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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-pensions-reform/italy-readies-pension-reform-may-end-early-retirement-scheme-ahead-of-schedule-idINKBN1ZM1WN?edition-redirect=in
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Italy readies pension reform, may end early retirement scheme ahead of schedule
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Italy readies pension reform, may end early retirement scheme ahead of schedule
By Giuseppe Fonte, Gavin Jones4 Min Read
ROME (Reuters) - Italy is preparing to reform its pension system again to make it more flexible for those who want to leave work early, officials say, and the changes may include ending ahead of time a costly but underused 2018 plan that lowered the minimum retirement age.
FILE PHOTO: Elderly people play cards in Rome, Italy October 8, 2018. REUTERS/Tony Gentile/File Photo
With a steadily growing army of retirees, pensions in Italy are a national obsession and one of the most frequently debated topics on television talk shows.
Under the 2018 “quota 100” plan, people can draw a pension if they have paid in 38 years of contributions as long as they are 62 years old - the sum of the two figures giving the “100” of the plan’s name.
The plan was budgeted to cost almost 20 billion euros ($22.2 billion) over three years until 2021, when it is due to expire. But some in the government are pushing to drop it at the end of this year to save money.
With one of the world’s oldest populations, Italy spends more than 16% of national output on pensions, more than any other developed country except Greece, data from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development shows.
This makes it harder for Rome to reduce its debt, which is the second highest in the European Union and drains resources from other areas. For example, Italy is near the bottom of the OECD’s 35-nation league table for education spending.
“Instead of waiting for the natural end of quota 100 at the end of 2021, it would be better to have a replacement solution ready to come into force next January,” Treasury undersecretary Pier Paolo Baretta of the ruling Democratic Party told Reuters.
As things stand, when quota 100 expires, retirement rules are set to automatically revert to those imposed in a highly unpopular 2011 reform that raised the retirement age to 67.
The government wants to avoid this by introducing a new system that is less generous than quota 100 but less severe than the 2011 regime, imposed by former premier Mario Monti at the height of the euro zone debt crisis.
Slideshow ( 3 images )
One option being considered is to let people retire at 64 but on a reduced pension compared with what they would get if they stayed at work a few years longer, said a government source who asked not to be named.
“Pension reform is one of our top priorities,” said Labour Minister Nunzia Catalfo of the co-ruling 5-Star Movement.
“We will try to find a way to help workers retire earlier, especially those with physically tough jobs,” she told Reuters.
TRYING AGAIN
The new reform will be the sixth significant overhaul in recent decades. Three of the previous ones raised the retirement age, while two of them, including quota 100, reduced it.
Ending quota 100 a year early would yield significant savings, but the new system will be more expensive than going back to the 2011 reform.
The quota 100 option has proved less popular than expected, which has helped public finances. Pasquale Tridico, head of the state pensions agency INPS, told Reuters he estimated savings of 2.6 billion euros in 2020 and at least 2 billion in 2021.
Most of this money has already been earmarked for other spending measures in the budget passed by parliament last month, a Treasury official said.
Successive governments have tinkered with the system ever since the mid-1990s, when a hugely generous pension regime still allowed millions of people to retire in their 40s and 50s under what were known as “baby pensions.”
Those are a thing of the past, but Italian pensioners have still fared better than workers during two decades of economic stagnation. Average pensions grew twice as much as wages between 2000 and 2015, data from national statistics bureau ISTAT shows.
Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte and Gavin Jones; Editing by Hugh LawsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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f91c05106a73fbe5b3c0a90b232bb34e
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-politics-5star/hacking-attacks-a-pre-election-setback-for-italys-5-star-movement-idUSKBN1CA1TM
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Hacking attacks: a pre-election setback for Italy's 5-Star Movement
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Hacking attacks: a pre-election setback for Italy's 5-Star Movement
By Gavin Jones, Antonella Cinelli5 Min Read
ROME (Reuters) - Hacking attacks on the web platform used by Italy’s 5-Star Movement to select representatives and shape policy threaten to dent confidence in its methods before a parliamentary election it is well placed to win.
FILE PHOTO: Leader of Five Star Movement, comedian Beppe Grillo, addresses supporters during an election campaign for the European Parliament, in Rome May 23, 2014. REUTERS/Remo Casilli/File Photo
Internet-based direct democracy, in which members vote online, is a hallmark of the anti-establishment group that first entered parliament in 2013 and leads many opinion polls before the election, due to be held by May.
Gianroberto Casaleggio, the late internet guru who co-founded 5-Star in 2009, believed the web would eventually supplant representative democracy, the system under which all eligible citizens vote on representatives to pass laws for them.
But in August anonymous hackers broke into 5-Star’s web platform, called “Rousseau” after the 18th century Swiss-born philosopher, and obtained secret data on its members and donors.
It is unclear whether there will be any impact on 5-Star’s election performance. But if it cannot secure its web platforms, it will be hard to continue using the online methods that set it apart from other political groups.
Public worries over theft of personal data could also make it difficult for 5-Star to attract new members. It already has only a modest membership although it has won millions of votes at the polls with promises to clean up politics and offer universal income support for the poor.
“The hacking problem is very serious for 5-Star because it undermines the credibility of their direct democracy message,” sociology professor Luca Ricolfi told Reuters.
“It will probably be overshadowed by bigger issues ahead of the election, but it hurts their image and is something they will absolutely have to resolve.”
Casaleggio Associati, a web consultancy company that runs 5-Star’s platforms and is headed by Gianroberto’s son Davide, said security would be improved before the online election of the movement’s new leader last month.
Despite this, the election was dogged by hacking attacks which hampered voting and contributed to only 37,000 of 5-Star’s 140,000 members casting an online ballot.
The voting deadline had to be extended twice as members were unable to log on or connect to necessary web pages.
One hacker published screenshots showing the system had been infiltrated again and that it had been possible to vote several times using the accounts of certified 5-Star members.
SECURITY “TOTALLY INADEQUATE”
“Rousseau’s content systems are outdated and its level of security is totally inadequate,” said David Puente, a computer expert and web developer who worked for Casaleggio Associati for four-and-a-half years until 2011.
Umberto Rapetto, a cyber security expert who used to head the computer crime division of Italy’s finance police, called Rousseau “a rudimentary platform with a host of weak points”.
Davide Casaleggio declined to answer questions for this article.
Puente, a 5-Star member, said it would now be hard to update Rousseau without sacrificing many functions that have been added recently, meaning the only solution was to “dismantle everything and start all over again.”
That would not be easy even if Casaleggio agreed. Hackers around the world have regularly penetrated the computer systems of public agencies and multinational companies with millions of euros to spend on cyber security.
Casaleggio Associati has fewer than 20 employees, posted revenues of less than a million euros in 2016 and has run a loss for the last three years.
5-Star’s new leader, 31-year-old Luigi Di Maio, says Rousseau’s problems are understandable as it is a “startup” launched only last year. He says web-based democracy can work not only in 5-Star but in all branches of Italian politics.
Yet many computer experts are skeptical about both Rousseau and internet democracy in general. One common criticism is a lack of transparency, as in only two of 5-Star’s dozens of online votes has Casaleggio named an independent company to verify the regularity of the process.
Critics also say there can be no guarantee that voters are anonymous to platform managers, or that the voter casts only one ballot or is not watched or coerced while he votes.
“Creating a structure that offers the same guarantees as paper ballots would be incredibly difficult,” said cyber security strategist Corrado Giustozzi, a member of the European Union Agency for Network and Information Security.
Editing by Timothy HeritageOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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655f60fc525254100c41a30af9782209
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-politics-breakingviews/breakingviews-the-exchange-italys-almost-premier-idUSKBN1JB0A7
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Breakingviews - The Exchange: Italy's almost premier
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Breakingviews - The Exchange: Italy's almost premier
By Rob Cox, Reuters Breakingviews1 Min Read
Former senior International Monetary Fund (IMF) official Carlo Cottarelli speaks to the media after a meeting with Italy's President Sergio Mattarella at the Quirinal Palace in Rome, Italy, May 28, 2018. REUTERS/Tony Gentile
NEW YORK (Reuters Breakingviews) - Carlo Cottarelli talks about how he nearly led a caretaker government after President Sergio Mattarella last month rejected a euroskeptic finance minister put forward by the parties that won March elections. The former IMF economist has some advice for Italy’s new bosses.
If primary link is not displayed, listen to the podcast here.
BreakingviewsReuters Breakingviews is the world's leading source of agenda-setting financial insight. As the Reuters brand for financial commentary, we dissect the big business and economic stories as they break around the world every day. A global team of about 30 correspondents in New York, London, Hong Kong and other major cities provides expert analysis in real time.Sign up for a free trial of our full service at https://www.breakingviews.com/trial and follow us on Twitter @Breakingviews and at www.breakingviews.com. All opinions expressed are those of the authors.
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95e0dc35dd47964d9d09c69e89a74a36
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-politics-committees-idUSKBN1JH111
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Eurosceptics to head Italian parliamentary finance committees
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Eurosceptics to head Italian parliamentary finance committees
By Gavin Jones, Giuseppe Fonte4 Min Read
ROME (Reuters) - Two leading eurosceptics from Italy’s far-right League, Claudio Borghi and Alberto Bagnai, were picked on Thursday to head important parliamentary committees, as the League and the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement put together their coalition government.
Borghi will become president of the Budget Committee in the lower house of parliament and Bagnai president of the Finance Committee in the Senate.
Both have repeatedly railed against EU budget restraints, and Borghi has called for the issuance of short-term government bonds, known as mini-Bots, to pay companies and individuals owed money by the state.
“The goal to balance the budget has destroyed our economy,” Bagnai said earlier this year. He said monetary union was “destined to fail,” but added that leaving the currency bloc was not among the League’s top priorities.
Borghi and Bagnai have wide and enthusiastic support on social media among Italian eurosceptics, where they regularly spar with more mainstream, pro-euro economists.
“Me as president of the Chamber budget committee and Bagnai president of the Senate finance committee, I’d say today is an important day,” Borghi tweeted after the appointments were announced.
The presidents of parliamentary committees have much less power than ministers. But they can guarantee a fast track for government legislation and slow down opposition amendments. Borghi’s and Bagnai’s main role will be to ensure that government legislation passes smoothly through parliament.
They have both repeatedly said the single currency project was a mistake and is destined to collapse.
Bagnai, an economics professor at Chieti and Pescara University, wrote a book in 2012 called “The sunset of the euro,” which League leader Matteo Salvini has said helped form his own eurosceptic views.
The summary on the front cover of the book reads: “How and why the end of the single currency would save democracy and prosperity in Europe.”
Borghi, a former trader at Deutsche Bank, told Reuters last year his mini-Bot scheme, named after Italy’s short-term Treasury bills, could develop into a sort of parallel currency, which could protect the country if it should ever leave the euro.
The mini-Bots feature in the program of the League and the 5-Star Movement. Both parties have a history of euroscepticism, though 5-Star has moderated its position considerably over the last year.
Their joint program contains nothing that directly calls into question Italy’s membership of the single currency. Economy Minister Giovanni Tria, an academic with no party affiliation, recently stressed Italy’s commitment to the euro and to reducing its public debt, the world’s third largest.
However, markets remain nervous, and the news of the appointments of Borghi and Bagnai prompted a sell-off of Italian bonds, stocks and the euro.
Bagnai tweeted scathingly that as it was widely expected he and Borghi would get the jobs, the market reaction demonstrated “they are unable to get obvious information or to internalize it in prices.”
The presidency of the lower house finance committee went to 5-Star deputy Carla Ruocco, while 5-Star’s Daniele Pesco was named head of the Senate budget committee.
Additional reporting by Giuseppe Fonte, editing by Matthew Mpoke BiggOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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f5516172f4cd214ca461fe8fca598b13
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-politics-dimaio/italy-coalition-deal-would-collapse-if-no-agreement-on-statute-of-limitations-di-maio-idUSKCN1ND0QV?il=0
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Italy coalition deal would collapse if no agreement on statute of limitations: Di Maio
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Italy coalition deal would collapse if no agreement on statute of limitations: Di Maio
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
FILE PHOTO: Italian Deputy PM Luigi Di Maio speaks at the 5-Star Movement party's open-air rally at Circo Massimo in Rome, Italy, October 21, 2018. REUTERS/Max Rossi/File Photo
ROME (Reuters) - The Italian government coalition deal between the League party and the 5-Star Movement would collapse if no agreement is reached over statute of limitations measures, Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio was quoted as saying on Thursday.
“We need to find (an agreement), otherwise the government contract would collapse,” Di Maio, who is also leader of the 5-Star, said in an interview with Il Fatto Quotidiano paper, in the latest sign of escalating tensions between the two ruling parties.
He also confirmed that on Thursday he would meet with Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, deputy prime minister and League leader Matteo Salvini, and Justice Minister Alfonso Bonafede.
The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement wants to loosen time limits imposed on the prosecution of numerous crimes, including corruption.
The League says easing the statute of limitations means defendants could face unacceptably long legal battles. Five-Star says that as things stand too many cases are rubbed out without a verdict ever being reached.
Other policy differences are also straining the coalition.
On Wednesday, in order to tackle dissent within the 5-Star, the government called a confidence vote in the upper house Senate on a contested security decree championed by Salvini.
Reporting by Giselda Vagnoni; editing by Philip PullellaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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66383bbc0175669eb37a4b237868a4d9
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-politics-election-idUSKBN1910ZY?il=0
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Italy's anti-establishment 5-Star suffer local election beating
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Italy's anti-establishment 5-Star suffer local election beating
By Steve Scherer4 Min Read
ROME (Reuters) - Italy’s anti-establishment 5-Star Movement suffered a resounding defeat in local elections, results released on Monday showed, losing ground to traditional parties less than a year before a national vote is due.
FILE PHOTO - Mayor of Palermo Leoluca Orlando gestures as he speaks during an interview with Reuters in Palermo, Italy May 30, 2017. Picture taken May 30, 2017. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane
Five-Star candidates failed to qualify for run-off ballots in the 25 largest cities up for grabs on Sunday, including the northern port city of Genoa, home to the movement’s founder, comedian Beppe Grillo.
By contrast, center-right parties including former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia performed strongly, suggesting they could be a contender at the general election if they can unite around a single leader.
National elections must be held by the first half of next year and could come as early as this autumn, meaning Sunday’s vote in 1,000 towns and cities was an important test of political strength.
Newspaper headlines and pundits pounced on the results, saying the 5-Star might have peaked, but Grillo shot back on Monday, confidently predicting his group would bounce back.
“Everyone is gloating, putting forward rarefied analysis on the death of the 5-Star and the return of a bipolar (political) system,” Grillo wrote on his blog.
“Convince yourself this is true so you can sleep more soundly. We will continue forward on our path.”
Related CoverageItaly's 5-Star Movement seen failing in local vote: exit polls
5-Star bases much of its appeal on fighting corruption, its flagship policy is a “citizens wage” to help Italy’s army of unemployed, and it promises a referendum on membership of the euro currency blamed by many for years of economic underperformance.
The party had hoped to build on last year’s election successes, when it took control of 19 large towns and cities, including Rome. But its rule in the capital has been mired in controversy, and its grassroots operations elsewhere have been snarled by internal feuding.
Despite its local difficulties, the most recent opinion polls taken ahead of Sunday’s vote say the 5-Star would win more than 30 percent in a national race, just ahead of the ruling Democratic Party (PD) led by former prime minister Matteo Renzi.
Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia and the far-right Northern League - long-time allies but with increasingly diverging political agendas - trail with less than 15 percent each.
The center-right fared strongly on Sunday where Forza Italia and the League put aside their divisions and ran together, taking the lead in 13 of the 24 main municipal races. A run-off ballot between the two leading candidates is due on June 25.
“We hope that Renzi faces the consequences of this latest no-confidence vote in the government,” said Matteo Salvini, leader of the League.
Berlusconi said the vote proved that “the center-right can win when it is united,” while pointing out that his own party got more votes than the League.
He also warned against writing off 5-Star, saying it remained “a formidable force which it would be short-sighted to under-estimate.”
The only outright winner in a major city on Sunday was Leoluca Orlando, who led the center-left to victory in the Sicilian capital Palermo, securing his fifth mandate.
An anti-mafia firebrand, Orlando has governed the city for 16 of the past 32 years.
Most of the 5-Star candidates would have been new to government. Last year the 5-Star cast its victory in Rome, the nation’s capital, as proof it was ready to govern.
But Mayor Virginia Raggi has been dogged by legal scandals since taking office, and she has appeared slow to revive a city hobbled by years of corruption and economic decline.
Until last week, Italy’s main parties had been trying to pass a new proportional electoral law together, but the deal unraveled.
Last week, markets appeared wary of more political instability in Italy, which has the euro zone’s highest public debt after Greece and has been underperforming, fearing an autumn election could interfere with the presentation of a belt-tightening 2018 budget.
Additional reporting by Crispian Balmer and Gavin Jones; Graphic by Jeremy Gaunt; Editing by Toby ChopraOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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b49395556b30bc90f95a795763982f1c
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-politics-eu/italian-pm-conte-says-italy-wants-a-key-role-in-eu-reform-process-idUSKCN1VU12T
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Italian PM Conte says Italy wants a key role in EU reform process
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Italian PM Conte says Italy wants a key role in EU reform process
By Reuters Staff1 Min Read
ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said on Monday his new government would play a key role in reforming the European Union, including supporting the completion of a banking union and revising budget rules.
In a speech to the lower house of parliament ahead of a confidence vote, Conte promised improved ties with Europe following months of conflict under his previous government.
Once fierce foes, the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and center-left Democratic Party (PD) have agreed to join forces under the leadership of Conte and after the far-right League last month walked out of its coalition with 5-Star in a failed effort to trigger early elections.
Reporting by Angelo Amante and Giuseppe Fonte; Editing by Crispian BalmerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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e39496d6456a0ddcab32b57c4403fd5b
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-politics-idUSKBN29I1YG
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Italy thrown into political crisis as Renzi sinks government
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Italy thrown into political crisis as Renzi sinks government
By Crispian Balmer, Gavin Jones, Angelo Amante4 Min Read
ROME (Reuters) - Italy’s former premier Matteo Renzi pulled his small party out of government on Wednesday, stripping the ruling coalition of its parliamentary majority and triggering political chaos even as the nation battles a resurgent COVID-19.
Slideshow ( 4 images )
Renzi lambasted Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s style of leadership, saying he was trying to hoard power, but he left open the possibility of rejoining the cabinet if his demands for a policy revamp and greater accountability were acted on.
“Being responsible is about facing up to problems, not hiding them,” said Renzi, who has been accused by critics of playing politics in an effort to revive the fortunes of his tiny Italia Viva party, which is floundering in the polls.
His coalition partners said his decision would hurt the country, which is mired in the worst recession since World War Two as a result of the coronavirus pandemic that has killed more than 80,000 Italians -- the second highest toll in Europe.
Conte made a last-ditch appeal to Renzi to stay within the four-party coalition, which took office in August 2019, saying he was convinced unity could be restored if there was goodwill from all sides. He made no immediate comment after his olive branch was rebuffed.
It was not immediately clear what he, or his remaining allies, the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, centre-left Democratic Party (PD) and leftist LEU party, would do.
One possible scenario would be for the coalition parties to try to renegotiate a new pact with Italia Viva, which would almost certainly open the way for a major cabinet reshuffle, with or without Conte at the helm.
Related CoverageItaly's opposition centre-right parties demand resignation of PM ConteItaly's Renzi says may be willing to support new Conte government
“Can a new Conte government be made? We do not have vetoes on anyone, nor prejudices, nor do we presume to tell the prime minister what to do,” Renzi said at the news conference where he announced his decision to pull out.
ELECTION CALL
If the coalition cannot agree on a way forward, President Sergio Mattarella would almost certainly try to put together a government of national unity to deal with the health emergency.
If that failed, the only option would be a national vote.
The opposition bloc, led by Matteo Salvini’s far-right League, issued a statement calling for Conte to resign and saying the best way to guarantee stable government would be elections, some two years ahead of schedule.
Salvini hooked up with 5-Star after inconclusive elections in 2018 and formed a government headed by Conte, who is a lawyer with no party affiliation. Salvini quit a year later, hoping to force early elections, but he was outwitted by Renzi who unexpectedly backed the creation of an alternative coalition.
However, Renzi had bad relations with Conte from the start and regularly attacked his decision-making.
His latest complaints focused on Conte’s plans for how to spend billions of euros promised by the European Union to relaunch the battered economy. On Tuesday, he raised other policy grievances and insisted Italy should apply for a loan from the euro zone’s bailout fund, known as the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), to help its health service.
The 5-Star Movement, the largest ruling party, is hostile to this idea, making it a non-starter for Conte.
Writing by Crispian Balmer, Editing by William Maclean and Andrew CawthorneOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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b5c643b10161e86c7f64f3b754c751db
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-politics-idUSKCN1Q60J4?utm_campaign=Brussel%20Inside&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue%20newsletter
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Italy's 5-Star calls online vote amid 'identity crisis'
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Italy's 5-Star calls online vote amid 'identity crisis'
By Steve Scherer3 Min Read
ROME (Reuters) - Italy’s ruling 5-Star Movement has called an online vote to decide whether or not to block a possible kidnapping trial against Matteo Salvini, their coalition ally and leader of the hard-right League party.
FILE PHOTO: Italian Deputy PM Luigi Di Maio speaks at the 5-Star Movement party's open-air rally at Circo Massimo in Rome, Italy, October 20, 2018. REUTERS/Max Rossi//File Photo
The vote will be held on Monday from 0900 GMT to 1800 GMT, 5-Star said on its blog on Sunday. The result will dictate how the movement’s senators will vote on Tuesday in a committee that could block the Sicilian probe.
Prosecutors in Catania, Sicily, want to continue an investigation for alleged abuse of power and kidnapping that began when Salvini ordered some 150 migrants be held onboard an Italian coast guard ship for five days in August.
Allowing the investigation and possible trial against Salvini to continue would put the government at risk of collapse, state news agency Ansa reported on Sunday, citing 5-Star sources.
Tensions in the coalition are already running high with the allies at odds over a long list of issues, including whether to forge ahead with a new Alpine rail tunnel between France and Italy.
Salvini has asked the Senate to reject the request for a trial, and that is a problem for 5-Star, which built its support on a squeaky clean judicial image and has always attacked lawmakers who used parliamentary privilege to avoid trials.
“Who has always preached that politicians must defend themselves in trials and not from trials ... can’t have doubts about whether to allow the Salvini probe to proceed,” wrote commentator Marco Travaglio in il Fatto Quotidiano newspaper, which is considered close to the 5-Star.
The online vote shows the issue has become “a classical case of identity crisis” for the movement, Travaglio said.
At the end of last month, 83 percent of 5-Star voters said Salvini should not be tried, according to an SWG poll, which suggests the issue of parliamentary privilege is no longer of major concern to 5-Star supporters.
The blog post announcing the online vote clearly states that the decision to block the migrants on board the Diciotti coast guard vessel was not Salvini’s alone, but was shared by 5-Star leader Luigi Di Maio and others.
“The delay in the disembarkation of the Diciotti, in order to redistribute the migrants in various European countries, was made in order to protect the interests of the state?” the query reads.
A “yes” will deny prosecutors authorization, while a “no” vote will allow them to continue, the blog says.
Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, Di Maio and the 5-Star transport minister may be put under investigation alongside Salvini, Italian newspapers said on Sunday, after Conte wrote a letter, which was then deposited in the Senate, saying the decision to block the migrants was taken collectively.
On Sunday, speaking to supporters in Sardinia, Salvini brushed off concern about the online ballot: “What I did, I did to defend the safety of citizens, and if necessary I’d do it again,” he said.
Reporting by Steve Scherer; editing by David EvansOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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97bc690d07c9fc07d4b4384145d1af96
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-politics-idUSKCN1VU0XQ
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Italy's prime minister hopes for EU harmony, economic revival
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Italy's prime minister hopes for EU harmony, economic revival
By Giuseppe Fonte, Crispian Balmer4 Min Read
ROME (Reuters) - Italy’s prime minister said on Monday his new coalition combining the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and the pro-Europe Democratic Party (PD) would usher in a wave of reforms and avoid the rows that stymied his old government.
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is congratulated by ministers after he presented his government's programme ahead of confidence vote at the Parliament in Rome, Italy, September 9, 2019 REUTERS/Remo Casilli
In a speech to parliament unveiling his policy priorities, Giuseppe Conte called for smoother relations with the European Union, saying he would work with Brussels to rewrite the bloc’s budget rules and its immigration laws.
The PD and 5-Star agreed to join forces under Conte’s leadership after the far-right League walked out of the previous, argumentative coalition with 5-Star in a failed effort to trigger early elections.
“We want to put behind us the din of useless declarations and belligerent, bombastic statements,” Conte, a law professor with no political affiliation, told an often rowdy lower house before winning a vote of confidence in his administration.
“The language of this government will be mild-mannered,” he added, in a swipe at the League’s outspoken leader, Matteo Salvini.
His 90-minute speech was regularly interrupted by chants of “Elections! Elections!” from League politicians, while outside the lower house, hundreds of far-right supporters staged a noisy demonstration to demand a snap poll.
“They can run away from the vote for a few months, but they can’t run away for ever, and when Italians get to vote we will win,” Salvini told the cheering crowd. Some of those present gave stiff-armed fascist salutes.
Related CoverageFactbox: Policy priorities of Italy's new coalition governmentItalian PM Conte says Italy wants a key role in EU reform process
Conte laid out a wide-ranging policy program, promising expansionary measures to boost the stagnant economy, pledging to head off a big VAT increase set to kick in on Jan. 1 and warning that tax cheats in future would face prison terms.
He also said his government, Italy’s 67th since World War Two, would forge ahead with legislation to cut the number of parliamentarians and introduce a new electoral law -- a fourth stab at rewriting voting rules since 2005.
MIGRANT ACCORD
The prime minister won the obligatory vote of confidence by 343 to 263 in the 630-seat lower house. He will face another such motion in the upper house Senate on Tuesday, where his coalition will have to govern with a much smaller majority.
“It is going to be difficult and complicated. A sense of responsibility has prevailed. Now we must roll up our sleeves and try to do the best for the country,” said Culture Minister Dario Francheschini, a senior PD representative.
Conte’s first government took office in June 2018, but soon got bogged down in rows over everything from infrastructure projects to immigration, and from EU relations to autonomy for Italy’s wealthy north.
Slideshow ( 3 images )
Salvini boosted his popularity with an uncompromising crackdown on boat migrants from north Africa, refusing to let charity rescue ships from docking in Italy.
Conte said he hoped to devise a new policy with Brussels of sharing migrant arrivals around the 28-nation bloc. He also promised a more constructive partnership in trying to revise EU banking norms and loosening budget restraints.
Looking to reset Italy’s rocky EU ties, Conte has entrusted the mainstream PD with the EU affairs ministry and the economy ministry and has also dispatched former PD prime minister Paolo Gentiloni to Brussels as an EU commissioner.
Freed from the shackles of any ties to the euroskeptic League, Conte will fly to Brussels on Wednesday for the first foreign visit of his new premiership. He mentioned the word “Europe” and “European” some 32 times in his 27-page speech.
“I remain firmly convinced ... that it is within the confines of the European Union and not outside, that we must work for the good of Italians,” he said.
Reporting by Angelo Amante, Giuseppe Fonte, Valentina Za and Silvia Aloisi; Writing by Crispian Balmer, Editing by Timothy HeritageOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-politics-migrants/italys-goverment-wins-confidence-vote-on-decree-targeting-migrant-rescue-ships-idUSKCN1UJ2E4?utm_source=ECRE+Newsletters&utm_campaign=4976958f65-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_07_25_12_16&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3ec9497afd-4976958f65-422304057
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Italy's government wins confidence vote on decree targeting migrant rescue ships
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Italy's government wins confidence vote on decree targeting migrant rescue ships
By Reuters Staff3 Min Read
ROME (Reuters) - The Italian government won a parliamentary confidence vote on Wednesday on a security and immigration decree, in a victory for Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, who heads the far-right League party.
FILE PHOTO: Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini of Italy addresses a news conference at Viminale Palace, Rome, July 15 2019. REUTERS/Remo Casilli
The government, which has been riven by internal strife in recent weeks, won the vote by 325 to 248. It would have had to stand down had it lost the motion.
The decree was drawn up by Salvini, who also serves as deputy prime minister in the government, and toughens the sanctions on charity ships that seek to bring migrants rescued in the Mediterranean to Italy.
The bill now moves to the upper house Senate for final approval which is expected to come before mid-August.
The decree hikes maximum fines for charity ships that enter Italian waters without authorization to 1 million euro ($1.12 million) from a previous 50,000 euros. It also sanctions the arrest of captains who ignore orders to stay away and calls on naval authorities to seize their boats automatically.
The new measures will replace a set of rules that were only introduced in June, but which were immediately challenged by a succession of charities, including the German vessel Sea-Watch, captained by Carola Rackete.
The Sea-Watch was seized when it entered the port of Lampedusa without permission in June. However, Salvini was furious when the charity managed to raise more than one million euros via Internet appeals in the days following the high-profile case.
He was further incensed when an Italian judge swiftly released Rackete from house arrest, ruling that she had not endangered life by defying a naval blockade to reach port.
By calling a confidence vote on the decree, the government forced legislation through the house, truncating debate and sweeping away opposition amendments.
Salvini’s popularity has soared on the back of his uncompromising, anti-migrant position, with an opinion poll in Corriere della Sera newspaper on Saturday putting the League at 35.9%, more than double its score at last year’s national vote.
His policies have led to a sharp decline in the arrivals of migrants, with only 3,431 crossing the Mediterranean so far in 2019, according to official data, down 81% on the same period in 2018 and down 96% on 2017 levels.
Reporting by Angelo Amante; editing by Crispian BalmerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-politics-napolitano-idUSBREA1F0JE20140216
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President summons center-left's Renzi as Italy seeks new government
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President summons center-left's Renzi as Italy seeks new government
By Steve Scherer6 Min Read
ROME (Reuters) - Italian President Giorgio Napolitano summoned Matteo Renzi to a meeting on Monday at which he is expected to ask the center-left leader to form a government that must overhaul one of the most troubled economies in the euro zone.
Napolitano is likely to ask the slick-talking mayor of Florence to form the country’s 65th government since World War Two in the meeting, which a statement from the president’s office said was scheduled for 10.30 a.m. (0930 GMT) in Rome.
Enrico Letta resigned as prime minister on Friday after his Democratic Party (PD) forced him to make way for Renzi, 39, who is promising radical reforms to the euro zone’s third-biggest economy and a government that can survive until 2018.
Renzi would become the youngest prime minister in Italian history.
But to take power he will need the support of a center-right rival, and if he gets it, he will become the third premier in a row picked by the president and not by popular vote.
This process is not widely welcomed in a country where a long-entrenched political elite, resistant to reform, has grown unpopular due to systemic corruption and mismanagement.
“Renzi committed an original sin, which is that he will become prime minister without an election,” said Giovanni Orsina, deputy head of Rome’s Luiss School of Government. “Now in order to make that original sin forgotten, he needs to govern very effectively.”
After getting a mandate from the president, Renzi will have to strike a deal with the small New Center Right (NCD) party, whose support the PD needs to command a parliamentary majority.
The party, which split from ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi last year, said it wants to see a written program that puts a clear center-right stamp on tax, jobs and family policies before backing Renzi.
Matteo Renzi, the PD secretary and current mayor of Florence, walks next to a car in the courtyard of his home at Pontassieve, near Florence, February 16, 2014. REUTERS/Stringer
On the economic front the two sides are likely to find common ground. Renzi has already said he backs lower taxes affecting employment, but they differ on social issues such as immigration and laws allowing gay and lesbian civil partnerships.
“We are decisive. If we say no to the government, it will not be born,” NCD leader Angelino Alfano said at a party rally on Sunday. Renzi may meet Alfano in Rome on Sunday evening to hammer out an agreement, some Italian media reported.
Backroom horse-trading for key posts in Renzi’s cabinet by the NCD and other small allies is in full swing, Italian media said on Sunday, and once completed, Renzi must swear in his team and seek confidence votes in both houses of parliament.
Then the government will take the helm of an economy that grew by a meager 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, the first sign of improving business activity seen since the country entered its worst post-war recession in mid-2011.
GIANT OIL TANKER
In an interview with SkyTG24 television on Sunday, caretaker Economy Minister Fabrizio Saccomanni reflected on the difficulties a new government will face.
Up until two weeks ago, Renzi had refused the idea of taking power without first winning an election. But his mood shifted when Italy’s main business lobby and its biggest labor union publicly abandoned Letta and called for more speed on reforms.
“In Italy there is growing impatience because everyone wants to see a rapid turnaround in growth and in job creation, especially for the young,” Saccomanni said.
“These are necessities that I fully agree with and that I fought for, but one must understand that Italy’s economy is like a giant oil tanker that cannot turn on a dime.”
Gross domestic product has shrunk by about 7 percent in the last five years and industrial output has fallen by 25 percent. Hundreds of thousands of companies have gone out of business and joblessness has risen to levels not seen since the 1970s.
Further complicating any government’s attempt to stimulate growth is the enormous public debt - at 2 trillion euros ($2.7 trillion) it is more than 130 percent of total annual economic output.
Renzi has pledged a “Jobs Act” with tax cuts for employers and a new contract scheme to promote hiring. He has said that European Union deficit rules should not trump the need to revive growth, but the previous two unelected prime ministers had little luck in making the major reforms they had promised.
When Mario Monti replaced Berlusconi during the 2011 euro zone debt crisis, he calmed markets with significant cuts to spending, above all on pensions.
But such austerity worsened the recession, and he failed to ease rigid rules on hiring and firing.
Letta took over a right-left government after last year’s deadlocked election and satisfied EU officials by keeping a tight rein on spending, but made no major economic reforms.
In what may turn out to be an omen, the PD was disputing a tight race for the regional governorship of the island of Sardinia on Sunday, with Berlusconi’s Forza Italia incumbent, Ugo Cappellacci, running head-to-head against the PD challenger Francesco Pigliaru, according to polls.
It is the first electoral test the PD has encountered since Renzi won a party primary in December, and he would no doubt like it to go better than the soccer match on Saturday between his favorite Florence side Fiorentina and Inter Milan.
Renzi attended the game, shaking hands and mixing with fans at the Florence stadium after working on his government team all day in the mayor’s office. Inter, which had not won an away game since November, defeated Fiorentina 2-1.
($1 = 0.7307 euros)
Additional reporting by Gillian Hazell; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Anthony BarkerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-politics-reaction/italys-opposition-centre-right-parties-demand-resignation-of-pm-conte-idUSKBN29I2T0?il=0
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Italy's opposition centre-right parties demand resignation of PM Conte
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Italy's opposition centre-right parties demand resignation of PM Conte
By Reuters Staff1 Min Read
FILE PHOTO: Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte arrives to the Prime Minister's Office, Chigi Palace, after meeting with President Sergio Mattarella, in Rome, Italy, January 13, 2021. REUTERS/Remo Casilli/File Photo
ROME (Reuters) - Italy’s opposition centre-right bloc called on Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte to resign on Wednesday after the small Italia Viva party pulled its ministers from the cabinet, pushing the ruling coalition towards collapse.
In a joint statement, the League, Brothers of Italy and Forza Italia, said that the best way to guarantee stable government at this point would be early elections.
Nicola Zingaretti, the head of the co-ruling coalition Democratic Party (PD) denounced Italia Viva’s move as a “serious mistake”, saying it ran counter to Italy’s best interests.
Reporting by Crispian Balmer, editing by Gavin JonesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-politics-renzi-idUSKBN29I2I9?taid=5fff70e85dad480001743987&utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter
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Italy's Renzi pulls his party from ruling coalition
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Italy's Renzi pulls his party from ruling coalition
By Reuters Staff1 Min Read
FILE PHOTO: Former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi speaks at a news conference regarding his proposal for a transitional Italian government in Rome, Italy, August 13, 2019. REUTERS/Alberto Lingria/File Photo
ROME (Reuters) - Italy’s former premier Matteo Renzi said on Wednesday he was pulling his party’s ministers from the cabinet, effectively leaving the ruling coalition without a majority in parliament.
His decision, announced at a news conference, throws Italy into political chaos even as the country is struggling to contain the resurgent COVID-19 pandemic.
Renzi, who heads the tiny Italia Viva party, had long threatened to quit the government, complaining about Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s plans over how to spend billions of euros promised by the European Union to relaunch the economy.
Reporting by Gavin Jones; Editing by Crispian BalmerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-politics-renzi-newsmaker/italys-renzi-completes-transformation-from-reformer-to-wrecker-idUSKBN29I2US
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Italy's Renzi completes transformation from reformer to wrecker
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Italy's Renzi completes transformation from reformer to wrecker
By Gavin Jones5 Min Read
ROME (Reuters) - Matteo Renzi, who as prime minister once enthused Italians and foreign observers with his promises of reform, is now among the country’s most unpopular figures, his name almost a byword for disloyalty and ruthless political manoeuvres.
Italia Viva's leader and former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi holds a news conference in Rome, Italy, January 13, 2021. Alberto Pizzoli/Pool via REUTERS
On Wednesday Renzi pulled his tiny centrist party Italia Viva from the coalition, unseating Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte’s government and throwing Italy into political chaos in the midst of a resurgent coronavirus emergency.
His reason for doing so is hard to pinpoint. His original complaint was over Conte’s plans for spending billions of euros promised by the European Union to relaunch the battered economy.
Italy’s draft “Recovery Plan” offered too little for the health service, culture, and infrastructure, Renzi said, and it was to be overseen by a group of unelected experts which he argued was an insult to parliament.
Renzi, 46, called it “a step forward” on Tuesday when Conte amended the plan to address many of his demands, but by then he had plenty of new ones.
“It seemed clear Renzi wanted to get rid of Conte and was searching for a reason to justify it,” said Lorenzo Pregliasco, head of polling and political analysis firm YouTrend.
“This crisis is not about policy, it is about Renzi’s efforts to get a new government that gives him more political weight.”
Renzi says he has “Italy in my heart” and is acting for the good of the country.
Most Italians don’t believe him. In an Ipsos poll on Tuesday 73% of voters said he was pursuing his own interests, compared with 13% who said he was pursuing those of the country.
PARTY COUP
At the peak of his popularity in 2014 Renzi, who had recently become prime minister in an internal party coup, led his Democratic Party (PD) to a huge victory at European parliament elections where it took 41% of the vote.
In his early months as Italy’s youngest ever premier, Italians were won over in droves by his fast-talking, dynamic style as he promised “a reform a month” to overhaul the euro zone’s most sluggish economy. Most observers forecast he would dominate Italian politics for at least a decade.
Seven years on, after bruising political defeats saw him quit first as prime minister and then as PD leader, his Italia Viva party, formed in 2019, now polls at less than 3%.
“In all our surveys on politicians’ personal approval ratings, Renzi comes bottom,” said YouTrend’s Pregliasco.
Renzi became prime minister in 2014 by overthrowing a broad-based government led by his PD party colleague Enrico Letta, backtracking on previous pledges that he would only come to power in an election.
Days earlier, amid rumours he was planning to unseat Letta, he pledged his support to him with the words “stay calm Enrico,” which have since become a popular Italian catch-phrase to signify political treachery.
At that time, “Renzi-frenzy”, as it was dubbed in the media, was in full swing and few Italians spared much thought for Letta, who left Italy to pursue an academic career in Paris.
Yet Renzi’s honeymoon period soon began to sour, as the perception grew that behind his catchy slogans and wordplay there was more show than substance.
REFORMS
He passed reforms, most notably of the labour market and the education system, but these failed to kick-start the economy and Renzi’s pro-business, free-market agenda alienated the PD’s traditional voters while failing to lure conservative ones.
Renzi, always a combative character, was also making too many enemies in his own party, having ended the careers of several PD grandees during his rise to its leadership.
One of these, former Prime Minister Massimo D’Alema, last week gleefully attacked Renzi for trying to undermine Conte’s government, reflecting that “you can’t get rid of the country’s most popular man at the will of the most unpopular”.
Renzi’s downfall was triggered by his campaign to overhaul Italy’s constitution in 2016 with a reform aimed at curbing the powers of the upper house senate, giving more power to the government and streamlining the lawmaking process.
The reform was thrown out in a referendum which many voters saw as an opportunity to sink Renzi, regardless of the merits of the constitutional changes.
Renzi had repeatedly promised that if he lost the referendum he would leave politics altogether, but within months he was campaigning to regain control of the PD.
He succeeded, briefly, before resigning again after defeat at the 2018 election, which ushered in the government of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and Salvini’s League.
Since then, his reputation has continued to decline and
Italia Viva has become the kind of minuscule party with the power to make of break governments, which Renzi used to say were the curse of Italy’s politics when he led the PD in his heyday.
Editing by Mark HeinrichOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-politics-renzi-options/italys-renzi-says-may-be-willing-to-support-new-conte-government-idUSKBN29I2NE
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Italy's Renzi says may be willing to support new Conte government
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Italy's Renzi says may be willing to support new Conte government
By Reuters Staff1 Min Read
Italia Viva's leader and former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who has threatened to sink the government by withdrawing two ministers from the cabinet, speaks during a news conference in Rome, Italy, January 13, 2021. Alberto Pizzoli/Pool via REUTERS
ROME (Reuters) - Former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who has pulled his ministers from the cabinet, said on Wednesday he may nonetheless be willing to back a new administration led by the current premier Giuseppe Conte.
“It is up to Conte to decide the next step,” Renzi told reporters.
Renzi, who heads the small Italia Viva party, left the door open to virtually all outcomes, saying that under the right conditions he would be willing to join a so-called “institutional” government led by a non-partisan figure.
At an eagerly awaited news conference, Renzi said he was sure there would be no snap election.
Reporting by Angelo Amante, writing by Gavin Jones; Editing by Crispian BalmerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-politics-rome-mayor/romes-first-woman-mayor-to-run-for-second-term-idUSKCN2571UP
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Rome's first woman mayor to run for second term
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Rome's first woman mayor to run for second term
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
ROME (Reuters) - Rome mayor Virginia Raggi, from the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, has announced plans to run for a second term, hoping to steal a march on rivals in a long campaign for next year’s vote.
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Raggi, 42, became the Eternal City’s first woman mayor when elected in 2016, in a major breakthrough for 5-Star ahead of national polls two years later when it won almost twice as many votes as its nearest rival.
Her early years as mayor were dogged by resignations from her team, the arrest for corruption of a top aide and chronic problems with trash collection.
In November 2018, she was acquitted of accusations of lying over the appointment of the capital’s head of tourism.
Since then, the pressure on her has eased and city hall has made progress in road repairs, public transport and consolidating finances.
“You can’t change Rome in five years, but you can turn things in the right direction, and we have turned things in the right direction,” Raggi told daily Il Fatto Quotidiano in an interview on Tuesday, confirming her aspiration for another term.
She faces an uphill task. 5-Star is polling at around 16% nationally compared with the 32% it won at the 2018 election.
It is not even clear if she will have the support of her own party which, if it wants to back her, will need to change internal rules that do not allow members to hold elected office - even in different posts - for more than two terms.
Raggi is already in her second elected position, having served as a city councillor before becoming mayor.
Matteo Salvini’s right-wing League, Italy’s most popular party, and its hard-right ally Brothers of Italy have been attacking Raggi for months with an eye on the 2021 election.
“Raggi is the only one who doesn’t realise what a state Rome is in,” Brothers of Italy leader Giorgia Meloni tweeted on Tuesday. “We need a mayor who is worthy of the capital.”
Reporting by Gavin Jones; Editing by Andrew CawthorneOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-politics-vote/italy-lower-house-passes-new-electoral-law-moves-on-to-senate-idUSKBN1CH1G6
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Italy lower house passes new electoral law, moves on to Senate
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Italy lower house passes new electoral law, moves on to Senate
By Gavin Jones3 Min Read
ROME (Reuters) - The Italian Chamber of Deputies on Thursday gave its final approval to a contested electoral law that is likely to penalize the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement in next year’s election.
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The bill, which is supported by the ruling Democratic Party (PD) and mainstream center-right opposition parties, was approved in a secret ballot by 375 votes to 215, and will now move to the upper house Senate for further debate.
An election is due by May 2018. Analysts say the new system looks highly unlikely to throw up a clear parliamentary majority, with opinion polls showing the center-left, center-right and 5-Star splitting the vote three ways.
The so-called ‘Rosatellum’ law favors parties which group together ahead of the election. The 5-Star refuses to join any alliance and says the reform could cost it at least 50 seats in the next parliament, hobbling its chances of taking power.
The party, which tops many opinion polls, has held two days of street protests against what it sees as an attempt by its mainstream rivals to scupper its chances at the election.
“You are manipulating the foundations of our democratic system and rigging the rules before the game starts,” 5-Star leader Luigi Di Maio told parliament before the vote.
“Every single day of the election campaign we will remind people of what you are doing today.”
Related CoverageFactbox: Italy's new electoral law offers a mix of systems
Small left-wing and right-wing parties are also against the bill, which is supported by the center-right Forza Italia (Go Italy!) and the right-wing Northern League.
Ettore Rosato, the parliamentary party leader of the PD who has put his name to the reform, said it was the best compromise possible among political adversaries and blamed 5-Star and leftist parties for refusing to join negotiations.
“You always said no to everything that we proposed,” he told the Chamber.
President Sergio Mattarella has called for new voting rules because he says the current system is too different for the upper and lower houses, meaning it could conceivably throw up conflicting majorities.
All previous attempts to harmonize the rules have failed, most recently in June when dissident deputies used a secret vote to up-end part of the proposed legislation.
The 5-Star and other opponents of the new rules had hoped that the same would happen in Thursday’s final vote in the Chamber, which had already approved the bill in three votes of confidence held with open voting.
The package still needs the approval of the upper house Senate, where Gentiloni’s government does not have a stable majority. The upper house is expected to begin discussing and voting on the bill next week.
Editing by Toby ChopraOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-politics/italys-berlusconi-smears-5-star-urges-government-deal-with-left-idUSKBN1HR21E
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Italy's Berlusconi smears 5-Star, urges government deal with left
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Italy's Berlusconi smears 5-Star, urges government deal with left
By Crispian Balmer4 Min Read
ROME (Reuters) - Former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi branded the 5-Star Movement a danger for Italy on Friday, killing off any lingering chance of a coalition tie-up between his rightist bloc and the anti-establishment party.
Forza Italia leader Silvio Berlusconi looks on as League party leader Matteo Salvini (not seen) speaks following a talk with Italian President Sergio Mattarella at the Quirinale palace in Rome, Italy, April 12, 2018. REUTERS/Max Rossi
Berlusconi and his allies, including the far-right League, won the most seats in last month’s national election, while the 5-Star emerged as the largest single party.
However, both sides fell well short of an absolute majority and efforts by the Italian president to put together a new government have made little progress, with multiple vetoes put forward by various parties making his task almost impossible.
Latest efforts to overcome the impasse this week appeared to make no headway, and President Sergio Mattarella’s office said the head of state would consider the situation over the weekend before deciding what to do next.
5-Star, which promises a crusade against entrenched corruption, has said it is willing to join forces with the League, but not Berlusconi, whose long political career has been dogged by graft and sex scandals.
Earlier this week, media tycoon Berlusconi said he would have no problem working with 5-Star, but on Friday he angrily slammed the anti-system party and urged his allies to reconsider their refusal to seek a pact with the defeated center-left.
“The 5-Star are a danger for the country. It is not a democratic party, it is a party for the unemployed,” he said during a visit to Molise, a southern region that is holding local elections at the weekend.
“In my company, I would hire them to scrub the toilets,” he added, using unusually strong language even for Berlusconi. Italians “voted very badly” last month, he said, and the center-left Democratic Party (PD) was “light years” ahead of 5-Star.
TIE-UP WITH CENTER-LEFT?
Later on Friday, Berlusconi said governing with 5-Star was no longer “desirable or possible”, adding that the center-right should seek a majority in parliament, presumably with the PD.
But League leader Matteo Salvini, the de-facto head of the increasingly fractious rightist camp, has appeared increasingly frustrated with Berlusconi and he rejected a deal with the PD.
“Until yesterday the (center-right) alliance was unified,” Salvini told reporters in Milan. “If someone pulls out (of the alliance) using insults and looking to the left, the choice is that person’s alone,” he added, in reference to Berlusconi.
Salvini also said he would like to be given a mandate by the president to see if he could form a government. However, he declined to say if this meant he was ready to abandon Berlusconi and do a deal directly with 5-Star, something he has refused to countenance up until now.
“I am certainly not going to ask for votes from the PD,” he said.
If ultimately Salvini stays true to his word and declines to break his alliance, the president has few options left to resolve the stalemate.
One would be to try to convince the 5-Star and PD to work together. Another would be to seek consensus for a non-political government of technocrats tasked with re-writing the electoral law and prepare for a return to the polls next spring.
Additional reporting by Sara Rossi in Milan and Steve Scherer in Rome; Editing by Gareth JonesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-politics/italys-conte-sworn-in-as-pm-of-anti-establishment-government-idUSKCN1IX49T
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Italy's Conte sworn in as PM of anti-establishment government
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Italy's Conte sworn in as PM of anti-establishment government
By Gavin Jones, Massimiliano Di Giorgio6 Min Read
ROME (Reuters) - Giuseppe Conte was sworn in on Friday as Italy’s prime minister, heading western Europe’s first anti-establishment government bent on overhauling European Union rules on budgets and immigration.
Conte, a little-known 53-year-old law professor, is backed by the 5-Star Movement which grew out of a grassroots protest network, and the right-wing League who together have issued a budget-busting agenda of tax cuts and higher welfare spending.
The government was formed after three months of political deadlock following inconclusive March 4 elections, with the former rivals striking a last-minute deal on Thursday to avert a fresh vote in high summer amid growing market turmoil.
Widespread voter disenchantment has seen anti-establishment parties upset mainstream politics across the continent, including Germany and France, but it is the first time they will run the government of a major western European country.
Conte made no comment to reporters after his swearing-in ceremony in the president’s 16th century palace in Rome, in a room with a huge gilt mirror flanked by Italian and EU flags.
“I admit that I am choked up and happy,” League leader Salvini said in a tweet which showed him for once formally dressed with his top shirt button done up for the occasion.
5-Star and the League have a solid majority in both houses of parliament, where the government will face confidence votes early next week in order to be fully empowered.
Related CoverageEuro zone not facing new debt crisis: EU's JunckerEU lawmakers from Italy's coalition supported a failed EU motion on funds to quit euroSee more stories
Italy hosted the European Union’s founding Treaty of Rome 60 years ago, but the once enthusiastically pro-EU Italians have progressively become disenchanted with Europe, blaming its fiscal rules for two decades of economic stagnation.
The disaffection has grown in recent years as hundreds of thousands of migrants have landed on Italy’s shores from north Africa, fuelling support for the League which accuses the EU of abandoning Italy to deal with the influx on its own.
Italy’s future in the euro zone has dominated the political uncertainty of the last week, with President Sergio Mattarella vetoing the coalition’s original choice for economy minister, the eurosceptic economist Paolo Savona.
That sparked a breakdown of the coalition’s first attempt to form a government and a furious reaction from the coalition leaders.
“COMMON CHALLENGES”
Savona had advocated a “plan B” to allow Italy to quit the euro if necessary, spooking financial markets. Despite the souring sentiment towards Europe, two opinion polls this week showed between 60 and 72 percent of Italians did not want to abandon the euro.
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European Council President Donald Tusk congratulated Conte on his appointment. “To overcome our common challenges, we need unity and solidarity more than ever,” he said in a letter.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker tweeted that the EU’s executive would be “at Italy’s side on its reform path and remain attentive to Italy’s expectations of and proposals for the future of the EU.”
Ironically, after the swearing in at the Quirinale Palace, politicians who early this week were calling for Mattarella’s impeachment were to mingle with him at a reception in its manicured Renaissance gardens to mark the Feast of the Republic.
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Financial markets, which sold Italian assets heavily early this week, have recovered as the prospect of a snap election receded. Italy’s blue-chip share index close up 1.5 percent on the day and Italian bond yields fell for a third day.
Italians exasperated by the weeks of political stalemate were willing to give the coalition a chance.
“I hope that this government will start well, we will see, but at least we should put them to the test,” said Rome pensioner Alberto Lapira.
Salvini will be the interior minister of the new government and 5-Star leader Luigi Di Maio takes a powerful, newly-created joint ministry made up of the labor and industry portfolios.
Both leaders will also be deputy prime ministers and Conte may have a tough time proving he can be more than a puppet in the hands of his powerful political sponsors.
Salvini has promised to increase deportations of irregular immigrants and revamp the asylum system, while Di Maio will aim to implement 5-Star’s flagship policy of a guaranteed income of up to 780 euros per month for the poor.
While markets were relieved by the end of the political uncertainty, their mood will be tested if the coalition begins to follow through on its expensive policy pledges.
Italy, with debts totalling more than 130 percent of its economic output, is the most heavily indebted euro zone nation after Greece and is often described as “too big to fail” as the currency bloc could not bail it out if it were to default.
The 81-year-old Savona enters the government as European affairs minister, less powerful that the economy role but one that still allows him to negotiate with Brussels and speak on EU issues.
His replacement as economy minister is economics professor Giovanni Tria, a little-known figure who has called for changes to EU budget rules and criticized Germany’s large current account surplus, without suggesting Italy should leave the euro.
(For a graphic on 'Italy's 2-year bond yield' click reut.rs/2Jm6oAc)
Additional reporting by Giselda Vagnoni, Eleanor Biles, Steve Scherer and Steve Jewkes in Milan; Editing by Robin PomeroyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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e0b9ceb7e6c56965f22ba4f565b46752
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-politics/italys-league-leader-opens-door-to-government-deal-with-5-star-idUSKCN1GQ2XJ
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Italy's League leader opens door to government deal with 5-Star
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Italy's League leader opens door to government deal with 5-Star
By Gavin Jones, Claudia Cristoferi4 Min Read
ROME (Reuters) - The leader of Italy’s eurosceptic League said on Wednesday a government deal with the anti-system 5-Star Movement was possible after an inconclusive election, raising the prospect of two radical groups running the country.
Leader of Italy's far-right League Matteo Salvini attends a news conference at the Foreign Press Club in Rome, Italy March 14, 2018. REUTERS/Tony Gentile
The March 4 vote ended in gridlock, with 5-Star and the League emerging as the top two parties in parliament, but no bloc or group securing a majority to govern alone.
Italy’s head of state is due to start consultations next month to try to end the stalemate in the euro zone’s third largest economy, with the various parties positioning themselves for potentially fraught and lengthy negotiations.
“Barring the PD, everything is possible,” League leader Matteo Salvini told reporters, referring to the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), which was defeated after a difficult five years in office spent trying to revive the sluggish economy.
The PD itself has pledged to move to opposition ranks.
5-Star, born as a protest movement in 2009, long resisted any suggestion of forming alliances, but its leader Luigi Di Maio said on Wednesday that it now wants to talk to other parties to fix a common programme.
“Before we talk about who, let’s talk about what, let’s pursue a programme centred on the people outside the corridors of power,” he said at a business association event in Milan.
Salvini’s overture to the 5-Star is anathema to his coalition partner, four-time prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, whose Forza Italia (Go Italy!) party trailed the League in the election and now plays second fiddle in their conservative bloc.
EURO HOSTILITY
Berlusconi, who has branded 5-Star a “dangerous sect”, said on Wednesday he wanted a minority centre-right government “with support from the PD on individual measures”, Forza Italia Senator Luigi Vitale told reporters after a party meeting.
Berlusconi acknowledged that Salvini and junior coalition ally the Brothers of Italy disagreed, but said: “We will convince (them),” according to Vitale.
Salvini has adopted a much more hostile line towards the European Union than Berlusconi, a point that was underlined on Wednesday when he said the euro currency was not irreversible, prompting investors to dump Italian government bonds.
Ahead of the vote, all parties promised to cut taxes and raise spending, apparently at odds with pledges to also cut a public debt that is second only to Greece’s in the euro zone as a proportion of GDP.
Among the most eye-catching proposals were the League’s 15 percent flat tax rate and 5-Star’s scheme to guarantee a minimum income of 780 euros ($964.47) a month.
It is not clear how either measure would be funded, and their potential impacts on public finances are comparable, Bank of Italy Director General Salvatore Rossi said on Wednesday.
“They are two very different, very expensive measures,” Rossi told La7 TV.
Salvini has promised not to abandon his partners, after Forza Italia’s relegation to second place in the coalition prompted speculation the League could split off and join 5-Star.
But a further potential obstacle to such a deal could come from within 5-Star, which has been trying to transmit a moderate message and reassure Europe and financial markets that it is fit to govern.
In an apparent reference to the League’s radical allies in the European Parliament, including France’s National Front and the Dutch Freedom Party, Di Maio said on Tuesday that 5-Star “wants nothing to do with extremist parties in Europe”.
The new parliament sits for the first time on March 23. One of its first duties will be to elect presidents for the two chambers, a process which will give a glimpse of party dynamics.
On Wednesday, Di Maio said he was confident Italy’s government impasse would last less than the six months that passed before German politicians struck a deal this month.
“It won’t all be roses, but this legislature can turn a page for the country, with a good budget law, strong budget planning, and dialogue between the groups,” he said.
($1 = 0.8087 euros)
Additional reporting by Alberto Sisto; Writing by Isla Binnie; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Andrew HeavensOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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b933e3184ccef90ae3b85870e02a4a35
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-politics/italys-president-gives-conte-green-light-to-form-new-government-idUSKCN1VJ0LR?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&utm_source=www.seznam.cz&utm_medium=z-boxiku&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Reuters%2FworldNews+%28Reuters+World+News%29
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Italy's president gives Conte green light to form new government
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Italy's president gives Conte green light to form new government
By Giselda Vagnoni, Angelo Amante4 Min Read
ROME (Reuters) - Italy’s president asked Giuseppe Conte to head up a coalition of the 5-Star Movement and opposition Democratic Party (PD) on Thursday, a move could that could improve Italy’s fractious relations with the European Union.
Markets welcomed the prospect of a quick end to a three-week political crisis triggered by League leader Matteo Salvini, who pulled his hard-right party out of its governing alliance with 5-Star after weeks of public bickering.
Salvini had wanted fresh polls to capitalize on his party’s success in European elections but his plan backfired as 5-Star and the PD, lagging the League in opinion surveys, set aside their long-standing antipathy to form a government.
Italy’s 10-year borrowing costs fell to an all-time low at auction on Thursday on the news as the prospect of a snap election retreated.
Conte, who told reporters he would present a cabinet list to the president in the coming days, said his priority was to draft a 2020 budget.
“We must immediately get to work and draw up a budget to avert the VAT hike, protects savers and offers solid prospects for economic growth and social development,” he said.
VAT will rise from Jan. 1 unless the government can find 23 billion euros ($26 billion) elsewhere.
Related Coverage5-Star online vote could yet scupper Italy's nascent governmentNew Italian coalition allies have mutual foe, but little else in common
The creation of a new government is not yet a done deal, however, and the two parties still need to agree a shared policy platform and divide up cabinet posts.
In a further complication, 5-Star has promised to put the deal with the PD to an online vote of its members. Many 5-Star supporters oppose a pact with the center-left and a ‘yes’ vote is not a certainty.
MARKET REACTION
However, investors brushed off those concerns. Conte was seen as a voice of reason within the previous 5-Star/League coalition and investors are betting Italy will get a fiscally prudent government that will avoid confrontation with Europe.
According to the financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore, an early draft of the incoming coalition’s policy platform would see it ask the EU for flexibility on the 2020 budget deficit to “reinforce social cohesion” in Italy.
The EU imposes budget rules on member states to ensure financial stability in the bloc. It has had a testy relationship with Rome under the outgoing administration, with League leader Salvini blaming EU rules for impoverishing Italians.
Slideshow ( 15 images )
Salvini had promised swinging tax cuts for 2020 that economists warned could put unsustainable pressure on Italy’s towering debt mountain.
The PD leader Nicola Zingaretti said the priority for the new coalition would be to revive the stagnant economy.
“As soon as it takes office, the government will have to act very quickly to relaunch the country -- school, environment, infrastructure, investment to create work,” he said in a statement.
Slideshow ( 15 images )
Italy's battered blue-chip index .FTMIB was headed for its best weekly performance in six months on news of Conte's reappointment, and bond markets pushed Italy's 10-year borrowing costs to an all-time low.
“We think it will be less challenging to agree on an agenda between M5S (5-Star) and PD because the priorities both political forces have set out seem broadly consistent in many areas, ranging from fiscal policy to Italy’s relationship with the EU to a focus on a green economy,” UBS Wealth Management Italy’s Matteo Ramenghi said.
German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said Conte’s appointment was good news for Europe, adding: “I’m glad to see that the government crisis in Italy seems to have come to an end now and that a stable and new, progressive government can take the helm.”
Conte, a quietly spoken academic with a penchant for smart suits, waistcoats and cufflinks, has enjoyed high poll ratings since he was plucked from relative obscurity 14 months ago to become premier. While he has no political affiliation he is considered close to 5-Star.
($1 = 0.8973 euros)
Additional reporting by Valentina Consiglio, Gavin Jones in Rome; Writing by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Jon BoyleOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-pollution/rome-bans-all-diesel-cars-in-battle-to-curb-pollution-idINKBN1ZD1MZ?edition-redirect=in
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Rome bans all diesel cars in battle to curb pollution
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Rome bans all diesel cars in battle to curb pollution
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
ROME (Reuters) - Rome banned all diesel vehicles from its roads for the first time on Tuesday to try to combat rising pollution, with numerous other cities in central and northern Italy also imposing curbs to cut harmful emissions.
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A prolonged period of sunny weather with no rain and little wind has triggered dozens of smog alerts across the country.
Rome city council banned diesel cars, vans and motorbikes during peak hours on Tuesday, with the worst polluting vehicles barred from the streets from dawn to dusk.
The local transport authority said the order would affect around one million vehicles, angering oil companies, who accused the city council of over-reacting.
Italy has a permitted limit for fine particle pollution (PM10) of 50 micrograms per cubic meter. Some areas of Rome have exceeded that level - above which air quality is considered a potential health hazard - in 10 of the last 12 days.
Pollution levels have also risen sharply in a string of other cities, including Milan, Turin, Florence, Piacenza, Parma, Reggio Emilia and Modena, forcing local authorities there also to restrict drivers.
However, Rome was the only city to outlaw all diesel vehicles, drawing the ire of the Italian association of oil companies.
“This appears to be a totally unjustified decision from a scientific point of view, which offers no environmental advantage and therefore unnecessarily penalizes a wide range of citizens,” it said in a statement.
By contrast, environmental group Legambiente accused Rome of dragging its feet.
“This decision was incredibly delayed. The city council is only banning diesel following 10 days of poisoned air,” it said in a statement.
Reporting by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Gareth JonesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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53f2e953f4dbc93b717cff27905d178b
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-pompeii-idINKBN2810J6?edition-redirect=in
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Pompeii's ruins yield scalded bodies of rich man and slave
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Pompeii's ruins yield scalded bodies of rich man and slave
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
Slideshow ( 5 images )
ROME (Reuters) - Archaeologists have discovered the exceptionally well-preserved remains of two men scalded to death by the volcanic eruption that destroyed the ancient Roman city of Pompeii in 79 AD, the Italian culture ministry said on Saturday.
One was probably a man of high status, aged between 30 and 40, who still bore traces of a woollen cloak under his neck.
The second, probably aged 18 to 23, was dressed in a tunic and had a number of crushed vertebrae, indicating that he had been a slave who did heavy labour.
The remains were found in Civita Giuliana, 700 metres northwest of the centre of ancient Pompeii, in an underground chamber in the area of a large villa being excavated.
The men’s teeth and bones were preserved, and the voids left by their soft tissues were filled with plaster that was left to harden and then excavated to show the outline of their bodies.
“These two victims were perhaps seeking refuge when they were swept away by the pyroclastic current at about 9 in the morning,” said Massimo Osanna, director of the archeological site. “It is a death by thermal shock, as also demonstrated by their clenched feet and hands.”
In a statement, Culture Minister Dario Franceschini said the find underlined Pompeii’s status as “an incredible place for research and study”.
Pompeii, 23 km (14 miles) southeast of Naples, was home to about 13,000 people when the eruption buried it under under ash, pumice pebbles and dust, freezing it in time.
The remains were not discovered until the 16th century and organised excavations began around 1750. However, more recently, attention has focused on arresting the decay or collapse of the exposed ruins.
Reporting by Angelo Amante; Editing by Kevin LiffeyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-pompeii/italys-pompeii-offers-new-glimpses-of-life-before-calamity-idUSKCN1RA1BZ
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Italy's Pompeii offers new glimpses of life before calamity
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Italy's Pompeii offers new glimpses of life before calamity
By Crispian Balmer, Cristiano Corvino5 Min Read
POMPEII, Italy (Reuters) - Nearly 2,000 years after Pompeii was destroyed by a volcanic eruption, the ancient Roman city is still giving up its long-buried secrets.
Fantastic frescos, preserved mosaics and obscene graffiti are just some of the discoveries emerging from the largest archaeological dig at the site since the 1950s.
As teams of construction workers shore up mounds of earth pressing down on the excavated areas to prevent them crushing the ruins, archaeologists and conservationists are busy restoring newly discovered art and bolstering fragile walls.
The burst of activity marks the final stages of the “Great Pompeii Project”, launched in 2012 after a spate of cave-ins, with the European Union and Italian state handing over 105 million euros ($118 million) to halt the decay.
“The risk of collapse, of serious damage is past. Now Pompeii is quite safe,” said Francesco Muscolino, 42, an archaeologist working on the program.
The extensive conservation work has enabled scholars to uncover a few more areas of Pompeii still buried under volcanic debris, including two large houses, alleyways, highly decorated interiors and a brightly colored snack bar.
Pompeii was submerged by volcanic ash when Mount Vesuvius exploded in AD 79, killing thousands of Romans who had no idea they were living beneath one of Europe’s biggest volcanoes.
Slideshow ( 8 images )
Memory of the catastrophe faded over time and it was not until 1748 that any meaningful exploration was undertaken. More systematic excavations were launched the following century, but by the end of the 20th century, neglect, lack of funds and repeated flooding were taking a heavy toll.
In 2010, less than 15 percent of the excavated area was accessible to tourists, wild dogs roamed the paved streets, and only 10 buildings were open, against 64 in 1956.
Today, around 70 percent of the uncovered city is accessible and more than 30 fully restored buildings can be visited.
CHARCOAL INSCRIPTION
The improved access has helped lift tourist numbers, with some 3.5 million people coming to Pompeii last year, an increase of one million in just a decade. Even more visitors are expected as the latest finds are gradually unveiled to the public.
Among the highlights are a fresco of the Greek mythological figure Narcissus leaning languidly on a block of stone and staring down at his own reflection in a pool of water.
Slideshow ( 8 images )
In the same house, archaeologists found a small, exquisite wall painting portraying the seduction of the Spartan queen Leda by the Greek God Zeus, disguised as a swan.
“It was wonderful because it is very beautiful and in very good condition,” said Stefania Giudice, one of the conservationists tasked with preserving the new discoveries.
The fresco’s bright colors have already faded since the ash and pumice were painstakingly removed last year as moisture on the surface of the wall dried out, dulling the rich tones.
“We will clean it and protect it and get the beautiful colors back,” Giudice said, predicting that the fresco-rich house, still partially buried, would be opened to the public within one or two years as new tourist routes were laid out.
Elsewhere, some graffiti contains graphic sexual references.
Perhaps one of the most significant finds was the least spectacular at first sight - a brief charcoal inscription which cites the date Oct. 17 written in the hallway of a grand house where at least six bodies were also discovered.
Archaeologists believe the faint note might have been written just before the eruption, meaning the disaster probably struck two months later than previously thought.
Muscolino predicted it would take many years for scholars to assimilate and interpret all the material recovered in recent months, with trays of delicate glass, fresco fragments, plaster moldings, coins and amphora stored away for future research.
More than 270 years after the first serious excavations began, a third of the city, which covers roughly 165 acres (66.77 hectares), remains buried and unexplored.
But there are no plans for further, major digs after this latest project ends, with the emphasis now on conservation.
“Excavations are like having children. You have to take care of them. You can’t just abandon what you find and move on to the next thing,” said Giudice. “It is a real responsibility.”
($1 = 0.8909 euros)
Reporting by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Andrew CawthorneOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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185175d3d8b1f9cb17b29059b8d3b753
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-quake-idUSKCN12Q2FR
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Italian earthquakes cause widespread damage, but no-one killed
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Italian earthquakes cause widespread damage, but no-one killed
By Isla Binnie, Antonio Denti3 Min Read
VISSO, Italy (Reuters) - Earthquakes caused widespread damage and terrified residents in central Italy overnight, two months after a strong quake left nearly 300 dead and razed villages in the same area, but no-one was killed.
Several people were slightly injured, but only a few needed hospital treatment, the Civil Protection Agency said.
In Visso, one of the larger hill towns hit, the mayor said most of the damage had been to buildings already weakened by the Aug. 24 earthquake.
“The situation is ugly and you can see the noticeable damage, but luckily I can say it’s better than it looks. We don’t have victims or seriously injured people or anyone missing,” Giuliano Pazzaglini said.
The quake was nonetheless a shock to a town that had started to work on rebuilding after the last tremor, Pazzaglini said, and the hours following it were full of anxiety for people in the border area of the Marche and Umbria regions.
Many people slept in their cars. In Campi, a town of about 200, rescue workers set up some 50 beds in a quake-proof building for people who could not sleep in their homes.
“I can’t shake off the fear,” said Mauro Viola, 64, who said he had not slept and had spent the night outside.
Slideshow ( 12 images )
“I am afraid to see what my house looks like.”
Police had blocked off the road to his home with a bench, and Viola said a chapel nearby had collapsed.
Boulders tumbled down the valley into roads around Visso. Officials restricted access to its historic center, awakening grim memories of the leveling of the hilltop town of Amatrice in August.
“The only time I have cried today was when I wasn’t allowed to go into the historic center,” said Visso restaurateur Elena Zabuchynska, 43.
“I thought of Amatrice, all fallen down, and I thought our city center might look like Amatrice.”
Slideshow ( 12 images )
RENZI SOLIDARITY
The government on Thursday set aside 40 million euros ($44 million) for immediate costs related to the earthquakes, and Prime Minister Matteo Renzi visited the area affected.
“The whole of the population is by your side,” he told local officials in the town of Camerino, adding that the latest tremors underlined the need for investments to make Italy’s buildings earthquake proof.
Renzi has said spending under a plan to reinforce the country’s schools should be excluded from European Union limits on budget deficits.
The three main overnight quakes came about two hours apart. Close to Visso, the rose-windowed facade of a late 14th century church, San Salvatore a Campi di Norcia, was reduced to rubble.
The first tremor measured magnitude 5.4, causing many people to flee their homes and the second was stronger at 6.1, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
A 4.9 aftershock came a couple hours after that, and dozens of weaker ones followed.
Additional reporting by Massimiliano Di Giorgio; Writing by Steve Scherer, Isla Binnie and Gavin Jones; Editing by Andrew RocheOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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1a5faac213a51ef25819d8986ec1a0b5
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-quake-warning/italy-muzzled-scientist-who-predicted-quake-idUKTRE53543420090406?edition-redirect=uk
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Italy muzzled scientist who predicted quake
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Italy muzzled scientist who predicted quake
By Gavin Jones3 Min Read
ROME (Reuters) - An Italian scientist predicted a major earthquake around L’Aquila weeks before disaster struck the city on Monday, killing more than 100 people, but was reported to authorities for spreading panic.
Residents walk past destroyed houses after an earthquake in the Italian village of Onna April 6, 2009. REUTERS/Alessia Pierdomenico
The government on Monday insisted the warning, by seismologist Gioacchino Giuliani, had no scientific foundation but Giuliani said he had been vindicated and wanted an apology.
The first tremors in the region were felt in mid-January and continued at regular intervals, creating mounting alarm in the medieval city, about 100 km (60 miles) east of Rome.
Vans with loudspeakers drove around the town a month ago telling locals to evacuate their houses after Giuliani, from the National Institute of Astrophysics, predicted a large quake was on the way, prompting the mayor’s anger.
Giuliani, who based his forecast on concentrations of radon gas around seismically active areas, was reported to police for “spreading alarm” and was forced to remove his findings from the Internet.
“Now there are people who have to apologize to me and who will have what has happened on their conscience,” Giuliani told the website of the daily La Repubblica.
Giuliani, who lives in L’Aquila and developed his findings while working at the National Institute of Nuclear Physics in the surrounding Abruzzo region, said he was helpless to act on Sunday as it became clear to him the quake was imminent.
“I didn’t know who to turn to, I had been put under investigation for saying there was going to be an earthquake.”
AGENCY REASSURED TOWNSPEOPLE
As the media asked whether, in light of his warnings, the government had protected the population properly, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi seemed on the defensive at a news conference.
He said people should concentrate on relief efforts for now and “we can discuss afterwards about the predictability of earthquakes.”
Italy’s Civil Protection agency held a meeting of the Major Risks Committee, grouping scientists charged with assessing such risks, in L’Aquila on March 31 to reassure the townspeople.
“The tremors being felt by the population are part of a typical sequence ... (which is) absolutely normal in a seismic area like the one around L’Aquila,” the agency said in a statement on the eve of that meeting.
It said it saw no reason for alarm but was nonetheless carrying out “continuous monitoring and attention.”
The head of the agency, Guido Bertolaso, referred back to that meeting at Monday’s joint news conference with Berlusconi.
“There is no possibility of predicting an earthquake, that is the view of the international scientific community,” he said.
Enzo Boschi, the head of the National Geophysics Institute, said the real problem for Italy was a long-standing failure to take proper precautions despite a history of tragic quakes.
“We have earthquakes but then we forget and do nothing. It’s not in our culture to take precautions or build in an appropriate way in areas where there could be strong earthquakes,” he said.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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f4a424d9bbfa328a8b90fd8b753e9e90
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-ratings-fitch/fitch-affirms-italys-rating-at-bbb-with-negative-outlook-idINKBN2012MU?edition-redirect=in
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Fitch affirms Italy's rating at 'BBB' with negative outlook
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Fitch affirms Italy's rating at 'BBB' with negative outlook
By Reuters Staff1 Min Read
FILE PHOTO - An Italian flag waves behind a statue near Ponte Sant'Angelo in Rome, Italy, November 28, 2019. REUTERS/Guglielmo Mangiapane
(Reuters) - Global rating agency Fitch affirmed Italy’s sovereign credit rating at ‘BBB’ and outlook at negative on Friday, citing high level of general government debt, very low trend GDP growth and economic policy uncertainty.
"The high degree of political fragmentation makes it very difficult for the Italian government to develop a credible growth and fiscal strategy to reduce the stock of public debt," the agency said in a statement here .
Fitch also said the relatively high net external debt and improving, but still weak, banking sector asset quality, also weigh on Italy’s rating.
Reporting by Devbrat Saha and Gavin JonesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-rome-protests/romans-protest-at-eternal-decline-of-italian-capital-idUSKCN1N10GO
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Romans protest at eternal decline of Italian capital
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Romans protest at eternal decline of Italian capital
By Reuters Staff3 Min Read
ROME (Reuters) - Several thousand people protested in front of Rome City Hall on Saturday to denounce the ragged state of the Italian capital, where roads are potholed, rubbish often goes uncollected and wild boar roam the streets.
Critics say the city has been in decline for years and accuse Mayor Virginia Raggi, who took office in 2016, of failing to fulfill campaign promises to clean up the mess.
“We’re here because Rome deserves better, because Rome is in a state of neglect the like of which has never been seen before,” said Marita Monaco, 57, who took part in the protest in a Renaissance square designed by Michelangelo.
“It is a city in disarray, where there are no more rules or social cohesion,” she added.
Raggi is a member of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and was swept to power following a wave of public disgust over corruption scandals that had battered previous administrations run by both traditional left- and right-wing parties.
The first female mayor in the history of the city, Raggi says she needs more time to overcome Rome’s myriad problems, but argues that she is already making good progress.
Her critics say things are getting worse, not better.
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A strike by rubbish collectors has left many trash cans overflowing, potholes riddle the roads, while the local transport system is in permanent crisis.
More than 20 buses have caught fire on the streets of the city so far this year, largely the result of poor maintenance, while a broken escalator injured more than 20 Russian soccer fans at a city metro station last Tuesday.
The death this week of a 16-year girl, whose body was found in an abandoned building used by drug dealers, underscored fears about law and order in the city. Police say they believe the girl was gang-raped and have arrested four migrants.
Under the hashtag #romadicebasta (“Rome says enough”) residents’ associations and civil society groups banded together to organize Saturday’s protest, which Reuters reporters estimated drew between 5,000-8,000 people.
“Rome has become an open sewer, a scandal, full of rats, foxes, wild boar and rubbish,” said Rome resident Salvatore Golino. “We are drowning in trash and we can’t take it anymore.”
A recent video that went viral online showed a family of boar foraging through sacks of rubbish on a city street. Another video earlier this year showed a large boar running up a major city road under the gaze of astonished drivers.
Raggi is standing trial for alleged abuse of office over a contested appointment within her administration. She has denied the accusation, but has said she will resign if found guilty.
A verdict is due on Nov. 10 and Raggi’s administration would fall if she left office, potentially opening the way for fresh elections.
Reporting by Reuters TV; Writing by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Alison WilliamsOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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7ee9778ae9872392cff1c61364312cc1
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-schools-idUSBRE8AH06320121118
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Chalk, blackboard... teargas? Italy protests start at school
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Chalk, blackboard... teargas? Italy protests start at school
By Naomi O’Leary6 Min Read
ROME (Reuters) - At dawn before lessons could start last week, high school pupils at the Nomentano Science School in a northern suburb of Rome slipped chains around the gates and blocked the doors with chairs taken from classrooms.
Students are seen at the entrance of Nomentano Science school in Rome, November 13, 2012. Nomentano Science School this week became the latest in over a dozen schools around Rome to be seized by their students in a protest against reforms and cuts imposed by the technocrat government of Mario Monti in an attempt to pull Italy out of financial crisis. The banner reads, "Nomentano occupied". REUTERS/Max Rossi
Between the ragged European Union flag and Italian tricolour over the entry they hung a new banner: a white sheet spray painted with the word “Occupied”.
With youth unemployment more than three times the national average and Prime Minister Mario Monti’s austerity policies biting into education spending, high school and university students have moved to the front of anti-government protests.
As strikes swept Europe on Wednesday, teenagers armed with makeshift riot shields painted to look like the covers of famous books led a march of thousands through Rome. The demonstration ended in violent clashes, with riot police chasing protesters down the banks of the Tiber under clouds of teargas.
In a speech this week at Milan’s Bocconi University, where he was an economics professor before becoming prime minister, Monti expressed sympathy, saying young people were paying for “serious errors accumulated over the past decades”.
Nomentano is one of more than a dozen schools around Rome to be seized by students in a revolt against reforms and economic crisis cuts imposed by Monti’s technocrat government.
Student Nicholas Giordano, 18, pointed to gaping holes in the school’s outdoor paving and its broken roofs.
“There are toilets that haven’t worked for months. When it rains, in some classrooms the water comes in,” Giordano said. “We want to show the government that this is unacceptable.”
Students have been camping inside the school in sleeping bags since Monday, and said their occupation would last at least through the week.
Slideshow ( 2 images )
Proposals which the CGIL union says will shave 182 million euros ($232.81 million) from schools’ annual budgets have become a rallying point for groups that oppose Monti from across the political spectrum, from neo-fascists to the far left.
LOST GENERATION
Italy’s young people are among the hardest hit by an economy that has been dipping in and out of recession since 2008. The youth unemployment rate is 35 percent.
Italy has repeatedly cut education spending in recent years, despite allocating just 4.9 percent of gross domestic product to education according the most recent OECD figures, from 2009. Of the 31 members of the group of rich countries for which it had data, only the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia spent less.
Concern increased last week when the head of the association representing local governments said planned cuts to regional spending would force schools to extend Christmas holidays.
“We do not have the money to pay to heat the classrooms,” Antonio Saitta told a conference.
For those who do find work after graduation, university has not always led to skilled jobs: according to the Bank of Italy, one in four employed graduates were “overqualified” in 2011, working as waiters, farm laborers or in other jobs that do not require a degree, a rise of two percentage points from 2009.
Student anger is focused on an education reform bill going through parliament that would give schools more autonomy and allow them to accept other sources of funding than the state, which protesters believe is intended to encourage privatization.
Professor Antonio Cocozza, a specialist in the economics of education at Italy’s LUISS University, said reforms to give schools control over their curriculums were needed so schools could adjust their teaching to the needs of the market.
“There is a risk an entire generation may not find employment, or may not find an occupation that matches their studies,” Cocozza said. “I agree with austerity, but we must invest at the same time, otherwise we risk not being ready for economic recovery in the future.”
ANTI-POLITICS
The occupations, which began in a seaside district of the capital before spreading from school to school, are organized by disparate student groups united by anger at austerity. They reflect disillusionment with mainstream politics across society.
“The government runs the risk of finding itself at odds with a large part of the population,” said Federico Brugnola, 17, who said about a thousand of Nomentano’s 1,400 students supported the occupation. “All those angry people will begin to rise up. Italy risks becoming another Greece.”
In a result that could presage national elections in five months, an October vote in Sicily made the anti-political party of comedian Beppe Grillo the island’s largest political force.
Among youth groups that have gained prominence is the far-right Blocco Studentesco, whose members describe themselves as modern-day fascists, venerate dictator Benito Mussolini, and want banks, utilities, telecoms and transport nationalized.
The students of Nomentano said protests would continue even after they return to classes.
“This will not stop at the end of the week. This will not stop with the elections. In two years I’ll be going to university and I will continue the struggle there,” Brugnola said. “We will continue to protest until things get better. This is a fight for our future.” ($1 = 0.7817 euros)
Reporting by Naomi O’LearyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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e4743a80de1675adcf47027b99ac6cfa
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-security/gambian-migrant-seized-in-italy-on-suspicion-of-planning-attack-idUSKBN1HX299?edition-redirect=in
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Gambian migrant seized in Italy on suspicion of planning attack
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Gambian migrant seized in Italy on suspicion of planning attack
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
ROME (Reuters) - Italian police have arrested an immigrant from Gambia suspected of planning an attack on behalf of the Islamic State (IS) militant group, a prosecutor said on Thursday.
Alagie Touray was arrested on April 20 as he was leaving a mosque in Licola, near the southern city of Naples, after local authorities received a tip off from Spanish intelligence.
Prosecutor Giovanni Melillo said investigators had found a video of Touray swearing allegiance to IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. “This gesture is often followed by a terrorist attack,” Melillo told reporters.
Touray, 21, wrote on the Telegram messaging service that he was “on a mission” and asked others to pray for him, Melillo said. He told police that he had received a “request” from a fellow Gambian to drive a car into a crowd of people, but said he had no intention of doing so.
Touray arrived in Italy in March 2017 after being rescued in the Mediterranean from a boat packed with 638 other migrants. He was subsequently taken to a migrant center in Licola and had applied for political asylum. His request is still pending.
More than 600,000 immigrants have come to Italy over the past five years, most of them from sub-Saharan Africa. The influx has become a major political issue, helping to fuel support for the far-right League, which became the second largest party in the lower house of parliament following last month’s election.
“This is how this immigrant wanted to pay us back for asking for political asylum, poor fellow. Stop the invasion before it is too late,” League leader Matteo Salvini wrote on Twitter shortly after Touray’s arrest was announced.
Reporting by Crispian Balmer, Editing by William MacleanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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7a0b1676e5a9b9582f805fc99096511a
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-stampede/six-killed-dozens-injured-in-stampede-at-packed-italy-nightclub-idUSKBN1O708T
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Six killed, dozens injured in stampede at packed Italy nightclub
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Six killed, dozens injured in stampede at packed Italy nightclub
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
ROME (Reuters) - Six people, including five young teenagers, were crushed to death in the early hours of Saturday following a stampede at a packed nightclub near Ancona on Italy’s Adriatic coast, officials said.
The deaths occurred when a walkway leading out of the Lanterna Azzurra nightclub in the town of Corinaldo collapsed, causing dozens of people to fall into a trench below.
Three girls, two boys and a mother who had accompanied her child to the event died in the crush. Police said the teenagers were aged between 14 and 16, while the dead woman was 39.
More than 100 other people were injured, 13 of them seriously.
Local officials said witnesses reported seeing a hooded man spray a substance like pepper spray or tear gas into the crowd, triggering a panicked rush to the emergency exits.
Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, who also serves as interior minister, said there were many more people than permitted inside the club, where popular Italian rapper Sfera Ebbasta had been due to perform.
“The main hall had a capacity of 469 and they sold 1,300 tickets,” a somber Salvini told reporters after visiting the site. “You can’t die at 14 in this way. You don’t need new laws here. You need to have a conscience and respect existing laws.”
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte told reporters that it appeared that only one of the nightclub’s three halls had been open at the time. “The numbers are all wrong,” he said.
Magistrates have opened an investigation into the deaths and there was no immediate comment from the nightclub’s owners.
Reporting by Philip Pullella and Crispian Balmer; Editing by Alexander Smith and Gareth JonesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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3be43b66f3893e77f151ad9d65c5600a
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-target2/italys-target-2-liabilities-rise-in-december-idINKBN1Z814D?edition-redirect=in
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Italy's Target 2 liabilities rise in December
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Italy's Target 2 liabilities rise in December
By Reuters Staff1 Min Read
MILAN (Reuters) - The Bank of Italy’s liabilities towards other euro zone central banks rose in December, after falling sharply the previous month, data showed on Thursday.
Italy’s so-called Target 2 debt grew to 439.45 billion euros ($487.92 billion), compared with 406.28 billion euros in November, the Bank of Italy said.
A country’s Target 2 position is monitored as a sign of financial stress and imbalances within the euro zone. Target 2 debt could rise, for example, due to capital outflows.
Italy’s Target 2 debt hit an all-time record in August 2018, reaching 492.53 billion euros.
($1 = 0.9007 euros)
Alessia Pe, editing by Valentina ZaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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1c064c3c54bc56779d8a3675c481e5f1
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-tariffs/italys-pm-says-any-decision-on-web-tax-is-sovereign-one-idUKKBN1Y82BX?edition-redirect=uk
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Italy's PM says any decision on web tax is sovereign one
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Italy's PM says any decision on web tax is sovereign one
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
MILAN (Reuters) - Italy’s prime minister said on Wednesday that any decision on the introduction of a digital tax that would hit U.S. tech giants falls within a country’s sovereign sphere and ties with the United States can have no bearing in such a matter.
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte speaks to the media as he arrives for the NATO leaders summit in Watford, Britain December 4, 2019. REUTERS/Henry Nicholls
Addressing a press conference in London after a NATO summit, Giuseppe Conte said Italy’s relationship with Washington would always remain a very important one and Rome did not expect any U.S. tariffs that could damage Italian companies.
“The United States is fundamental and we will always maintain a privileged connection with it but when it comes to...policy decisions we’re a sovereign state,” he said in answer to a question on the introduction of a digital tax and possible retaliation from Washington.
“We can exchange opinions and evaluations, but then it’s the sovereign state that decides.”
Italy’s 2020 budget introduces a 3% levy on revenue from internet transactions for digital companies with sales of at least 750 million euros, at least 5.5 million euros of which are reaped in Italy.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has repeatedly said the levy unfairly targets U.S. firms. Two other major European countries, Britain and France, also plan digital taxes affecting U.S. internet giants.
Trump has threatened retaliation against France over its plans. A senior U.S. official has said Trump was ready to warn of the same against Italy when he met Italian President Sergio Mattarella in Washington last month.
Asked about his exchanges with Trump in London, Conte said they had not discussed the issue of 5G technology, adding that Italy had advanced legislation to select firms for 5G services.
Trump said on Wednesday that Chinese telecommunication firm Huawei was a security risk after NATO said it needed secure next-generation 5G technology.
“Italy has introduced an advanced and sophisticated set of rules [on 5G] ... and it’s matter of applying them,” Conte said.
Reporting by Valentina Za; Editing by Mark HeinrichOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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796f51707bf878966c2c2c5641effc8d
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-uber-idUSKBN1792IS?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FtechnologyNews+%28Reuters+Technology+News%29
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Italy court blocks Uber services in Italy, citing unfair competition
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Italy court blocks Uber services in Italy, citing unfair competition
By Reuters Staff1 Min Read
FILE PHOTO: The Uber app logo is seen on a mobile telephone in this October 28, 2016 photo illustration. REUTERS/Toby Melville/Illustration/File Photo
ROME (Reuters) - A court blocked the use of smart phone apps for Uber cars UBER.UL in Italy on Friday, ruling that they constituted unfair competition.
The court said Uber could not use its Black, Lux, Suv, X , XL, Select and Van phone applications nor could it promote or advertise its services in Italy, a court document showed.
The court ruled in favour of a suit filed by Italy’s major traditional taxi associations.
Uber’s Italy unit said in a statement they were “shocked” by the decision and that they would appeal.
Reporting by Giulia Segreti, editing by Philip PullellaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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7fb33031aa7258f96ff44e284218722c
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-vampire-idUSTRE52B4RU20090312
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"Vampire" unearthed in Venice plague grave
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"Vampire" unearthed in Venice plague grave
By Daniel Flynn ROME (Reuters) - Italian researchers believe they have found the remains of a female “vampire” in Venice, buried with a brick jammed between her jaws to prevent her feeding on victims of a plague which swept the city in the 16th century.2 Min Read
Slideshow ( 3 images )
Matteo Borrini, an anthropologist from the University of Florence, said the discovery on the small island of Lazzaretto Nuovo in the Venice lagoon supported the medieval belief that vampires were behind the spread of plagues like the Black Death.
“This is the first time that archaeology has succeeded in reconstructing the ritual of exorcism of a vampire,” Borrini told Reuters by telephone. “This helps ... authenticate how the myth of vampires was born.”
The skeleton was unearthed in a mass grave from the Venetian plague of 1576 -- in which the artist Titian died -- on Lazzaretto Nuovo, which lies around three km (2 miles) northeast of Venice and was used as a sanitorium for plague sufferers.
The succession of plagues which ravaged Europe between 1300 and 1700 fostered the belief in vampires, mainly because the decomposition of corpses was not well understood, Borrini said.
Gravediggers reopening mass graves would sometimes come across bodies bloated by gas, with hair still growing, and blood seeping from their mouths and believe them to be still alive.
The shrouds used to cover the faces of the dead were often decayed by bacteria in the mouth, revealing the corpse’s teeth, and vampires became known as “shroud-eaters.”
According to medieval medical and religious texts, the “undead” were believed to spread pestilence in order to suck the remaining life from corpses until they acquired the strength to return to the streets again.
“To kill the vampire you had to remove the shroud from its mouth, which was its food like the milk of a child, and put something uneatable in there,” said Borrini. “It’s possible that other corpses have been found with bricks in their mouths, but this is the first time the ritual has been recognized.”
While legends about blood-drinking ghouls date back thousands of years, the modern figure of the vampire was encapsulated in the Irish author Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel “Dracula,” based on 18th century eastern European folktales.
Editing by Phakamisa NdzamelaOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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426a8ac5025a3affd59b3cf905be686e
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-vatican/vatican-ends-automatic-adoption-of-italian-law-idUSTRE4BU3BD20081231
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Vatican ends automatic adoption of Italian law
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Vatican ends automatic adoption of Italian law
By Deepa Babington3 Min Read
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican will no longer automatically adopt new Italian laws as its own, a top Vatican official said, citing the vast number of laws Italy churns out, many of which are in odds with Catholic doctrine.
Pope Benedict XVI addresses cardinals for Christmas wishes in in the Clementine Hall at the Vatican December 22, 2008. REUTERS/Max Rossi
The surprise announcement in the Vatican’s newspaper, Osservatore Romano, on Wednesday immediately prompted debate on whether the move was a rebuke to Italian government policies, with one newspaper commentator calling it a “masked warning.”
The Vatican has had a sometimes tense relationship with left-leaning Italian governments over issues such as gay unions and stem cell research. It sees more eye-to-eye with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s conservative government, though it has expressed concern over its crackdown on immigration.
Under existing law, the Vatican accepts Italian law automatically except on bilateral treaties or when there is a sharp divergence with basic canon law, wrote Jose Maria Serrano Ruiz, president of the Vatican commission on law revisions.
But under a new law signed by Pope Benedict on October 1, Vatican authorities will first examine Italian laws before deciding whether to adopt them, he wrote in Osservatore Romano.
The change stemmed from the “really exorbitant number” of Italian laws, their “instability,” and their frequent “contrast” with Catholic Church principles, Ruiz wrote. The new procedure comes into effect on January 1, he wrote.
Taken by surprise, Roberto Calderoli, Italy’s minister for legislative simplification, complained that the Vatican ought to have made the change under the previous center-left government and said he hoped the Vatican would reconsider its decision.
“Frankly, until now I have not seen any move by our government that goes in a direction against Church values,” he told the leading Corriere della Sera newspaper.
He later said the decision of a top Italian court that last month allowed an Italian man to let his comatose daughter die by cutting off her feeding tube was probably what swayed the Vatican, which had strongly opposed letting her die.
Corriere columnist Massimo Franco said the Vatican had not always accepted Italian law automatically even under current law, but that the new procedure was significant.
“It’s significant because it sounds like a masked warning,” he wrote. “It remains to be seen if this a declaration of mistrust toward the Italian state, or just a stubborn and pre-emptive emphasis just as parliament is set to discuss life and death issues.”
Seeking to quell the growing controversy on the issue, Giuseppe Dalla Torre, president of the Vatican Tribunal, told Vatican radio that little would change with the new move since some sort of a filter for Italian law had always existed.
Editing by Giles ElgoodOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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6811dce879460de34e85de9eb217d14e
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-venice-protests-idUSKBN1370J0
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Venetians pack their bags as tourism takes its toll
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Venetians pack their bags as tourism takes its toll
By Reuters Staff3 Min Read
VENICE, Italy (Reuters) - Dozens of Venetians waved maroon and yellow flags and carried empty suitcases on Saturday during a symbolic demonstration to highlight an exodus of residents from the lagoon city, where tourist hordes can make everyday life challenging.
Slideshow ( 5 images )
Images of narrow Venetian alleys clogged with visitors during the All Saints holiday weekend filled Italian papers last week, rekindling a debate about limiting access to the city through a booking system.
Venetians have long complained that food shopping and other daily errands have become increasingly tricky as the city focuses on meeting the needs of the more than 20 million tourists who are estimated to visit it every year.
“This is not a protest against tourism, it’s a protest against the policies that the city has followed in the last 40 years,” Venetian resident Andrea Castelli said.
“We don’t want to leave the city, we are Venetian, we want to live here so we are asking the City of Venice to help us to stay in Venice,” he added.
Donning a red cloak lined with ermine fur and a brocade cap Castelli dressed up as the Doge, the historic leader of the Republic of Venice.
After leading a procession of people carrying a giant red cardboard suitcase and wheeling their own bags, the Doge climbed onto a gondola and symbolically left the city.
According to city resident Sebastian Giorgi, the city’s population drops by about 1,000 per year.
Protesters hung a banner that read “#Venexodus” on the Rialto bridge and glued to their trolleys signs that said ‘Without Venetians? Don’t call me Venice anymore.”
An electronic display in a pharmacy’s shop window showed the number of residents at 54,926. Next to it, a sign said Venice had a population of 174,808 in 1951 which had fallen to 60,704 by March 2008.
As well as the congestion caused by tourists, Venetians blame short-term tourist rentals for inflating housing costs.
“Venice is a fragile city, fragile structurally and physically but also when it comes to its social fabric,” resident Federico Permutti said.
“If you add to that the lack of housing for locals and a wild proliferation of accommodation offered to tourists, you can understand that the situation is unbearable for those who live here.”
Writing by Valentina Za; Editing by Helen PopperOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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000b32e8774f5de14895c9de360ba5e4
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-weather-venice-factbox-idUSKBN1XO28Q
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Factbox: Why is Venice flooding so often?
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Factbox: Why is Venice flooding so often?
By Giselda Vagnoni3 Min Read
ROME (Reuters) - Flood-tides in Venice hit their highest level in more than 50 years this week, inundating parts of the lagoon city under almost two meters of water and raising fears of irreparable damage to historic treasures including Saint Mark’s Basilica.
Slideshow ( 5 images )
The phenomenon of floods, “acqua alta” in Italian, is caused by a combination of factors, exacerbated by climate change -- from rising sea levels and unusually high tides to land subsidence that has caused the ground level of the city to sink.
It has been accelerating markedly in recent decades. This week, the Byzantine Saint Mark’s Basilica was flooded for the sixth time in 1,200 years -- but the fourth in the last 20.
Construction began on a sea defense system in 2003 but, after prolonged delays, it is not expected to begin operating until the end of 2021.
Here are some of the factors behind the flooding:
SEA LEVELS RISE, GROUND LEVELS SINK
The sea level around Venice has been rising steadily for decades, a phenomenon which has been accelerated by climate change. The mean sea level is now estimated to be more than 20 cm higher than it was a century ago.
At the same time, the city’s ground level has been gradually sinking, by an estimated one millimeter a year, owing to the soft and shifting geological terrain on which its foundations are built. That was made worse over decades by local industries around Venice pumping groundwater from the acquifer under the lagoon until they were forbidden to do so in the 1970s.
TIDE
Venice, built on a collection of small islands within a saltwater lagoon off the northeastern coast of Italy, has always lived with tides that usually create variations of around 50 cm in sea levels but which can sometimes be more extreme.
WEATHER
Scirocco winds blowing from the south east can drive water into the lagoon, much of which is made up of marshes and mud flats. When high tides coincide with strong winds and a low pressure system, the effect can be unpredictable and extreme.
That is what happened on Nov. 12, when winds of over 100 km an hour hit the city and lagoon tides peaked at 187 cm, their highest level since the 1966 record of 194 cm.
Venice’s Institute of Marine Sciences said with the effects of climate change, rising sea levels and more frequent storms at sea, such extreme events will become increasingly common.
Reporting by Giselda Vagnoni, Editing by James Mackenzie and Catherine EvansOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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85121d1f91853dbd8d5337969db154d7
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-weather-venice-mose/venice-still-waiting-for-moses-to-hold-back-the-seas-idUSKBN1XN2EQ
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Venice still waiting for Moses to hold back the seas
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Venice still waiting for Moses to hold back the seas
By Riccardo Bastianello, Crispian Balmer4 Min Read
VENICE/ROME (Reuters) - If everything had gone according to plan, Tuesday’s high tide should never have reached the lagoon city of Venice, let alone flood its basilica, submerge its squares and inundate its historic palaces.
But things in Italy rarely go according to plan, especially if you are talking about the execution of a mega infrastructure project involving massive public financing and complex, cutting-edge engineering.
Following the worst flooding in its history in 1966, the Italian government asked engineers to draw up plans to build a barrier at sea to defend one of the world’s most picturesque yet fragile cities from the constant threat of high tides.
Fast forward to 2003 and construction finally started with completion set for 2011. But the project, known as Mose, has been plagued by the sort of problems that have come to characterize many major Italian construction programs -- corruption, cost overruns and prolonged delays.
Engineers are now predicting the sea defense system will go on line at the end of 2021 at a cost of 5.5 billion euros ($6.1 billion) against an original estimate of 1.6 billion euros.
“These delays are an embarrassment for all of Italy and we urgently need a solution,” Alessandro Morelli, the head of parliament’s transport commission said on Wednesday, promising to dispatch lawmakers to Venice to review the program.
The good news is they will discover that the building work is almost complete. The bad news is no-one is sure how it will cope with the growing phenomenon of flooding and whether it might prove too little, too late.
Slideshow ( 3 images )
MOBILE BARRIERS
Mose is an acronym for “Modulo Sperimentale Elettromeccanico”, or “Experimental Electromechanical Module”, and refers to the biblical figure Moses who parted the Red Sea to enable the Israelites to flee to safety from Egypt.
The modern-day Moses consists of 78 bright yellow mobile barriers buried in the water that, when activated, will rise above the surface and prevent surging tides from the Adriatic Sea flooding the delicate Venetian lagoon.
“If Mose had been working, then we would have avoided this exceptional high tide,” Venice Mayor Luigi Brugnaro said after Tuesday’s floods, which followed a tide of 187 cm (6ft 2ins) -- the worst since the 194 cm recorded in 1966.
All 78 gates are now in place and engineers are working on the mechanics of raising them simultaneously once tides of more than 110 cm are forecast, with first testing expected next year.
But there is no guarantee it will go smoothly.
Slideshow ( 3 images )
Part of the submerged infrastructure has already started to rust and a source close to the consortium building the mobile dam told Reuters on Wednesday it would cost some 100 million euros a year to maintain -- much higher than original estimates.
The source, who declined to be named, was confident that once operational, it could defend Venice from tides of up to 3 meters high, well beyond the current record.
But some experts worry that the system was not designed to deal with the sort of rising sea waters that recent climate-change models have predicted.
A report here by the U.N.'s science and culture agency UNESCO says Mose was planned on a base scenario of sea levels in the northern Adriatic rising some 22 cm by 2100, but many scientists fear that assumption is far too optimistic.
“The planned mobile barriers might be able to avoid flooding for the next few decades, but the sea will eventually rise to a level where even continuous closures will not be able to protect the city from flooding,” the 2011 UNESCO report concluded.
($1 = 0.9074 euros)
Writing by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Gareth JonesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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5f1c51a0d82d9a1b443fd267fc32aa98
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-itau-unibco-hldg-antitrust/brazils-antitrust-watchdog-rejects-itau-unibanco-appeal-on-card-processor-case-idINKBN1Y11YZ?edition-redirect=in
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Brazil's antitrust watchdog rejects Itau Unibanco appeal on card processor case
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Brazil's antitrust watchdog rejects Itau Unibanco appeal on card processor case
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
FILE PHOTO: A man walks past an Itau Unibanco logo in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil September 6, 2017. REUTERS/Pilar Olivares
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazilian antitrust watchdog Cade on Wednesday rejected Itau Unibanco Holding SA's ITUB4.SA appeal on a case involving its payments processor Rede for alleged anticompetitive practices.
Cade determined that Itau cannot demand that merchants have checking accounts at the bank as a condition for pre-payment of sales by credit cards. If the bank does not comply with the decision, it is subject to a 250,000 reais ($59,574) fine per day.
Itau said it will continue to offer prepayments requiring clients to have checking accounts in the bank, as it obtained an injunction earlier this month allowing it to do so. The bank also said its practices do not differ those of from rivals.
Itau said in April it would prepay small and mid-sized merchants in two days after the sales with no interest rates, sharply reducing the usual 30-day period in Brazil, in an unprecedented market move. As an eligibility condition, Itau demanded merchants receive all payments in a checking account in the bank.
Cade said in October Itau’s move hindered competition in the medium term.
Reporting by Gabriel Ponte, in Brasilia; Additional reporting and writing by Carolina Mandl; Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Bill BerkrotOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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c73a0668c9f5f8dcb032a003c6a7a00b
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-itau-unibco-hldg-card/brazils-itau-unibanco-to-launch-new-payments-app-using-qr-code-idUSKCN1SJ1ST
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Brazil's Itau Unibanco to launch new payments app using QR code
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Brazil's Itau Unibanco to launch new payments app using QR code
By Carolina Mandl2 Min Read
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil’s largest private-sector lender, Itaú Unibanco Holding SA, will launch an instant payments platform by the third quarter that uses QR codes, adding fuel to the fierce competition among card processors.
Itaú’s new platform, called Iti, will work through an app connecting individuals and merchants and will be available to both clients and nonclients of the bank, it said on Monday.
Merchants using Iti will pay a fee of 1% per transaction and will receive payments instantly - cheaper than fees currently charged by many card processors. The app also does not require merchants to buy or rent card reader machines.
Shares of Brazilian card processors, such as PagSeguro Digital Ltd, StoneCo Ltd and Cielo SA, fell sharply after Itaú’s announcement.
A QR or quick response code is a bar code that contains a matrix of dots, which can be scanned with a QR scanner or smartphone with built-in camera.
Marcos Magalhães, CEO of Itaú’s card processor Rede, said Iti is more likely to attract small merchants, which do not seek customized services. He did not provide estimates for the number of clients it targets.
In terms of individuals, the bank is targeting all income brackets, including consumers with no bank accounts, as Iti will work as a digital wallet with no fee, said Itaú’s general director, Marcio Schettini.
Roughly one-third of Brazil’s adult population does not have a checking account, according to the World Bank, a higher ratio than China or India.
Besides using QR codes to pay for products and services, clients will be allowed to transfer money using a kind of in-house messaging service.
Itaú is also considering offering investments, loans and insurance products through the new app, although it did not elaborate.
Reporting by Carolina Mandl in Sao Paulo; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Matthew LewisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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10424f9314afc274c7ee4e56fc244f1e
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-itt-education-layoffs-idUSKCN11C15W
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ITT to shut institutes, thousands of students to be affected
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ITT to shut institutes, thousands of students to be affected
By Arunima Banerjee3 Min Read
(Reuters) - ITT Educational Services Inc said it would shut its flagship ITT Technical Institutes, following a U.S. Department of Education order, affecting thousands of students and employees.
ITT’s move is the latest blow to the over $20 billion U.S. for-profit education industry, which has come under fire from the government in the past couple of years for its poor track record in helping students find employment.
Shutting the institutes will affect more than 8,000 employees and hundreds of thousands of students and alumni, ITT said on Tuesday.
The New York Stock Exchange said it would immediately suspend trading in ITT's shares and delist the company. (bit.ly/2cxGirp)
The stock last traded at 38.4 cents in premarket trading before being halted.
“We reached this decision only after having exhausted the exploration of alternatives, including transfer of the schools to a non-profit or public institution,” ITT said.
In August, the U.S. Department of Education banned the company from enrolling students who get federal aid.
Such students accounted for more than two-thirds of ITT’s revenue in 2015. The company had 40,000 students at its ITT Technical Institute and Daniel Webster College locations as of June 30.
TOUGH LESSON
U.S. for-profit education providers have struggled to attract students since a 2010 government crackdown revealed high student debt loads, low graduation rates and poor employability of graduates.
In April last year, Corinthian Colleges Inc abruptly closed 28 schools, leaving 16,000 students without classes amid federal and state investigations. (reut.rs/2c4n37c)
The company, which filed for bankruptcy the following month, was being investigated for allegations of misleading students and investors about its finances and job placement rates.
U.S. for-profit college operator Education Management Corp also said in November that it would to pay a record $95.5 million to resolve charges that it used high-pressure sales tactics to mislead students.
Carmel, Indiana-based ITT has been subject to government scrutiny for allegations of fraud and deceptive marketing tactics.
ITT’s accrediting agency said in April that ITT Technical Institutes - which provide career-oriented education programs - had not demonstrated compliance with certain accreditation standards.
Reporting by Arunima Banerjee and Subrat Patnaik in Bengaluru; Editing by Kirti PandeyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-itv-results/itv-bbc-to-team-up-for-britbox-streaming-service-idUSKCN1QG0RS?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews
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ITV, BBC to team up for 'BritBox' on-demand TV streaming service
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ITV, BBC to team up for 'BritBox' on-demand TV streaming service
By Paul Sandle3 Min Read
BARCELONA (Reuters) - British broadcaster ITV is teaming up with publicly funded rival the BBC to launch a new streaming service for UK viewers, a Netflix-style offering of British box-sets and original series.
The partners are finalizing a deal to bring “BritBox”, a service already available in North America, to UK audiences. They say it will offer the biggest collection of British programs available on any streaming service.
“We have agreed a joint vision for the service and are now working on a formal agreement. We anticipate that other partners will be added to BritBox,” ITV Chief Executive Carolyn McCall said on Wednesday.
Other partners, including British broadcasters Channel 4 and 5, were involved in talks for inclusion in BritBox, and discussions with regulators were continuing, McCall said. Launch at an undisclosed price described as competitive is set for the second half of 2019.
UK broadcasters started working on a joint streaming service a decade ago, but were stopped by competition regulators.
ITV’s investment in the new platform would be up to 25 million pounds ($33 million) in 2019 and around 40 million pounds in 2020, declining thereafter. The BBC’s investment was not disclosed.
This year alone, Netflix is investing more than $8 billion in entertainment programming with a global reach.
Shares in ITV, Britain’s biggest commercial free-to-air broadcaster, were down 4.5 percent at 1035 GMT.
“(This) long overdue move is a step in the right direction. However, it might be a bit late,” said independent media analyst Paolo Pescatore. “The biggest challenge is to get consumers to part with their hard-earned cash for another service.”
McCall said Britbox was a different proposition from Netflix’s international offer, and should be understood more as an add-on than a potential alternative.
BBC Director General Tony Hall said the offer would include new commissions and would satisfy appetite for new content, adding that research showed viewers were willing to add subscriptions beyond Netflix, Amazon Prime and Sky.
BritBox has over half a million subscribers in the United States and Canada.
ITV, home of soap opera “Coronation Street” and reality show “Love Island”, announced the tie-up along with 2018 adjusted earnings down 4 percent to 810 million pounds, slightly ahead of forecasts by Citi analysts.
On-screen performance was strong, but economic and political uncertainty in Britain would cause advertising revenue for the first four months of 2019 to fall by 3-4 percent, it said.
Ad revenue for March, the month in which Britain is due to leave the European Union, would be down 17 percent, ITV said, better than the 20 percent drop some analysts had forecast.
Analysts had cautioned that the lack of a political agreement on Britain’s departure from the European Union -- which now looks increasingly likely to be delayed -- in 30 days time could deter major brands from big advertising spending.
Additional reporting and writing by Elisabeth O’Leary; Editing by Jason Neely, Mark Potter, Georgina ProdhanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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00163bf1e458e21da79e45c5a0412a38
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ivorycoast-election/after-ivory-coast-election-fighting-comes-to-a-once-calm-town-idUSKBN27T2N2?il=0
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After Ivory Coast election, fighting comes to a once-calm town
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After Ivory Coast election, fighting comes to a once-calm town
By Ange Aboa3 Min Read
M’BATTO, Ivory Coast (Reuters) - Before last month’s presidential election, M’Batto in central Ivory Coast was a small, peaceful town where ethnic groups intermarried and churches and mosques existed side by side without friction, residents say.
Slideshow ( 5 images )
Two weeks on and the streets are littered with empty shotgun cartridges, shops have been burned down and at least six people are dead, killed in ethnic clashes that some fear could herald a repeat of Ivory Coast’s civil wars in 2002 and 2010-2011.
The Oct. 31 election, which was boycotted by the opposition, opened up old wounds around the question of identity in Ivory Coast between mostly northern Dioula migrants and the Agni southerners who see themselves as original settlers.
The landslide win of President Alassane Ouattara for a controversial third term made tensions worse.
“I was at home when someone called me to say youths were burning our mosque. We went running to protect it,” said Amidou Togo. In the melee that followed, someone fired a shotgun at Togo, leaving a gash in his neck.
The violence presents Ouattara with a post-election conundrum: how to stand firm against rivals who say his third term breaks the law, while reuniting a divided nation.
The challenge was plain to see in M’Batto this week, where shop owners tried to clean up their gutted properties in the rain while soldiers with rifles patrolled nearby.
The violence began on Monday when supporters of opposition leader Pascal Affi N’Guessan, of Agni ethnicity, marched to oppose the vote. The town’s migrant ethnic Dioula, who generally favour Ouattara, blocked them coming into their district. Gunshots rang out, residents said.
One woman named Mariette Koua lost her son in the fighting and her business was burned down. She lay in a hospital bed on Thursday, too traumatised to speak.
An acquaintance, Sidonie Nguessan Marie, sat beside her in tears.
“They ... burned down my restaurant. They burned down everything. We have nothing left now and right now we don’t know what to do, everything is gone, burned.”
Editing By Edward McAllister and Raissa KasolowskyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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c8233c9bb332896ecdecc76a2a139192
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ivorycoast-election/ivory-coast-opposition-leader-arrested-for-creating-rival-government-idUSKBN27N0AO?il=0
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Ivory Coast opposition leader arrested for creating rival government
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Ivory Coast opposition leader arrested for creating rival government
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Ivory Coast opposition leader and former prime minister Pascal Affi N’Guessan was under arrest on Saturday for creating a rival government after President Alassane Ouattara’s election victory, his wife and a spokeswoman said.
Ivorian prosecutors are pursuing terrorism charges against more than a dozen opposition leaders who boycotted the Oct. 31 vote in which Ouattara won a third term in office and announced they were creating a transitional council.
The standoff has raised fears of protracted instability in the world’s top cocoa producer, whose disputed 2010 presidential election led to a brief civil war. More than 40 people have died in clashes before and since the latest vote.
Affi was arrested overnight after the public prosecutor confirmed on Friday that he was being sought by the police, his wife, Angeline Kili, told Reuters.
“I confirm that my husband was arrested during the night but I don’t know where he is right now,” she said.
Genevieve Goetzinger, a spokeswoman for Affi, said on Twitter he was arrested in the southeastern town of Akoupe while en route to his hometown of Bongouanou.
The police were not immediately available for comment.
Affi served as prime minister from 2000-2003 under President Laurent Gbagbo, whose refusal to concede defeat to Ouattara after the 2010 election sparked a civil war which killed 3,000 people.
The opposition claims Ouattara has violated the constitution by seeking a third term. Ouattara says approval of a new constitution in 2016 restarted his mandate and allowed him to run again.
Reporting by Ange Aboa; Writing by Aaron Ross; Editing by Mike HarrisonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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6e2ec588055f89b029b26dadaa518887
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ivorycoast-election/reports-of-scattered-unrest-as-ivory-coast-holds-vote-idUSKBN27G00I?il=0
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Reports of scattered unrest as Ivory Coast holds vote
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Reports of scattered unrest as Ivory Coast holds vote
By Aaron Ross, Ange Aboa3 Min Read
ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Ivory Coast appeared to have averted large-scale violence on Saturday in a presidential election boycotted by the opposition, although there were conflicting reports of scattered unrest in the provinces.
Slideshow ( 5 images )
The streets of the largest city Abidjan were quiet and voting appeared to have gone smoothly in most districts. Opponents accuse President Alassane Ouattara of violating the constitution by seeking a third term, and there had been concern that the voting could turn violent after more than 30 people were killed in pre-election unrest.
The opposition said whole swathes of the country had not participated in the vote or had been prevented from doing so. Candidate Pascal Affi N’Guessan said the opposition estimated around 12 people had died as a result of civil disobedience campaigns.
A government source said two people had been killed and more wounded in clashes outside Abidjan. Ruling party representative Adama Bictogo reported there had been deaths but gave no figure. Police gave no update.
But Ouattara played down the extent of any violence or disruption.
“Apart from a few isolated places - a dozen or so - the vote is going well,” he told journalists as he voted in Abidjan.
Djenebou Toure, a businesswoman sitting with friends outside a polling station in Abijan’s Adjame district, said: “There was fear but it has not stopped us from coming out.”
The electoral commission said that out of over 22,300 polling stations, 30-40 were vandalised.
Opponents of 78-year-old Ouattara say he is breaking the law by running again because the constitution limits presidents to two terms, and is jeopardising hard-earned economic gains.
“Ivorians refused to join in with this farce of an election,” said Affi, who called for the boycott along with fellow candidate, former president Henri Konan Bedie.
Ouattara says he can run again under a new constitution approved in 2016, and is doing so only because his handpicked successor died unexpectedly in July. With his opponents having told their supporters not to vote, his victory is probably a foregone conclusion.
Polls closed as scheduled and vote-counting started soon after 6 p.m. (1800 GMT), according to Reuters journalists in Abidjan.
Violence linked to the election has brought back memories of the 2010 presidential vote, which unleashed a brief civil war killing 3,000 people after Ouattara’s predecessor Laurent Gbagbo refused to step down.
Opponents call Ouattara’s candidacy a new blow to West African democracy following a military coup in Mali in August and a successful third-term bid this month by the president of Guinea, Alpha Conde, also disputed by his opponents.
Additional reporting by Loucoumane Coulibaly; Writing by Aaron Ross and Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Edward McAllister, Ros Russell and Frances KerryOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ivorycoast-election/six-killed-in-ivory-coast-town-ahead-of-presidential-election-idUSKBN2771HX?il=0
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Six killed in Ivory Coast town ahead of presidential election
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Six killed in Ivory Coast town ahead of presidential election
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
ABIDJAN (Reuters) - At least six people have been killed in a port town in southern Ivory Coast this week, the mayor said on Thursday, as supporters and opponents of President Alassane Ouattara trade blame for rising violence ahead of the Oct. 31 election.
Slideshow ( 2 images )
The authorities decreed a curfew on Wednesday night in response to the killings in Dabou, which Mayor Jean-Claude Niangne said were carried out by men armed with assault rifles and machetes.
Violence has broken out sporadically since August, when Ouattara announced his candidacy for a third term, a move his opponents say violates the constitution.
In all, more than 20 people have died in protests and clashes between rival supporters.
The events have stoked fears about a bigger slide into violence. A disputed election a decade ago led to a civil war that killed 3,000 people.
Niangne, a member of Ouattara’s ruling party, said young men affiliated with the president’s opponents took control of parts of Dabou earlier in the week, killing six people and wounding 40, before being pushed out on Wednesday by the police.
He said weapons belonging to a national lawmaker and former mayor of the town, who is an ally of exiled opposition leader Guillaume Soro, were used by the assailants.
The lawmaker, Ben Souk Sess, who is in exile in Mali, denied this and blamed the violence on youth gangs working for Niangne.
Ouattara’s two main challengers in the election, former President Henri Konan Bedie and Pascal Affi N’Guessan, called on their supporters last week to boycott the electoral process and prevent it from going ahead.
They accuse the ruling party of manipulating the electoral process to ensure Ouattara’s victory. Ouattara denies this and says he has the right to stand for re-election under a new constitution approved in 2016.
Reporting by Ange Aboa; Writing by Aaron Ross; Editing by Hugh LawsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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c75883d6b86b843726142c7e78753d09
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ivorycoast-environment-coastal-erosio/ivory-coast-town-sinking-underwater-as-coastal-erosion-advances-idUKKCN1VV1HD?edition-redirect=uk
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Ivory Coast town sinking underwater as coastal erosion advances
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Ivory Coast town sinking underwater as coastal erosion advances
By Loucoumane Coulibaly2 Min Read
LAHOU-KPANDA, Ivory Coast (Reuters) - The village of Lahou-Kpanda is sinking. In the past 30 years, residents of the once-thriving historic town 140 km southwest of the Ivorian capital Abidjan have seen their prison, hospital and school be subsumed by the waters.
Some of the villagers have started to exhume the bodies of relatives, for fear of their graves being lost to the sea. Not all have managed to do so on time.
“Today we live in anguish. What will happen tomorrow if no one comes to the help of the village? We will disappear,” said Daniel Loha, one of the village elders, walking by the graves.
“In Africa, our parents, our ancestors are very important to us and to see them scattered in the sea is heartbreaking and every day that God brings to us we are haunted.”
In West Africa, where a third of the population lives along the coast, rising sea levels linked to the melting of the polar ice caps are conspiring with coastal erosion to slowly submerge communities.
Slideshow ( 16 images )
Yet experts say poorly planned construction too close to the coast or using coastal sand as a building material worsens erosion and renders buildings vulnerable.
Every year in the main town of Grand-Lahou, in which Lahou-Kpanda is located, the water advances further. It had to be relocated nearly 20 km inland in the 1970s.
Residents tried to include Grand-Lahou on the list of UNESCO protected sites in an effort to shore up funding to save the peninsula, but local experts say it is too late as historical buildings have already been lost.
The degradation of its coast cost Ivory Coast nearly $2 billion in 2017 or nearly 5% of its GDP, according to the World Bank, making it one of the worst-hit countries in West Africa.
For the whole of West Africa that figure rises to over $3.8 billion a year.
Reporting by Loucoumane Coulibaly, editing by Anna Pujol-Mazzini and Alexandra HudsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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54e72363752501394cc2b8c6c5046950
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ivorycoast-france-macron-currency/revamped-west-african-currency-to-be-launched-in-2020-macron-idUKKBN1YP0KJ?edition-redirect=uk
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Revamped West African currency to be launched in 2020: Macron
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Revamped West African currency to be launched in 2020: Macron
By Reuters Staff1 Min Read
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PARIS (Reuters) - A new version of a common currency in West Africa will be launched in 2020, French President Emmanuel Macron said.
The changes to the currency, to be renamed as the ECO in place of the CFA Franc, were announced by Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara at a joint news conference with Macron in Abidjan on Saturday.
Reporting by Gus Trompiz; Editing by David ClarkeOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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0aad1b190bf0428026e4774098b4144a
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ivorycoast-military-analysis-idUSKBN15326E
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Army mutiny exposes cracks in Ivory Coast success story
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Army mutiny exposes cracks in Ivory Coast success story
By Joe Bavier8 Min Read
ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Ivory Coast’s President Alassane Ouattara has seduced foreign investors with his single-minded focus on economic reform and growth but entrenched problems within the security forces threaten to undermine a much-lauded recovery.
Soldiers of Ivory Coast presidential guard patrol as they arrive at the port of Abidjan, Ivory Coast January 18, 2017. REUTERS/Luc Gnago
Split from 2002 to 2011 between rebels in the north and government forces in the south, Ivory Coast has since become one of the world’s fastest growing economies and is regularly cited as a model of post-conflict renewal.
But that narrative was dealt a major blow this month when thousands of soldiers, mostly former rebels who battled for years to get Ouattara into power, mutinied and seized control of the country’s second biggest city.
The government capitulated rapidly and met demands for bonus payments the soldiers said they were promised when fighting to oust former President Laurent Gbagbo, who lost a disputed election to Ouattara in 2010 but refused to quit.
While many foreign investors are looking past the uprising as a relatively minor hiccup, analysts and diplomats see it as warning of more trouble to come, not least because it was the second mutiny in three years and has triggered similar revolts by security forces left out of the deal.
“It’s not enough just to focus on the economy and attract investors. What’s happening in the army should be the government’s priority,” said International Crisis Group’s (ICG) West Africa analyst Cynthia Ohayon. “Ouattara’s own stability is at stake.”
ALL CARROT, NO STICK
The immediate issues date back to the aftermath of the civil war in 2011 that ended nearly a decade of geographical division in Ivory Coast and put Ouattara in power.
Thousands of former rebels who backed him became part of the army, as well as other branches of the security forces, the forestry service, customs offices and the prison system, rubbing shoulders with former foes.
But six years, on the country’s security apparatus remains riven by factions.
In 2011, analysts said the new administration needed to get a grip on the situation quickly by imposing discipline, vetting the rank and file to trim the army down to a size in keeping with Ivory Coast’s few external threats and controlling the stockpiles of weapons amassed in recent years.
Analysts say this did not happen because rebel commanders, some of whom led the 2002 uprising that split the country, remained in control of much of the army through parallel chains of command that Ouattara shied away from breaking.
With little leverage or control over its own military, the government’s approach has been to throw money at flare-ups, as it did with a similar mutiny in 2014, and do little else.
“Right now all these deals are all carrot and no stick,” said a regional security official.
Ouattara now finds himself hostage to his army with little option to pay up, said ICG’s Ohayon, but that is an unsustainable and potentially expensive strategy fraught with risks.
“Where are they going to find all the money if you keep having groups of soldiers rising up demanding more money?” Ohayon said. “If you look at what happened in 1999, it started off as a mutiny. It ended as a coup and then there were years of crisis.”
TIDE LIFTS ALL BOATS
Ouattara’s focus on the economy above all to make things better harks back to the tactics employed by the country’s founding President Felix Houphouet-Boigny, who ruled after independence from France in 1960 until his death in 1993.
He encouraged millions of migrants from neighboring countries to come and work the land. That transformed the country into a giant agricultural machine, exporting cash crops and using the proceeds to build motorways and skyscrapers.
Ivory Coast remains the world’s biggest cocoa producer and investment in infrastructure following the years of crisis has helped the economy expand at an average annual rate of nearly 9 percent from 2012 to 2015.
An economist by training, Ouattara has been governor of the Central Bank of West African States and a deputy managing director at the International Monetary Fund.
“He’s using a strategy that a rising tide lifts all boats. If you can just push through, the economic improvements will take care of the rest,” said one Abidjan-based diplomat.
Yet despite the abundance of luxury cars and new shopping malls in the commercial capital Abidjan, few have seen the benefits of the near double-digit growth and many Ivorians are losing patience.
Teachers went on strike in November. Civil servants walked out last week demanding nearly $400 million in back wages and students took to the streets on Monday.
But the army is the most pressing risk, and the country’s history shows it is ignored at its peril.
BRIGHT FUTURE AT RISK
Under Houphouet-Boigny, Ivory Coast maintained very close ties with Paris, including an agreement that France would ensure its internal and external security. Given that, he did little to create a working military with a sense of loyalty to the state.
And it was the military that first undermined the veneer of stability Houphouet-Boigny had maintained in a region plagued by coups and civil wars elsewhere.
“They always relied on the French for protection. So the military became, and continues to be, an employment organization,” said the regional security official.
Since 1990, Ivorian soldiers have staged no fewer than 11 mutinies, according to data compiled by Maggie Dwyer, a research fellow at the University of Edinburgh.
A pay dispute in 1999 degenerated into Ivory Coast’s first coup d’etat, which ousted President Henri Konan Bedie and installed a military junta.
In 2002, northern soldiers decrying discrimination within the army and Ouattara’s exclusion from a 2000 presidential election tried to overthrow President Gbagbo. They failed, but the putsch sparked the civil war that rent the country in two until the next civil war in 2011.
Today, soldiers complain they must pay for uniforms out of their meager salaries. At bases in Abidjan, not far from the construction sites for a luxury marina and high-rise apartment blocks, they grow vegetables to supplement their diets.
The latest revolt was carried out by many of the same soldiers who were paid off after the 2014 mutiny. But again the government cut a deal - and fired the heads of the army, police and gendarmerie for good measure.
Ivorian authorities have not released details but mutiny leaders say the deal included a payment of 12 million CFA francs ($19,400) in bonuses to some 8,400 former rebel fighters - a hefty price tag of some $160 million, if true.
While the government probably had little choice but to capitulate to avoid the mutiny spiraling out of control, ICG’s Ohayon said such payoffs were no substitute for the more difficult but absolutely essential military reforms required.
First off, the settlement exposes the government’s susceptibility to blackmail and has already encouraged similar revolts this week by jealous soldiers who did not participate in the mutiny and were not paid off.
Looking further ahead, the risk that factions within the army could be mobilized to support rival political camps ahead of the 2020 presidential election remains.
Ouattara has said he will step down and jockeying for position by pretenders such as Guillaume Soro, the former head of the northern rebellion, is already underway.
None of this bodes well for Ivory Coast’s long-term political stability and what many investors had viewed as its bright economic future.
“You don’t even know on your own staff who is with them,” one senior army officer said after the latest revolt exposed the depth of the divisions within the ranks.
“Even if during the day out of respect one might say he is with you, at night he’s with them.
($1 = 618.9400 CFA francs)
(Removes reference in par 39 to removal of two-term limit for president)
Additional reporting by Ange Aboa; editing by David Clarke and Ralph BoultonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ivorycoast-military-idUSKBN14Q0V6
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Ivory Coast uprising by disgruntled soldiers spreads to other cities
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Ivory Coast uprising by disgruntled soldiers spreads to other cities
By Ange Aboa, Loucoumane Coulibaly4 Min Read
BOUAKE, Ivory Coast (Reuters) - Disgruntled soldiers demanding salary increases and the payment of bonuses seized control of Ivory Coast’s second-largest city, Bouake, on Friday, in an uprising that spread to at least two other cities.
A statement from Defence Minister Alain-Richard Donwahi read out on state television said a group of soldiers had used their weapons to force their way into the military headquarters in Bouake soon after midnight and then made their demands.
Ivory Coast - French-speaking West Africa’s largest economy - has emerged from a 2002-11 political crisis as one of the continent’s rising economic stars.
But its army, thrown together at the end of the conflict from a mixture of former rebel factions and government soldiers, remains an unruly force riddled with divisions.
“We are going to talk with our men, listen to their preoccupations and find solutions to this situation,” Donwahi said in a later evening statement, after an emergency meeting with other members of the National Security Council, including President Alassane Ouattara and top military officers.
Donwahi said the revolt was “understandable but deplorable for the image of the country and for the work the president has done since the end of the crisis.”
Heavy gunfire was heard from around 2 a.m. local time (0200 GMT) in the city of around a half million inhabitants, but later died down.
Slideshow ( 6 images )
Shooting also broke out at a base in Daloa, the main trading hub in the western cocoa belt, and residents said soldiers, some of them masked, were patrolling the streets in 4x4s.
FORMER REBELS
Residents of the northern city of Korhogo reported hearing sporadic gunfire in the afternoon as military sources said some soldiers there had also joined the uprising.
Donwahi said the towns of Odienne and Daoukro had also been affected by the mutiny, but said the situation was now calm.
Bouake was the seat of a rebellion that controlled the northern half of the country from 2002, until Ivory Coast was reunited following a civil war in 2011.
Most of those involved in the mutiny appeared to be former rebels who were integrated into the army.
Slideshow ( 6 images )
Bema Fofana, a member of parliament representing Bouake who spoke to several of the soldiers, said they were demanding 5 million CFA francs ($8,000) each, as well as a house.
Ivory Coast is the world’s leading cocoa producer, and prices rose as the unrest prompted a wave of buying.
Footage obtained by Reuters showed a pick-up truck laden with soldiers racing through empty Bouake streets.
Ami Soro, a teacher living in Bouake, said men in balaclavas were patrolling the city on motorcycles or in cars.
A helicopter, which residents said was from Ivory Coast’s U.N. peacekeeping mission, buzzed overhead.
A Reuters journalist saw some 20 U.N. military vehicles heading toward Bouake from 15 km (9 miles) to the south.
During a similar uprising in 2014, when hundreds of soldiers barricaded roads in cities across Ivory Coast demanding back pay, the government agreed a financial settlement.
That may have emboldened them to try it again.
“If you don’t really sort out the real problems and open the door to this kind of behavior, what can you expect?” said Rinaldo Depagne, West Africa project director for International Crisis Group. “You can expect it to happen again.”
While paying the soldiers off again could worsen the problem in the long run, military action to force them out is made tricky by the presence of rival factions and parallel chains of command within the army.
“The only guys they could count on to send in are the Republican Guard or special forces,” said a diplomat based in the region. “But the Republican Guard protects the president, and the special forces - there simply aren’t enough of them.”
($1 = 622.78 CFA francs)
Additional reporting and writing by Joe Bavier; Editing by Tim Cocks and Lisa ShumakerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ivorycoast-military-idUSKBN14R04L
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Streets of Ivory Coast cities calm after soldier mutiny
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Streets of Ivory Coast cities calm after soldier mutiny
By Ange Aboa3 Min Read
ABIDJAN (Reuters) - The streets of Ivory Coast’s second-largest city Bouake were calm and the military presence was gone, residents said on Sunday, after a two-day soldiers’ mutiny took over the city before spreading across the country.
The mutiny began early on Friday when rogue soldiers demanding bonus pay seized Bouake. Soldiers at military camps in cities and towns across Ivory Coast, including the commercial capital Abidjan, joined the rebellion.
A deal was reached between the government and the soldiers late on Saturday. A mutineer close to the negotiations said soldiers had returned to barracks.
“We have cleared the corridors everywhere as promised and we have been in barracks since last night,” Sergeant Mamadou Kone told Reuters. “All over the country all our men have returned to barracks and wait for their money. The mutiny is over for us.”
He said the soldiers expect to be paid on Monday under the deal brokered by Defense Minister Alain-Richard Donwahi, raising pressure on a government that faces further unrest if demands are not met. In a sign of tensions, renegade troops on Saturday opened fire outside the house in Bouake where the negotiations took place, temporarily trapping Donwahi, witnesses said.
The terms of the final deal were not made public, but sources said that the soldiers demanded 5 million CFA francs ($8,000) each, which for more than 8,000 soldiers could cost tens of billions of CFA francs.
Ivory Coast - which has French-speaking West Africa’s largest economy - has emerged from a 2002-2011 political crisis as one of the continent’s rising economic stars.
Slideshow ( 8 images )
But years of conflict and a failure to reform its army, made up of former rebel fighters and government soldiers, have left it hobbled by division.
The revolt comes two years after a near identical uprising which ended when the government offered mutineers amnesty from punishment and a financial settlement. A repeat of the solution raises the risk soldiers will be encouraged to do it again.
Traffic in Bouake, snarled since Friday by roadblocks and barricades, was clear on Sunday, residents said. The gunfire of recent days had stopped.
Other cities were also calm, residents said, including Abidjan, where a day earlier loyalist troops were deployed at strategic locations and residents rushed to buy bottled water and other provisions.
There was no military on the streets on Sunday. People were seen walking to church, shops were open and traffic moved as normal, a Reuters reporter said.
($1 = 622.7500 CFA francs)
Additional reporting by Loucoumane Coulibaly and Joe Bavier in Abidjan; Writing by Edward McAllister; Editing by Mark Potter and Angus MacSwanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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5e9adb897018d9cf4966fafe678c0fa9
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ivorycoast-military-idUSKBN1A00CA?il=0
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Gunmen attack military bases in Ivory Coast cities Abidjan, Korhogo
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Gunmen attack military bases in Ivory Coast cities Abidjan, Korhogo
By Ange Aboa3 Min Read
ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Gunmen attacked military bases in Ivory Coast’s main city of Abidjan and the northern city of Korhogo in the early hours of Saturday, but were repulsed, a senior military official said.
Three military sources blamed demobilized former rebel fighters - forces caught up in years of instability in Francophone West Africa’s most important economy - though no group claimed responsibility.
“There was an attack overnight at Abobo (north Abidjan), but there were no deaths. In Korhogo, three of the assailants were killed,” Colonel Zakaria Kone, commander of the Abobo camp, told Reuters by telephone. “The situation is now calm.”
He added that a police station in Abobo was also attacked, saying he did not know who had done it or for what motive.
The three military sources in the northern city of Bouake, which sent reinforcements to Korhogo, said the attackers were demobilized fighters from former rebels who controlled the north of the country during Ivory Coast’s crisis from 2002 to 2011.
During that period, northern rebels hostile to then president Laurent Gbagbo seized half the country. An election meant to end the crisis instead triggered a short civil war when Gbagbo refused to concede to President Alassane Ouattara.
Sporadic unrest since then has revealed just how precarious security still is in Ivory Coast, the world’s leading cocoa producer, six years since the war killed thousands of people.
Security has been particularly tense since soldiers made up mostly of former rebels that had backed Ouattara during the crisis mutinied in January. The 8,400 troops involved demanded bonuses they claimed they were owed and were partly paid in order to put it to rest.
But they mutinied again in May, and were paid the remainder of what they had demanded in a deal that risks both angering other factions in the military and encouraging other former rebel fighters to take up arms.
About a week after the mutiny ended, three demobilized ex-rebel fighters were killed in Ivory Coast’s second-biggest city of Bouake, as they clashed with police attempting to end a separate protest over bonus payments.
President Ouattara’s grip on the military and other former rebel fighters is tenuous and many fear that power struggles around a 2020 election to replace him could easily erupt into more violence and instability.
“The soldiers are patrolling everywhere in the town to ensure there is nothing else suspect,” said Korhogo resident Adama Coulibaly.
Additional reporting by Loucoumane Coulibaly; Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Andrew HeavensOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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59aacc65a7d52b04ae16b17b1233637e
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ivorycoast-politics/ivory-coasts-simone-gbagbo-leaves-detention-after-amnesty-idUSKBN1KT1JU
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Ivory Coast's Simone Gbagbo leaves detention after amnesty
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Ivory Coast's Simone Gbagbo leaves detention after amnesty
By Ange Aboa2 Min Read
Slideshow ( 5 images )
ABIDJAN (Reuters) - Ivory Coast’s former first lady Simone Gbagbo was released from detention on Wednesday after being granted an amnesty for her part in a short civil war in 2011, according to a Reuters witness.
The wife of former President Laurent Gbagbo, whose refusal to accept electoral defeat triggered the war, walked out of Abidjan’s Ecole de Gendarmerie in which she had been detained since 2013. President Alassane Ouattara granted her amnesty on Monday, along with 800 others.
The move appeared calculated at soothing political tensions ahead of 2020 elections that many fear could turn violent, as some past polls have.
Ivory Coast is Francophone West Africa’s largest and most successful economy, and the world’s leading cocoa producer, but the tendency of its politicians to exploit disputes over land and ethnicity makes it volatile around election time.
Some 3,000 people were killed in the war following the disputed 2010 election.
Ouattara’s ruling RDR coalition has fallen out with the coalition’s junior partner, the PDCI, whose leader Henri Konan Bedie expelled party members named to a new cabinet last month.
The alliance was seen as a key factor keeping the peace between Ivory Coast’s central Baoule ethnic group and the rival Dioula people of northern Ivory Coast, many of whom are migrants from Mali and Burkina Faso.
Besides Simone Gbagbo, another beneficiary was Kamagate Souleymane, a former rebel when Laurent Gbagbo was in power, and who is close to national assembly leader Guillaume Soro.
Writing by Tim Cocks, Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky, William MacleanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-j-crew-bankruptcy-idUSKBN22C3PI?utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR1A9BHYTdanGBB5MeZVj6H422dnu-iFfNTOvWvMkB-irur0PtIxq0_V9mI
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J. Crew preparing for bankruptcy filing: CNBC
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J. Crew preparing for bankruptcy filing: CNBC
By Reuters Staff1 Min Read
FILE PHOTO: J Crew displays a closed sign on the Third Street Promenade during the global outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) in Santa Monica, California, U.S., March 16, 2020. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson
(Reuters) - Privately held fashion company J. Crew Group Inc is preparing for a bankruptcy filing that could come as soon as this weekend, CNBC reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The company is working to secure $400 million in financing to fund operations in bankruptcy, the report added, cautioning that timing could still slip, and plans are not yet finalized. (cnb.cx/2z12p92)
The company has been grappling with competition from online firms such as Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O that have been eating into traditional retailers' market share.
Reporting by Shanti S Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju SamuelOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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3ccd491d5ddd40a9b3c082d08d053c32
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-j-m-smucker-divestiture-b-g-foods-idINKBN27B2PG?edition-redirect=in
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J M Smucker to sell Crisco business in $550 million cash deal
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J M Smucker to sell Crisco business in $550 million cash deal
By Reuters Staff1 Min Read
(Reuters) - J M Smucker SJM.N will sell its Crisco business to peer B&G Foods BGS.N in an all-cash deal valued at about $550 million, as it focuses on pet food, coffee and snacks, the companies said on Monday.
J M Smucker, which is looking to exit the U.S. baking category, said the deal also includes its oils and shortening business outside the United States.
The Orrville, Ohio-based company, known for its jelly and beverages, expects the divestiture to cut its annual adjusted earnings per share by 45 cents to 55 cents.
Reporting by Arundhati Sarkar in Bengaluru; Editing by Vinay DwivediOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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e063cc488cebfbde047e7e01209f3c88
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jab-holding-coty/jab-offers-to-boost-stake-in-coty-to-60-percent-idINKCN1Q11H3?edition-redirect=in
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JAB offers to boost stake in Coty to 60 percent
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JAB offers to boost stake in Coty to 60 percent
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
(Reuters) - German conglomerate JAB Holding Co laid out plans on Tuesday to increase its stake in Coty Inc to 60 percent, offering to buy out some of the cosmetics maker’s minority shareholders after a 50 percent slump in its market value in the past year.
Slideshow ( 2 images )
JAB, already Coty’s largest shareholder with a 40 percent stake, said it would launch a partial tender offer to buy up to 150 million shares for $11.65 each in cash, just months after Coty appointed a chief executive and chairman who were associated with JAB.
The offer represents a premium of 20.6 percent, based on the stock’s closing price on Monday, pulling shares around 18 percent higher to $11.40 in trading before the opening bell.
Taking a majority stake would give JAB a firmer grip on a company that has been grappling with supply chain issues ranging from hurricanes and trucker strikes, as well as problems integrating brands it bought from Procter & Gamble three years ago.
“We understand that not all investors may share our long-term approach and we expect that shareholders will value the opportunity to obtain a significant premium for their shares,” JAB said in the letter.
A source familiar with JAB’s strategy said the proposed deal structure, which leaves Coty as a publicly listed company, would also allow Coty to continue to use its stock as currency to pay for any future acquisitions.
JAB, the private holding company of Germany’s Reimann family, has built a coffee empire over the past five years, seeking to take on market leader Nestle by buying packaged brands like JDE and coffee house chains like Peet’s Coffee.
Coty is one of its few remaining investments outside the coffee and hospitality industry.
JAB, which is doing the deal through JAB Cosmetics BV, said if all of the 150 million shares were purchased, the company would own about 60 percent of Coty.
JAB said it would not proceed with its offer unless Coty’s independent directors greenlight it. The offer gives them 10 business days to respond.
Reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru and Greg Roumeliotis in New York; Editing by Saumyadeb ChakrabartyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jac-volkswagen-idUKKBN18I15I?edition-redirect=uk
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Chinese regulator approves VW-JAC Motor electric car venture
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Chinese regulator approves VW-JAC Motor electric car venture
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
Slideshow ( 2 images )
BEIJING (Reuters) - Germany's Volkswagen AG VOWG_p.DE and Anhui Jianghuai Automobile Group (JAC Motor) have received approval from Chinese regulators to form a joint venture to make electric vehicles, the two automakers said on Monday.
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s top state planner, gave a green light to JAC and VW to build 100,000 pure battery electric vehicles annually in a project worth 5.1 billion yuan ($740 million), according to a JAC Motor stock exchange filing.
A VW spokesman confirmed the approval but said certain administrative procedures still needed to be completed for a joint venture contract to be signed with JAC Motor.
Volkswagen, China’s largest foreign automaker, has pledged to rapidly develop a range of electric vehicles as the Chinese government aggressively promotes the segment as a way to cut intense smog in much of the country.
VW already has joint ventures with China FAW Group Corp [SASACJ.UL] and SAIC Motor Corp Ltd in the country.
The has company previously said it aims to sell 400,000 “new energy vehicles,” a category which includes pure electric and plug-in petrol-electric hybrids, in China by 2020 to meet strict Chinese fuel economy and emissions regulations, with electric vehicles made with JAC Motor coming in addition to that figure.
Reporting by Jake Spring and Min Zhang; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and David EvansOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jaguar-land-rover-china-lawsuit-idUKKCN0YP1JJ?edition-redirect=uk
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Jaguar Land Rover sues Chinese automaker over Evoque copycat: source
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Jaguar Land Rover sues Chinese automaker over Evoque copycat: source
By Jake Spring4 Min Read
BEIJING (Reuters) - Jaguar Land Rover is suing Chinese automaker Jiangling Motor for allegedly copying the British firm’s Range Rover Evoque, a person with direct knowledge of the matter said - a rare move by a foreign automaker to fight copycats in the world’s biggest autos market.
The new Range Rover Evoque is seen at the Jaguar-Land Rover exhibition booth during the International Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt, September 14, 2011. REUTERS/Alex Domanski/File Photo
A spokesman for JLR, owned by India’s Tata Motors, said in brief emailed comments to Reuters that a court in Beijing’s eastern Chaoyang district “served Jiangling with newly filed actions surrounding copyright and unfair competition.” He declined to elaborate.
The suit relates to Jiangling’s Landwind X7 sport utility vehicle copying the design of the Evoque, JLR’s first China-made model that went on sale last year, said the person with knowledge of the legal proceedings, who is not authorized to talk to the media and didn’t want to be named.
A spokesman for Landwind declined to comment.
Despite widespread and often blatant copying, global automakers generally don’t take legal action in China as they feel the odds of winning against local firms are low. Also, a lawsuit can be bad for branding if the Chinese public think a foreign company is bullying domestic competitors.
If JLR wins its case, it could prompt other automakers to also take legal action, said Chen Jihong, a Beijing-based lawyer at Zhong Lun Law Firm, speeding up a shift to stronger enforcement of intellectual property rights.
Slideshow ( 4 images )
CLOSE RESEMBLANCE
Landwind unveiled a new version of its X7 SUV in November 2014, drawing criticism for its striking likeness to the Evoque, an imported version of which was already on sale in China.
The two SUVs have a similar shape, with the roof and windows tapering from front to back, and near identical tail lights and character lines on the side paneling. The X7’s front grille is slightly more rounded than the hard edges of the Evoque.
The slight differences between the two cars can be virtually eliminated using widely available kits that allow a Range Rover grille, logo and Land Rover badges to be put on an X7. Kits on Alibaba’s Taobao shopping website cost around 128 yuan ($19.43).
The X7 costs around a third of the price of an Evoque, and is some way behind in technology and performance, said Yale Zhang, managing director of Automotive Foresight.
The JLR spokesman said Jiangling has been barred by injunction from selling the X7 in Brazil, where it recently appointed an importer.
Separately, the source said with knowledge of the newly filed suit said the two automakers are also discussing what Landwind can and can’t do in any X7 design update.
JLR sales fell by a fifth in China in January-March of last year - when it launched its China-made Evoque - after rising 36 percent in the same 2014 period. In the same period this year, JLR’s China sales rose 19 percent.
A lawsuit could be a long and grueling process.
It took Honda Motor, for example, 12 years to win a case in China against a little-known local automaker - for copying its best-selling CR-V SUV - according to a report by the official Xinhua news agency, confirmed by a Honda spokesman.
Even then, the Japanese firm was awarded only 16 million yuan ($2.43 million) in compensation. It had sought 300 million yuan.
(This story corrects to make clear sale of X7 in Brazil prevented by injunction, not agreement, paragraph 11)
Reporting by Jake Spring, with additional reporting by Michael Martina and Beijing newsroom; Editing by Ian GeogheganOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jaguarlandrover-driverless-idUSKCN0ZS2V2?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FtechnologyNews+%28Reuters+Technology+News%29
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Jaguar Land Rover to test over 100 autonomous cars in Britain by 2020
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Jaguar Land Rover to test over 100 autonomous cars in Britain by 2020
By Costas Pitas3 Min Read
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain’s biggest carmaker Jaguar Land Rover said it will create a fleet of more than 100 research vehicles over the next four years to test autonomous and connected technology, with the first models to hit the streets later this year.
The Jaguar logo is pictured at a Jaguar Land Rover showroom in Mumbai February 13, 2013. REUTERS/Vivek Prakash/File Photo
Jaguar Land Rover, maker of Range Rover 4x4s and sportier luxury saloons, will drive the initial models on a new 41-mile (66 km) test route on motorways and urban roads near its headquarters and plants in central England.
The market for autonomous driving is worth 900 billion pounds ($1.29 trillion) worldwide, according to the government, but needs to overcome legal obstacles including determining who would be responsible in the event of an accident.
Britain announced plans in March to test cars on motorways and launched a consultation on Monday to change insurance and motoring rules as it pursues plans to allow the public to use driverless cars on the streets by 2020.
Jaguar Land Rover’s Head of Research Tony Harper said the firm’s technology, which includes a three-dimensional advanced view of the street ahead to recognise barriers and radio signal communication between cars, could reduce hazards.
“Our connected and automated technology could help improve traffic flow, cut congestion and reduce the potential for accidents,” Harper said.
Carmakers are ploughing billions of pounds into autonomous technology with Ford already part of a government-sanctioned autonomous testing project in England and Volvo planning to test driverless cars in London next year.
Japan’s Nissan aims to build its first mass-market autonomous car at its north of England facility in Sunderland, Britain’s biggest single car plant.
However, traditional automakers face competition from rivals such as Tesla and technology firms such as Alphabet Inc unit Google, which wants eventually to be able to deploy fully autonomous vehicles without human controls.
In Britain, driverless car testing will need a person to be present and able to take control should the need arise, the Department for Transport has said.
Reporting by Costas Pitas; editing by Adrian CroftOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jamaica-elections-idUSKBN25U1NU?utm_source=34553&utm_medium=partner
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Jamaica's ruling party claims re-election victory in landslide win
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Jamaica's ruling party claims re-election victory in landslide win
By Kate Chappell4 Min Read
KINGSTON (Reuters) - Jamaica’s ruling party was re-elected in a landslide win on Thursday marked by low turnout, prompting Prime Minister Andrew Holness to vow to work on restoring voters’ trust in politics and continue fighting the country’s coronavirus outbreak.
Jamaica's Prime Minister Andrew Holness talks to the media before casting his vote in the general elections, in Kingston, Jamaica September 3, 2020. REUTERS/Gladstone Taylor
The centre-right Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), which won praise for its stewardship of the economy, won 49 of 63 seats, an addition of 16 seats, according to an early count released around 9 p.m. local time (0200 GMT) by the Electoral Office.
“There is cause for celebration, but there is also significant cause for consideration,” Holness said in a subdued televised speech late on Thursday.
“There are many Jamaicans who did not participate, there are many Jamaicans, who for fear of the virus, did not come to the polls, but for other reasons, apathy, frustrations, decided not to participate.”
The opposition People’s National Party (PNP) leader, Peter Phillips, appeared to have retained his seat, but earlier declared that he would step down and retire from politics if his party lost the election.
Even former PNP Prime Minister Michael Manley’s stronghold seat fell to the JLP, surprising observers.
The JLP captured the polls in 2016 with a one-seat margin, winning just 32 seats out of 63, then gaining one more seat in November 2017.
Slideshow ( 3 images )
“The PNP are barely holding on in traditionally safe territory. This election represents a massive realignment of Jamaica’s political landscape, albeit with lower than expected voter turnout,” said political analyst Ricardo Brooks.
In the runup to the election, Holness credited his administration’s tax cuts and other reforms with bringing down unemployment to an all-time low and sharply reducing poverty. He also highlighted the construction of affordable housing and new roads.
Analysts say the previous PNP-led government’s implementation of IMF-mandated austerity measures, which reduced debt and inflation, also paved the path toward growth.
But the pandemic has sent Jamaica, like the rest of the heavily tourism-reliant Caribbean, reeling. The Bank of Jamaica last week predicted the economy would contract 7% to 10% this fiscal year.
Analysts said the prime minister likely called the election six months before it was constitutionally mandated to get ahead of a recession due to COVID-19.
Under a slogan of “Build Back Stronger,” the JLP manifesto outlined a 10-point plan, including a $98 million package of loans, grants and support for agriculture and small businesses, as well as social reforms such as unemployment insurance.
Holness called the elections on Aug. 11, when authorities appeared to have successfully contained the coronavirus outbreak in the island nation of some 3 million.
But cases have more than doubled since then, after lockdown restrictions were eased and borders opened, with 2,822 cases as of Sept. 2, and 27 deaths.
Polling stations on Thursday were manned with police officers, volunteers and electoral workers, who took temperatures and directed people to sanitization stations.
For the most part, voters wore masks or face shields and appeared to adhere to social distancing, although lines were tightly packed at some polling stations.
Voters who are confirmed COVID-positive were allocated a time slot between 4 and 5 p.m. to cast their ballot.
Reporting by Kate Chappell in Kingston; Editing by Sarah Marsh, Steve Orlofsky, Sonya Hepinstall and Gerry DoyleOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jamaica-marley-idUSKBN0LA11D20150206
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Jamaica celebrates 70th birthday of late reggae great Bob Marley
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Jamaica celebrates 70th birthday of late reggae great Bob Marley
By Horace Helps3 Min Read
KINGSTON (Reuters) - Jamaicans celebrate the 70th anniversary of the birth of late reggae legend Bob Marley on Friday with a jamming session at his former home and a free concert as the Caribbean island continues to wrestle over his place in its pantheon of heroes.
Julian Marley, son of the late reggae icon Bob Marley, performs at a concert celebrating his father's 69th birthday at the National Stadium in Kingston, February 7, 2014. REUTERS/Gilbert Bellamy
Marley, who was born in Nine Miles, northwest Jamaica, died on May 11, 1981, in a Florida hospital from cancer age 36.
A “mini-jam session” is scheduled at Marley’s former home at Hope Road, north of Kingston, as well as discussions on reggae, a popular genre that began in Jamaica in the 1960s with strong influences from calypso and jazz and lyrics of social protest.
A free concert on the Kingston waterfront on Saturday is expected to draw crowds, and local reggae artists, including one of Marley’s sons, Ky-Mani, are set to perform. Police have announced traffic detours and street closures in anticipation of the throngs.
“I was not around when Bob was alive ... but people are still excited about his music,” said Marcia Facey, 32, a fashion designer who lives in Kingston.
Jamaica has debated for years adding Marley to its Order of National Hero, its highest honor. Jamaica’s current seven heroes are dominated by political figures.
No new heroes have been added since the 1980s and a committee has been examining nominations for the last three years, with Marley and former Prime Minister Michael Manley among a list of 10 names mentioned.
“It is high time that the government makes him our eighth national hero,” said Errol Campbell, 57, a mechanic, also of Kingston.
“Bob was a reggae genius who has done more for Jamaica than most others by popularizing our music,” he added.
Some committee members are believed to oppose Marley because he smoked marijuana and sometimes disrespected authority as part of his Rastafarian faith which rejects materialism.
A new live album called “Easy Skanking in Boston ‘78” will also be released next week, according to The Bob Marley Group of Companies, featuring two live shows from Boston’s Music Hall in June 1978.
The Marley family is celebrating the birthday by launching a “feel good social video movement” titled #Share1Love to honor Marley’s vision of a better world.
An annual “One Love” charity soccer match will be played in Marley’s honor on Feb 18 including celebrities such as Olympic sprinters Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell.
Editing by David Adams and Cynthia OstermanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-jamaica-women-abortion/devout-jamaica-debates-green-light-for-abortion-after-rape-incest-idUSKCN1QE0OF
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Devout Jamaica debates green light for abortion after rape, incest
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Devout Jamaica debates green light for abortion after rape, incest
By Kate Chappell6 Min Read
KINGSTON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Anna-Kay was 21 the first time she got pregnant, in her second year of university, and worried of the shame that would follow if she told her parents.
So Anna-Kay did what about 22,000 women in Jamaica do every year, according to government data, and broke the law. She sold her cell phone to get JM$20,000 (US$150) to pay for an abortion.
“I wasn’t in a position physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually and financially to be pregnant. It was a very, very lonely time,” Anna-Kay told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“It was a difficult decision for me,” said Anna-Kay, asking not to use her real name, who is now 30 and has a young son.
Having an abortion - or even talking about it with a doctor - is illegal in Jamaica, except to save a woman’s life or to preserve her mental and physical health, according to the Offences Against the Persons Act in the Caribbean nation.
Women can receive a life sentence for having an abortion - although this has never been enforced - and those who assist in the process can be jailed for up to three years.
But legal discussions underway could change that with growing acknowledgement that thousands of women do have abortions each year, by endangering their lives with backstreet operations or drugs, or paying doctors who will take the risk.
According to an Abortion Policy Review commissioned by the government in 2007 - the most recent figures - unsafe abortions were the third leading cause of maternal mortality among women in the nation of 2.9 million people.
A bill by parliamentarian Juliet Cuthbert-Flynn, of the majority Jamaica Labour Party, aims to decriminalize abortion by repealing sections of the law and replacing it with a new act which would allow for abortions in the case of rape or incest.
Parliament this month hears final submissions from the public then the Prime Minister’s office will decide next steps.
PUBLIC SUPPORT RISING
This is not the first time the issue of decriminalizing abortion has been raised in Jamaica, where religion plays a major role in society and culture, but campaigners expected this time the laws could be relaxed with opinion changing.
A 2018 survey by local firm Johnson Survey Research Ltd found seven of every 10 Jamaicans opposed abortion on demand but 67 percent of men and 82 percent of women thought that women, not the government, should have the final say on termination.
A poll last year also found 58 percent of Jamaicans supported amending the law to allow abortions following incest.
Cuthbert-Flynn said women needed to have safe options, especially poor women, who were disproportionately affected by the law, as they could not afford to pay for a proper procedure.
“There is a life sentence attached to (having an abortion), and those are punitive measures that definitely need to be repealed,” Cuthbert-Flynn told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“I do know of women who have had illegal abortions, and one woman has died,” she said, while citing another example of a 15-year-old girl left disabled after an illegal abortion.
Joy Crawford, a director of Eve For Life, a non-government organization (NGO) that works with women and children affected by HIV and AIDS, said not only must the law be repealed, but it must ensure that women have the final choice.
She said there were many circumstances in which a woman may not be ready or able to carry out a pregnancy, including rape, incest, and being too young.
“What I do know is that the majority of the girls we see would rather turn back the clock,” she said of the young women she worked with who became pregnant.
“Abortions happen in our country. It is no secret.”
DEATH RATES
World Bank data shows Jamaica’s maternal mortality death rate was 89 deaths per 100,000 live birth in 2015 with a U.N. goal to bring this rate globally down to less than 70 deaths per 100,000 births by 2030.
“To make amends to the existing law is important from different angles,” said Dr. Pilar de la Corte Molina, a sexual and reproductive health technical advisor of the United Nations Population Fund.
“There is sufficient evidence that unsafe abortions are among the leading causes of maternal mortality.”
According to the New York-based Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy group focused on sexual and reproductive health, the highest annual rate of abortion globally between 2010-2014 was in the Caribbean.
In that period 37 percent of pregnancies ended in abortion, compared to 25 percent globally, with one in four unsafe.
Legislation regarding abortion varies in the Caribbean’s 25 countries, of which 13 are independent nations, ranging from a total ban in the Dominican Republic to permission when a women’s life or her physical and mental health is at risk in Jamaica.
Dr. Michael Abrahams, a gynecologist based in Kingston, said he saw women everyday in his practice who have had an abortion, including those with adverse effects.
“Over 20 years, seeing what women go through, nobody should force a woman to carry a pregnancy,” said Abrahams.
But religious leaders in the predominately Protestant country have been vocal in their opposition, including Father Richard Ho-Lung, Catholic founder of Missionaries for the Poor, which runs a shelter for pregnant women and girls.
“It would be the beginning of the death culture,” Ho-Lung said. “I prefer myself to die than to see kids aborted and murdered.”
Editing by Belinda Goldsmith @BeeGoldsmith; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, property rights, and climate change. Visit news.trust.orgOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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99e74b11297abc348516347e77228dfa
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-janelynch-idUSTRE6AE04R20101115
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Jane Lynch says no Muppets role for her
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Jane Lynch says no Muppets role for her
By Lesley Goldberg1 Min Read
Cast member Jane Lynch poses at the premiere for the second season of the television series "Glee" at Paramount studios in Los Angeles September 7, 2010. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - “Glee” star Jane Lynch says she is not attached to Disney’s upcoming new Muppets movie, despite media reports that she would be taking part.
The Emmy-winning actress told The Hollywood Reporter on Saturday night at the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center’s 39th annual gala fund-raiser that she has not been approached to participate in the project being written by “How I Met Your Mother’s Jason Segel and Nicholas Stoller (“Yes Man”).
“I’m not doing the Muppets movie,” Lynch said. “They haven’t asked me. I would do it if they asked me.”
Lynch was on hand to pick up the Rand Schrader Distinguished Achievement Award, the Center’s highest individual honor, which was presented to her by “Glee” co-star Matthew Morrison and writer-director-creator Ryan Murphy.
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dd92db6a1b1e234b76920275279f447d
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japa-nuclear-risks-idUSTRE72S2UA20110329
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Special Report: Japan engineers knew tsunami could overrun plant
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Special Report: Japan engineers knew tsunami could overrun plant
By Kevin Krolicki, Scott DiSavino, Taro Fuse22 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Over the past two weeks, Japanese government officials and Tokyo Electric Power executives have repeatedly described the deadly combination of the most powerful quake in Japan’s history and the massive tsunami that followed as “soteigai,” or beyond expectations.
When Tokyo Electric President Masataka Shimizu apologized to the people of Japan for the continuing crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant he called the double disaster “marvels of nature that we have never experienced before”.
But a review of company and regulatory records shows that Japan and its largest utility repeatedly downplayed dangers and ignored warnings -- including a 2007 tsunami study from Tokyo Electric Power Co’s senior safety engineer.
“We still have the possibilities that the tsunami height exceeds the determined design height due to the uncertainties regarding the tsunami phenomenon,” Tokyo Electric researchers said in a report reviewed by Reuters.
The research paper concluded that there was a roughly 10 percent chance that a tsunami could test or overrun the defenses of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant within a 50-year span based on the most conservative assumptions.
But Tokyo Electric did nothing to change its safety planning based on that study, which was presented at a nuclear engineering conference in Miami in July 2007.
Meanwhile, Japanese nuclear regulators clung to a model that left crucial safety decisions in the hands of the utility that ran the plant, according to regulatory records, officials and outside experts.
Among examples of the failed opportunities to prepare for disaster, Japanese nuclear regulators never demanded that Tokyo Electric reassess its fundamental assumptions about earthquake and tsunami risk for a nuclear plant built more than four decades ago. In the 1990s, officials urged but did not require that Tokyo Electric and other utilities shore up their system of plant monitoring in the event of a crisis, the record shows.
Even though Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, (NISA) one of the three government bodies charged with nuclear safety, cataloged the damage to nuclear plant vent systems from an earlier earthquake, it did not require those to be protected against future disasters or hardened against explosions.
That marked a sharp break with safety practices put in place in the United States in the 1980s after Three Mile Island, even though Japan modeled its regulation on U.S. precedents and even allowed utilities to use American disaster manuals in some cases.
Ultimately, when the wave was crashing in, everything came down to the ability of Tokyo Electric’s front-line workers to carry out disaster plans under intense pressure.
But even in normal operations, the regulatory record shows Tokyo Electric had been cited for more dangerous operator errors over the past five years than any other utility. In a separate 2008 case, it admitted that a 17-year-old worker had been hired illegally as part of a safety inspection at Fukushima Daiichi.
“It’s a bit strange for me that we have officials saying this was outside expectations,” said Hideaki Shiroyama, a professor at the University of Tokyo who has studied nuclear safety policy. “Unexpected things can happen. That’s the world we live in.”
He added: “Both the regulators and TEPCO are trying to avoid responsibility.”
Najmedin Meshkati, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Southern California, said the government’s approach of relying heavily on Tokyo Electric to do the right thing largely on its own had clearly failed.
“The Japanese government is receiving some advice, but they are relying on the already badly stretched resources of TEPCO to handle this,” said Meshkati, a researcher of the Chernobyl disaster who has been critical of the company’s safety record before. “Time is not on our side.”
The revelation that Tokyo Electric had put a number to the possibility of a tsunami beyond the designed strength of its Fukushima nuclear plant comes at a time when investor confidence in the utility is in fast retreat.
Shares in the world’s largest private utility have lost almost three-fourth of their value -- $30 billion -- since the March 11 earthquake pushed the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant into crisis. Analysts see a chance the utility will be nationalized by the Japanese government in the face of mounting liability claims and growing public frustration.
AN ‘EXTREMELY LOW’ RISK
The tsunami research presented by a Tokyo Electric team led by Toshiaki Sakai came on the first day of a three-day conference in July 2007 organized by the International Conference on Nuclear Engineering.
It represented the product of several years of work at Japan’s top utility, prompted by the 2004 earthquake off the coast of Sumatra that had shaken the industry’s accepted wisdom. In that disaster, the tsunami that hit Indonesia and a dozen other countries around the Indian Ocean also flooded a nuclear power plant in southern India. That raised concerns in Tokyo about the risk to Japan’s 55 nuclear plants, many exposed to the dangerous coast in order to have quick access to water for cooling.
Tokyo Electric’s Fukushima Daiichi plant, some 240 km (150 miles) northeast of Tokyo, was a particular concern.
The 40-year-old nuclear complex was built near a quake zone in the Pacific that had produced earthquakes of magnitude 8 or higher four times in the past 400 years -- in 1896, 1793, 1677 and then in 1611, Tokyo Electric researchers had come to understand.
Based on that history, Sakai, a senior safety manager at Tokyo Electric, and his research team applied new science to a simple question: What was the chance that an earthquake-generated wave would hit Fukushima? More pressing, what were the odds that it would be larger than the roughly 6-meter (20 feet) wall of water the plant had been designed to handle?
The tsunami that crashed through the Fukushima plant on March 11 was 14 meters high.
Sakai’s team determined the Fukushima plant was dead certain to be hit by a tsunami of one or two meters in a 50-year period. They put the risk of a wave of 6 meters or more at around 10 percent over the same time span.
In other words, Tokyo Electric scientists realized as early as 2007 that it was quite possible a giant wave would overwhelm the sea walls and other defenses at Fukushima by surpassing engineering assumptions behind the plant’s design that date back to the 1960s.
Slideshow ( 4 images )
Company Vice President Sakae Muto said the utility had built its Fukushima nuclear power plant “with a margin for error” based on its assessment of the largest waves to hit the site in the past.
That would have included the magnitude 9.5 Chile earthquake in 1960 that killed 140 in Japan and generated a wave estimated at near 6 meters, roughly in line with the plans for Fukushima Daiichi a decade later.
“It’s been pointed out by some that there could be a bigger tsunami than we had planned for, but my understanding of the situation is that there was no consensus among the experts,” Muto said in response to a question from Reuters.
Despite the projection by its own safety engineers that the older assumptions might be mistaken, Tokyo Electric was not breaking any Japanese nuclear safety regulation by its failure to use its new research to fortify Fukushima Daiichi, which was built on the rural Pacific coast to give it quick access to sea water and keep it away from population centers.
“There are no legal requirements to re-evaluate site related (safety) features periodically,” the Japanese government said in a response to questions from the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, in 2008.
In fact, in safety guidelines issued over the past 20 years, Japanese nuclear safety regulators had all but written off the risk of a severe accident that would test the vaunted safety standards of one of their 55 nuclear reactors, a key pillar of the nation’s energy and export policies.
That has left planning for a strategy to head off runaway meltdown in the worst case scenarios to Tokyo Electric in the belief that the utility was best placed to handle any such crisis, according to published regulations.
In December 2010, for example, Japan’s Nuclear Safety Commission said the risk for a severe accident was “extremely low” at reactors like those in operation at Fukushima. The question of how to prepare for those scenarios would be left to utilities, the commission said.
A 1992 policy guideline by the NSC also concluded core damage at one of Japan’s reactors severe enough to release radiation would be an event with a probability of once in 185 years. So with such a limited risk of happening, the best policy, the guidelines say, is to leave emergency response planning to Tokyo electric and other plant operators.
PREVENTION NOT CURE
Over the past 20 years, nuclear operators and regulators in Europe and the United States have taken a new approach to managing risk. Rather than simple defenses against failures, researchers have examined worst-case outcomes to test their assumptions, and then required plants to make changes.
They have looked especially at the chance that a single calamity could wipe out an operator’s main defense and its backup, just as the earthquake and tsunami did when the double disaster took out the main power and backup electricity to Fukushima Daiichi.
Japanese nuclear safety regulators have been slow to embrace those changes.
Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA), one of three government bodies with responsibility for safety policy and inspections, had published guidelines in 2005 and 2006 based on the advances in regulation elsewhere but did not insist on their application.
“Since, in Japanese safety regulation, the application of risk information is scarce in experience � (the) guidelines are in trial use,” the NISA said.
Japanese regulators and Tokyo Electric instead put more emphasis on regular maintenance and programs designed to catch flaws in the components of their aging plants.
That was the thinking behind extending the life of the No. 1 reactor at Fukushima Daiichi, which had been scheduled to go out of commission in February after a 40-year run.
But shutting down the reactor would have made it much more difficult for Japan to reach its target of deriving half of its total generation of electricity from nuclear power by June 2010 -- or almost double its share in 2007.
The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) figured it could reach the target by building at least 14 new nuclear plants, and running existing plants harder and longer. Fukushima’s No. 1 reactor was given a 10-year extension after Tokyo Electric submitted a maintenance plan.
Safety regulators, who also belong to METI, did not require Tokyo Electric to rethink the fundamental safety assumptions behind the plant. The utility only had to insure the reactor’s component parts were not being worn down dangerously, according to a 2009 presentation by the utility’s senior maintenance engineer.
That kind of thinking -- looking at potential problems with components without seeing the risk to the overall plant -- was evident in the way that Japanese officials responded to trouble with backup generators at a nuclear reactor even before the tsunami.
On four occasions over the past four years, safety inspectors from Japan and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) were called in to review failures with backup diesel generators at nuclear plants.
In June 2007, an inspector was dispatched to Fukushima’s No. 4 reactor, where the backup generator had caught fire after a circuit breaker was installed improperly, according to the inspector’s report.
“There is no need of providing feedback to other plants for the reason that no similar event could occur,” the June 2007 inspection concluded.
The installation had met its safety target. Nothing in that report or any other shows safety inspectors questioned the placement of the generators on low ground near the shore where they proved to be at highest risk for tsunami damage at Fukushima Daiichi.
“GET OUT, GET OUT”
Slideshow ( 4 images )
Japanese nuclear regulators have handed primary responsibility for dealing with nuclear plant emergencies to the utilities themselves. But that hinges on their ability to carry them out in an actual crisis, and the record shows that working in a nuclear reactor has been a dangerous and stressful job in Japan even under routine conditions.
Inspectors with Japan’s Nuclear Energy Safety Organization have recorded 18 safety lapses at Tokyo Electric’s 17 nuclear plants since 2005. Ten of them were attributed to mistakes by staff and repairmen.
They included failures to follow established maintenance procedures and failures to perform prescribed safety checks. Even so, Tokyo Electric was left on its own to set standards for nuclear plant staff certification, a position some IAEA officials had questioned in 2008.
In March 2004, two workers in Tokyo Electric’s Fukushima Daini plant passed out when the oxygen masks they were using - originally designed for use on an airplane - began leaking and allowed nitrogen to seep into their air supply.
The risks also appear to have made it hard to hire for key positions. In 2008, Toshiba admitted it had illegally used six employees under the age of 18 as part of a series of inspections of nuclear power plants at Tokyo Electric and Tohoku Electric. One of those minors, then aged 17, had participated in an inspection of the Fukushima Daiichi No. 5 reactor, Tokyo Electric said then.
The magnitude 9.0 quake struck on Friday afternoon of March 11 -- the most powerful in Japan’s long history of them -- pushed workers at the Fukushima plant to the breaking point as injuries mounted and panic took hold.
Hiroyuki Nishi, a subcontractor who had been moving scaffolding inside Reactor No. 3 when the quake hit, described a scene of chaos as a massive hook came crashing down next to him. “People were shouting ‘Get out, get out!’” Nishi said. “Everyone was screaming.”
In the pandemonium, workers pleaded to be let out, knowing a tsunami was soon to come. But Tokyo Electric supervisors appealed for calm, saying each worker had to be tested first for radiation exposure. Eventually, the supervisors relented, threw open the doors to the plant and the contractors scrambled for high ground just ahead of the tsunami.
After the wave receded, two employee were missing, apparently washed away while working on unit No. 4. Two contractors were treated for leg fractures and two others were treated for slight injuries. A ninth worker was being treated for a stroke.
In the chaos of the early response, workers did not notice when the diesel pumps at No. 2 ran out of fuel, allowing water levels to fall and fuel to become exposed and overheat. When the Fukushima plant suffered its second hydrogen blast in three days the following Monday, Tokyo electric executives only notified the prime minister’s office an hour later. Seven workers had been injured in the explosion along with four soldiers.
An enraged Prime Minister Naoto Kan pulled up to Tokyo Electric’s headquarters the next morning before dawn. “What the hell is going on?” reporters outside the closed-door discussion reported hearing Kan demand angrily of senior executives.
Errors of judgment by workers in the hot zone and errors of calculation by plant managers hampered the emergency response a full week later as some 600 soldiers and workers struggled to contain the spread of radiation.
On Thursday, two workers at Fukushima were shuttled to the hospital to be treated for potential radiation burns after wading in water in the turbine building of reactor No. 3. The workers had ignored their radiation alarms thinking they were broken.
Then Tokyo electric officials pulled workers back from an effort to pump water out of the No. 2 reactor and reported that radiation readings were 10 million times normal. They later apologized, saying that reading was wrong. The actual reading was still 100,000 times normal, Tokyo Electric said.
The government’s chief spokesman was withering in his assessment. “The radiation readings are an important part of a number of important steps we’re taking to protect safety,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters. “There is no excuse for getting them wrong.”
VENTS AND GAUGES
Although U.S. nuclear plant operators were required to install “hardened” vent systems in the 1980s after the Three Mile Island incident, Japan’s Nuclear Safety Commission rejected the need to require such systems in 1992, saying that should be left to the plant operators to decide.
A nuclear power plant’s vent represents one of the last resorts for operators struggling to keep a reactor from pressure that could to blow the building that houses it apart and spread radiation, which is what happened at Chernobyl 25 years ago. A hardened vent in a U.S. plant is designed to behave like the barrel on a rifle, strong enough to withstand an explosive force from within.
The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission concluded in the late 1980s that the General Electric designed Mark I reactors, like those used at Fukushima, required safety modifications.
The risks they flagged, and that Tokyo did not heed, would come back to haunt Japan in the Fukushima crisis.
First, U.S. researchers concluded that a loss of power at one of the nuclear plants would be one of the “dominant contributors” to the most severe accidents. Flooding of the reactor building would worsen the risks. The NRC also required U.S. plants to install “hard pipe” after concluding the sheet-metal ducts used in Japan could make things much worse.
“Venting via a sheet metal duct system could result in a reactor building hydrogen burn,” researchers said in a report published in November 2008.
In the current crisis, the failure of the more vulnerable duct vents in Fukushima’s No. 1 and No. 3 reactors may have contributed to the hydrogen explosions that blew the roof off the first and left the second a tangled hulk of steel beams in the first three days of the crisis.
The plant vents, which connect to the big smokestack-like towers, appear to have been damaged in the quake or the tsunami, one NISA official said.
Even without damage, opening the vulnerable vents in the presence of a build-up of hydrogen gas was a known danger. In the case of Fukushima, opening the vents to relieve pressure was like turning on an acetylene torch and then watching the flame “shoot back into the fuel tank,” said one expert with knowledge of Fukushima who asked not to be identified because of his commercial ties in Japan.
Tokyo Electric began venting the No. 1 reactor on March 12 just after 10 a.m. An hour earlier the pressure in the reactor was twice its designed limit. Six hours later the reactor exploded.
The same pattern held with reactor No. 3. Venting to relieve a dangerous build-up of pressure in the reactor began on March 13. A day later, the outer building - a concrete and steel shell known as the “secondary containment” -- exploded.
Toshiaki Sakai, the Tokyo Electric researcher who worked on tsunami risk, also sat on a panel in 2008 that reviewed the damage to the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant. In that case, Tokyo Electric safely shut down the plant, which survived a quake 2.5 times stronger than it had been designed to handle.
Sakai and the other panelists agreed that despite the successful outcome the way the ground sank and broke underground pipes needed for firefighting equipment had to be considered “a failure to fulfill expected performance”.
Japanese regulators also knew a major earthquake could damage exhaust ducts. A September 2007 review of damage at the same Tokyo Electric nuclear plant by NISA Deputy Director Akira Fukushima showed two spots where the exhaust ducts had broken.
No new standard was put in place requiring vents to be shored up against potential damage, records show.
Masashi Goto, a former nuclear engineer who has turned critical of the industry, said he believed Tokyo Electric and regulators wrongly focused on the parts of the plant that performed well in the 2007 quake, rather than the weaknesses it exposed. “I think they drew the wrong lesson,” Goto said.
The March 11 quake not only damaged the vents but also the gauges in the Fukushima Daiichi complex, which meant that Tokyo Electric was without much of the instrumentation it needed to assess the situation on the ground during the crisis.
“The data we’re getting is very sketchy and makes it impossible for us to do the analysis,” said David Lochbaum, a nuclear expert and analyst with the Union of Concerned Scientists. “It’s hard to connect the dots when there are so few dots.”
In fact, Japan’s NSC had concluded in 1992 that it was important for nuclear plant operators to have access to key gauges and instruments even in the kind of crisis that had not happened then. But it left plans on how to implement that policy entirely to the plant operators.
In the Fukushima accident, most meters and gauges were taken out by the loss of power in the early days of the crisis.
That left a pair of workers in a white Prius to race into the plant to get radiation readings with a handheld device in the early days of the crisis, according to Tokyo Electric.
They could have used robots to go in.
Immediately after the tsunami, a French firm with nuclear expertise shipped robots for use in Fukushima, a European nuclear expert said. The robots are built to withstand high radiation.
But Japan, arguably the country with the most advanced robotics industry, stopped them from arriving in Fukishima, saying such help could only come through government channels, said the expert who asked not to be identified so as not to appear critical of Japan in a moment of crisis.
(Scott DiSavino was reporting from New York; additional reporting by Kentaro Sugiayama in Tokyo, Bernie Woodall in Detroit, Eileen O’Grady in New York, Roberta Rampton in Washington)
Editing by Bill TarrantOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-abe-economy-graphic/scorecard-of-japans-abenomics-stimulus-policies-idUSKBN1XP05L
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Scorecard of Japan's 'Abenomics' stimulus policies
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Scorecard of Japan's 'Abenomics' stimulus policies
By Reuters Staff4 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Just as Shinzo Abe becomes Japan’s longest-serving prime minister, he may be leading the world’s third-biggest economy into a downturn, with little ammunition left over from his landmark “Abenomics” stimulus policies deployed seven years ago.
FILE PHOTO: Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe attend the ASEAN-Japan Summit in Bangkok, Thailand, November 4, 2019. REUTERS/Soe Zeya Tun/File Photo
The three arrows of Abenomics - bold monetary easing, fiscal spending and structural reforms - boosted stock prices, brightened business sentiment and brought exporters windfall profits via a weak yen.
But years of fiscal spending and ultra-loose monetary policy have failed to fire up inflation to the BOJ’s 2% target and left policymakers little firepower against another recession.
Here are the benefits brought by Abenomics and the challenges that remain for Japan’s economy.
MARKET IMPACT
Many analysts say its biggest benefits were the attention the policies provoked from foreign investors, who bought Japan’s shares on hopes it would finally take drastic measures to pull its economy out of deflation.
The Nikkei share average .N225 rose to around 24,450 in October 2018, its highest since late 1991, and more than doubling from levels before Abe took power in December 2012. It now hovers around 23,300.
The policies also helped reverse a damaging spike in the yen currency that hurt Japan’s exporters and weighed on inflation by keeping import prices low.
The yen weakened nearly 50% to stand at 125.80 against the dollar in June 2015, from a Dec. 2012 high of 85 when Abe became prime minister.
(For an interactive graphic of market moves since 2012, click: )
GDP
As a weaker yen boosted manufacturers’ profits, the benefits began trickling down to broader sectors of the economy as companies started hiring more.
Japan’s real gross domestic product (GDP) hit 540 trillion yen in October, up 8.6% from 2012 levels. But there are signs the economy may have peaked, as the U.S.-China trade war hits exports and factory output.
(Click here for an interactive graphic of real and nominal GDP since 2012: )
LABOUR MARKET
Improvements in the economy and a dwindling working-age population have worsened labor shortages. The unemployment rate stood at 2.4% in September, hovering near a 27-year low hit in August. In December 2012, it was at 4.3%.
(Click here for an interactive graphic of labor-related indicators since 2012: )
INFLATION
Despite a prolonged economic recovery and years of heavy money printing by the Bank of Japan, inflation had failed to accelerate toward its 2% target.
After peaking at 1.4% in 2014, the core consumer price index slowed, on slumping oil costs and the hit to household spending from a sales-tax hike in 2014. Inflation never got close to 2%, and now hovers around 0.3%.
(Click here for an interactive graphic of the core consumer price index since 2012: )
BOJ BALANCE SHEET
The Bank of Japan kicked off a massive asset-buying program in 2013 to try and reach its 2% inflation target.
But the policy fell short, forcing the BOJ to return in 2016 to a framework targeting interest rates rather than the pace of money printing.
Despite pledging to boost bond holdings by 80 trillion yen a year, the BOJ has been steadily slowing bond purchases in what some market players describe as “stealth tapering”.
(For an interactive graphic of increases in the BOJ's long-term JGB holdings and monetary base, click: )
Reporting by Kaori Kaneko and Daniel Leussink; Editing by Leika Kihara and Clarence FernandezOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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4c110c363540f8fb5d22b6e757e04445
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-ageing-singles-idUKKBN17K2ON?edition-redirect=uk
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Life's illusions catching up with Japan's middle-aged 'parasite singles'
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Life's illusions catching up with Japan's middle-aged 'parasite singles'
By Linda Sieg, Ami Miyazaki6 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Their youth long gone, members of Japan’s generation of “parasite singles” face a precarious future, wondering how to survive once the parents many depended on for years pass away.
54-y-o Hiromi Tanaka plays piano during an interview with Reuters at her house where she lives with her widowed mother in Tokyo, Japan March 1, 2017. REUTERS/Issei Kato
Some 4.5 million Japanese aged between 35 and 54 were living with their parents in 2016, according to a researcher at the Statistical Research and Training Institute on a demographic phenomena that emerged two decades ago, when youthful singles made headlines for mooching off parents to lead carefree lives.
WATCH: Aspiring internet stars turn to surgery to gain popularity
Now, without pensions or savings of their own, these middle-aged stay-at-homes threaten to place an extra burden on a social welfare system that is already creaking under pressure from Japan’s aging population and shrinking workforce.
Hiromi Tanaka once sang backup for pop groups, and epitomized the optimism of youth.
“I got used to living in an unstable situation and figured somehow it would work out,” Tanaka told Reuters as she sat at the piano in a small parlor of an old house connected to her elderly mother’s next door.
WATCH: Toyota launches robot to keep elderly mobile
Now aged 54, Tanaka relies on income from giving private singing lessons to a dwindling number of students, and her mother’s pension to make ends meet. She has no pension plan of her own, and has used up most of her savings.
“My father died last year so pension income was halved,” she said. “If things go on like this, my mother and I will fall together.”
Tanaka is one of the growing ranks of “life-time singles,” whose numbers hit a record in 2015, according to data released this month that showed that among 50-year-olds, one-in-four men and one-in-seven women were unmarried.
“During the ‘bubble economy’ until the mid-1990s, the 20-somethings were happily amusing themselves. They thought by the time they were in their 30s, they’d be married,” said Masahiro Yamada, a Chuo University sociologist who coined the term “parasite singles” in 1997.
Slideshow ( 5 images )
“But one-third never married and are now around age 50,” Yamada told Reuters in an interview.
FRAGILE FUTURE
The trend is not only a factor behind Japan’s low birth rate and shrinking population. It also puts an extra damper on consumption since new household formation is a key driver of private spending.
And since about 20 percent of the middle-aged stay-at-home singles rely on parents for support, they also threaten to weigh on social safety nets.
“Once they use up inherited assets and savings, when nothing is left, they will go on the dole,” Yamada said.
The rise in those shunning marriage, experts say, is due not only to more diverse life-styles but to an increase in low-paying, unstable jobs. Part-timers, temps or contract workers now account for nearly 40 percent of the workforce compared to about 20 percent in the 1980s.
Although recent tightness in Japan’s labor market has meant a slight fall in the number of singles living off parents, the overall trend probably won’t change, said Katsuhiko Fujimori, an economist at Mizuho Information and Research Institute.
“That’s because of the increase in irregular workers and the fact that more and more people cannot marry for economic reasons, even if they want to,” he said.
Some middle-aged singles living with parents once had steady jobs but slipped off the career track due to illness or corporate restructuring as companies cut costs to compete.
“Once you fall off the regular employment ladder, it’s tough,” said Hirotoshi Moriyama, a member of a non-profit organization that tries to help middle-aged people find jobs.
LEFT BEHIND
Akihiro Karube, 53, worked in the advertising business after graduation and by his 30s was earning a hefty salary. He moved back with his parents after a short-lived marriage but paid his own rent until, aged 43, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and had to quit.
Efforts to find work as a qualified home helper for the elderly have failed and he says he now relies on his father’s pension and a disability pension of his own.
“I just wish I had a stable income, that’s the main thing,” said Karube, who lives with his widowed 84-year-old dad in public housing in a Tokyo suburb.
The future looks especially bleak for an extreme sub-set of people who not only live at home with their parents but also seldom venture out, living out their days in hermit-like seclusion. Known in Japan as “hikikomori”, and once stereotyped as mostly young men, these stay-at-homes are also aging.
Fuminobu Ohashi was one himself, but now he works with a support group that last year began holding workshops for parents worried about their offsprings’ future.
“The problem is what they will do after their parents pass away,” Ohashi said. “It is a quietly ticking time-bomb.”
($1 = 108.6100 yen)
Editing by Simon Cameron-MooreOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-ageing-smallfirms-idUSKCN1230B7
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Small Japan firms dying out as aging owners struggle to find successors
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Small Japan firms dying out as aging owners struggle to find successors
By Tetsushi Kajimoto4 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s small firms, many of which are “mom-and-pop” operations, are dying out as their aging owners struggle to find successors, in another sign that the fast-ageing population is taking its toll on the world’s third-largest economy.
Takayasu Watanabe holds a box of chalks at his office where he used to run chalk-making business for decades before closing down last year, during an interview with Reuters in Nagoya, Japan, August 9, 2016. REUTERS/Tetsushi Kajimoto
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has targeted more business start-ups as a crucial part of regenerating activity, but the impact has been minimal so far, with the number of small firms that are closing their doors at a near record high.
Takayasu Watanabe, 72, has closed a chalk-making business in Nagoya, central Japan, that his family had operated for more than 80 years. He sold technology, equipment and trademark rights to a South Korean company last year.
“My physical condition has been deteriorating. I was unable to find a successor and business performance was not good,” Watanabe said, adding that none of his three daughters wanted to take over the firm.
The Bank of Japan’s tankan business survey showed on Monday that small manufacturers remained pessimistic in September as the economy continues to flounder more than three years after the prime minister pledged to reboot it with reflationary policies which markets have dubbed “Abenomics”.
Shutdowns among small firms that serve as subcontractors for big firms and employ seven out of 10 workers could pose the risk of a prolonged low growth, some analysts say.
The rate of startups among manufacturers has hovered well below shutdowns - at 3.4 percent versus 5.5 percent in 2014.
“Aging of business owners and difficulty in securing successors are becoming a serious problem for Japanese firms,” said Yumi Tanaka of Teikoku Databank, a private corporate credit research firm.
“From cars to electronics, more and more companies may start seeking overseas subcontractors, which could accelerate industrial hollowing out and hamper technology transfer.”
The construction industry is facing a severe shortage of workers as well as aging owners. Small hospitals, clinics and sake breweries are also facing acute shortages.
In the last fiscal year that ended in March, about 26,700 firms shut down voluntarily as owners could not find successors or faced a dim business outlook, according to Tokyo Shoko Research.
The number of voluntary closures has tripled that of bankruptcies, hovering above 25,000 cases since the 2008 global financial crisis, compared with some 16,000 at the start of this decade.
VOLUNTARY SHUTDOWN
The average age of company owners is at an all-time high of 59.2 years old, versus 54 years in 1990. About two-thirds of them lack successors and the ratio is on the rise.
“It is futile to expand the factory with high interest loans,” said Hitoshi Iwai, 80, who works alone in his factory in Tokyo’s Ota ward, once bustling with small factories considered the foundations of Japan’s post-war industrial strength.
Iwai and some other small factories in the area have survived this long by producing high-quality, specialty products and working together.
“Only those who have a technological edge can survive,” said Toshiaki Funakubo, chairman of machine-tool manufacturer Showa Seisakusho Co Ltd, which his son has taken over.
In his neighborhood in Tokyo’s manufacturing hub, a metal mould factory closed down in July and another business owner gave up last year - both having failed to nurture talented people to succeed them.
“These back street workshops may be the smallest part of the supply chain. Still, even one screw they produce may be crucial for products of their clients,” said Masashi Seki of Tokyo Shoko Research.
“Two decades of deflation has sapped owners’ appetite for business, many of whom have not benefited from ‘Abenomics’.”
Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Kim CoghillOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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7d2828f5ae71a98933a8ccfbaf8d5d56
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-ageing-tourism-idUSKCN1TR03Y
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Doing the 'I turn': Japan taps tourism to lure city dwellers to emptying villages
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Doing the 'I turn': Japan taps tourism to lure city dwellers to emptying villages
By Rina Chandran7 Min Read
CHIKATSUYU, Japan (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Yoshifumi Yano was tiring of the high cost of living and long hours of work at a travel firm in Osaka, Japan’s second largest city, when he heard of a hotel for sale in a small town nearby that was known for its onsen, or hot springs.
On a whim, he visited Yunomine, where the property was located, and after a night’s stay, decided to take it over. That was 18 years ago, and Yano became one of the first “I-turners” there - a city dweller who has moved to a small town.
Since then, the town has received World Heritage status from the United Nations cultural agency UNESCO and seen a steady rise in tourist numbers every year.
It has also seen a gradual trickle of people moving in from the city, as authorities hand out cheap homes and cash incentives to stem the emptying of the countryside, where fertility rates have fallen and many young people are long gone.
“I have young people on my staff who have moved here from the city for the same reasons that I did,” said Yano, sitting in the lobby of his hotel that is done up like a Swiss chalet.
“They can live more cheaply, have more time for themselves, and get more recognition for their work. They have changed their mind about life in a small town,” he said.
Changing the attitudes of young people towards the countryside is a priority for authorities in Japan, which has the most aged society in the world.
A declining birth rate and among the highest life expectancies made Japan the first country with more than a fifth of its population aged 65 or older by 2006. By 2050, that number is projected to exceed 35 percent.
The most visible impact is in the countryside, with millions of empty homes and swathes of unclaimed land. At this pace of depopulation, nearly 900 towns and villages across Japan will no longer be viable by 2040, according to economists.
So Japan is trying to encourage internal migration: a “U-turn”, when someone returns to their hometown, or an “I-turn”, for those who move to the country from a city, like Yano did.
“A move from Tokyo to the countryside can be very attractive, but the challenge for the I-turn or U-turn family is to be sure that their employment prospects will be stable,” said Brendan Barrett, a professor at the Osaka University.
“Sadly, in a situation where the population of rural communities is rapidly shrinking and ageing, the local tax base will continue to decline and public services contract and job opportunities will disappear,” he said.
SUSTAINABLE TRAVEL
Worldwide, several developed countries are grappling with the effects of an ageing population, from fewer workers to an increased burden of healthcare and pensions.
Japan last year passed a law to accept more immigrant workers with an option of permanent residency, to help address a chronic labor shortage ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
In the countryside, responsible tourism can help generate jobs, while also sustaining the local community, said Adam Downham, managing director of travel firm Oku Japan, which promotes tours in rural areas with stays at family-run inns.
More than 30 million people visit Japan every year, and growing numbers are exploring beyond Tokyo and Kyoto, he said.
“Sustainable forms of tourism are essential to the survival of these rural communities, providing critical funds to sustain public transport networks and bring much needed income to shops and inns,” Downham said.
“Local inns and villagers benefit from visitors traveling to the region, which is motivation for I-turns of younger people as job opportunities become available,” he said.
It is relatively easy for returnees to get a loan and start a business, and there are examples of young families moving into empty homes in the mountainous Kumano region, and working in inns as tourist numbers rise, he added.
There are about 8.5 million vacant homes - or akiya - in Japan, making up nearly 14% of the housing stock. By 2033, it will be more than a fifth, according to Fujitsu Research Institute.
In some remote areas, entire hamlets are ghost villages. Unclaimed land is forecast to reach 7.2 million hectares (28,000 square miles) in 2040, about the same size as Ireland.
Authorities have set up “akiya banks” to match prospective buyers with elderly homeowners and vacant properties, and offer subsidies for repairs. They also allow the use of unclaimed properties for projects that benefit the community.
Economists have proposed changes to the land-registration system and land-use policies. But more radical experiments such as a universal basic income may be needed, said Barrett.
“A five-year pilot could keep young people in the community and attract people from Tokyo and other major cities,” he said.
“With five years of financial support, participants would have some measure of job security, or time to develop their own businesses,” he said.
REVERSE MIGRATION
In the meantime, businesses are banking on tourism.
Airbnb, the short-term home rental service that has drawn flak for triggering overtourism in big cities, has said it can help drive the use of empty homes and revitalize Japan’s rural regions.
One such example is Yoshino Cedar House in a small mountainous town in Nara. It is run by a cooperative of residents, with most of the proceeds remaining in the community.
Airbnb plans to roll out this model in other areas in Japan and elsewhere, co-founder Joe Gebbia said in a statement.
If Japan’s rural areas could add 1% of their population in new residents every year, then the rural population would stabilize, according to the Research Institute for Sustainable Community.
It’s a big ask. Worldwide, cities are expanding, and by 2030, urban areas are projected to house 60% of the global population, according to the United Nations.
But there is a small but growing trend of “reverse migration”, or people moving from cities to rural areas.
It was Tokyo’s crowds and hectic pace that drove chef Kenji Masada to move to Chikatsuyu, about 180 km (110 miles) from Osaka.
In the village, where old wooden homes nestle against a backdrop of mountains, he grows vegetables for his restaurant. Tourists and hikers on the ancient Kumano Kodo pilgrimage trail often stop by.
“It’s so clean and quiet here, and I am able to enjoy what I do more,” he said.
“I am much happier here than I was in the city.”
Reporting by Rina Chandran @rinachandran; Editing by Ros Russell. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, property rights, and climate change. Visit news.trust.orgOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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63e477393c01e73eeb977718fd08c5a7
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-asia-group-m-a-carlyle/japans-murakami-backed-fund-to-launch-counterbid-for-carlyles-buyout-of-japan-asia-group-idUSKBN29J0Z8
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Murakami-backed fund plans Japanese bid battle with Carlyle
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Murakami-backed fund plans Japanese bid battle with Carlyle
By Junko Fujita2 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese fund backed by veteran investor Yoshiaki Murakami plans to make an 18 billion yen ($173 million) bid for energy and environment firm Japan Asia Group (JAG), topping a management buyout offer backed by Carlyle Group.
FILE PHOTO: The logo of the Carlyle Group is displayed at the company's office in Tokyo, Japan October 17, 2018. REUTERS/Issei Kato
City Index Eleventh said on Thursday it would offer 840 yen per share for JAG, a 40% premium to Carlyle’s offer of 600 yen.
Global buyout fund Carlyle teamed up with JAG’s chairman and CEO Tetsuo Yamashita in November to launch the management buyout that values JAG at 16.4 billion yen and is worth 37 billion yen in total, including two other JAG businesses.
JAG shares have more than doubled since Nov. 4, the day before that announcement, reaching 785 yen on Thursday.
JAG was not immediately available to comment on City Index Eleventh’s proposal. Carlyle declined to comment.
Earlier on Thursday, JAG said Carlyle had extended its bid for a second time to Jan. 28 as its shares were trading above Carlyle’s offer.
JAG is the latest company to become a battleground between Murakami’s fund and a global private equity firm, following Bain Capital’s failed bid for a printing firm in 2019.
City Index Eleventh, which with other parties already has a 19.05% stake in JAG, had described Carlyle’s bid as “unfairly” cheap and asked it to raise the offer price, but was rebuffed.
“We have terminated talks with Carlyle and decided to launch our own bid at 840 yen, which represents per share capital for JAG,” said City Index Eleventh.
The activist fund did not say when it would launch the bid.
U.S. buyout fund Bain Capital failed in 2019 in its bid to buy a small printing firm Kosaido Co after a fund backed by Murakami said Bain’s offer undervalued the company.
($1 = 104.0800 yen)
Reporting by Junko Fujita. Editing by John Stonestreet and Mark PotterOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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dccaadb4d83fae1cb3167671d6b677a2
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-autos-emissions/mazda-suzuki-yamaha-motor-submit-reports-on-improper-testing-japan-ministry-idUSKBN1KU061
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Mazda, Suzuki, Yamaha Motor submit reports on improper testing: Japan ministry
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Mazda, Suzuki, Yamaha Motor submit reports on improper testing: Japan ministry
By Reuters Staff1 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Mazda Motor Corp, Suzuki Motor Corp and Yamaha Motor Co have submitted reports to Japan’s transport ministry that they conducted improper fuel economy and emissions tests on their vehicles, the ministry said on Thursday.
The findings were the results of internal investigations ordered at Japanese auto makers by the ministry after improper testing at Subaru Corp and Nissan Motor Co.
Reporting by Chris Gallagher; Editing by Muralikumar AnantharamanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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bf7062f5050484c1007ce76cf6ec4161
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-autos-gasoline-comment/japan-considering-support-for-shift-to-electric-vehicles-kato-idUSKBN28D0AY?il=0
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Japan considering support for shift to electric vehicles: Kato
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Japan considering support for shift to electric vehicles: Kato
By Reuters Staff1 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s trade ministry is considering support for a shift to electric-powered vehicles and will map out a plan by the year-end, chief government spokesman Katsunobu Kato told a news conference on Thursday.
The government is considering abolishing sales of new gasoline-engine cars by the mid-2030s in favour of hybrid or electric vehicles in line with a global shift from traditionally powered cars, public broadcaster NHK reported.
Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Chris GallagherOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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4b12698356fd112cb4621bb80878c2b4
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-autos-gasoline/japan-may-ban-sale-of-new-gasoline-powered-vehicles-in-mid-2030s-media-idINKBN28D044?edition-redirect=in
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Japan may ban sale of new gasoline-powered vehicles in mid-2030s - media
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Japan may ban sale of new gasoline-powered vehicles in mid-2030s - media
By Reuters Staff3 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan may ban sales of new gasoline-engine cars by the mid-2030s in favour of hybrid or electric vehicles, public broadcaster NHK reported on Thursday, aligning it with other countries and regions that are imposing curbs on fossil fuel vehicles.
FILE PHOTO: A schoolboy walks up the overhead bridge along a traffic junction in Beppu, Japan October 8, 2019. Picture taken October 8, 2019. REUTERS/Edgar Su
The move would follow Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s pledge in October for Japan to slash carbon emissions to zero on a net basis by 2050 and make the country the second G7 nation to set a deadline for phasing out gasoline vehicles in a little over two weeks.
Japan’s industry ministry will map out a plan by the year-end, chief government spokesman Katsunobu Kato told a news conference on Thursday.
The likelihood of state interventions to lower carbon emissions is fuelling a technological race among carmakers to build electric cars and hybrid gasoline-electric vehicles that will lure drivers as they switch from gasoline models, particularly in the world’s two biggest auto markets, China and the U.S.
Measures already in place in Japan mean Japanese automakers, particularly big ones such as Toyota Motor Corp with greater research and development resources, could use electric vehicle technology they have already developed at home.
Nissan Motor Co chief operating officer Ashwani Gupta last month told Reuters his company was ready to respond to Britain’s decision to hasten a phase-out date for new petrol and diesel powered cars and vans by five years to 2030 because it was part of a global trend.
Japan’s industry ministry is considering requiring all new vehicles to be electric, including hybrid vehicles, NHK reported earlier, adding the ministry would finalise a formal target following expert-panel debates as early as the year-end.
Japanese automakers for now are keeping quiet on what impact those measures could have on their businesses.
Toyota, Honda Motor Co , Nissan and its alliance partner Mitsubishi Motors Corp declined to comment.
In Japan, the share of electricity vehicles is expected to increase to 55% in 2030, Boston Consulting Group said in a report on prospects for battery-powered cars.
Globally, “the speed of expansion of the share of electric vehicles will accelerate due to the fact that battery prices are falling more rapidly than previously expected,” Boston Consulting said in the report. ]
Japan, China and South Korea recently announced firm targets to end net emissions of carbon, which has given momentum for companies and banks to push for cutbacks to keep global warming in check.
Apart from Britain, parts of the United States and Canada, Norway and Germany, are or plan to imposed curbs on fossil fuel cars. The wider European Union is expected to decide on future restrictions as early as this month.
Reporting by Chris Gallagher, Tetsushi Kajimoto, Aaron Sheldrick and Tim Kelly; Editing by Leslie Adler, Christopher Cushing, Simon Cameron-Moore and Gerry DoyleOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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aed573f5ea407f356c43030bb9d38d7b
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-baby-smallest-idUSKCN1QG1MZ?utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A+Trending+Content&utm_content=5c76ae384b73850001dc1f6e&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR3lE8m4Q6luLSfj1BI1YNMgYTJRUr5Okf8jCy4hs-2M9tF70BaOO7mk9Yw
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World's smallest baby boy goes home from Japan hospital
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World's smallest baby boy goes home from Japan hospital
By Reuters Staff1 Min Read
Slideshow ( 3 images )
TOKYO (Reuters) - A baby boy weighing just 268 grams (9.45 oz) at birth was sent home after months in a Tokyo hospital, the smallest surviving male baby in the world, Keio University hospital said.
The boy was born through Caesarean-section last August after he failed to gain weight during the pregnancy and doctors feared his life was in danger.
The boy was in intensive care until his weight reached 3.2 kilograms and he was discharged on Feb. 20, said Dr. Takeshi Arimitsu of the university’s School of Medicine, Department of Paediatrics.
“I am grateful that he has grown this big because, honestly, I wasn’t sure he could survive,” the boy’s mother told Reuters.
The previous record was held by a boy born in Germany in 2009 weighing 274 grams, according to the Tiniest Babies registry managed by the University of Iowa.
The smallest girl was born weighing 252 grams in Germany in 2015, according to the registry.
Reporting by Mayuko Ono; Writing by Stanley White; Editing by Darren SchuettlerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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badf4b850c00331d7574b503a2cf1cf0
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-beer-idUST20272920080915
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Brewers face challenge as Japanese lose taste for beer
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Brewers face challenge as Japanese lose taste for beer
By Mari Saito6 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Times are tough for Japanese brewers as the country’s increasingly health-conscious youth lose their taste for lager and cut back their drinking amid a gloomy economic outlook.
A worker puts cans of Kirin's new "Kirin Smooth", an alternative beer which will be released mid-September, on a production line at the Japanese brewer's factory in Toride, northeast of Tokyo September 4, 2008. To match feature JAPAN-BEER/ REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao
Young Japanese have become averse to spending their hard-earned cash on alcohol, helping push beer sales down by about 5 percent this year and forcing brewers to develop cheap brews and imitation beers to hold on to customers, as well as to look abroad for growth.
“I rarely ever drink. I don’t like the taste of beer. I do a lot of sports and I think beer is fattening. I hate the way it settles in my stomach,” said university student Keisuke Kato.
This is a worrying trend for brewers in Japan, which is the sixth-largest beer consuming country in the world. And it’s not just beer consumption that is suffering.
Tax records show that alcohol intake in Japan had gradually declined to 9.4 million kilolitres in 2006 since peaking at 10.2 million kilolitres in 1999, a drop analysts pin to a variety factors such as the graying population and changing social norms.
The drop in consumption reflects a shift in consumer tastes to canned cocktails and less fattening drinks based on shochu, a distilled alcohol commonly made from barley, potatoes or rice.
Volume shipments of shochu drinks have surged 42 percent in the 10 years to 2006, even as beer shipments have fallen by more than 10 percent from a peak in 1994.
“Beer has been walloped by cheaper and perceivably healthier alcohol drinks,” said Tokushi Yamasaki, an analyst at Daiwa Institute of Research. “Overall Japanese do not drink as much as they used to.”
The lack of interest in alcohol among young Japanese is a sharp shift from the past when drinking bouts with colleagues were de rigueur and tipsy white-collar workers stumbling home late at night were a frequent sight in Tokyo’s bar districts.
“Drinking in Japan was about bonding with your colleagues. But Japan’s declining economy shifted corporate structure and it doesn’t require workers to drink together any more,” said Ron Carr, a professor at Temple University.
“When I first came here in the early ‘90s there were still so many drunken salarymen at the end of the year, drinking beer and spilling out on the streets. I’ve seen a huge decline in all that,” he added.
Slideshow ( 3 images )
That was before Japan’s bubble economy burst in 1989, throwing the country into years of economic stagnation.
The period left its mark on young Japanese who, analysts say, tend to spend carefully after witnessing the 1980 bubble economy crumble, leaving their babyboomer parents’ struggling as employers’ instituted stringent cost-cutting.
This wariness of overspending is being exacerbated by a gloomy economic climate in Japan with growing concern that the world’s second largest economy may be in recession.
Japan’s Consumer Price Index is rising, and the country’s core annual inflation hit a decade high in June, pressured by soaring energy costs and an uncertain economic outlook.
TIGHT TIMES
Economic worries mean that many Japanese are thinking twice before forking out for expensive beers especially when soft drink and low alcohol beers, which are taxed less than regular beers, are so much cheaper.
Faced with drooping sales, some brewers are stepping up production of alternative beers, making lager out of soybeans, or adding wheat or barley spirits to carbonated water to make a less authentic brew and thus avoiding high beer taxes.
“Taste is not really a consideration for young people when they choose beer. First of all, they seek scientific evidence like “zero calorie” or “low alcohol”, said Toru Yamazaki, a marketing manager for Kirin brewery, which holds a 36.7 percent share of the beer market in Japan.
A bar manager in Shibuya, a popular hang-out spot in Tokyo, says his business is feeling the pinch.
“The way young people are spending money is changing. They seek cheaper drinks and food, even though they spend a lot of money on clothes,” said Takahiro Hamasaki.
“Many of them don’t know how to drink. I can always see the ones at the table who are not drinking any alcohol,” he said.
Domestic beer sales from Japan’s five main brewers dropped by a combined 4.2 percent in the first half of this year and Kirin Holdings’ sales fell by 5.9 percent.
The top four breweries -- Asahi, Kirin, privately-held Suntory and Sapporo -- are jostling to attract new customers amid a slowing birth rate and an increasing elderly population that is reducing the drinking population even further.
Japan has the world’s fastest growing number of people aged 65 and over so the onus will be increasingly on young Japanese to provide the growth for beverage makers. Yet surveys show that young Japanese consume less alcohol than those in their 40s.
“Young people are not drinking beer. I think there is an overall feeling that beer making alone will not get them through this difficult time,” said Katsunori Tanaka, a Goldman Sachs analyst.
NEW STRATEGY
Some breweries are looking offshore for sales. Kirin has said it will spend about 300 billion yen ($2.7 billion) in acquisitions and alliances, especially increasing investment overseas to stay ahead of its competitors.
But it’s not all bad news. While regular beer sales may be faring badly, the cheaper alternative beers are in demand.
Asahi Breweries recorded a 3.4 percent drop in beer sales for the first half year, but sales in its alternative beer category increased by almost 17 percent in the same period.
Asahi now plans to introduce more alternative beers such as a ginger-infused beer that taps into the sweet-toothed younger drinkers’ market. Other breweries are introducing their own versions of alternative beers aimed at the 20-something market.
“I think for the short term, beer will shift to the alternative beers where there is high demand,” said Goldman Sachs analyst Tanaka.
(Additional reporting by Taiga Uranaka; Editing by Megan Goldin
$1=107.91 YenOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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2c4615653aba989d6be9aade6d942453
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-bitcoin/japans-fsa-gives-official-endorsement-to-11-cryptocurrency-exchanges-idUKKCN1C40T9?edition-redirect=uk
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Japan's FSA gives official endorsement to 11 cryptocurrency exchanges
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Japan's FSA gives official endorsement to 11 cryptocurrency exchanges
By Takahiko Wada, Hideyuki Sano2 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s Financial Services Agency said on Friday it has approved 11 companies as operators of cryptocurrency exchanges, in a move that sets the country apart from its neighbors which are tightening their grip on virtual money.
FILE PHOTO: A Bitcoin (virtual currency) coin is seen in an illustration picture taken at La Maison du Bitcoin in Paris, France, June 23, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/Illustration/File Photo
The Japanese government recognized bitcoin as legal tender in April and required cryptocurrency exchange operators to register with it.
The move was aimed at avoiding a repeat of the failure in 2014 of Tokyo-based Mt Gox, the world’s largest bitcoin exchange at the time.
The financial watchdog has laid out various requirements, such as building a strong computer system, segregation of customer accounts and checking the identity of customers, a key issue given concerns cryptocurrency could be used for money-laundering.
Trading in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies among Japanese investors has gained momentum this year, helped by the legal recognition as well as spectacular surges in the price of bitcoin and ethereum.
Industry officials say Japan is now one of the world’s biggest bitcoin trading hubs as China -- by far the largest user of bitcoins until early this year -- clamps down on cryptocurrencies.
With the new regulation, Tokyo aims to balance the need to protect investors with the need to support fintech innovations, FSA officials said.
Officials this month said they have no plan to ban initial coin offerings (ICOs), although there have been few launches of token-based digital currencies in Japan to date.
Tokyo’s stance is in contrast with those of other regulators in Asia.
Beijing this month ordered some bitcoin exchanges to shut. [L8N1M72UR]
And earlier on Friday, South Korea’s financial regulator said it will ban raising money through all forms of virtual currencies.
The FSA is still reviewing registration applications from 17 other exchange operators.
On the other hand, 12 firms that had been in the business before the new regulation decided to close down, the FSA said.
Reporting by Takahiko Wada and Hideyuki Sano, writing by Hideyuki Sano; Editing by Sam Holmes and Kim CoghillOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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c4da976bc7bca88ea3312baa600296fd
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-boj-nominee-idUSKCN1GI0AO
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Japan central bank chief tempers talk of easy policy exit
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Japan central bank chief tempers talk of easy policy exit
By Leika Kihara, Tetsushi Kajimoto5 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s central bank chief said on Tuesday a future exit from ultra-easy monetary policy would need to be “very gradual”, in comments analysts described as a bid to temper expectations about a near-term end to crisis-mode stimulus.
FILE PHOTO: Bank of Japan (BOJ) Governor Haruhiko Kuroda attends a news conference at the BOJ headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, October 31, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo
Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda startled markets last week when he told lawmakers that the central bank could consider exiting easy policy if his inflation target was met in fiscal 2019 as projected, remarks that sent the yen and bond yields higher.
Speaking in parliament again on Tuesday, he said the BOJ had the necessary tools to engineer a smooth exit from easy policy and was already brainstorming how a future stimulus exit could affect its balance sheet, but sounded caution about withdrawing too quickly.
“When the BOJ exits, it will be a very gradual process ... so as not to trigger a spike in long-term interest rates or a disruption in financial markets,” Kuroda said on Tuesday.
“We need to move cautiously so as not to hurt the economy and prices,” he said, adding that details on when and how to exit will depend on economic and price conditions at the time.
Kuroda stressed that an actual exit from easy policy was some time away with inflation, now at 0.9 percent, still distant from his 2 percent target.
“Underlying price moves remain weak, so our feeling is that there is some distance to achieving our price target,” Kuroda said. “It’s unthinkable to end or weaken the degree of monetary easing before our inflation target is met.”
Kuroda appeared before the upper house of parliament for confirmation hearings after the government reappointed him to serve another five-year term when the current one ends in April.
It is a near certainty parliament will approve the government’s nomination because premier Shinzo Abe’s ruling coalition holds a majority in both houses of parliament.
“Kuroda sounded confident about an exit probably out of need to reassure market the BOJ can engineer a smooth exit when the appropriate time comes,” said Masaki Kuwahara, senior economist at Nomura Securities.
“I think the BOJ will stand pat at least until fiscal 2020 given tepid inflation.”
TONING DOWN
In reference to his comments last week, Kuroda on Tuesday said they weren’t intended to give an explicit timeframe for an actual exit.
“I didn’t say the BOJ will immediately exit the easy policy in fiscal 2019. I only said there could be some debate of an exit if inflation hits 2 percent during fiscal 2019, as we project,” Kuroda said.
Under the current forecast, the BOJ’s nine-member board projects inflation to reach 2 percent during the fiscal year ending in March 2020. Many analysts see the estimate as too ambitious in a country barely emerging from deflation.
“People reacted strongly to Kuroda’s comments about the exit last week, so I think he was trying to tone this down today,” said Shuji Tonouchi, senior market economist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities.
“The outlook for prices could weaken a little, making it difficult for the BOJ to move policy.”
Japan’s economy has been recovering steadily but inflation remains well below the BOJ’s target, as companies hold off on raising prices for fear of scaring away cost-sensitive consumers.
Years of heavy money printing to reflate growth have hurt already thin margins of Japan’s financial institutions, drawing calls from lawmakers for the BOJ to be more mindful of the cost of prolonged monetary easing.
Kuroda said he did not see any serious threats to Japan’s banking system. But he said the BOJ would “obviously” debate an exit strategy from easy policy when its price target is met.
“There are various means to exit,” such as mopping up liquidity via market operations and raising the interest the BOJ pays to excess reserves financial institutions park at the central bank, Kuroda said.
“The BOJ is also doing some brainstorming” on how a future exit could affect its balance sheet, though how and through what means it would withdraw stimulus would depend on economic and price conditions at the time, he said.
Additional reporting by Stanley White; Editing by Chris Gallagher and Sam HolmesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-casino-corruption/japan-ruling-party-lawmaker-arrested-on-casino-bribery-suspicion-prosecutors-idUSKBN1YT03N
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Japan ruling party lawmaker arrested on casino bribery suspicion: prosecutors
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Japan ruling party lawmaker arrested on casino bribery suspicion: prosecutors
By Chang-Ran Kim, Takashi Umekawa4 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese authorities arrested ruling party lawmaker Tsukasa Akimoto on Wednesday on suspicion of accepting bribes from a company interested in setting up a casino in Japan, Tokyo prosecutors said.
FILE PHOTO: Visitors react after they win a mock baccarat casino game at an international tourism promotion symposium in Tokyo September 28, 2013. REUTERS/Yuya Shino/File Photo
Hours later prosecutors searched the office of a second lawmaker from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party as part of the same investigation, Kyodo news and other Japanese media said, in what appeared to be a widening probe.
The high-profile arrest of a member of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s LDP could harden public opposition to casinos, which have been consistently unpopular despite the government’s push to have them running by the early 2020s.
A senior vice minister in the Cabinet Office until October last year, Akimoto oversaw government policy on casinos. He is suspected of receiving 3 million yen ($27,500) in cash and a family holiday worth the equivalent of $6,500 from three suspects despite knowing that their company wanted help with a casino bid, prosecutors said.
The three suspects were also arrested on suspicion of bribery, prosecutors said. No one was available for comment at Akimoto’s office, which was raided by prosecutors last week. The lawmaker has repeatedly denied doing anything illegal.
“I have absolutely not taken part in any wrongdoing,” Akimoto wrote on his official Twitter account earlier on Wednesday, after media reported he was likely to be questioned. “I will continue to emphasize this point.”
Hours later, prosecutors searched the office of lawmaker Takaki Shirasuka in Chiba, east of the capital, in connection with the probe into Akimoto, Kyodo and public broadcaster NHK said.
Prosecutors did not respond to a request for comment. Officials at Shirasuka’s offices in Tokyo and Chiba could not immediately be reached.
Related CoverageProsecutors search office of Japan MP in connection with bribery probe
NEGATIVE IMAGE
Prosecutors did not name the company whose three employees allegedly tried to influence Akimoto, but public broadcaster NHK and other local media identified it as Shenzhen, China-based 500.Com Ltd, an online sports lottery service provider.
Investor relations representatives for 500.Com did not respond to two requests for comment. The phone number and email for its media relations representative listed on its website did not work. No one was immediately available for comment at the company’s main number or customer service departments.
Representatives of four opposition parties said they would submit a bill to abolish Japan’s casino law in the next session of parliament, public broadcaster NHK said. Lawmakers only finished legalizing casinos last year after a series of controversial bills and years of debate.
The government sees casinos anchoring ambitious “integrated resorts” that include shopping outlets and hotels and are aimed at bolstering tourism, tax revenue and local economies.
Japan, which has a shrinking population and economy, is desperate to maintain growth in tourism, particularly after the Tokyo Olympics end next year.
Some analysts have said the casino market could be worth around $20 billion a year or more, thanks to an affluent population and the proximity to Asia’s wealthy gamblers. But critics have cited risks of increased gambling addiction and more organized crime.
Akimoto’s arrest could add to the negative images the Japanese public holds of casinos, said Hidenori Suezawa, an analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities.
“It may be a blow to some local governments’ ongoing campaign to attract casinos,” he said.
Gambling has traditionally had a seedy image in Japan, with none of the glamor associated with spots like Las Vegas.
“This shakes the foundation of the government’s integrated-resort policy,” Kazuhiro Haraguchi, parliamentary affairs chief for the opposition Democratic Party For the People, told Kyodo.
“If a deputy minister in the Cabinet Office with authority (over the casino issue) used his position to get money, it would be outrageous.”
An opinion poll in October by Jiji news found 57.9% opposition to integrated resorts versus 26.6% support.
($1 = 109.3600 yen)
Reporting by Takashi Umekawa and Chang-Ran Kim; Additional reporting by Junko Fujita and William Mallard in Tokyo, and by the Beijing newsroom; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Edmund Klamann and Hugh LawsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-casino-pachinko-idUSBREA4B0V320140512
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Taxing times for pachinko as Japan considers casino gamble
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Taxing times for pachinko as Japan considers casino gamble
By Farah Master, Nathan Layne7 Min Read
OSAKA/TOKYO (Reuters) - Moves towards legalizing casinos in Japan have reignited a debate over the legal status of pachinko, with a potential new tax mooted for a $200 billion gaming industry that has existed for decades on the fringes of the law.
Visitors play Pachinko, a Japanese form of legal gambling, at Dynam Japan Holdings Co.'s Pachinko parlour in Koga, north of Tokyo April 7, 2014. REUTERS/Issei Kato
Pachinko, a slot-cum-pinball form of gambling, is a national obsession, with one in six Japanese playing the game, though that number is declining as younger generations prefer to play games on their mobile phones.
With past links to organized crime, pachinko is not classified as gambling, which is illegal in Japan. Instead it’s treated as an amusement activity like arcades and hostess bars, and the operators of pachinko parlors that are found in city streets across Japan pay no gaming tax.
As some lawmakers push to allow casinos that would contribute billions of dollars to state coffers, pachinko, too, could come under a new regulatory umbrella. Takeshi Iwaya, a leading proponent for casinos from the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, reckons any move to change pachinko laws should come once casinos are up and running, which could be as early as 2020, when Tokyo will host the Olympic Games.
While years away, such reforms may have greater implications for the pachinko industry than the likely loss of customers to new casino resorts, analysts say. And reforming the industry won’t be easy given the web of special interests involved, not least the national police agency which oversees it.
“I see no easy way out for the pachinko industry,” said Ichiro Tanioka, an expert on Japanese gaming industries and president of the Osaka University of Commerce, a leading proponent in the casino debate. “It’s a mess.”
ONE LAW TO RULE THEM ALL
In pachinko, players buy baskets of small silver balls which they feed into the machine and guide into a hole that spins out numbers or characters on an electronic screen. Matching series win the player more silver balls, which can be exchanged for snacks, alcohol or small items in the pachinko hall.
Most players, however, opt to trade in their winnings for “special prizes”, which they then swap for yen at small booths outside, but close to, the hall. Legally, these booths are separate from the hall operator, skirting anti-gambling laws.
The police stop short of fully endorsing this system as legal, placing it in a regulatory grey zone that has effectively barred pachinko hall operators from listing their shares on a Japanese stock exchange.
To help bring the game out of the regulatory shadows, a lawyer with ties to the industry suggested a “pachinko law” allowing balls to be exchanged for cash inside pachinko halls. The main lobby group for parlor operators, though, wants to keep the existing system, but give it legitimacy through a state-supervised scheme.
Slideshow ( 6 images )
Either plan would generate about $2 billion in annual revenue for the government, according to copies of the proposals seen by Reuters.
Yoji Sato, one of Japan’s wealthiest tycoons and chairman of Dynam Japan Holdings, a pachinko hall operator listed in Hong Kong, backs reforms that bring all the industry’s moving parts - from machine makers to booth operators - under one law. He acknowledged the industry faces close scrutiny.
“Any industry that cannot be accepted or understood by society will cease to exist,” Sato, 68, told Reuters in an interview. “Dynam is in principle behind any move to clarify the industry’s role in society.”
BATTLE FOR SURVIVAL
Seiko Noda, another LDP lawmaker involved in both pushing for casinos and the pachinko debate, said there is no consensus yet on how best to regulate pachinko.
Among the 4,000 or so firms involved in the industry, the smaller, financially weaker hall operators are more worried about change, and particularly about any new tax scheme, Noda said. “The hall owners are quite afraid they will be ordered to pay more tax to the government, so I’m considering it very carefully,” she told Reuters at her office in the government’s national parliament building.
Dynam and other leading pachinko operators, meanwhile, are vying to open multi-billion dollar casino resorts - should regulations permit.
A recent Morgan Stanley report predicted that Japan’s casino market could be worth $21-$22 billion - though that’s less than half the size of Macau’s, and well below a consensus view of around $40 billion, by 2025.
Sato said his focus is on that domestic casino opportunity, adding his company has held talks with casino operators including Macau’s Galaxy Entertainment and Melco Entertainment.
Rival hall operator Maruhan and two of Japan’s biggest pachinko machine makers, Sega Sammy and Konami, have also met casino operators, industry executives say. To gain experience in the resort business, Sega Sammy is building a $1.7 billion casino in the South Korean coastal city of Incheon with local gaming firm Paradise Co.
AT RISK
This diversification isn’t just driven by potential pachinko reforms.
Pachinko revenues are falling as Japan’s population ages and as younger people turn to mobile devices for entertainment. On a recent visit to a brightly-lit pachinko hall in an outlying Tokyo suburb, most of the players were middle-aged men.
Gross pay-ins in the pachinko market have dropped to 19 billion yen ($186 million) from 31 billion yen in the past 20 years, and the number of players halved between 2002 and 2012, according to Morgan Stanley’s research.
While pachinko is unlikely to be badly hit in the short term - parlors are informal and widespread, while casinos will be upscale and out-of-town - a recent increase in Japan’s sales tax may squeeze small operators and accelerate consolidation.
Kunio Nobuta, a flamboyant billionaire who heads one of Japan’s oldest and largest pachinko hall operators, said his Nobuta Group aims to increase its non-pachinko revenues to 30-40 percent from around a tenth now, and may get into real estate.
Haruo Kinoshita, president of pachinko hall operator Kicona, sees smaller operators having to merge as the game’s popularity wanes.
“There are few young people playing, they don’t have any pocket money. Back in the heyday, people worked hard and played hard. Now everyone’s grown up. I’m worried about the future.”
Additional reporting by Emi Emoto and Yoshiyuki Osada; Editing by Ian GeogheganOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-casino/mgm-resorts-led-consortium-named-as-lead-bidder-for-osaka-casino-project-idUKKBN2081PU?edition-redirect=uk
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MGM Resorts-led consortium named as lead bidder for Osaka casino project
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MGM Resorts-led consortium named as lead bidder for Osaka casino project
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
FILE PHOTO: Jul 31, 2019; Orlando, FL, USA; MGM Resorts signage is seen at the Fan Zone before the 2019 MLS All Star Game at Exploria Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports - 13130228/File Photo
TOKYO (Reuters) - A consortium led by U.S. entertainment giant MGM Resorts International MGM.N has been named as the lead bidder for an integrated casino complex in Osaka, the local government said on Friday.
Japan is planning to approve the construction of several integrated resorts - Las Vegas-style complexes that include casinos, shopping arcades and conference centres - to boost tourism after the Tokyo Olympics end in August.
The government has authorised licences for three resorts and is expected to receive official bids next year from regions vying to build the facilities, potentially including Japan’s three largest cities, Tokyo, Yokohama and Osaka.
A consortium comprising MGM and Japan's Orix Corp 8591.T has been selected as the sole qualified applicant for the development of the Osaka resort, its prefectural government said in a statement.
Osaka hopes to make a final decision on which bidder will win the project in June, the Nikkei newspaper said.
Despite the government’s push, the casino development law is unpopular with the public, given concerns that large-scale gambling centers could lead to a rise in addiction, along with crime and corruption.
A bribery scandal that saw the arrest last December of a ruling-party lawmaker previously overseeing casino policy has increased public opposition to the government’s plan to allow casinos in Japan.
Some analysts say the casino market could be worth around $20 billion annually or more, thanks to an affluent population and the proximity to Asia’s wealthy gamblers.
Reporting by Daniel Leussink; Editing by Jan HarveyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-casinos-yokohama/japans-yokohama-city-joins-race-to-host-newly-legalized-casino-idUSKCN1VC0FT
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Japan's Yokohama city joins race to host newly legalized casino
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Japan's Yokohama city joins race to host newly legalized casino
By Ritsuko Ando3 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan’s second-largest city, Yokohama, said on Thursday it would bid to host a casino resort, a newly legalized industry the government hopes will stimulate the economy and tourism.
FILE PHOTO: A general view shows a city of Yokohama, south of Tokyo, Japan, September 4, 2015. REUTERS/Yuya Shino
Yokohama, facing Tokyo Bay and located a short train ride from the capital, joins candidates such as Osaka, Nagasaki and Wakayama vying to host integrated resorts (IR) expected to attract more tourists and investment.
Las Vegas Sands Corp LVS.N promptly announced interest in Yokohama, saying it would pursue IR development there or in the capital rather than in Osaka. Osaka has been particularly aggressive in courting casino development, but some gaming companies prefer a site in or near Tokyo.
Las Vegas Sands considered Osaka but decided that “an investment in Tokyo or Yokohama gives us the best opportunity,” CEO Sheldon Adelson said in a statement.
Japan is widely seen as a prize market for casino operators due to its affluent population of 128 million and proximity to Asia’s wealthy gamblers. The government is expected to allow casino resorts in three sites initially.
Yokohama had long been undecided about a bid amid worries about addiction and crime.
“We must look to Yokohama’s future, the 20-30 years ahead,” Mayor Fumiko Hayashi told a news conference streamed on the city government’s website, announcing the bid.
“I’ve come to the conclusion that in order to achieve growth and development, we need IR.”
Japanese lawmakers finished legalizing casinos last year after a series of controversial bills and years of debate, with opponents citing risks of increased gambling addiction and organized crime activity.
Prolonged discussions meant no resorts will be open in time for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, with the government yet to pick hosts and operators.
But new casino resorts are expected to help Japan maintain growth in tourism and investment after the Summer Games are over. Some analysts have said the casino market could be worth around $20 billion a year, or even more when opened in three cities.
Besides Las Vegas Sands, international gaming companies including Wynn Resorts Ltd WYNN.O, MGM Resorts International MGM.N and Caesars Entertainment Corp CZR.O are eyeing the market, and may have to battle to win operating rights.
Reporting by Ritsuko Ando; Editing by David Dolan and Muralikumar AnantharamanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-children-europe/two-fathers-demand-action-against-japan-over-parental-child-abduction-idUSKBN20B0TP
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Two fathers demand action against Japan over parental child abduction
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Two fathers demand action against Japan over parental child abduction
By Reuters Staff3 Min Read
FILE PHOTO: A woman takes a photo of an illuminated ice sculpture at the Sapporo Snow Festival in Sapporo, northern Japan on February 7, 2007. REUTERS/Yuriko Nakao/File Photo
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Two European fathers who live in Japan will urge EU lawmakers this week to increase pressure on Tokyo to tackle parental child abduction by changing a law that does not recognize joint child custody following divorce.
Frenchman Vincent Fichot and Italian Tommaso Perina will present a petition to the bloc’s legislative assembly in Brussels on Wednesday to demand action against cases of so-called parental child abduction affecting Europeans living in Japan.
The two men -- who both became estranged from their children after their Japanese wives took them without consent -- say Japan should be sanctioned for breaching its human rights obligation under the EU-Japan Strategic Partnership Agreement.
In contrast to most other countries, Japan does not recognize joint custody of children following divorce and children often lose contact with the non-custodial parent.
In what critics say is an even more egregious human rights violation, courts often grant custody to an “abducting” parent even before any legal separation, leaving the second parent with no recourse or help to see their children.
In order to initiate diplomatic actions, the French Senate on Feb. 5 unanimously adopted a non-binding resolution calling on Japan to respect its international commitments under the Hague Convention.
EU lawmaker Geoffroy Didier called on the EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell in a letter dated Jan. 23 to suspend the EU-Japan Strategic Partnership Agreement which is aimed at promoting shared values of “democracy, rule of law, human rights and fundamental freedoms.”
The plight of left-behind parents last year also prompted French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Giuseppe Conte to raise their concerns with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, while Japanese and foreign left-behind parents have also collectively launched a complaint to the UN’s human rights body.
Several countries including Italy and Germany have posted travel advisories for Japan, warning of the consequences of parental child abductions as Tokyo prepares to host the Olympic Games this year.
Reporting by Marine Strauss @StraussMarine and Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Helen PopperOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-children-separation/in-japan-foreign-parents-lead-charge-against-child-abduction-idUSKBN1ZF13V
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In Japan, foreign parents lead charge against child 'abduction'
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In Japan, foreign parents lead charge against child 'abduction'
By Chang-Ran Kim5 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - A growing number of foreigners in Japan are speaking out against what they say is a little-known but entrenched system that allows one parent in a broken relationship to take away the children and block the other from visiting them.
FILE PHOTO: Scott McIntyre, an Australian sports journalist, speaks outside the Tokyo District Court after spending a month and a half in jail on charges of trespassing to find his missing children, in Tokyo, Japan January 15, 2020. REUTERS/Chang-Ran Kim/File Photo
The issue of what media in Japan and overseas call parental child “abduction” has regained international attention recently, particularly in Europe where documentaries have been made about European fathers whose children were taken by their Japanese wives.
Japan’s judicial system has drawn global attention with the lengthy detention - and subsequent fleeing - of former auto executive Carlos Ghosn in what critics have characterized as a “hostage justice” system.
Australian Scott McIntyre was the latest foreigner to raise his voice against the estrangement of separated parents from their children in Japan.
McIntyre was detained for 1-1/2 months in Tokyo for trespassing when he went to his in-laws’ apartment to seek information on his two children. He remains married, has no restraining order against him, retains full parental rights, but has not been able to see his children since May, when his wife left with them.
“Sitting here today, I don’t know if my children are alive or dead,” McIntyre told a news conference on Thursday, a day after he received a six-month suspended sentence.
He said he had made numerous requests to the police and his wife’s lawyers - the two are going through a divorce mediation - to let him know whether the children are safe, but that those were ignored.
The wife’s legal representative, Jun Kajita, said he could not go into specifics but there were some facts that were “not consistent” in McIntyre’s claims.
“This is only going to change when Japanese parents speak out as well,” McIntyre said, adding that he had received many letters of support from local parents suffering the same plight. “Children should have access to both parents - it’s a fundamental human right.”
No official statistics exist on how widespread the issue is. But non-profit organization Kizuna Child-Parent Reunion estimates that roughly 150,000 children lose contact with a parent every year in Japan because of estrangement from the non-custodial parent.
Although divorce is increasingly common in Japan - about one in three marriages end in one - it’s still stigmatized, and Japanese society generally accepts the alienation of the non-custodial parent, largely because there is no joint-custody system after divorce.
COMMON PATTERN
Many parents say there is a pattern to the problem: one day, your spouse leaves with the children; you go to the police asking for help; they refuse, saying it’s a “family matter”. In some cases, a domestic violence claim is made against you, accepted as fact and never investigated. Your children’s school can also shut you out because the wishes of the co-habiting parent - usually the mother - are uncontested.
Justice ministry officials have said in parliament that the abduction of a child by a parent is a crime, but that individual cases were up to the family courts to deliberate.
Asked about the legality of one parent taking away a child without the other’s consent, a Tokyo Metropolitan Police spokesman said the agency “could not state in general whether it was illegal.”
He said police could also not say in general whether they needed to respond to an estranged parent’s request to investigate an alleged abduction of the children.
“For anyone outside Japan, it’s a crazy system,” said opposition lawmaker Seiichi Kushida, who has been fighting for a joint-custody system in parliament.
The plight of such parents last year prompted French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Giuseppe Conte to raise their concerns with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Some Japanese and foreign parents have collectively launched a complaint to the United Nations’ human rights body.
“It’s heartening to see all the attention foreign parents are bringing to this issue,” said Kenjiro Hara, director at non-profit activist group Convention on the Rights of the Child Japan.
“It’s thanks to them that more Japanese people feel emboldened to take action,” he said, noting that several class-action lawsuits have been filed against the government seeking legislation to help reunite parents with their children.
Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Raju GopalakrishnanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-children/japan-rules-against-divorced-parents-seeking-access-to-children-idUSKBN1XW0LI
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Japan rules against divorced parents seeking access to children
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Japan rules against divorced parents seeking access to children
By Chang-Ran Kim3 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan is not at fault for the inability of parents to see their children after separating despite having visitation rights, a court ruled on Friday, in a case that critics say highlights the ineptitude of a judicial system that lacks enforcement powers.
Tommaso Perina, a plaintiff in an unsuccessful class-action lawsuit by 'left-behind' parents of abducted children, stands in front of the Ministry of Justice building in Tokyo, Japan November 22, 2019. REUTERS/Chang-Ran Kim
Fourteen parents had sued the government claiming damages of 9 million yen ($82,900), arguing that having no legal framework to ensure proper access to children was unconstitutional.
Parental alienation has long been an acute problem in Japan, with children often losing contact with the non-custodial parent after an acrimonious split.
Unlike most developed countries, Japan has no joint-custody system after divorce, and court-ordered visitation rights are often ignored with impunity.
The World Health Organization this year classified parental alienation as a health condition, while the United Nations stipulates children should have the right to maintain bonds with both parents.
In the Tokyo District Court ruling, presiding judge Tatsuro Maezawa said the UN treaty was “merely an agreement to respect” those rights but had no binding power.
Tommaso Perina, an Italian resident of Tokyo and the only non-Japanese plaintiff, said the ruling went against the Supreme Court’s stance, expressed in a parliamentary committee last week, that judges must adhere to international treaties in handing out rulings.
Perina lost custody of his children after his wife decided unilaterally in late 2016 not to return to Tokyo from her hometown to the north. Perina said he has not seen his children, aged 6 and 4, for more than two years.
A family court rejected Perina’s plea for custody and granted him two hours’ visitation a month.
Court documents reviewed by Reuters show Perina’s wife had claimed domestic violence but the judge ruled against her, saying her testimony lacked credibility.
“It’s ridiculous – you’d spend more time with a pet turtle,” Perina told Reuters. “But my wife is refusing even that. I’m worried about my children because Japanese courts don’t seem to understand what’s in the best interest of children.”
Multiple attempts by Reuters to reach Perina’s wife by telephone were unsuccessful.
Perina remains married to her, has full parental rights and has been paying alimony of 170,000 yen a month since December 2016.
Perina has sought help through diplomatic channels - Ambassador Giorgio Starace called his situation a case of “minor abduction” - while even Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte spoke to his Japanese counterpart, Shinzo Abe, to no avail.
“I’ve reached the peak of what I can do,” Perina said.
“Because when you have the head of a state talking for your kids and they cannot help the situation... Who can ask for more than that?”
Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim. Editing by Lincoln Feast.Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-china-eastchinasea-idUSKCN0WT0QZ
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Japan opens radar station close to disputed isles, drawing angry China response
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Japan opens radar station close to disputed isles, drawing angry China response
By Nobuhiro Kubo, Tim Kelly4 Min Read
YONAGUNI, Japan (Reuters) - Japan on Monday switched on a radar station in the East China Sea, giving it a permanent intelligence gathering post close to Taiwan and a group of islands disputed by Japan and China, drawing an angry response from Beijing.
Members of Japan's Self Defence Force hold an opening ceremony of a new military base on the island of Yonaguni in the Okinawa prefecture, March 28, 2016. REUTERS/Kyodo
The new Self Defence Force base on the island of Yonaguni is at the western extreme of a string of Japanese islands in the East China Sea, 150 km (90 miles) south of the disputed islands known as the Senkaku islands in Japan and the Diaoyu in China.
China has raised concerns with its neighbors and in the West with its assertive claim to most of the South China Sea where the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have overlapping claims. Japan has long been mired in a territorial dispute with China over the East China Sea islands.
“Until yesterday, there was no coastal observation unit west of the main Okinawa island. It was a vacuum we needed to fill,” said Daigo Shiomitsu, a Ground Self Defence Force lieutenant colonel who commands the new base on Yonaguni.
“It means we can keep watch on territory surrounding Japan and respond to all situations.”
Shiomitsu on Monday attended a ceremony at the base with 160 military personnel and around 50 dignitaries. Construction of some buildings, which feature white walls and traditional Okinawan red-tiled roofs, is still unfinished.
The 30-sq-km (11-sq-mile) island is home to 1,500 people, who mostly raise cattle and grow sugar cane. The Self Defence Force contingent and family members will increase the population by a fifth.
“This radar station is going to irritate China,” said Nozomu Yoshitomi, a professor at Nihon University and a retired major general in the Self Defence Force.
In addition to being a listening post, the facility could be used a base for military operations in the region, he added.
China’s defense ministry, in a statement sent to Reuters about the radar station, said the international community needed to be on high alert to Japan’s military expansion.
“The Diaoyu Islands are China’s inherent territory. We are resolutely opposed to any provocative behavior by Japan aimed at Chinese territory,” it said.
“The activities of Chinese ships and aircraft in the relevant waters and airspace are completely appropriate and legal.”
The listening post fits into a wider military build-up along the island chain, which stretches 1,400 km (870 miles) from the Japanese mainland.
Policy makers last year told Reuters it was part of a strategy to keep China at bay in the Western Pacific as Beijing gains control of the South China Sea.
Toshi Yoshihara, a U.S. Naval War College professor, said Yonaguni sits next to two potential flashpoints in Asia - Taiwan and the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands.
“A network of overlapping radar sites along the island chain would boost Japan’s ability to monitor the East China Sea,” he added.
Yonaguni is only around 100 km (62 miles) east of Taiwan, near the edge of a controversial air defense identification zone set up by China in 2013.
Over the next five years, Japan will increase its Self Defence Force in the East China Sea by about a fifth to almost 10,000 personnel, including missile batteries that will help Japan draw a defensive curtain along the island chain.
Chinese ships sailing from their eastern seaboard must pass through this barrier to reach the Western Pacific, access to which Beijing needs both as a supply line to the rest of the world’s oceans and for naval power projection.
Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in BEIJING; Editing by Nick MacfieOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-china-islands-idUSKCN0YV01U?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=Social
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Japan protests after Chinese warship sails near disputed East China Sea islands
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Japan protests after Chinese warship sails near disputed East China Sea islands
By Reuters Staff4 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan summoned the Chinese ambassador early on Thursday to express concern after a Chinese navy ship sailed close to what Japan considers its territorial waters in the East China Sea for the first time, increasing tensions over the disputed area.
A group of disputed islands, Uotsuri island (top), Minamikojima (bottom) and Kitakojima, known as Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China is seen in the East China Sea, in this photo taken by Kyodo September 2012. Mandatory credit. REUTERS/Kyodo
Japan said a Chinese frigate sailed within 24 miles (38 kms) of the contested territory, the islands known as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China, shortly after midnight.
Japan’s Vice Foreign Minister Akitaka Saiki summoned the Chinese ambassador in Tokyo at around 2 a.m. (01:00 p.m. EDT on Wednesday) to “express a serious concern,” the government said in a statement.
Japanese and Chinese coastguard vessels frequently face off around the islands as both sides press their claims. Until now neither has dispatched warships to nearby waters, because doing so would inflame tensions and remove a buffer against potential armed conflict.
“We are worried that this action raises tensions to a higher level,” Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a regular press briefing in Tokyo.
“Related ministries are working together to deal with this and we will work closely with the U.S.,” Suga said.
China’s Defence Ministry said on Thursday it was looking into the reports that one of its navy ships sailed close to the disputed islands, adding its navy had every right to operate in Chinese waters.
“Chinese naval ships sailing through waters our country has jurisdiction over is reasonable and legal. No other country has the right to make thoughtless remarks about this,” it said in a statement sent to Reuters.
While the U.S. has not endorsed Tokyo’s territorial claim to the islands, which lie about 220 kms (135 miles) northeast of Taiwan, it has said the Japanese-controlled territory falls under its security treaty with Tokyo that obligates Washington to defend Japan against attack.
Related CoverageChina looking into reports its navy sailed near disputed islands
“We are aware of the reports and have been in touch with the Japanese government,” U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Colin Willett told reporters by telephone from Washington.
“Until I have a little more detail, I can’t really comment on exactly what (Washington’s) reaction is,” she added.
The Chinese frigate stayed in the waters around the Senkaku/Diaoyu waters for about an hour before sailing toward the Chinese coast.
Countries can police their contiguous zone, adjacent to the disputed territory, for customs and immigration violations, but can’t prevent passage by other nations’ vessels.
Complicating the situation for Tokyo, three Russian naval vessels also sailed close to the islands at around the same time as the Chinese warship, raising concern in Japan of a coordinated show of force by Beijing and Moscow.
Russia and Japan are locked in a separate territorial dispute over the return of islands seized by Moscow at the end of World War Two.
Suga said the government was investigating to uncover any link between the movements of Chinese and Russian vessels.
The incidents come as Japan, the United States and India prepare to begin a major joint naval exercise, dubbed Malabar,
from Friday in the nearby Western Pacific.
As China pushes its claims in the neighboring South China Sea, which Japanese Minister of Defence Gen Nakatani described last week as “unilateral and coercive,” Tokyo and Washington are worried Beijing will look to extend its influence into the East China Sea and beyond.
Japan’s island chain there, including Okinawa which hosts the biggest concentration of U.S. military personnel in Asia, stands in the way of unfettered access to those seas. Japan’s military is reinforcing the islands with radar stations and anti-ship missile batteries.
Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto and Nobuhiro Kubo in TOKYO, Ben Blanchard in BEIJING and Matt Siegel in SYDNEY; Writing by Tim Kelly; Editing by Paul Tait and Michael PerryOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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e852f8519001a2e990c4c76de045a062
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-china-protest-idUSKCN10I05E
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Japan protests over China's radar unit, coastguard ships
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Japan protests over China's radar unit, coastguard ships
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan has filed a protest to Beijing after the discovery that China installed radar equipment in a gas exploration platform close to disputed waters in the East China Sea, a Japanese foreign ministry spokesman said on Sunday.
Japan fears that the radar, a type commonly found on patrol ships and not necessary for gas field development, could be a sign that China intends to use gas exploration platforms in the disputed waters as military stations, Japanese media said.
Also on Sunday, a record number of Chinese coastguard and other government ships entered areas of waters just outside what Japan considers its territorial waters around a group of contested East China Sea islets, further stoking tensions.
The entry of 13 Chinese government vessels into “contiguous waters”, which countries can police for customs and immigration violations, took place despite Japan’s repeated protests over recent, smaller-scale entries.
According to the spokesman, Japan discovered the radar in late June and issued a protest on Friday through its embassy in China, urging Beijing to explain the purpose.
Japan has been calling on China to halt construction of oil-and-gas exploration platforms in the East China Sea, accusing it of unilateral development despite a 2008 agreement to maintain cooperation on resources development in the area, where no official border between them has been drawn.
The latest protests adds to bilateral tensions between the two Asian neighbors over territorial claims and comes less than a month after an arbitration court in The Hague invalidated China’s sweeping claims in the South China Sea.
Ties between China and Japan, the world’s second- and third-largest economies, have been plagued by the row over the islets controlled by Tokyo but also claimed by Beijing, a legacy of Japan’s wartime aggression and regional rivalry.
Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki, Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Michael PerryOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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eb7a3bec998e7304c6a517f91120906a
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-china/china-foreign-minister-to-meet-japans-suga-beijings-first-high-level-contact-with-new-pm-idUSKBN28509G?il=0
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Japan's Suga calls for stable ties with China in first high-level meeting
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Japan's Suga calls for stable ties with China in first high-level meeting
By Kiyoshi Takenaka, Ju-min Park3 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - In his first high-level meeting with Beijing, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga said stable ties with China were important, as his country pursues a balancing act with its neighbour.
Slideshow ( 4 images )
On Wednesday, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi met Suga at the end of his two-day trip in Japan, marking the first high-level visit since Suga was elected as new leader in September.
“A stable relationship between the two countries is important not only for Japan and China but also for the region and the international community,” Suga told Wang in a meeting that lasted about 20 minutes.
The visit by China’s foreign minister comes amid growing concerns over Beijing’s assertiveness in the region.
While Suga has steered clear of the harsh anti-China rhetoric used by Japan’s ally the United States, he has moved to counter its influence by deepening ties with Australia and choosing Vietnam and Indonesia for his first overseas trip.
Japan’s security strategy is grounded on its alliance with the United States, but it also has pursued economic interests with China, its top trading partner.
Chinese President Xi Jinping wants to build “good working relations” with his Japanese counterpart, Wang said, citing a message from Xi that he delivered to Suga.
Related CoverageChina's Xi wants to build good relations with Suga: China FMJapan PM Suga says stable Japan-China ties are important
Wang also said that bilateral relations have “finally returned” to a normal development path.
Wang met his Japanese counterpart Toshimitsu Motegi on Tuesday. They agreed to cooperate on trade and fighting the coronavirus, but maintained their stances on territorial disputes, leaving a security concern unresolved.
Japan and China agreed to resume coronavirus-hit business travel this month and to continue talks on disputed isles in the East China Sea.
“I hope both sides will handle the issue calmly and properly, so that stable improvement in ties and further development in Sino-Japanese relations won’t be affected,” Wang told reporters after his meeting with Suga, referring to the situation in the East China Sea.
Still, during Wang’s visit, top Japanese officials reiterated concerns over China’s continuing activity in the area, but Wang stood by Beijing’s stance that it was protecting its sovereignty.
Japan’s government has complained of China’s “relentless” intrusions in waters around the islets claimed by both nations.
Officials in Tokyo including Suga also repeatedly expressed concerns to Wang over developments in Hong Kong, a politically sensitive issue for Beijing.
Meanwhile, both sides supported successful Olympic events, the Tokyo Olympics next year, and the Winter Olympics hosted by China in 2022.
Pushing forward a three-way free trade deal with Japan and South Korea, Wang is headed to Seoul and will to meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Thursday.
Reporting by Ju-min Park and Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Michael Perry and Kim CoghillOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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7a14877ae13bdd80db54406ca7431854
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-china/senior-chinese-diplomat-visits-japan-amid-regional-tensions-idUSKBN284042
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Japan and China agree to restart business travel, coordinate on East China Sea
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Japan and China agree to restart business travel, coordinate on East China Sea
By Kiyoshi Takenaka, Ju-min Park4 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan and China agreed on Tuesday to restart coronavirus-hit business travel this month and to continue talks on disputed isles in the East China Sea, in the first high-level dialogue since Japan picked a new leader in September.
China's State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi (L) meets with his Japanese counterpart Toshimitsu Motegi, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Tokyo, Japan, November 24, 2020. REUTERS/Issei Kato/Pool
The two-day visit to Tokyo by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi comes amid growing concerns over Beijing’s assertiveness in the region. Talks with Japanese counterpart Toshimitsu Motegi covered maritime tensions, trade and the pandemic response.
On Wednesday, Wang will make a courtesy call on Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who has so far sought to balance Japan’s deep economic reliance on China with security concerns, including Beijing’s claims over the disputed isles that are controlled by Japan.
While Suga has steered clear of the harsh anti-China rhetoric used by Japan’s ally the United States, he has moved to counter its influence by deepening ties with Australia and choosing Vietnam and Indonesia for his first overseas trip.
“It’s important to interact with people and talk directly with each other,” Motegi told a news briefing after the talks.
“I hope this agreement will contribute to the revitalization of the economies of Japan and China, and promote mutual understanding,” said Motegi.
He was referring to schemes streamlining travel for business travellers and those residing in each country, which has been restricted due to the coronavirus pandemic.
EAST CHINA SEA
While the maritime dispute over the East China Sea isles called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China remains unresolved, the sides have made tentative moves closer through trade agreements.
Slideshow ( 2 images )
Japan’s government has complained of China’s “relentless” intrusions in waters around the islets claimed by both nations.
Motegi called on China to take a “forward-looking stance”, and said he would continue to communicate with China.
Wang stood by Beijing’s stance.
“We will of course keep protecting our country’s sovereignty,” he said.
“Through the joint effort by both sides, we would like to make the East China Sea the sea of peace, friendship and cooperation.” said Wang, noting that the two countries plan to have working-level maritime talks next month.
Foreign ministers of Japan and China also confirmed progress has been made on establishing a hotline between their defence authorities, a Japanese foreign ministry official said.
The two countries implemented the Japan-China maritime and air communication mechanism in 2018 to avoid an accidental clash, but a military hotline, a key element of the scheme, has yet to be set up.
During their meeting, Japan’s Motegi also expressed concern over developments in Hong Kong, a politically thorny issue for Beijing, the Japanese foreign ministry official added.
China, which is Japan’s largest trading partner, this month signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) with other 14 economies including U.S. allies Japan and South Korea, but the United States was not party to the deal.
It was the first multilateral trade deal for China, the first bilateral tariff reduction arrangement between Japan and China, and the first time China, Japan and South Korea have been in a single free-trade bloc.
Wang, who will fly to South Korea after Japan, said on Tuesday China and Japan agreed to move forward negotiations on a free trade deal between only the three countries.
Wang’s visit to Japan reaffirmed their economic partnership, but it still lacked progress on the territorial dispute said Toshiya Takahashi, an associate professor of international relations at Shoin University.
“Out of the bilateral talks, what can be called ‘progress’ is only the easing of business travel curbs between Japan and China,” Takahashi said.
Reporting by Ju-min Park and Kiyoshi Takenaka; additional reporting by Sakura Murakami; Editing by Michael Perry and Ed OsmondOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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aba3249bbfbc1d3cf636417ead922f4c
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-christians-idUST14106220071219
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Japan's "Hidden Christians" face extinction
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Japan's "Hidden Christians" face extinction
By Linda Sieg6 Min Read
IKITSUKI ISLAND, Japan (Reuters) - One by one, the sacred relics -- a medal of the Virgin Mary, a crucifix and other revered objects -- are taken from a cupboard and placed on an altar for a Christmas Eve rite passed down through centuries from Japan’s earliest Christians.
Then, kneeling in the simple hall built where martyrs are said to have been burned on this tiny, remote island 400 years ago, five elders murmur chants as they bow and make the sign of the cross.
The kimono-clad deacons are descendants of “Kakure Kirishitan”, or Hidden Christians, who kept their religion alive on Ikitsuki and in other isolated pockets of Japan during 250 years of suppression, adapting their rites to the demands of secrecy and blending them with local beliefs.
These days, the religion faces a modern threat of extinction as young people, like those elsewhere in rural Japan, leave their homes in search of jobs, drifting away from their gods and the rituals that honor them.
“It’s sad. The tradition of our ancestors is disappearing,” said Ayuzo Matsuyama, one of those gathered to observe “Osanmachi” and “Gotanjo” -- Christmas Eve and Christmas -- last weekend, the last Saturday and Sunday before the winter solstice.
“We inherited this ‘old Christianity’ from our ancestors and we wanted to continue it forever, but young people don’t feel that way,” added the 79-year-old former maker of sake, or rice wine.
TRANSFORMING RELIGION
First brought to Japan by Portuguese missionaries in 1549, Christianity was banned a few decades later in 1614, initiating a period of bloody persecution that forced the faithful to choose between martyrdom or hiding their beliefs.
Rites such as confession and communion that could be conducted only by priests were lost. Others took on elements of Buddhist ancestor worship, indigenous Shinto with its focus on purification, and folk practices such as prayers for good crops.
Slideshow ( 5 images )
Medals or hanging scrolls depicting saints and martyrs, often with Japanese features, were hidden in cupboards as “nando-gami” (“gods in the closet”) and only taken out on special days.
In an apparent echo of the bread and wine of the Eucharist, elders still share sashimi and sake as part of the Christmas Eve and other ceremonies. Huge “mochi” rice cakes adorn the alter.
Transmitted orally and in secret, Latin “oratio” chants, “orasho” in Japanese, lost all but symbolic meaning.
“They preserved the style and form of the Christianity ... that they inherited, but the teachings were no longer from the Bible and changed into respect for local martyrs, so in that sense it can be seen as a Japanese ethnic religion,” said Shigeo Nakazono, curator of an island museum who has studied the “Kakure Kirishitan” for years.
When Roman Catholic missionaries returned with the lifting of the ban in 1873, some Japanese Christians accepted their teachings, but others clung to what they saw as the true faith of their fathers.
Matsuyama, who like many of his generation learned “orasho” when he turned 20, admits he doesn’t understand the repetitive phrases, some evocative of original Latin or Greek, such as “San Maria” and “anmezusu” (amen), others echoing Buddhist prayers.
“I thought I had to learn it because it had been handed down and it was a kind of memorial for those who died,” he said.
The significance of festivals such as Christmas was also transformed into something uniquely Japanese.
Slideshow ( 5 images )
“‘Gotanjo’ is the day of Christ’s birth. That’s no different from Christianity,” said Yasutaka Toriyama, 68, who holds the hereditary position of “gobanyaku”, or head of a household that traditionally held a group’s relics, such as scrolls or medals.
“But while ours is a religion that believes in Mary and Christ, we also believe that our ancestors who suffered persecution are gods.”
FIGHT AGAINST EXTINCTION
Most modern Japanese take a relaxed attitude toward religion, opting for Christian or Shinto weddings, Buddhist funerals and occasional visits to a shrine in between.
Less than one percent of the population are Christian.
How many “Kakure Kirishitan” remain is uncertain, but clearly their numbers on Ikitsuki are shrinking as the overall population of the island, now about 7,000, dwindles and ages.
Nakazono estimates about 500 people in six groups are active practitioners on Ikitsuki, down from about some 2,000 in 20 groups two decades ago.
“About 10 years ago, the fishing catches started to shrink drastically, many businesses failed and there were no jobs for the young people so they left for the cities,” Nakazono said.
“The elderly try to preserve their religion but ... they worry that they cannot protect their gods.”
Toriyama’s group sees a glimmer of hope in the fact that nine men in their 40s and 50s have recently begun studying “orasho”.
Still, for Toriyama himself, the fear that his religion will vanish is real and personal. His son left the island after high school and lives with his wife and child in Fukuoka, three hours away by car. Now 33, he works for a computer-related firm.
“I’d like him to learn the ‘orasho’ and to come back for the festivals,” said Toriyama, sipping sake after completing the prayers for “Osanmachi”. “But I haven’t asked him yet.”
What if the religion dies out? “I will have to apologize to my ancestors who preserved this through hundreds of years of suppression,” he said. “I will feel I have failed the gods.”
Editing by Mike Miller and Jerry NortonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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cac276c5e03a83baebf66c47830ea873
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-climate-ocean-idUST27270120070515
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Ocean around Japan warming up fast: report
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Ocean around Japan warming up fast: report
By Reuters Staff2 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - The ocean around Japan has warmed up faster than elsewhere in the world over the last hundred years partly because of global warming, Japan’s Meteorological Agency said on Tuesday.
The sea surface temperature around central, western and southern Japan has climbed by 0.7 to 1.6 degrees Celsius in the last century, far higher than the world average of a 0.5 degree Celsius increase, a survey conducted by the agency showed.
The findings were based on data collected by research and commercial vessels that started in the late 19th century.
The agency said global warming was partly to blame for the fast rise in the ocean temperature around Japan.
“But the areas surveyed were so small that we cannot say the rise in the water’s temperature has been caused entirely by global warming,” it said. It did not specify why the ocean around Japan would be more affected than other parts of the world.
The report comes at a time when the international community is struggling to take global action against climate change.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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76a69a82630cfdb7abdf3923fcf592b8
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-companies-auditors-idUSKBN1380WU
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Japanese firms face tighter audits after Toshiba scandal: Reuters poll
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Japanese firms face tighter audits after Toshiba scandal: Reuters poll
By Thomas Wilson4 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - After a damaging accounting scandal at Toshiba Corp 6502.T last year, half of Japanese firms have seen changes in the way they are audited and have taken or are considering steps to boost book-keeping compliance, a Reuters poll shows.
Toshiba Corp President and CEO Masashi Muromachi bows before a news conference at the company headquarters in Tokyo, Japan, December 21, 2015. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo
The findings suggest some, if incomplete, progress has been made in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s push to improve corporate governance.
Government efforts to make firms more transparent and shareholder friendly have won plaudits from investors and are soon set to be followed by plans from regulators for new rules to improve standards in the auditing profession.
The spotlight has shone particularly harshly on auditors after Toshiba's $1.3 billion padding of profits over seven years went unnoticed by its auditor, a lapse that was a painful reminder of a similar scandal at Olympus Corp 7733.T in 2011 where accounting tricks were used to mask big losses.
In the Reuters Corporate Survey, conducted Oct. 26-Nov. 8, 52 percent of firms said that auditing had changed.
Of those, the vast majority noted more detailed questioning, while a third said the frequency with which they met with auditors had risen. Another 17 percent said they were getting better advice.
“There’s been a rise in the number of man-hours spent checking for fraud,” wrote a manager at a retailer.
Companies answered anonymously to the poll survey, which is conducted monthly for Reuters by Nikkei Research. Of the 531 large and medium-sized non-financial firms polled, 246 replied to questions on audit-related and accounting matters.
Much of the blame for the scandal at Toshiba has been laid at the feet of a corporate culture that placed too much emphasis on unquestioning loyalty to top bosses even when unrealistic sales and profit targets were set.
Slideshow ( 2 images )
But it seems as if companies are now more keen to make sure their books are in order, with exactly 50 percent saying they have taken or are considering steps to increase compliance.
“We’ve made our internal rules stricter,” wrote a manager at a machinery firm.
Other measures cited by companies in the poll include bumping up headcount in finance and accounting departments, the strengthening of education programs for employees about compliance and increased oversight of group firms.
“Japan’s corporate culture has changed a lot,” said Yoshinori Kawamura, a Waseda University professor specializing in accounting.
“But the Toshiba scandal highlighted a very Japanese management climate, and confidence has been lost. Though some bad aspects have been solved, we can’t say with conviction that everything is really fixed.”
In a sign that Toshiba at least is still fixing its corporate culture, the conglomerate said on Friday that it had newly found that employees at a control systems unit had inflated sales since 2003.
But it stressed that the discovery was made thanks to tighter internal controls.
“This incident was revealed as we applied stricter rules in asset evaluation,” Chief Financial Officer Masayoshi Hirata told reporters.
In the wake of the Toshiba scandal, accounting experts also raised questions about whether low fees paid by Japan-listed companies to auditors meant they don’t spend enough time scrutinizing accounts.
The Reuters poll, however, showed that only 8 percent of firms have seen an increase in audit fees.
($1 = 106.7000 yen)
Reporting by Thomas Wilson; Additional reporting by Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Edwina GibbsOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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e806cdcf4b4fb715c26d465a18864a00
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-companies-cash-idUSKBN1A42PG
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Most Japan firms reluctant to boost shareholder returns further: Reuters poll
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Most Japan firms reluctant to boost shareholder returns further: Reuters poll
By Tetsushi Kajimoto4 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Less than a third of Japanese firms plan to boost shareholder returns this financial year although nearly half have seen cash on hand climb, a Reuters poll found, underscoring a sharp slowdown in share buyback and dividend growth.
FILE PHOTO: A businessman walks in Tokyo's business district, Japan January 20, 2016. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo
As part of major drive to improve corporate governance and make Japanese companies more attractive to foreign investors, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has urged companies to either return more to shareholders or boost capital spending.
That push has yielded strong results with combined shareholder returns for firms listed on the Tokyo bourse’s main board soaring more than 20 percent in each of the three years to end-March 2016 before gains tapered to 2.2 percent in the past financial year, according to Goldman Sachs data.
Those gains notwithstanding, Japan Inc’s returns to shareholders trend far below those of their peers in the West. But any investor hopes for a further big jump in shareholder returns may have to wait.
The Reuters Corporate Survey, conducted June 30-July 13, showed 69 percent of companies plan to keep shareholder returns flat this year and only 29 percent plan to boost them. Two percent plan to cut returns.
“We are saving ample cash on hand against a market crash that is bound to happen sooner or later,” wrote a manager at a real estate firm.
While a number of firms said they planned to use increases in cash on capital spending, the reply was echoed by many others who cited the need to set aside funds for “uncertainties” - illustrative of what is widely seen as an ingrained bias towards saving rather than spending for Japanese firms.
The apparent lack of strong momentum for a further jump in shareholder returns comes despite cash and deposits for Japanese non-financial firms surging to a record 255 trillion yen ($2.3 trillion) as of end-March, according to central bank data.
That was up 5.1 percent from a year earlier and represents a leap of 30.9 percent since the end of 2012, shortly after Abe took office.
Some 45 percent of Japanese firms said that cash on hand had risen in the past financial year, the Reuters survey showed. Around a quarter said that cash had jumped by 10 percent or more.
The need to save for an uncertain future was the most mentioned reason for the increase in cash during the last financial year, cited by 31 percent of companies. A lack of capital spending needs was cited by 28 percent. Firms were allowed to pick multiple reasons for the rise in their replies.
According to Goldman Sachs, the ratio of shareholder returns – dividends plus buybacks – to operating cash flow stood at a median 17.5 percent for Japanese firms in 2015. That compares to 50.6 percent in North America and 36.9 percent in Western Europe.
Kengo Nishiyama, a strategist at Nomura Securities, said efforts by Japanese firms to improve corporate governance have only hit the half-way mark. They have the leeway to lift shareholder returns and failing to do so could be counterproductive, he added.
“If they don’t let cash circulate through the economy, it will remain stagnant, which will make it harder for firms to find investment opportunities, causing a vicious cycle,” said Nishiyama, who reviewed the survey results.
The poll, conducted monthly for Reuters by Nikkei Research, polled 549 big and mid-sized companies, who reply on condition of anonymity. Between 220 and 250 firms answered questions on cash on hand and returns to shareholders.
($1 = 112.1300 yen)
(GRAPHIC: Japan Inc not keen to boost shareholder returns - tmsnrt.rs/2tB8joR)
Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Additional reporting by Izumi Nakagawa; Editing by Malcolm Foster and Edwina GibbsOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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3591aac04617d5ae5ee74f347ed64198
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-companies-deflation-idUSKCN0YH2OS
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Corporate Japan much more downbeat about escape from deflation: Reuters poll
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Corporate Japan much more downbeat about escape from deflation: Reuters poll
By Stanley White4 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan Inc has become increasingly pessimistic about the country’s ability to beat deflation, with the vast majority of firms now expecting no escape for the foreseeable future, a Reuters poll showed.
Most Japanese companies also said they did not think Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s latest growth strategy that centers on lifting the mininum wage and investment in technology would help bring significant improvement to a faltering economy.
Abe swept into office three years ago with bold plans to end decades of deflation and bring about sustainable growth. But while unprecedented monetary policy in tandem with fiscal stimulus met with some initial success, any gains in ridding the country of a deflationary mindset look like they could be slipping away.
The Reuters Corporate Survey, conducted May 9-23, found 70 percent of companies see no decisive escape from deflation for the foreseeable future, up from 48 percent in January when the same question was asked.
“Demand is not on an upward trend, and household spending is not rising because base pay is not rising,” wrote a manager at a chemicals company.
“It has become difficult for companies to lift prices.”
Japan has only managed very mild inflation since Abe took office and the pace of price gains has been slowing since 2014. Core consumer prices in March fell 0.3 percent from a year earlier, the fastest decline in three years due to lower oil prices.
The survey also found that 79 percent of companies were worried that consumer prices could return to deflation either this year or next.
In addition to wage concerns, firms also cited Japan’s shrinking population and plans for a sales tax hike next year as factors likely to undermine consumer spending.
The survey, conducted monthly for Reuters by Nikkei Research, polled 510 big and medium-sized firms with managers responding on condition of anonymity. Around 240 answered questions on deflation.
“Annual wage negotiations were disappointing and gains in the yen have soured the corporate mood,” said Shuji Tonouchi, senior fixed income strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities who reviewed the results of the survey.
“Oil prices have been rising recently, so deflation expectations could recede once this starts to push up consumer prices, but the economy remains stuck in a soft patch.”
Seeking to jump-start an economy that narrowly escaped a recession in the last quarter, the government has said this year’s growth strategy will raise the minimum wage, improve pay for day care workers and encourage investment in cutting edge technology like artificial intelligence.
But 66 percent of respondents said they thought it would be difficult to expect an improvement in the economy on the back of the plans which are set to finalised soon.
In written comments, corporate managers criticized the policies as too piecemeal to have much of an impact on a shrinking labor force and weak consumer sentiment. They also said they were concerned about a stronger yen pushing up import prices and the fallout if the national sales tax hike went ahead as planned.
An increase in the tax to 10 percent from 8 percent, already delayed once, is scheduled for next April, but speculation is rife that Abe will postpone it again given the fragile state of the economy and as the last increase in 2014 caused a recession.
The survey also showed about two-thirds of respondents would be happy if the dollar stabilized around 110 yen.
This month the dollar slumped to an 18-month low of 106.14 yen, causing concern as a strong yen reduces earnings repatriated from overseas. The dollar has since regained some of that ground to trade at around 110 yen.
Reporting by Stanley White; Additional reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto and Izumi Nakagawa; Editing by Edwina GibbsOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-companies-finance/japan-government-banks-to-aid-firms-to-prepare-for-overseas-downturn-document-idINKBN1Y21CK?edition-redirect=in
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Japan government banks to aid firms to prepare for overseas downturn: document
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Japan government banks to aid firms to prepare for overseas downturn: document
By Takashi Umekawa, Takaya Yamaguchi3 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan will provide financing to the nation’s companies for overseas investment to help them diversify production to fend off a possible downturn overseas, according to a document seen by Reuters on Thursday.
The loans and other financing, through three government lenders, are part of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s efforts to shore up the world’s third-biggest economy and its companies as concerns grow over such risks as U.S.-China trade tensions, turbulent protests in Hong Kong and Brexit, said two people briefed on the plans.
“To prepare for the case of downside economic risks from overseas becoming apparent, the policy will stimulate investment for growth by supporting Japanese companies’ overseas development through the overhaul of their global value chains,” the document says.
Specifically, the lending aims to promote mergers and acquisitions by Japanese companies to facilitate the international diversification of their manufacturing, as well as for infrastructure such as next-generation 5G mobile networks, it says.
The plan is to be completed in December, said the sources, though they had not been briefed on any planned funding amounts.
The scheme is to deploy the Japan Bank for International Cooperation [JBIC.UL], the Development Bank of Japan Inc and the Japan International Cooperation Agency [JICA.UL], the document shows.
A JBIC spokeswomen declined to comment. DBJ and JICA, and the government’s Cabinet Office, which is compiling the measures, could not immediately be reached.
Japan’s economy is showing increasing signs of sputtering, as clouds gather over global demand and domestic consumption stagnates. Retail sales sank the fastest in 4-1/2 years in October, as a sales tax hike prompted consumers to cut spending, government data showed on Thursday.
Politicians are clamoring for Abe to spend as much as 10 trillion yen ($90 billion) in a planned economic package for disaster relief and measures to help the economy stave off heightening global risks. The corporate-financing measures will be part of the government package, the sources said.
Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda on Thursday endorsed the government’s planned spending, even though “fiscal space for Japanese government is somewhat limited”.
Reporting by Takashi Umekawa and Takaya Yamaguchi; Editing by William MallardOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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5f5c93d56c6604d0e5d582446a50a37a
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-companies-poll/japan-firms-see-abenomics-sputtering-tax-hike-hurting-economy-reuters-poll-idINKBN1WP35V?edition-redirect=in
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Japan firms see 'Abenomics' sputtering, tax hike hurting economy - Reuters poll
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Japan firms see 'Abenomics' sputtering, tax hike hurting economy - Reuters poll
By Tetsushi Kajimoto5 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese companies overwhelmingly think the nation’s longest postwar expansion is peaking, with two-thirds expecting a tax hike imposed this month by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to hurt the economy, a Reuters poll showed on Friday.
FILE PHOTO: A man chooses goods underneath banners notifying the rise in the national sales tax at a store in Tokyo, Japan September 25, 2019. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon/File Photo
Almost all the firms in the monthly Reuters Corporate Survey said the world’s third-biggest economy will level off or fall into recession in coming months, which would mark an end to the “Abenomics” expansion that the premier launched in late 2012.
And while most of the firms still don’t want the Bank of Japan to increase its stimulus, that opposition has weakened sharply over the past quarter as the U.S-China trade war has clouded prospects for global growth and export-reliant Japan.
Abe says the increase in the national sales tax, which he had twice delayed, is crucial to reining in the industrial world’s heaviest debt burden - more than twice Japan’s annual $5 trillion output. But the higher levy could cool consumer spending, triggering a recession, analysts fear.
The Reuters survey found 69% of firms expect the tax hike to weigh on growth, 26% see no impact and 5% think it could boost the economy.
“The tax hike will hurt consumer sentiment considerably, which will exert an unpredictable impact on the Japanese economy,” a manager at a food-processing company wrote in the survey.
Some 58% expect the economy to level off heading into next year, while 41% predict a recession, the survey found. Just 1% see the economy growing after the tax increase.
Economists in a Reuters poll last month forecast the economy will grow 0.8% in the fiscal year to March, up from the 0.5% predicted a month earlier.
“A combination of a post-tax hike decline in demand and a sputtering global economy will clearly exert downward pressure on Japan’s economy,” said Yoshimasa Maruyama, chief economist at SMBC Nikko Securities.
He forecasts a recession for Japan, with the economy contracting for the two quarters through March.
Companies in the Reuters survey that expected a recession largely think it will last at least a year, with a quarter expecting it to hit bottom late next year and 56% seeing the slump dragging into 2021 or beyond.
Japan’s coincident economic indicator fell in August, the Cabinet Office said this week, downgrading its assessment of the key gauge to “worsening,” which can presage a recession. Last month the office maintained its overall assessment that the economy continues to recover moderately.
The Reuters Corporate Survey, conducted Sept. 26-Oct. 7 for Reuters by Nikkei Research, canvassed 504 big and midsize nonfinancial companies, of which 230-240 firms responded to the various questions, on condition of anonymity.
BOJ STIMULUS
As the economic outlook clouds, opposition to further easing from the central bank is waning, the survey found.
Haruhiko Kuroda, installed by Abe as BOJ governor six and a half years ago to spur growth and end decades of deflation, has driven the most aggressive asset purchases among major central banks, pushing some interest rates below zero.
But while Kuroda vowed to stoke inflation to 2% in two years, the BOJ has generated price rises of less than half of that, while ultra-low interest rates are hurting banks by crimping lending margins.
Fifty-seven percent of the companies in the survey said the BOJ should not expand its massive easing, with many concerned it could weaken financial institutions. But this response was down from 88% to a similar question in July.
Some 42% of respondents said additional easing would have no effect on the economy, while the rest were split on whether more stimulus would on balance help or hurt growth.
“The harmful effects of the prolonged easing are becoming clear. Going too far would cause the banking system to collapse and the negatives would become larger,” wrote a manager at a machinery maker.
Of those who said additional easing would be a net positive, the biggest reason, at 43%, was that lower inflation-adjusted interest rates would encourage more capital spending.
In a potentially positive development for the BOJ’s aim of boosting prices, more than two-thirds of firms said they have been able to pass on the sales-tax hike to consumers in the prices of their goods and services.
But unless wages rise enough to offset the higher prices, the tax hike could erode consumer purchasing power, hurting private consumption, which makes up about 60% of the economy, analysts say.
Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by William Mallard & Kim CoghillOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-companies-trade-idUSKCN1VX2Y2
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Japan Inc increasingly hit by trade war, but few shifting from China: Reuters poll
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Japan Inc increasingly hit by trade war, but few shifting from China: Reuters poll
By Tetsushi Kajimoto3 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - Half of Japanese companies have seen their profits hurt by the U.S.-China trade war, although few firms are planning to shift operations or supply chains out of China yet, a Reuters poll found.
FILE PHOTO: A worker is seen among newly manufactured cars awaiting export at port in Yokohama, Japan, November 15, 2017. REUTERS/Toru Hanai/File Photo
The Reuters Corporate Survey highlights the worsening collateral damage to global trade, beyond the immediate China-U.S. relationship, from the tariffs Washington and Beijing have slapped on each other’s goods.
The trade war between the world’s two biggest economies and a related global slowdown are hurting output and exports in Japan. Manufacturers’ confidence hit a six-and-half year low in September, the Reuters Tankan poll found on Thursday.
Washington and Beijing imposed new tariffs on Sept. 1 in the latest escalation, though financial markets maintain hope for a breakthrough from talks that are to resume mid-month.
The Reuters survey showed 45% of Japanese firms have had their profits affected to some extent by the U.S.-China tariffs, while 6% have been greatly affected. Some 42% of firms said they have hardly been hit, and 7% see no impact at all.
That is worse than a similar Reuters poll last October that found just one-third of Japanese companies hit, with 58% of Japanese firms hardly affected by the trade war and 8% seeing no impact.
The latest survey, conducted Aug. 29-Sept. 9 for Reuters by Nikkei Research, canvassed 504 big and midsize companies, of which 250 responded on condition of anonymity to speak freely.
Corporate managers fretted about ripple effects ranging from exports and investment to supply chains and broader economic growth.
“I’m concerned that (the trade war) could trigger a global depression,” wrote a manager at an electric-machinery maker, responding to questions in the survey.
A retailer also cited fears of a recession, which the manager said could hurt sales to Chinese tourists - a strong source of growth for Japan’s longest postwar expansion - and badly affect the establishment of new businesses in China.
“I strongly hope that the U.S.-China confrontation is resolved quickly as it is a destabilizing factor for global economy and weighing on business sentiment,” wrote a manager at a machinery maker.
Despite the damage so far, just 11% of Japanese firms said they are considering moving their business bases or supply chains out of China. About half said they had no specific plans to move out of China.
However, since more than one-third of companies said they have no related business in China, the proportion of companies active there that are considering moving is relatively higher.
Asian countries outside China were by far the most popular destination for companies relocating, followed by those bringing operations home to Japan, with North America and Europe lagging behind as destinations, the survey showed.
Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by William Mallard and Sam HolmesOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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b9d16559c4b062c11de2366cc4c7f797
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-companies/factbox-japan-quake-impact-on-auto-electronics-makers-idUSTRE72M26N20110323
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Factbox: Japan quake impact on auto, electronics makers
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Factbox: Japan quake impact on auto, electronics makers
By Reuters Staff6 Min Read
(Reuters) - Following is a roundup of the impact of this month’s earthquake and tsunami on Japanese manufacturers of cars and electronics.
Plant shutdowns in Japan threaten supplies to manufacturers across the globe of items from semiconductors to car parts.
Japanese companies are not only reeling from damage to factories and suppliers in quake-hit northeastern Japan but also suffering from fuel shortages nationwide and power outages in the Tokyo area that are affecting production, distribution and the ability of staff to reach workplaces.
AUTO MAKERS:
* Toyota Motor Co 7203.T has halted operations at its 12 main assembly plants in Japan until at least Saturday, which will result in lost production of 140,000 vehicles. It will also delay the launch of the Prius wagon and minivan models in Japan from the original plan for the end of April. On Monday the firm began making car parts at plants near its base in Toyota City, central Japan, for overseas assembly facilities. It resumed making parts for service centers to repair vehicles already on the road last week.
* Honda Motor Co 7267.T has extended its production halt in Japan to March 27. On Monday, Honda said one-fifth of its Japan-based Tier 1 suppliers affected by the earthquake had said it would take more than a week to recover. Honda made 69,170 cars in January in Japan, accounting for around a quarter of its production.
* Mazda Motor Corp 7261.T has not set a time for resumption of full-scale production at its Hiroshima and Yamaguchi plants, but resumed limited operations on Tuesday to produce vehicle repair parts, vehicle parts to be shipped to overseas plants and semi-finished goods.
* Suzuki Motor Corp 7269.T said its three car assembly factories in Japan will remain closed on Thursday and Friday, but the firm will operate an engine factory on those two days using parts in inventory. The firm has not decided on production plans for next week and beyond.
* Fuji Heavy Industries Co 7270.T said all five of the car and parts-related plants for its Subaru-brand vehicles in Gunma prefecture, north of Tokyo, will be shut at least until Thursday. Production of vehicle parts to be shipped to overseas manufacturing plants started on Wednesday and production of vehicle repair parts is scheduled to start on Thursday.
ELECTRONICS MAKERS:
* Sony Corp 6758.T said shortages of parts and raw materials would force it to suspend or reduce production at five plants in central and southern Japan making digital cameras, camera lenses, flat-screen televisions and other goods. Another plant may be affected by rolling power blackouts. Six production sites in northern Japan have been halted since the quake. If shortages continue, Sony may consider temporarily shifting some production overseas.
* Toshiba 6502.T said output was suspended at a factory in Iwate prefecture making system LSI chips for microprocessors and image sensors. On March 28, the company said it will power up production lines at the plant, but has not yet decided when it will restart production. An assembly line at a plant making small liquid crystal displays for smartphones and other devices will be closed for a month to repair damaged machinery.
* Canon 7751.T said all of its domestic camera production remains suspended, citing difficulty obtaining parts, and it does not yet know when output will resume.
* NEC 6701.T said it restarted production on Wednesday at all its four quake-hit plants in northeastern Japan, which include factories making communications equipment, routers and switches.
* Nikon Corp 7731.T said it expects to resume production at all its north Japan plants, including those making optical pickups and other electronic parts, digital cameras and audio equipment, by the end of March. The company warned, however, that power cuts and parts shortages could make a return to full production levels difficult and said it may not be able to fulfill all its customers' needs.
* Panasonic 6752.T said it restarted a factory making printed circuit board materials in Koriyama, northeast Japan on Wednesday. Several other factories in the region remain closed, however, including one in Fukushima making optical pick-ups and one in Sendai assembling digital cameras and audio equipment. The firm declined to give details about the other affected plants.
* Renesas Electronics 6723.T, the world's No.5 chipmaker, said operations at three of its 22 factories in Japan remained suspended, after restarting four since March 19. The company added, however, that power cuts make it difficult to resume operations at some plants and unable to a return to full production levels at others. OTHERS:
* Shin-Etsu Chemical 4063.T, the world's leading maker of silicon wafers, said two of its plants near the worst-hit areas remained offline and it is unsure when it will restart operations. Some of the wafers made in Japan are shipped to chip companies overseas. Shin-Etsu is trying to boost production elsewhere, particularly of 300-mm wafers, to make up the shortfall.
* Jamco 7408.T, a Japanese company making galleys for the Boeing BA.N 787 Dreamliner, said delivery could be delayed if oil products continue to be scarce. ($1 = 81.045 Japanese Yen)
Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim, Tim Kelly, Isabel Reynolds and James Topham; Editing by Michael WatsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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7a32daeed53304978a715d63b89d2e2c
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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-japan-companies/over-half-of-japan-firms-do-not-plan-base-pay-rise-this-year-idUSKCN1G3288
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Over half of Japan firms do not plan base pay rise this year
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Over half of Japan firms do not plan base pay rise this year
By Tetsushi Kajimoto4 Min Read
TOKYO (Reuters) - More than half of Japan’s companies do not plan to raise base pay in annual wage talks in coming months, a set back for the prime minister and the country’s main business lobby which has called for wage rises of 3 percent to fuel an economic revival.
FILE PHOTO: A worker cuts a tree in front of an office building at a business district in Tokyo, Japan, May 18, 2016. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo
In a monthly Reuters Corporate Survey, just less than half said they would raise pay and most in this group said the increase would be similar to last year’s level of about 2 percent.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the Keidanren business group have sought a 3 percent wage rise to encourage consumption and inflation, key elements of Abe’s bid to vanquish the country of years of deflation.
A rise in fourth-quarter GDP reported last week marked Japan’s longest continuous economic expansion since the 1980s but significant wage rises remain elusive even though the labor market is its tightest in about four decades.
In the past four years, major companies agreed to raise wages about 2 percent at annual wage negotiations with labor unions, a benchmark that sets the tone for talks across the country.
The bulk of that - about 1.8 percent - comes automatically under Japan’s seniority-based employment system. Anything beyond that is a hike in “base pay.”
But many firms are wary of raising wages as it commits them to higher fixed personnel costs, so they prefer to pay one-off bonuses instead.
The survey was conducted between Jan 31 and Feb 14 on behalf of Reuters by Nikkei Research. Of some 240 companies that responded, 52 percent said they would not raise base pay.
“It would leave a burden when the business environment turns for the worse,” wrote a manager at a transport equipment maker in the survey.
The remaining 48 percent said they intended to raise base pay, but 76 percent of this group said the rise would be the same as last year. About 14 percent saw pay rises exceeding last year, while 10 percent said they would undershoot last year’s increase.
The firms intending to boost wages cited returning a portion of profits to employees and motivating workers. Some even cited government pressure.
“We have no choice but to raise base pay because of policies by the government and Keidanren,” wrote a manager of another transport equipment firm.
VIRTUALLY FROZEN
In Japan, base salary accounts for the bulk of monthly wages. Rises in base pay had been virtually frozen since the early 2000s amid persistent deflation.
Several economists have forecast major companies would agree this year to base pay increases of around 0.5-0.6 percent, which with the seniority-based automatic salary rise would bring overall wage growth to around 2.3-2.4 percent.
“Keidanren set an unusually high target of 3 percent for wage hikes and the government has expanded tax incentives for companies raising wages,” said Yuichiro Nagai, economist at Barclays Securities, which forecast a wage hike of 2.3 percent.
Still, 52 percent of respondents said the 3 percent target was unrealistic and 7 percent said it was “out of the question.” Some 41 percent said it was realistic.
Asked the same question in the December poll, 31 percent said it was realistic, 61 percent said it was unrealistic while 7 percent called it “out of question.”
Reporting by Tetsushi Kajimoto; Editing by Malcolm Foster and Neil FullickOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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