 1905, just months before Albert Einstein published his theory of relativity.

His family has owned and operated a hot springs inn for four generations that remains in the family. according to the Associated Press,

Last year Guinness officially recognized Nomaka as the world's oldest man after the death of Spaniard Francisco Nunez Olivera.

Japan has one of the world's highest life expectancies. The oldest living man on record is also Japanese. Jiroemon Kimura died in June 2013 at the age of 116. (VOA)

Analysts: Seoul-Tokyo Diplomatic Rows Unlikely to Have Lasting Effect

SEOUL, LELEMUKU.COM - Relations between South Korea and Japan continue to sour as a pair of diplomatic disputes creates a renewed strain on bilateral ties between Seoul and Tokyo.

South Korea's President Moon Jae-in, left, shakes hands with Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe

However, analysts tell VOA that the crisis facing the East Asian nations stems from long-standing, unresolved issues that could ultimately affect how the countries interact on regional security issues.

Keeho Yang, a professor at the Department of Japanese studies at Sungkonghoe University, traces the current downward trend in bilateral ties to 2012, when then-President Lee Myung-bak visited Dok-do, a small set of islets also claimed by Japan and referred to as Takeshima.

“There have been no significant changes in the two countries’ relationship,” since then, he said. “It’s bad.”

Currently, both governments are embroiled in a tit-for-tat exchange over whether a South Korean naval vessel targeted a Japanese Self Defense Force fighter with fire-control radar last month and Seoul looking to seize the assets of Japanese companies following a recent court decision that requiring the firms to compensate forced laborers during World War II.

Dispute’s impact on regional issues

Despite the discussions taking place between Seoul and Tokyo to resolve the issue of asset seizure and military interactions, Yang doesn’t see the disputes affecting how the two governments communicate or work together to maintain regional security.

“The Japanese government endorsed the Panmunjom declaration. So two governments share the same view on denuclearization and peace on the Korean Peninsula,” Yang said.

The Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University’s Cho Jin-goo also agreed that Tokyo’s support for North Korea’s denuclearization is important, but if the current disagreements can’t be resolved in a relatively short period of time, it could affect larger issues.

“So the longer the dispute lasts, the worse the relationship [between Seoul and Tokyo] will get,” Cho said.

When you “look at what actually goes on between the two countries, economically, tourist-wise, militarily ... it doesn’t really change all that much. But it’s not as good as it should be,” said Grant Newsham, a senior research fellow with the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies in Tokyo. “Particularly on the military front.”

He sees the current cycle of good and bad relations between Seoul and Tokyo continuing for the foreseeable future.

Yang recommends both governments continue to work together to resolve the ongoing differences and for the leaders to meet to establish “forward-looking relations.”

Ongoing radar row

South Korea and Japan met in Singapore Monday to discuss a Dec. 20 incident involving a radar lock between a South Korean warship and a Japanese P-1 maritime patrol aircraft.

Seoul requested that Tokyo apologize for the aircraft flying low and possibly posing a threat against its vessel, which was on a humanitarian operation.

Japan disputes South Korea’s version of events, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe urged Seoul to put in place procedures to prevent similar incidents in the future.

In addition, Japanese media reports that Tokyo’s defense ministry summoned the South Korean military attache to lodge a formal complaint and demanded a retraction of Seoul’s claim.

South Korea’s defense ministry said Japan failed in those talks to provide definitive evidence backing its claim.

“Japan did not disclose the radar frequency data that it has about our warship, which is a smoking gun, and instead only asked for information from South Korea. Such a demand is extremely rude and unacceptable,” said ministry spokeswoman Choi Hyun Soo.

She further told reporters Tokyo’s request indicated a lack of desire on Japan’s part to resolve the matter.

Both sides are expected to continue to hold discussions on the matter. (VOA)

Carlos Ghosn Case Shines Light on Japan Justice System

TOKYO, LELEMUKU.COM - Since his arrest on suspicion of falsifying financial reports, Nissan’s former Chairman Carlos Ghosn has been sitting in a humble cell for more than a month, interrogated day in and day out, without a lawyer present.

His case is drawing attention to the criminal justice system in Japan, where there is no presumption of innocence and the accused can be held for months before trial. The system, sometimes called “hostage justice,” has come under fire from human rights advocates.

When a court denied Tokyo prosecutors’ request to detain Ghosn another 10 days on Dec. 20, it was so unusual that the Japanese media reported he might be released. But such speculation was dashed when prosecutors rearrested him a day later on suspicion of breach of trust, tagging on a new set of allegations centered on Ghosn’s shifting personal investment losses of some 1.8 billion yen ($16 million) to Nissan Motor Co. On Sunday, a court approved prosecutors’ request to detain him through Jan. 1.

Treatment routine

But his plight is routine in Japan. People have signed confessions, even to killings they never committed, just to get out of the ordeal.

A trial could be months away and could drag on even longer. And his chances aren’t good: The conviction rate in Japan is 99 percent.

Those close to Ghosn and his family say he is asserting his innocence. But it is unclear when release may come for Ghosn, who led a two-decade turnaround at Nissan from near-bankruptcy. Tokyo prosecutors consider Ghosn, a Brazilian-born Frenchman of Lebanese ancestry, a flight risk.

'A proper investigation'

Other nations may have legal systems that are criticized as brutal and unfair. The U.S., for instance, has its share of erroneous convictions, police brutality and dubious plea bargains. But, in the U.S., a person is presumed innocent, has the right to have an attorney present and is freed within 72 hours if there is no charge.

Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond’s School of Law, said such a longtime detention is highly unusual in the U.S.

“Each time the government reaches a deadline where Ghosn might be released, the government files new allegations and re-arrests,” he said.

Deputy Chief Prosecutor Shin Kukimoto said prosecutors are merely doing their job of “trying to carry out a proper investigation.”

When asked by a reporter about “hostage justice,” he replied: “We are not in a position to comment on how the law has been designed.”

Under such a system, those who insist on innocence end up being detained longer. Once the re-arrest processes run out and a suspect is formally charged, bail is technically possible but often denied until the trial starts because of fears about tampered evidence.

Meet Iwao Hakamada

“It is good that the world will learn how wrong Japan’s criminal system is through the case of this famous person. It is something even many Japanese don’t know,” says Seiho Cho, a lawyer in Tokyo and an expert on criminal defense. “Countless people have gone through horrible experiences.”

A famous case is Iwao Hakamada, a professional boxer, who served 48 years in prison, mostly on death row after he signed a confession under questioning and was convicted of killing a family of four. He was freed in 2014 after DNA tests determined blood at the crime scene wasn’t Hakamada’s, and a court ruled police had likely planted evidence. Boxing champions had rallied on his behalf.

A true-life story of a man who refused to sign a confession that he groped a woman on a crowded commuter train became a popular 2007 movie “I Just Didn’t Do It,” directed by Masayuki Suo. The film depicts a five-year legal battle for exoneration, highlighting the burden of proof of innocence was on the accused.

In the U.S., defense lawyers tend to be vocal, but in Japan, it is fairly standard — as in the case of Ghosn — for them to stay silent, especially before trial, because that’s considered better for the suspects. Lawyers are allowed to visit clients in detention.

Nissan, American also charged

Ghosn has been formally charged in the initial set of allegations, underreporting his income by about 5 billion yen ($44 million) for five years through 2015. The maximum penalty for violating Japan’s financial laws is 10 years in prison, a 10 million yen ($89,000) fine, or both.

Greg Kelly, an American Nissan executive who was arrested with Ghosn, has been similarly charged with collaborating on underreporting Ghosn’s income. Kelly was not re-arrested on the latest breach of trust allegations. Kelly’s U.S. lawyer says he is innocent and abided by company policy.

Nissan has also been charged as a legal entity, but no one other than Ghosn and Kelly has been charged or arrested. Nissan executives repeatedly say an internal investigation that began in the summer showed clear and serious wrongdoing, which went unnoticed for so long because of complex schemes “masterminded” by Ghosn and Kelly.

They went to the prosecutors, resulting in the surprise Nov. 19 arrests, and are cooperating closely with the investigation.

Accusations devastating in Japan

Being accused of a crime is devastating in a conformist insular society like Japan. Family members also become targets of discrimination, spurned for marriage and ostracized. Some commit suicide.

Cho, the lawyer, said the long detention and trial mean people lose their jobs, reputation, sometimes their families. But he still had this advice: Whatever you do, don’t confess to anything you didn’t do because that just makes it worse.

“Don’t ever compromise on your innocence,” he said. (VOA)