Commentator Journal

01/04/2024

https://commentathor.com/for-toshiro-mifunes-birthday/

“When you’re about to die, call your mother!” Toshiro Mifune’s family moved from Japan to Manchuria long before the start of Japanese colonization. The fact is that his parents were missionaries, deeply religious people, and his father, Tokuzo Mifune, was not only a businessman and owner of ...

19/12/2023

On December 31, 1600, the Company of London Merchants Trading with the East Indies, better known as the British East India Company, was founded in London. Soon, Queen Elizabeth I granted her a monopoly on trade with eastern countries. Such actions were quite in the spirit of the time, when foreign t...

05/11/2023

The deaths of civilians in Gaza — random but numerous victims of war — are sad and terrible. Two unfortunate peoples who found themselves on the same territory and unable to reconcile are an open wound. Eighteen centuries after the expulsion, the Jews wandered, were despised, and again expelled ...

25/10/2023

The Origins of Mass Political Terrorism in the Modern World. Mass terrorism was born in Russia. Terrorism — organized, armed violence against governments and societies — did not begin on September 11, 2001 with the attacks by Al-Qaida in the United States. Although politically motivated killings...

22/06/2023

Last year marked the 60th anniversary of Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin’s visit to Japan. Gagarin had not only visited this exotic country, but also returned the name of our legendary intelligence officer Richard Sorge from there. How did it happen? To the Land of the Rising Sun Yu.A. Gagarin flew on Ma...

08/01/2023

https://youtu.be/oAVUZtpgUH0

Рассказывая зрителям о современной принцессе.Telling the audience about the modern princess.

24/10/2022

CommentaTHOR.com:

Armageddon and North Korea

Pyongyang’s nuclear capabilities are increasing, but there is limited international capacity for or interest in addressing them.

The details vary, but the pattern is immediately recognisable: a volley of missiles, followed by chilling new rhetoric. This time, North Korean state media said the recent flurry of tests simulated strikes on South Korean and US targets with tactical nuclear weapons. It is likely to conduct a seventh nuclear test soon. Pyongyang is not about to reduce Seoul of San Francisco to a sea of ashes: the leadership is not suicidal. But its capabilities are steadily growing; and so are the risks of missteps, perhaps especially in light of its pandemic isolation. Last month, the country hardened its position with a new law enshrining its right to “automatically” use preemptive nuclear strikes to protect itself, and stressing that its nuclear status is “irreversible”.

The prospects for addressing the issue have rarely looked dimmer. Kim Jong-un is usually expert at grabbing attention. But Joe Biden’s lies elsewhere. True, the trip to Seoul last month by the US vice-president, Kamala Harris, was his administration’s third major visit this year. Recent trilateral exercises by the US, Japan and South Korea sparked the latest missile launches; the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier, which took part in those drills, recently returned to waters near the peninsula. But the US is focused on war in Ukraine and the related energy and cost of living crisis, along with strategic rivalry with China and its myriad domestic problems. Pyongyang is way down the agenda.

The possibility of North Korea trusting the US – always extremely low – seems nonexistent after the highs and lows of its dealings with Donald Trump, who also left the South with diminished faith in the US security guarantee. Beijing and Moscow will not support sanctions again: Mr Trump’s embrace of Mr Kim saw Xi Jinping, who had previously disdained his youthful counterpart, forced to hug him closer. China now appears willing to funnel in aid with few conditions. Russia is hardly going to condemn North Korea at the UN when Pyongyang is one of its few active backers over Ukraine.

In South Korea, the failure of former president Moon Jae-in’s attempts at a thaw has been followed by his conservative successor Yoon Suk-yeol’s “audacious initiatives” of economic aid in return for abandoning the nuclear programme: widely seen as a non-starter even before Pyongyang’s rebuff. The feasibility of denuclearisation, always extremely improbable, seems to have vanished, barring unforeseen and unlikely developments such as regime collapse. The regime has taken the lessons of Iraq and Libya to heart, and US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal has only reinforced its beliefs. Even arms controls talks look very distant.
The North’s belligerence and capabilities are one reason why Japan’s prime minister says he is reshaping its security strategy. South Korea’s battered confidence in the US umbrella might not withstand another Trump or Trump-like administration. Public support for independent nuclear deterrent now stands at more than 70%. While there is so far very limited political interest, the issue is increasingly under discussion; Russian use of tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine would be a gamechanger, especially if the US response was judged inadequate. Others have suggested the redeployment of US tactical assets to the peninsula, even more likely to provoke Beijing’s fury and escalate the ongoing crisis. A better option might be closer multilateral cooperation on deterrence with Japan and Australia. Above all, attempts to talk to North Korea must continue – however vain they appear.

Ours is socio-political magazine that break the borders and connects the World by describing economics, societal issues, politics, history, art, culture, education, travel, religion, science, medicine, ecology, army, cuisine, etc.

24/02/2022

Recently, my friends from Moscow sent me two cans of dietary supplement Algasgel. They wanted to know my expert opinion on what kind of market there might be in Japan for such products.

Since I have been dealing with this topic for quite a long time, I decided to present my answer in the form of an article.

Japan’s population is aging at a globally unprecedented rate. As of 2020, there are 36.17 million people aged 65 or more, accounting for 28.7% of the total population (the world’s highest proportion of the elderly), and is expected to reach 35.3% by 2040. Against the backdrop of this “super-aging society”, the public and private sectors are working together to establish a “society of health and longevity”, which means extending each individual’s healthy life expectancy. On the other hand, national medical expenses have been increasing every year. In FY 2019-20, the estimated medical expenses reached a record high of 43.6 trillion JPY.

Japan is the world’s third-largest dietary supplements market, valued at USD 9.4 billion (JPY 1 trillion). A rapidly aging population and a rise in health consciousness amongst Japanese consumers should boost the sector’s further growth. Dietary supplements and health foods that help prevent or reduce risks of lifestyle-related diseases are gaining popularity, while those that target anti-aging, weight loss, and beauty care also have good potential.

Who is taking supplements?

The elderly population is focusing on adapting to nutritional supplements specifically tailored to their needs to maintain their good health and quality of life. The process of aging results in various changes in an individual, including psychological, physiological, and social, which affects their dietary and food choices. Aging population increasingly relies on habitual food choices and tailored dietary consumption patterns.

Women in their fifties represent the largest group of consumers taking supplements, while men in higher age groups represent the common target group among the male population. A major expectation of consumers is the maintenance of physical health by improving and strengthening the immune system, contributing to the market success of nutritional supplements and vitality boosters.

According to a survey by Rakuten Insight on dietary supplements in Japan conducted in July 2020, around 45 percent of the respondents stated that they took dietary supplements. The majority of the respondents answered that they took dietary supplements every day.

The Japanese health food market

In the busy lifestyle of the aging Japanese society, supplements are catering to the demand for a nutritionally balanced lifestyle among consumers. In recent years, the health food market benefitted from the growing health awareness as manufacturers are expanding their portfolios to include a variety of healthy prepared meals and snacks. Apart from commonly available products such as sugar-free or allergen-free alternatives, foods with health claims such as the governmentally approved foods for specified health uses (FOSHU) are recording steady sales.

As far as imported dietary supplements products are mostly purchased at department stores, specialty food stores, supermarkets and online. However, specialty shops also have their own online shops and/or a store on an online retailer platform.

Moreover, gift retail has also potential for growth for exporters of high quality products. Most of the Japanese retailers hold special sales events every six months to cater to customers wishing to send gifts (seasonal gifts tradition) to business contacts, clients, teachers, respected elders, family members etc.: a large gift giving event takes place at the end of each year (seibo) and a smaller one in July (chu gen). The majority of these gifts consist of food items, many of which are high-end and imported. Such as tradition, custom, entering such a market might be especially advantageous for exporters stressing the health benefits of their packaged functional food products especially for elderly, since seasonal gifts are typically produced in limited quantities and sold at premium prices.

Within this retailing sector, the following channels represent the most opportunities for exporters in general. Department stores and specialty shops could be among the most fitting distribution channels for finalized European-made products since their price bracket is usually higher than other packaged imported foods and beverages.

For European exporters choosing the right channel can be a challenge. European companies need first to evaluate the retail price in Japan of their products and understand which channels handle products in those price brackets. Then, they should also evaluate the average customer base of those channels and the kind of expectations that these consumers have in terms of quality, brand reputation, value, size, packaging, etc., to see if their products match or are completely off the mark and imply a lot of product adaptation. The customer expectations must also be taken into account, regarding for example minimum and average volume supply.

For European exporters the direct access to these retailers depends on whether a potential target imports directly its foreign products or not. Otherwise, going through an importer or trading house is necessary, and it will be those intermediaries that will do the necessary work to propose the products to the best channels. Even when a specific channel directly imports and is considered as the most proper, a tailored approach is necessary. For example, the functional food and beverage floors of department stores, where high quality imported foods can be found, are usually managed by sub-contractors, and not the department stores themselves. Even within a chain, those floors are managed by different contractors in each city, sometimes even several of them. Therefore, being distributed in Mitsukoshi Isetan in Osaka will not necessarily mean to be distributed in Mitsukoshi Isetan in Tokyo, nor in Fukuoka. Also supermarket subsidiary Isetan Mitsukoshi Food Service is expected to turn an operating profit in fiscal 2022; its subsidiary will continue reviewing costs in its struggling home delivery business.

The main share of food additives is distributed through pharmacies. Only one-third is provided through direct sales and other channels.

European and other exporters should take into account that on average, in Japan, retail price of imported food products is between two and three times higher than that of their ex-works price. Regarding dietary supplements products, prices differ greatly depending on the distribution channel and the health properties of a product. For example, demonstration channels such as door-to-door sales are fit for products where explanations are necessary. Consumers agree to pay more for them (average price range for door-to-door sales: JPY 5,000 to JPY 10,000).

Most of the well-known dietary supplements products that are consumed on a daily basis, bought by the consumers themselves without any assistance, price of more nutraceuticals affordable or even cheap (average price range for products bought in convenience stores: JPY 200 to 300). If the nutraceuticals products have a clear established effect on consumers health the price can be high, the Japanese consumers will be willing to pay for premium products with health benefits.

Research shows that for functional foods backed by certification, price does not affect consumers’ choice. In such a case, consumers tend to believe that price corresponds with quality.

Supplements are the best selling international products on the Japanese eCommerce market. It is also one of the fastest-growing categories, making it perfect to tackle for businesses who want to start selling in Japan. Japanese consumers want supplements that they can trust and the unsteady ground that domestic products have been standing on has left them running over to international manufacturers.

DuPont is not the only company that sees Japan as the right place to develop products for the elderly; several other Western and Japanese firms are doing the same. Japan is often portrayed as a unique country with unique consumer products, but when it comes to aging, it may be just the place to design materials suited to global needs.

BASF sees Japan as an innovation leader in nutrition and health—both for the elderly and consumers more broadly.

“The Japanese pharmaceutical and food industries are big opportunities where we seek to create solutions, not only provide materials,” says Tomoyoshi Kajiura, the firm’s vice-director of pharma solutions, nutrition, and health. Using Japan’s new-product heritage and its strength in basic materials, BASF aims to develop such solutions in Japan and take them worldwide, he says.

In its vitamin and food supplement business, BASF is developing new products for Japan. Whereas consumers in the West tend to buy health supplements as stand-alone products, in Japan they are often added to drinks, jellies, yogurt, and even candies. “Japan is the best place to supply functional food that consumers can consume every day without feeling that they’re taking a pill,” Kajiura says.

The elderly, according to Kajiura, eat smaller portions than younger people and are thus more prone to store and reheat leftovers. Repeated heating or exposure to acidity caused by oxygenation can destroy the vitamin content of food.

“When we can offer powdered vitamins for packaged food that meet the needs of Japan’s elderly, it will be adopted worldwide,” Kajiura says.

As for DuPont, its global sales of nutrition and health-related products amount to about $4.5 billion annually, and Japan is the second-largest market for these products, coming after only the US. The company supplies Japan mostly by importing enzymes, proteins, and other nutrients made at DuPont facilities worldwide.

Mitsubishi has also strengthened its R&D for the food segment. The Eisai acquisition brought researchers and know-how that Mitsubishi has incorporated into its food research center in Yokohama. The company simultaneously added cooking capabilities to the center so researchers can test how their additives perform in real life. Actually cooking food with new additives is an essential step, says Toshiya Katsuragi, who heads Mitsubishi’s high-performance chemical planning department.

Chemical companies from Japan and around the world are making the right choice in using the country as a testing ground for new products aimed at the elderly, according to Perez-Cullell. “Japanese consumers are demanding in terms of effectiveness, quality, ease of use, and other characteristics,” she says.

It’s still early days for Japan’s role as a proving ground for products for the aged, but encouraging early results at Pierre Fabre and other firms suggest that the country’s role in easing the lives of the elderly will continue to increase.

Asia Pacific is expected to witness significant growth over the 2021-2028. The market is expected to be the largest regional market by 2028 owing to the growing consumer base. Increasing expenditure on health-enhancing products in the region owing to growing per capita income and increasing awareness is expected to drive the demand for dietary supplements over the forecast period.

Recently, my friends from Moscow sent me two cans of dietary supplement Algasgel. They wanted to know my expert opinion on what kind of market there might be in Japan for such products. Since I have been dealing with this topic for quite a long time, I decided to present my answer in the form […]

01/02/2022

The magazine about everything? Nonsense, some would say.

They would be right. This does not and can’t exist if everyone must have a certain agenda when writing.

We challenge it. Our authors are professional in their own field.

The magazine we would like to create will be provoking. It will make people think, absorb, discuss.

Whatever the tops you are interested in, you will find it here.

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31/01/2022

Staffers have accused the top director of the World Health Organization in the Western Pacific of racist, unethical and abusive behavior that has undermined the U.N. health agency’s efforts to curb the coronavirus pandemic.

The allegations were laid out in an internal complaint filed in October and in an email last week sent by unidentified staff to WHO’s senior leadership and its executive board and obtained by the AP. Two of the authors said more than 30 current and former WHO officials were involved in writing the email.

The internal complaint and email describe a “toxic atmosphere” with “a culture of systemic bullying and public ridiculing” at WHO’s Western Pacific headquarters in Manila, led by Dr. Takeshi Kasai, director of a vast region that includes China and Japan. The AP also has obtained recorded snippets of meetings where Kasai is heard making derogatory comments about staff based on nationality. Eleven former or current WHO staffers who worked for Kasai told the AP he frequently used racist language.

The complaint and message also accused Kasai of improperly sharing potentially sensitive vaccine information with his home country, Japan.

In an email to the AP, Kasai denied allegations of racism and unethical behavior.

“I ask a lot of myself, and our staff,” he said. “This has particularly been the case during the COVID-19 response. But it should not result in people feeling disrespected.”

Kasai said he was committed to making changes that would ensure “a positive work environment.” However, an internal WHO message seen by the AP shows that in a meeting last week, Kasai ordered all his senior directors to “reject” the accusations in the email and to “totally support” him.

The internal complaint filed to WHO alleges that Kasai once aggressively questioned a Filipino staffer during a coronavirus meeting, saying: “How many people in the Pacific have you killed so far and how many more do you want to kill further?” The complaint said he then asked “if she was incapable of delivering good presentations because she was Filipina.”

Several WHO officials present when the statements were made confirmed to the AP that the regional director has made numerous racist comments in meetings.

The email also said Kasai blamed the rise in COVID cases in some Pacific countries on their “lack of capacity due to their inferior culture, race and socioeconomic level.” Three WHO staffers told the AP Kasai said in numerous WHO discussions that the coronavirus response was hampered by “a lack of sufficiently educated people in the Pacific.”

Kasai rejected allegations that he ever used racist language.

“It is true that I have been hard on staff, but I reject the suggestion that I have targeted staff of any particular nationality,” he said.

The claims add to a litany of internal protests from WHO personnel about the agency’s management of the pandemic, including privately complaining about China’s delayed sharing of information while publicly praising the government.

“We request your urgent intervention to address our serious concerns…which is negatively impacting WHO’s performance,” the staffers wrote.

Kasai is a Japanese doctor who began his career in his country’s public health system before moving to WHO. He is credited with developing the region’s response to emerging outbreaks after the SARS epidemic in 2003.

Lawrence Gostin, director of the WHO Collaborating Center on Public Health Law and Human Rights at Georgetown University, said he was in contact with many people at the Western Pacific office, and knew they felt “battered” during the pandemic.

Gostin said racism in a WHO office at the center of the pandemic would be “unconscionable,” and that the allegations wounded WHO’s credibility.

WHO staffers also alleged that Kasai abused his position to aid the Japanese government in COVID-19 vaccination planning by providing confidential data. Many countries expect WHO not to share details on sensitive issues like vaccination unless they explicitly consent.

A WHO scientist who worked on COVID-19 immunization in Asia told the AP that Kasai shared data with Japan so the government could decide how to donate doses to its regional neighbors for a political advantage. The staffer, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation, said Kasai also pressured WHO personnel to prioritize vaccine donations from Japan over the U.N.-backed COVAX effort.

Kasai disputed that he had ever inappropriately shared information with Japan.

“At no time have I pressured staff to facilitate donations from Japan rather than COVAX,” he told the AP.

WHO has dealt with internal complaints from staffers alleging systemic racism, sexism and other misconduct before. Last year, an AP investigation found that senior WHO management was informed of multiple sexual abuse reports involving its own staffers during the Ebola epidemic in Congo, but failed to act.

The authors of the WHO email in Asia said most of them had “exhaustively” filed complaints through various WHO mechanisms, including its ombudsman, ethics hotline, and office of internal oversight, but have not been informed of any investigation.

Under WHO’s structure, regional directors are largely answerable only to the member countries that elect them and to the executive board that confirms their selection. Kasai could run again next year when his current term expires.

Kasai does not report to WHO’s director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, but “all staffers are subject to the authority of the Director-General,” according to the agency’s rules.

WHO’s headquarters in Geneva said in an email that it was “aware of the allegations and is taking all appropriate steps to follow up on the matter.” Kasai said in a statement that he was “ready to cooperate fully with any process to investigate the concerns which have been raised.”

At a virtual meeting this week, WHO’s executive board is slated to discuss issues including the ongoing response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Also on the agenda are various “management matters,” including the prevention of abuse and harassment and “increased efforts to address racism.”

Staffers have accused the top director of the World Health Organization in the Western Pacific of racist, unethical and abusive behavior that has undermined the U.N. health agency’s efforts to curb the coronavirus pandemic. The allegations were laid out in an internal complaint filed in October an...

13/12/2021

In Shinto, heaven, earth, and humanity are different manifestations of one life energy.

In recent years there has been much talk of climate change and the disastrous consequences of human impact on the environment. We are constantly urged to limit our consumption of fossil fuels and live more respectfully with nature. This practical task of responding to the ecological crisis is given an ethical underpinning by Shinto, which from ancient times has seen it as the principal duty of human beings to care for and preserve their environment — to live within nature rather than attempting to dominate or destroy it.

From earliest times, Japan has endeavored to preserve and nurture its abundant forests. Yet at times of upheaval and change, the forests have been damaged recklessly. Whenever this has happened, Shinto leaders have been at the forefront of campaigns to restore the forests, recognizing that they are the lungs of the nation and indeed the world. Japan suffered a tremendous loss of trees in the aftermath of World War II. This damage reflected the trauma of the people and the shift from spiritual toward materialistic values. Yet the importance of the forest, at both psychic and ecological levels, was understood by the Showa Emperor, who threw part of his personal fortune behind an appeal for reforestation. The people responded well and saw it as their task to restore the image of their country as a landscape of green mountains. As a result, with 9,600,000 hectares, Japan now ranks third on the list of most successfully reforested countries in the world.

Water will continue to run from mountain springs as long as we keep the forests intact. People in the West are now ready to see the world as Gaia, the ancient Greek goddess of the earth, a living organism, all parts of which are connected to and dependent upon each other. And as with other living organisms, when one part is injured or out of control, the whole loses its balance and becomes sick. When the earth becomes sick, we are obliged to use our knowledge and power to restore it.

An outward expression of Shinto’s concern for the health of nature can be seen in the forested areas surrounding Shinto shrines. For more than three thousand years, the Japanese have believed that Kami, the powers of the spiritual dimension, can make contact with human beings through trees. We can therefore also find sacred trees within the precincts of certain Shinto shrines. Some of these trees are more than four thousand years old. A sense of the sacred in trees, and a desire to nurture them, is profoundly rooted in the spirituality of Japan.

Here we can find in Shinto a universal meaning and a practical ethos for today’s world. It can attune us to see the connection between the well-being of the natural world and our own spiritual well-being. In the ancient wisdom of Japan, we can find a missing link that restores our awareness of nature, and so give us the wholeness we crave for in a world dominated by material and mechanical notions of progress. In the present practice of tree planting and arboriculture, we find a modern expression of an age-old spiritual sensibility.

Shinto is an authentic, indigenous spiritual tradition of the Japanese people. Many of its outward forms and practices are therefore specific to Japan, but its essence is valid for all of humanity and very relevant to us in our present predicament. Shinto’s understanding of the intrinsic value of the natural world is linked to an emphasis on purification, which has a dual physical and spiritual significance. At the core of the Shinto tradition is the practice of immersing the body in water. Whilst this ritual is one of physical cleansing — the purification of the body — it also represents the purification of the mind and spirit. It reminds us of the significance of water as the source of life, without which no life can be sustained.

In our urbanized culture, nature is often treated as if it were a mere wilderness, an occasional refuge for us perhaps, but not of central importance to our lives. The return of the idea of Gaia is a radical challenge to this way of looking at the world. It reminds us that we are part of nature, rather than above or beyond it. The water with which we purify ourselves is, after all, the first ingredient of the human organism. Gaia was entrusted with the preservation of nature’s balance. She has living counterparts in Shinto-Kunitokotachi no kami and Toyouke-hime no kami; the Kami of natural energy. Every creature comes into existence as if it is generated by its respect for the Kami of nature. Since these two Kami hide their presence behind their innumerable offspring, they are known as the invisible Kami. Yet theirs are the threads that hold together the great web of life.

In Shinto, heaven, earth, and humanity are different manifestations of one life energy. In recent years there has been much talk of climate change and the disastrous consequences of human impact on the environment. We are constantly urged to limit our consumption of fossil fuels and live more respec...