News Headlines - 04 February 2021
The head of the Tokyo Olympics organising committee has apologised for making sexist remarks about women, but he said he would not resign, despite calls for him to step down on social media.
Yoshiro Mori, who is also a former prime minister of Japan, was reported to have said during an online meeting of the committee's board of trustees that women talk too much.
▽Japan's new virus law: Fines for noncompliance and support for hard-hit firms | The Japan Times
The Diet on Wednesday passed two bills that allow authorities to levy financial punishments on individuals and businesses that violate the government's antivirus measures.
Once they go into force, it will be possible to levy financial penalties on businesses that refuse local government orders to shorten their hours of operation under a state of emergency and individuals who refuse to be hospitalized or tested for the novel coronavirus.
In addition, a revised quarantine law was passed that allows authorities to demand those entering Japan isolate themselves for 14 days at home. Those who refuse will be ordered to quarantine at special facilities.
▽Japan's COVID-19 contact tracing app for Android not working for 4 months: ministry - The Mainichi
The Japanese government's coronavirus contact tracing app for smartphones, COCOA, has not been sending information on contact with infected people to users with the Android operating system version since Sept. 28 last year, the health ministry announced on Feb. 3.
Android users make up about 30% of COCOA downloads. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said it expects the problem to be solved by mid-February.
When an app user who has tested positive for the coronavirus registers their infection information, other users who have come into contact with them within a distance of 1 meter or closer for at least 15 minutes in the past 14 days will get a notification.
▽Japan sees steep population drop as pandemic keeps foreigners away - Nikkei Asia
Japan's population shrank by a record 420,000 people last year, government estimates show, as the coronavirus pandemic dealt a heavy blow to an influx of foreign workers that had helped offset the country's ongoing natural population decline.
The total fell for a 12th straight year, shattering the previous record of 329,000 set just a year earlier. The health ministry estimates Japan's population at 125.57 million as of Jan. 1, based on confirmed data through July and estimates based on births, deaths and foreign arrival and departure data.
The drop owes in large part to a 60% plunge in foreign arrivals that has kept the labor market tight even though the pandemic has slowed the economy and eliminated many jobs.
▽Ghibli Park is building a real-life Howl’s Moving Castle
...the long-awaited theme park that Ghibli fans the world over have been itching to see was initially supposed to open next year, but it has now been delayed to 2023. However, some attractions will be completed in time for a soft opening in autumn 2022.
Based on the initial artist’s impression released in 2019, the park would be divided into five sections. The first section is dedicated to the Large Ghibli Warehouse, an indoor facility featuring elements from various Ghibli films including 'The Secret World of Arrietty' and 'Castle in the Sky', complete with a cinema and playground. The other four sections are the Valley of Witches, the ‘Princess Mononoke’ village, the Dondoko Forest from ‘My Neighbor Totoro’, and the Hill of Youth area based on ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’.
