[TODAY'S TOP STORIES] from [The Japan Times]
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Tokyo bolsters sanctions on Pyongyang
（日本 北朝鮮に制裁措置を強化）
By JUN HONGO
Staff writer
The Cabinet approved new sanctions Tuesday against North Korea that reinforce previous restrictions on financial and people exchanges with the hermit state.
The measures, which follow the adoption of a U.N. Security Council resolution last week, prohibit all Japanese exports to North Korea and restrict foreign nationals held liable for breaching the sanctions from entering Japan.
The measures, valid until April, are in concert with U.N. Resolution 1874, Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said.
Japan initially imposed sanctions against Pyongyang in 2006 after it fired a missile and conducted its first nuclear test. They included bans on port calls by North Korean-registered vessels, all imports from North Korea and curbs on cash transfers to the country.
The government will continue to "work firmly and urge North Korea to take specific actions that will resolve ongoing issues," Nakasone said.
In addition to hardening its stance against Pyongyang, the government is looking to submit a bill to allow the Self-Defense Forces or the Japan Coast Guard to inspect North Korean ships at sea in line with the UNSC resolution to prevent weapons shipments.
Under the current law, the SDF and coast guard can only inspect cargo ships in international waters under circumstances that pose a national threat, and only after the suspect boat agrees to allow Japanese to board. New legislation is expected to allow greater flexibility and enhance the rules of engagement.
"We must prepare swiftly since the U.N. resolution has already been agreed on," Nakasone said of the new bill.
Japan's sanctions have been extended and expanded since 2006, most recently in April when the North launched a Taepodong-2 long-distance ballistic missile over the Tohoku region. That sanction was centered on a tighter monitoring of financial transactions to the North, including a requirement that people carrying ¥300,000 or more to North Korea file prior notification, instead of ¥1 million.
But Tuesday's additional ban on exports could be the final measure because the government is running out of effective options, said Shunji Hiraiwa, a professor at the University of Shizuoka.
"Without any cards left in its hands, Japan's only choice will be to push for a stronger resolution from the U.N. if the North conducts another nuclear test," the expert on North Korean issues told The Japan Times.
Many analysts said Tuesday's sanctions will have a limited impact and a Foreign Ministry official acknowledged that effective sanctions must be a joint effort.
"Obviously, not imposing further sanctions against North Korea is not an option for us," but almost 80 percent of North Korea's trade is with China, the ministry official said earlier this month.
"There are things that China can do," he said. "Sanctions against the North should be carried out globally."
On the North's response to continued global condemnation, Hiraiwa said Pyongyang could still return to dialogue instead of carrying out a nuclear test.
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
7,300 schools highly vulnerable to quakes
（7,300の校舎 地震で倒壊の危険性）
(Kyodo News) More than 7,300 school buildings are at high risk of collapse in the event of a powerful earthquake, the education ministry said Tuesday.
A survey by the ministry on the nation's 124,976 public schools also found that the quake resistance of 41,206 buildings is insufficient.
The ministry said 7,309 could crumble if hit by a quake measuring upper 6 on the Japanese seismic scale of 7.
The number of school buildings at risk of collapse declined by 3,347 from a year earlier, while the ratio with adequate quake resistance rose 4.7 percentage points to 67.0 percent, the ministry said.
The government has provided more subsidies to local authorities to work on schools since a major quake leveled a huge number of school buildings in Sichuan Province, China, last June.
The ministry plans to provide subsidies to make 16,000 school buildings quake-resistant in the current fiscal year. The ministry also expects to eliminate school structures at risk of collapse by March 2011 and raise the quake resistance ratio to around 78 percent.
Of the 83,770 buildings proven to be fully quake resistant, 50,180 were built under newer quake-resistance standards adopted in 1982, the survey found.
By prefecture, Osaka had the most high-risk school buildings at 527, followed by Hokkaido with 438 and Hyogo with 351. Okinawa had the least at 15.
Kanagawa had the highest percentage of safe buildings at 93.4 percent, followed by Miyagi and Shizuoka at 90.1 percent. Nagasaki was the lowest at 46.6 percent.
Municipal governments are required by law to disclose the results of quake-resistance inspection of the schools in their jurisdiction, but 320 of the 1,880 municipalities, or 17 percent, did not do so, the ministry said.
"It appears that those municipalities failed to disclose the results because they want to avoid causing a panic. School facilities can be evacuation destinations," an official said, adding the ministry will start pushing the municipalities to disclose the results.
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Legal pros expecting a lot from lay judges
（法律の専門家 裁判員制度に期待）
By SETSUKO KAMIYA
Staff writer
Videotaping interrogations of criminal suspects could have prevented a man recently effectively exonerated by a DNA test from being convicted of murder, but the result of his trial might not have been any different if lay judges had been on the bench, legal professionals said Tuesday.
Toshikazu Sugaya spent 17 years in prison after being convicted of kidnapping and murdering a 4-year-old girl in Ashikaga, Tochigi Prefecture, in 1990 but was freed this month after recent tests indicated his DNA did not match traces found on the victim's clothing. Initial tests had led to his getting a life sentence.
But having lay judges, or "saibanin," participate in the criminal trial to weigh the evidence and reach a verdict should lead to fewer miscarriages of justice, because the fresh eyes of the public will be involved in the trial process and they will try to do the right thing, the lawyers said.
"I can't say firmly that lay judges could have prevented Sugaya's conviction, because forensic evidence and a confession were submitted, and there is no proof the lay judges would not have been swayed into believing them," Makoto Miyazaki, president of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, said at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo.
Taping the entire interrogation process would have been the primary means of preventing his conviction, he said.
Miyazaki also criticized the Utsunomiya High Court and the Supreme Court for not wanting to reopen the case immediately despite new DNA results submitted by Sugaya's defense team.
Satoru Shinomiya, a lawyer and professor at Kokugakuin University law school, said the courts failed to listen to Sugaya's attorneys, who argued that the accuracy of the early DNA tests were problematic because the sample was collected long after the crime and was not properly stored.
"If the lay judges had been there, at least they would have listened to the argument carefully," Shinomiya said.
Speaking to foreign reporters regarding the May 21 debut of the lay judge system, former Supreme Court Justice Kunio Hamada said public participation will have a positive impact on how professional judges operate.
"Career criminal trial judges are so accustomed to their methods and precedents, but now they have to deal with lay judges. They will have to go back to principles like the presumption of innocence," said Hamada, who served on the top court for five years from 2001. "So from this point on, the conduct of criminal trial judges will improve."
Under the saibanin system, six randomly chosen voters will sit on the bench with three professional judges to try serious crimes, including weighing the evidence, reaching a verdict and deciding a sentence.
Lay judges are bound by confidentiality and banned from disclosing details of their deliberations, but Miyazaki said there needs to be a system to allow them to speak so they can check whether their actions were fair and impartial.
Asked about the risk of prospective lay judges being influenced by media reports that often portray suspects as already guilty, Miyazaki said he believes professional judges are already prejudiced in this regard.
The Tokyo District Court is expected to hold its first trial involving lay judges in early August.
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Tokyo bolsters sanctions on Pyongyang
（日本 北朝鮮に制裁措置を強化）
By JUN HONGO
Staff writer
The Cabinet approved new sanctions Tuesday against North Korea that reinforce previous restrictions on financial and people exchanges with the hermit state.
The measures, which follow the adoption of a U.N. Security Council resolution last week, prohibit all Japanese exports to North Korea and restrict foreign nationals held liable for breaching the sanctions from entering Japan.
The measures, valid until April, are in concert with U.N. Resolution 1874, Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone said.
Japan initially imposed sanctions against Pyongyang in 2006 after it fired a missile and conducted its first nuclear test. They included bans on port calls by North Korean-registered vessels, all imports from North Korea and curbs on cash transfers to the country.
The government will continue to "work firmly and urge North Korea to take specific actions that will resolve ongoing issues," Nakasone said.
In addition to hardening its stance against Pyongyang, the government is looking to submit a bill to allow the Self-Defense Forces or the Japan Coast Guard to inspect North Korean ships at sea in line with the UNSC resolution to prevent weapons shipments.
Under the current law, the SDF and coast guard can only inspect cargo ships in international waters under circumstances that pose a national threat, and only after the suspect boat agrees to allow Japanese to board. New legislation is expected to allow greater flexibility and enhance the rules of engagement.
"We must prepare swiftly since the U.N. resolution has already been agreed on," Nakasone said of the new bill.
Japan's sanctions have been extended and expanded since 2006, most recently in April when the North launched a Taepodong-2 long-distance ballistic missile over the Tohoku region. That sanction was centered on a tighter monitoring of financial transactions to the North, including a requirement that people carrying ¥300,000 or more to North Korea file prior notification, instead of ¥1 million.
But Tuesday's additional ban on exports could be the final measure because the government is running out of effective options, said Shunji Hiraiwa, a professor at the University of Shizuoka.
"Without any cards left in its hands, Japan's only choice will be to push for a stronger resolution from the U.N. if the North conducts another nuclear test," the expert on North Korean issues told The Japan Times.
Many analysts said Tuesday's sanctions will have a limited impact and a Foreign Ministry official acknowledged that effective sanctions must be a joint effort.
"Obviously, not imposing further sanctions against North Korea is not an option for us," but almost 80 percent of North Korea's trade is with China, the ministry official said earlier this month.
"There are things that China can do," he said. "Sanctions against the North should be carried out globally."
On the North's response to continued global condemnation, Hiraiwa said Pyongyang could still return to dialogue instead of carrying out a nuclear test.
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
7,300 schools highly vulnerable to quakes
（7,300の校舎 地震で倒壊の危険性）
(Kyodo News) More than 7,300 school buildings are at high risk of collapse in the event of a powerful earthquake, the education ministry said Tuesday.
A survey by the ministry on the nation's 124,976 public schools also found that the quake resistance of 41,206 buildings is insufficient.
The ministry said 7,309 could crumble if hit by a quake measuring upper 6 on the Japanese seismic scale of 7.
The number of school buildings at risk of collapse declined by 3,347 from a year earlier, while the ratio with adequate quake resistance rose 4.7 percentage points to 67.0 percent, the ministry said.
The government has provided more subsidies to local authorities to work on schools since a major quake leveled a huge number of school buildings in Sichuan Province, China, last June.
The ministry plans to provide subsidies to make 16,000 school buildings quake-resistant in the current fiscal year. The ministry also expects to eliminate school structures at risk of collapse by March 2011 and raise the quake resistance ratio to around 78 percent.
Of the 83,770 buildings proven to be fully quake resistant, 50,180 were built under newer quake-resistance standards adopted in 1982, the survey found.
By prefecture, Osaka had the most high-risk school buildings at 527, followed by Hokkaido with 438 and Hyogo with 351. Okinawa had the least at 15.
Kanagawa had the highest percentage of safe buildings at 93.4 percent, followed by Miyagi and Shizuoka at 90.1 percent. Nagasaki was the lowest at 46.6 percent.
Municipal governments are required by law to disclose the results of quake-resistance inspection of the schools in their jurisdiction, but 320 of the 1,880 municipalities, or 17 percent, did not do so, the ministry said.
"It appears that those municipalities failed to disclose the results because they want to avoid causing a panic. School facilities can be evacuation destinations," an official said, adding the ministry will start pushing the municipalities to disclose the results.
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Legal pros expecting a lot from lay judges
（法律の専門家 裁判員制度に期待）
By SETSUKO KAMIYA
Staff writer
Videotaping interrogations of criminal suspects could have prevented a man recently effectively exonerated by a DNA test from being convicted of murder, but the result of his trial might not have been any different if lay judges had been on the bench, legal professionals said Tuesday.
Toshikazu Sugaya spent 17 years in prison after being convicted of kidnapping and murdering a 4-year-old girl in Ashikaga, Tochigi Prefecture, in 1990 but was freed this month after recent tests indicated his DNA did not match traces found on the victim's clothing. Initial tests had led to his getting a life sentence.
But having lay judges, or "saibanin," participate in the criminal trial to weigh the evidence and reach a verdict should lead to fewer miscarriages of justice, because the fresh eyes of the public will be involved in the trial process and they will try to do the right thing, the lawyers said.
"I can't say firmly that lay judges could have prevented Sugaya's conviction, because forensic evidence and a confession were submitted, and there is no proof the lay judges would not have been swayed into believing them," Makoto Miyazaki, president of the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, said at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo.
Taping the entire interrogation process would have been the primary means of preventing his conviction, he said.
Miyazaki also criticized the Utsunomiya High Court and the Supreme Court for not wanting to reopen the case immediately despite new DNA results submitted by Sugaya's defense team.
Satoru Shinomiya, a lawyer and professor at Kokugakuin University law school, said the courts failed to listen to Sugaya's attorneys, who argued that the accuracy of the early DNA tests were problematic because the sample was collected long after the crime and was not properly stored.
"If the lay judges had been there, at least they would have listened to the argument carefully," Shinomiya said.
Speaking to foreign reporters regarding the May 21 debut of the lay judge system, former Supreme Court Justice Kunio Hamada said public participation will have a positive impact on how professional judges operate.
"Career criminal trial judges are so accustomed to their methods and precedents, but now they have to deal with lay judges. They will have to go back to principles like the presumption of innocence," said Hamada, who served on the top court for five years from 2001. "So from this point on, the conduct of criminal trial judges will improve."
Under the saibanin system, six randomly chosen voters will sit on the bench with three professional judges to try serious crimes, including weighing the evidence, reaching a verdict and deciding a sentence.
Lay judges are bound by confidentiality and banned from disclosing details of their deliberations, but Miyazaki said there needs to be a system to allow them to speak so they can check whether their actions were fair and impartial.
Asked about the risk of prospective lay judges being influenced by media reports that often portray suspects as already guilty, Miyazaki said he believes professional judges are already prejudiced in this regard.
The Tokyo District Court is expected to hold its first trial involving lay judges in early August.
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