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Ex-Nova boss handed prison sentence for embezzling from workers’ fund

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The Osaka District Court on Wednesday sentenced the former president of collapsed English language school operator Nova, who went on trial facing charges of embezzling money from an employees’ fund, to three years, six months behind bars.

Handed the sentence was former company president Nozomu Sahashi, 57. According to the ruling, Sahashi transferred 320 million yen from the savings account of a mutual aid organization of Nova employees into a separate account. He then exchanged the amount for a check and deposited the money into the account of related company Nova Kikaku, thereby embezzling the funds, the ruling said.

During his trial Sahashi had admitted to the facts of the case, but said he had not been under the perception that he was forbidden from using the money. Lawyers for Sahashi argued that he was innocent, saying that he had no intention of illegally misappropriating the money, and that his actions did not constitute professional embezzlement.

On Aug. 19, Nova’s bankruptcy administrator filed a lawsuit in the Osaka District Court seeking about 2.136 billion yen in damages, saying that Sahashi repeatedly made unnecessary transactions, resulting in losses. It also filed a criminal complaint against Sahashi with the Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office, accusing him of aggravated breach of trust.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20090826p2a00m0na018000c.html

Ex-Nova Head Sahashi Found Guilty of Embezzlement, Asahi Says

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The former president of Nova Corp., once Japan’s biggest English-language school operator, was found guilty of embezzlement and sentenced to prison by the Osaka district court, the Asahi newspaper said.

The court found today Nozomu Sahashi redirected 320 million yen ($3.4 million) from his employees’ welfare program to the company before its bankruptcy in 2007, the Asahi reported, citing judge Hiroaki Higuchi. Sahashi, 57, was given a sentence of three years and six months.

Sahashi founded Nova in 1981 and the Osaka-based company had more than 900 branches at its peak. Nova’s finances worsened after the government in June 2007 ordered it to suspend operations for violating rules on commercial transactions. It filed for bankruptcy protection in October that year.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=anM2GNuZ.3_4

NTT fails to pay pension premiums

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The Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. group [a company one third owned by the Japanese government] failed to pay to the state a portion of pension premiums of about 4,000 employees over more than six years to August 2003 despite deducting the money from the workers’ salaries.

Sources attributed the failure to clerical errors. The group has already filed a request to a government third-party panel that the pension records be corrected to ensure the employees receive the benefits they are entitled to, officials said.

According to the sources, discrepancies were found between pension records maintained by the Social Insurance Agency and those at the group’s employee pension fund. No records were held by the agency for about 20 short-term contract workers.

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200908240075.html

Japanese women ‘still not equal’

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A United Nations panel has urged Japan to take stronger measures to eliminate gender inequality.

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women said the country’s efforts were “insufficient”.

It pointed to unequal laws on marriage, the treatment of women in the labour market and the low representation of women on elected bodies.

But the committee said Japan had made great progress reducing the already low maternal mortality rate.

It said the world’s second-biggest economy ranked 54th in the world in terms of gender equality.

It was concerned over the low legal penalty for rape and the widespread availability in Japan of violent pornography, it added.

And the committee said Japan should set goals to increase the number of women in senior decision-making positions in the workplace and politics.

It said the age at which women can marry should be raised from 16 to 18 in line with men.

And a six-month waiting period before remarriage after divorce that applies only to women should be scrapped.

The committee called for immediate action, but did note that Japan had already put in place numerous laws to promote gender equality.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8213493.stm

U.N. panel raps Japan on gender gap

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Japan has not made sufficient efforts to eliminate discrimination against women, the U.N. committee against gender discrimination here said Tuesday.

The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women urged the government to revise Civil Code stipulations obliging husbands and wives to use the same surname and allowing females to marry at younger ages than males.

The committee also asked Japan to rectify discriminatory work practices, such as different promotion courses and wage inequities.

The committee examined the government’s efforts for gender equality for the first time in six years based on the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200908210069.html

Do more to ban gender bias, U.N. panel urges

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A U.N. committee is recommending that the Japanese government immediately implement remedial measures to eradicate discrimination against women.

Japan’s efforts to implement antidiscrimination measures as a party to the international convention against such discrimination are “insufficient,” the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women said.

It said Tokyo has failed to address problems affecting women that the committee identified in a 2003 report. It listed discriminatory provisions in the Civil Code, unequal treatment of women in the labor market and low representation of women in high-level elected bodies.

In a new report, the committee said it “regrets” these issues have been left unresolved and urged Japan to “make every effort” to remedy the situation.

On the Civil Code, the committee urged Japan to abolish a six-month waiting period required for women but not men before remarriage and to adopt a system allowing for the choice of surnames for married couples. The panel committee called on Japan to repeal Civil Code and family registration law provisions that discriminate against children born out of wedlock.

The latest report accuses Japan of making light of the fact that the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women is binding.

Japan should recognize the convention as “the most pertinent, broad and legally binding international instrument in the sphere of the elimination against women,” the report says, urging the country to take “immediate measures” so the convention will become fully applicable in the legal system.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090821a2.html

Down in polls, Aso says only LDP can provide security

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[Gaffe-prone Prime Minister Taro] Aso also expressed his disapproval of DPJ President Yukio Hatoyama’s willingness to give local-level suffrage to foreign nationals with permanent residency.

“Hatoyama says that Japan is not a country just for Japanese, but if that is the case, then whose country is it for?” Aso asked. “Honestly speaking, this isn’t something that will be resolved by just granting (foreigners) suffrage and it is likely that there will be many more difficult problems.”

While many lawmakers in the DPJ and New Komeito are for granting foreigners the right to vote in local elections, many conservative LDP members have expressed strong reluctance.

The prime minister added that the number of descendants of Koreans who lived in Japan before the war and were forced to take Japanese nationality at that time is declining and that “we must consider various things like whether (suffrage for foreigners) is even necessary.”

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20090819a6.html

Japan’s baby-making stimulus package

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The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ), the country’s main opposition political party and front-runner to take over the Japanese government in the elections to be held on August 30th, has promised a financial stimulus package of a different kind. Designed to address Japan’s increasingly worrisome drop in fertility rate, the DPJ’s stimulus, if enacted, will provide various financial incentives to couples who procreate.

Japan’s impending demographic crisis has long been known about but until now, there has been no real government proposal to make demographic improvements. The commonly accepted fertility rate to maintain the size of a population is 2.1 births per woman. Fertility rates higher than 2.1 will increase the size of a population over time; a rate lower than 2.1 will reduce the size of a population over time. As late as 2005, Japan’s fertility rate was reported as only 1.26 births per woman.

Although developed nations in general tend to have lower birth rates than developing nations, the demographic crisis is not as acute in Western Europe or the United States because immigration policy has been identified as a tool to increase populations over time.

While Japan too has the ability to use immigration policy to solve its population problem, it lacks a demonstrable political will. Japan has a history of maintaining a strict immigration policy and shows no sign of changing in the immediate future. As friendly as the Japanese may be to foreign visitors, its government is infamous for its aversion to immigrants; Japan has one of the most homogenous populations of any country on earth.

Given Japan’s preference for ethnic homogeneity, financial incentives for child-bearing couples may, at first glance, seem like an appropriate solution to Japan’s population problem. The DPJ is currently promising 26,000 Yen (about US $270) per month per child in addition to providing free high school tuition.

This ‘stimulus package’, however, could create incentives for perverse actions. Take for example China’s one child policy, which attempts to do precisely the opposite of what the DPJ says it will attempt. China’s attempt at social engineering, while successful in some respects, has had the unintended consequence of promoting abortions, increasing infanticide, and producing a disproportionate ratio of males to females in Chinese society, problems that only grows worse over time. A DPJ attempt at social engineering could prove equally problematic.

Japan is clearly facing a demographic crisis but the solution lies in immigration policy, not in bribes. Japan must open its borders, not its pocketbook, if it wants to solve this problem. The bleak state of Japan’s economy suggests there might be more efficient uses for taxpayer dollars.

http://www.examiner.com/x-16317-DC-Asia-Policy-Examiner~y2009m8d3-Japans-babymaking-stimulus-package

Japan’s ageing, shrinking population

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Whichever party wins Japan’s August 30 general election must deal with a population forecast to shrink and age rapidly, because of the country’s low birth rate, high life expectancy and aversion to immigration.
Following are some facts about Japan’s population trends.

* Japan is currently the world’s 10th-largest country in terms of population, with more than 127 million people. By 2050, it is forecast to rank 18th, with 93.7 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

* That compares with Russia’s population, which is also forecast to fall from 140 million in 2009 to 109.2 million in 2050, knocking it from 9th position to 16th.

* Japan’s population dependency ratio, or the number of people of working age supporting each elderly person, stood at 3.3 in 2005, but will fall to 1.3 by 2055 according to the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research.

* An IMF study calculated that Japan’s real GDP would fall by a cumulative 20 percent over the next century, compared with a baseline simulation with a stationary population.

* The Health Ministry forecasts pension costs will rise to 56 trillion yen in 2015, compared with 39.5 trillion yen in 2006, while health care spending is expected to rise to 37 trillion from 27.5 trillion in 2006. Some in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) say consumption tax will need to be raised from the current five percent in future to fund rising social security costs.

* Defense spending has been falling annually from a high of 49.4 trillion yen as social security takes an increasing share of the budget. It will likely fall further and Japan may have trouble staffing its [constitutionally illegal] military due to the shortage of young people.

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, IMF, National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, Ministry of Health and Welfare, Defense Ministry, Pacific Forum CSIS

http://www.reuters.com/article/newsMaps/idUSTRE56U02620090731

Social Insurance Agency reprimands collection chief over altered records

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The Social Insurance Agency has taken disciplinary action against a Tokyo social insurance office worker for altering records to understate people’s standard monthly earnings, which form the basis for calculating pension insurance premiums.

It is the only case in which the agency has admitted alteration of records by a worker, and the first time for disciplinary action to be taken over record falsification.

When questioned over his actions, the worker, a former collection section head, reportedly said, “I was trying to lower the number of businesses that defaulted on their insurance premiums. Another worker gave people the same treatment.” He added that a business owner had implored him to see if anything could be done about overdue insurance premiums.

In addition to action against the former collection section chief, the agency also handed a severe warning to a former worker in the same section who played a part in altering records under instruction from the collection chief.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20090801p2a00m0na010000c.html