Latest News from Yomiuri Shimbun
Yomiuri Shimbun
2 hours ago
- Business
- Yomiuri Shimbun
House of Representatives Passes Pension Reform Bill; More Part-Time Workers to Be Eligible for Employee Program
Yomiuri Shimbun file photo The Diet Building The House of Representatives passed Friday a pension reform-related bill along with a draft amendment to it that includes a supplementary provision about bolstering the basic pension program. They will be passed onto the House of Councillors. At the lower house's Health, Labor and Welfare Committee meeting held earlier the same day, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba emphasized the significance of the bill's inclusion of measures to expand the scope of eligibility for the employees' pension program for part-time and short-term workers. 'We must establish a system that enables anyone to work in a manner that suits their needs and that provides stability to elderly people's lives,' Ishiba said. He also said that bolstering the basic pension program, also known as the national pension program, would 'ensure the level of basic pension benefits for future generations.' The pension reform-related bill focuses on expanding the number of workers covered by the employees' pension program by eliminating the so-called ¥1.06 million barrier — the annual income threshold at which workers are required to join the employees' pension program — as well as revising the minimum number of employees for a company to be required to enroll its employees in the program. Under the draft amendment, a supplementary provision is stipulated in the bill whereby the basic pension benefit level will be raised by utilizing part of the reserve funds of the employees' pension program, should an upcoming 2029 financial review indicate that it will decline.
Yomiuri Shimbun
3 hours ago
- Politics
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Yomiuri's Oikawa Appointed Japan National Press Club Chairman; Term Lasts Until May 2027
The Yomiuri Shimbun Shoichi Oikawa Shoichi Oikawa, chairman of the board and representative director of The Yomiuri Shimbun Holdings, was appointed as chairman of the Japan National Press Club on Thursday. Oikawa, who also serves as senior deputy editor-in-chief of the Yomiuri group and is in charge of international operations, as well as editor-in-chief of The Japan News, was selected at a general meeting and board meeting held on the day. Oikawa, 83, succeeds Hirotomo Maeda, executive editor at The Mainichi Newspapers Co. Oikawa's term will continue into May 2027. Tsukasa Arita, managing editor at Kyodo News, was elected to be the club's deputy chairman, and NHK Senior Director Seiki Hara was reelected as deputy chairman. Shingo Egi was reappointed as the club's managing director. The press club was established in 1969 and is a nonprofit organization whose members include journalists, newspapers, news agencies and broadcasters. The club arranges events such as press conferences by foreign guest speakers and party leader debates when national elections are held.
Yomiuri Shimbun
3 hours ago
- General
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Chinese Survey Ship Requests Rescue; JCG Rescues Chinese Crew
Courtesy of Japan Coast Guard's 11th regional headquarters A Japan Coast Guard patrol ship receives an injured crew member from a Chinese boat on Thursday. A Chinese survey ship requested rescue, saying that a crew member was injured when navigating off the coast of Miyako Island, Okinawa Prefecture, and a Japanese Coast Guard patrol vessel was dispatched. The JCG rescued the crew member on Thursday. According to the JCG, the Chinese vessel requested rescue on Wednesday, saying that one crew member had been seriously injured while sailing 526 kilometers southeast of Miyako Island. The crew member was hurt while working and had to have his right thumb amputated. The dispatched JCG vessel rescued the 43-year-old Chinese man 66 kilometers south of Okinawa Island on Thursday afternoon. They gave him to the Naha City Fire Department's ambulance team at Naha Port. His life is said to be in good condition. In December 2019, the same research vessel conducted marine surveys within Japan's exclusive economic zone around Okinotorishima Island — the southernmost point of Japan — without the consent of the Japanese government. This led the JCG to request that it stop.
Yomiuri Shimbun
4 hours ago
- Science
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Pterosaur Fossil Found in Japan Identified as New Species
Courtesy of Mifune Dinosaur Museum / Jiji Press A fossilized cervical vertebra of Nipponopterus mifunensis KUMAMOTO (Jiji Press) — A fossilized cervical vertebra discovered back in 1996 in southwestern Japan has been found to have been a new genus and species of pterosaur, a prehistoric flying reptile. A research team made up of members from Mifune Dinosaur Museum, which has the fossil on display, and others named the new species of the extinct flying vertebrates 'Nipponopterus mifunensis,' or 'Japan's wings from Mifune' in Latin. This is the first time that a pterosaur has been named based on a fossil found in Japan. The fossil was discovered from a geologic formation dating back 100.5 million to 66 million years during the Late Cretaceous period in the town of Mifune in Kumamoto Prefecture by the town's education board. Past research had confirmed that the fossil was of a specimen of the Azhdarchidae family, a group of long-necked pterosaurs. Due to the scarcity of available fossils that could be used as reference at the time, the exact genus and species were left unidentified. In the latest research, the team concluded that the fossil was of a new pterosaur genus and species due to several distinct features, through analysis of computed tomography scans and comparisons with about 200 species of pterosaurs. The team's finding was published in international journal Cretaceous Research in March this year. 'This is an important research result showing that pterosaurs were flying in the skies near Japan,' Naoki Ikegami, 57, a curator at the museum, said. 'The finding has opened the door to pterosaur research in Japan,' he added.
Yomiuri Shimbun
4 hours ago
- Science
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Study Doubts Water Flows Caused Streaks on Martian Slopes
NASA / Handout via Reuters Dark finger-like slope streaks extending across the dusty Martian surface in a region called Arabia Terra are seen in this NASA satellite photo released on May 19. WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Images taken of Mars from orbit dating back as far as the 1970s have captured curious dark streaks running down the sides of cliffs and crater walls that some scientists have construed as possible evidence of flows of liquid water, suggesting that the planet harbors environments suitable for living organisms. A new study casts doubt on that interpretation. Examining about 500,000 of these sinewy features spotted in satellite images, the researchers concluded they were created probably through dry processes that left the superficial appearance of liquid flows, underscoring the view of Mars as a desert planet currently inhospitable to life — at least on its surface. The data indicated that formation of these streaks is driven by the accumulation of fine-grain dust from the Martian atmosphere on sloped terrain that is then knocked down the slopes by triggers such as wind gusts, meteorite impacts and marsquakes. 'The tiny dust particles can create flow-like patterns without liquid. This phenomenon occurs because extremely fine dust can behave similarly to a liquid when disturbed — flowing, branching and creating finger-like patterns as it moves downslope,' said Adomas Valantinas, a postdoctoral researcher in planetary sciences at Brown University and coleader of the study published on May 19 in the journal Nature Communications. 'It's similar to how dry sand can flow like water when poured. But on Mars, the ultra-fine particles and low gravity enhance these fluid-like properties, creating features that might be mistaken for water flows when they're actually just dry material in motion,' Valantinas added. The study examined about 87,000 satellite images — including those obtained between 2006 and 2020 by a camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter — of slope streaks, which form suddenly and fade over a period of years. They average roughly 600-775 meters long, sometimes branching out and going around obstacles. The slope streaks were concentrated mostly in the northern hemisphere, particularly in three major clusters: at the plains of Elysium Planitia, the highlands of Arabia Terra and the vast Tharsis volcanic plateau including the Olympus Mons volcano, towering about three times higher than Mount Everest. The researchers said limitations in the resolution of the satellite images mean they account for only a fraction of slope streaks. They estimated the actual number at up to two million. Water is considered an essential ingredient for life. Mars billions of years ago was wetter and warmer than it is today. The question remains whether Mars has any liquid water on its surface when temperatures seasonally can edge above the freezing point. It remains possible that small amounts of water — perhaps sourced from buried ice, subsurface aquifers or abnormally humid air — could mix with enough salt in the ground to create a flow even on the frigid Martian surface. That raises the possibility that the slope streaks, if caused by wet conditions, could be habitable niches. 'Generally, it is very difficult for liquid water to exist on the Martian surface, due to the low temperature and the low atmospheric pressure. But brines — very salty water — might potentially be able to exist for short periods of time,' said planetary geomorphologist and study coleader Valentin Bickel of the University of Bern in Switzerland. Given the massive volume of images, the researchers employed an advanced machine-learning method, looking for correlations involving temperature patterns, atmospheric dust deposition, meteorite impacts, the nature of the terrain and other factors. The geostatistical analysis found that slope streaks often appear in the dustiest regions and correlate with wind patterns, while some form near the sites of fresh impacts and quakes. The researchers also studied shorter-lived features called recurring slope lineae, or RSL, seen primarily in the Martian southern highlands. These grow in the summer and fade the following winter. The data suggested that these also were associated with dry processes such as dust devils — whirlwinds of dust — and rockfalls. The analysis found that both types of features were not typically associated with factors indicative of a liquid or frost origin such as high surface temperature fluctuations, high humidity or specific slope orientations. 'It all comes back to habitability and the search for life,' Bickel said. 'If slope streaks and RSL would really be driven by liquid water or brines, they could create a niche for life. However, if they are not tied to wet processes, this allows us to focus our attention on other, more promising locations.'
