DOCSLIB.ORG

Pension System in Japan: Issues for Reform

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Pension System in Japan: Issues for Reform ISSN 1392–6195 (print) ISSN 2029–2058 (online) JURISPRUDENCIJA JURISPRUDENCE 2012, 19(1), p. 269–292. PENSION SYSTEM IN JAPAN: ISSUES FOR REFORM Audrius Bitinas Mykolas Romeris University, Faculty of Law, Department of Labour Law and Social Security Ateities 20, LT-08303 Vilnius, Lithuania Telephone (+370 5) 271 4633 E-mail: [email protected] Received on 14 February, 2012; accepted on 5 March, 2012 Abstract. The aim of this article is to define the actual construction of the Japanese pension system influenced by the economic and social challenges and implemented pension system reforms. In this article, the development of Japanese pension system reforms is analysed, as well as legal, economic, social environment is identified. Until recently, it was a common perception that Japan has managed economic success without worsening the income inequality and pension benefits, but since the economic recession in the 1990, the Japanese pension system faces a new challenge. Moreover, the Japanese population is ageing rapidly (low birth rate, long life expectancy), therefore, ageing influences the entire society and requires more complex and pressing pension system reforms. Analysis of scientific literature, legal acts, documents, historical methods was used. It may be used as methodical literature studying the actual processes in the field of the pension system reforms in Asian countries. Keywords: pension system, reform, crisis, ageing, Japan. Jurisprudencija/Jurisprudence ISSN 1392–6195 (print), ISSN 2029–2058 (online) Mykolo Romerio universitetas, 2012 http://www.mruni.eu/lt/mokslo_darbai/jurisprudencija/ Mykolas Romeris University, 2012 http://www.mruni.eu/en/mokslo_darbai/jurisprudencija/ 270 Audrius Bitinas. Pension System in Japan: Issues for Reform Introduction The exclusivity of the Asia-Pacific region hides the fact that in this region the world’s largest population is concentrated, the rapid increase of older population growth is expected, life expectancy is increasing, but the fertility rate is decreasing. Ageing in this region will be at its most rapid between 2010 and 2030. Given the long lag in pension-policy planning, there is now a narrow window for many Asian economies to avoid future pension problems.1 Japan is also confronting with the global economic downturn, but the Japanese pension system, however, can be identified as a welfare state pension system (in comparison to other Asian countries). Design of the pension systems in Asia and the Pacific region is sufficiently heterogeneous: pension systems in Japan and South Korea are the closest to the continental European model (with some elements of the Southern European model) or to the liberal model (the first pillar - universal pension), pension schemes in Hong Kong - a classic three-pillar pension system (first pillar - the pay-as-you-go social security pension; the second pillar - occupational pensions system; the third pillar - voluntary pension savings), in Taiwan - defined contribution compulsory occupational pension scheme; in Singapore and Malaysia - a compulsory savings system in the provident funds, the essential element of pension organisation in Chinese People’s Republic is state social insurance pensions, in Australia and New Zealand we could identify the liberal model (with a certain exclusivity). However, this region is different with regard to the level of economic development: in industrial countries (Japan, S. Korea, Australia, New Zealand) pension coverage and benefits are higher, other countries (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka) are characterised by high unemployment and relatively low pension coverage. New economic and social trends encourage the countries of this region to reform their pension systems. The World Bank report on the Asia-Pacific pension systems indicates the need to reform pension systems in order to avoid European mistakes: it is necessary to expand the scope of the system, to reduce an early retirement, to promote savings in private funds (which is actually not sufficient) and to index pensions by life expectancy formula.2 Pacific Economic Council notes the following Asian countries’ pension system policy trends: a population ageing, expansion of atypical employment relationships, the need for the pension accumulation system, increasing of pension coverage, growing industrialisation and urbanisation (it requires extra income for persons living, higher costs for health care and pension income) and increasing demand for cross-border social security agreements (because of the migration of workers).3 International Social Security Association emphasises that people use early retirement pension schemes, the Asian and Pacific countries pension coverage is relatively low, and the actual pension amount is not index-linked according to the standard of living.4 1 OECD. Pensions at a glance: Asia/Pacific. OECD publishing, 2012. 2 World Bank. Pensions ir Asia/Pacific, January 2011. 3 Pacific Economic Council. Towards a more resilient society: lessons from economic crisis (report of the social resilience project). Tokyo: Japanese Institute of International Affairs, 2010, p. 41−42. 4 Asher, M. Extending social security coverage in Asia-Pacific: a review of good practises and lessons learnt. International Social Security Association working paper No. 6. Geneva: ISSA, 2009. Jurisprudence. 2012, 19(1): 269–292. 271 Thus, the international organisations identified the essential social security reform strategies in the Asian region: to prolong the active working life, to ensure the security of personal income from inflation, to review models of income redistribution, to ensure protection against poverty, to ensure the financial sustainability of pension systems and to ensure labour market efficiency. Financial sustainability and growth of the public debt is a problem not only in the Asian region but also in Europe or in USA. In particular, we could note a significant public sector debt in Japan: according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) data, the public sector debt in Japan reached 198 percent of GDP (in 2010), which was much more than the USA (93 percent of GDP), United Kingdom (81 percent of GDP), France (92 percent of GDP) and more than in Greece (129 percent of GDP). Japan’s debt started increasing since 1990 because of the reduction in asset prices. Despite government efforts to achieve the fiscal consolidation, the level of debt did not decrease, but also significantly increased.5 Until recently, it was a common perception that Japan has managed economic success without worsening the income inequality and that Japan‘s poverty rate is one of the lowest among the developed nations, but since the economic recession in the 1990, there has been a fierce debate on whether or not Japan‘s so-called equality is a myth.6 The need to strengthen the pension system and seeking for the financial sources in Japan is related to the other global world economic crisis (Asian financial crisis in 1997– 1998 and world economic crisis in 2008), as well as the spread of atypical employment relationships, the growth of self-employment, the increasing of the migration of workers, the need to strengthen pension system management, low incentives to participate in the private voluntary pension accumulation funds and mistrust of people in pension system. The Japanese population is ageing rapidly (low birth rate in the 1990, long life expectancy). Ageing influences society and requires more difficult and more pressing reforms of the pension system in Japan. Of course, the Japanese government is looking for new ways to stop pension system deficit growth, not only by reducing benefits or increasing contributions, but trying to change other pension system parameters. For example, in 2004 a modified indexation (automatic change in the pension amount, depending on the demographic processes) has been introduced, the minimum pension has been established, the retirement age has been extended and so on. Social and economic changes in Japan require not only a comprehensive pension system reform, but reforms in other related areas (fiscal policy, labour market, management and capital markets). 1. Economic and Social Assumptions for the Pension Reform Analysis of recent pension reforms shows that today pension systems are more vulnerable to the economic shocks and shifted part of financial and economic risks on 5 Oshio, T.; Oishi, A. S.; Shimizutani, S. Social security reforms and labour force participation of the elderly in Japan. The Japanese Economic Review. 2011, 62(2): 249−271. 6 Abe, A. K. Low-income people in social security systems in Japan. The Japanese Journal of Social Security Policy. 2003, 2(2): 59−70. 272 Audrius Bitinas. Pension System in Japan: Issues for Reform individuals. However, we should emphasize that over recent decades most of the reform debates were implicitly analysed on the basis of the perceived or real need for financial stabilisation and not on social stabilisation. Social stabilisation implies that pension levels are not allowed to fall below a certain minimum benchmark—for example article 65 (1) of International Labour Organisation Convention 102 requires a pension to be at 40 percent of the total of the previous earnings of the beneficiary after 30 years of service. Social expenditure for pensions in Japan is rising: in 1970 it was only 1.1 percent of GDP, but in 1990 it was already 5.3 percent of GDP and in 2005 it was 9.2 percent of GDP. Forecast show the same trend for pension expenditure: in 2015 the level of pension expenditure will amount to 9.5 percent of GDP. After implementing reforms (raising the retirement age, raising the level of contributions, decreasing the level of pension benefits), in 2025 the level of pension spending will decrease by 8.3 percent of GDP. In 2006, the level of tax (personal income, corporate income, consumption, property) and the level of social insurance contributions in Japan was the smallest (27.9 percent of GDP), compared to France (44.2%), Germany (35.6%), Sweden (49.1%), United Kingdom (37.1%) and USA (28%).7 Change of pension expenditure (period 1990-2007) in Japan was 80.5 percent. We could note that an average of countries of OECD was only 14.5%.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Franziska Seraphim Associate Professor, History Department Director of Asian Studies Boston College
    Seraphim, p. 1 9/14/2017 Franziska Seraphim Associate Professor, History Department Director of Asian Studies Boston College Office phone: 617-552-2142 E-mail: [email protected] PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS Boston College 2007- Associate Professor of History 2001-2006 Assistant Professor of History Duke University 2000-2001 Visiting Assistant Professor of History EDUCATION Columbia University, New York February 2001 Ph.D. in Japanese History Dissertation: "Negotiating the Post-War: Politics and War Memory in Japan, 1945- 1995." May 1994 M.Phil. in Japanese History Major Fields: 19th-century Japan, 20th-century Japan th th Minor Fields: 20 -century German history, 20 -century German critical theory October 1992 M.A. in Japanese History Master's Thesis: "The Discourse about War Responsibility in Early Postwar Japan, 1945-1960." University of California at Berkeley May 1991 B.A. in Asian Studies Honor's Thesis: "Constitutional Thought and Political Compromise as Building Blocks of the Modern Japanese State: Inoue Kowashi and Hermann Roesler." Magna cum laude. Maximiliansgymnasium Munich, Germany June 1986 Abitur (College-level state examination) Major Fields: German and English literature Minor Fields: Theology, Chemistry LANGUAGES Fluency in written and spoken Japanese. Native fluency in German. AWARDS 2016 Exploratory Technology Grant (ETG), Boston College (summer) 2014 Northeast Asia Council (NEAC) of the Association for Asian Studies conference grant for workshop on “’Juridical Arenas’ of the Allied War Crimes Trial Program” 2013-15 Multi-year grant for conferencing and GIS mapping project, Institute for the Liberal Arts, Boston College Seraphim, p. 2 9/14/2017 2012 NEH Fellowship for 12 months of research/writing 2011 ACLS Fellowship for 12 months of research/writing (6 months taken) 2010 Research Expense Grant (summer) Boston College—research trip to Japan 2009 Research Expense Grant (summer ) Boston College—research trip to Europe 2009 Clough Center Graduate Research Assistantship, Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy, Boston College.
    [Show full text]
  • Download/Publiclci/03 LCIA-Implementation.Pdf (Accessed on 16 October 2017)
    minerals Article Comprehensive Analysis of External Dependency in Terms of Material Criticality by Employing Total Material Requirement: Sulfuric Acid Production in Japan as a Case Study Shoki Kosai 1,* ID , Seiji Hashimoto 2, Kazuyo Matsubae 3, Benjamin McLellan 4 ID and Eiji Yamasue 1 ID 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Science and Engineering, Ritsumeikan University, Shiga 525-8577, Japan; [email protected] 2 Department of Environmental Systems Engineering, College of Science and Engineering, Ritsumeikan University, Shiga 525-8577, Japan; [email protected] 3 Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8577, Japan; [email protected] 4 Graduate School of Energy Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +81-80-5308-2146 Received: 14 January 2018; Accepted: 7 March 2018; Published: 12 March 2018 Abstract: Securing stable material supply is of paramount importance since materials are fundamental to the economy and human well-being. The domestic production to consumption ratio has conventionally been utilized as a main index for external dependency in terms of material supply security and its criticality. However, the conventional approach confines its application to raw materials, which potentially risks reaching short-sighted conclusions in the policy-making process. Beyond the conventional analysis of external dependency, the development of a more applicable approach for every material is of paramount importance to consider the diversification of external dependency more comprehensively and to aid the analysis of overall material criticality. As such, this paper establishes a new methodology for analyzing external dependency related to every material and product by using the concept of total material requirement (TMR).
    [Show full text]
  • The Social Costs of Child Abuse in Japan
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Elsevier - Publisher Connector Children and Youth Services Review 46 (2014) 72–77 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Children and Youth Services Review journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth The social costs of child abuse in Japan Ichiro Wada a,⁎, Ataru Igarashi b a Child and Family Welfare Research Department, Child and Family Research Institute, Tokyo, Japan b Drug Policy Management (DPM), Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Japan article info abstract Article history: The present study calculates the social costs of child abuse in Japan. The items calculated included the direct costs Received 10 June 2014 of dealing with abuse and the indirect costs related to long-term damage from abuse during the fiscal year 2012 Received in revised form 31 July 2014 (April 1, 2012, to March 31, 2013). Based on previous studies on the social costs of child abuse and peripheral Accepted 4 August 2014 matters conducted in other countries, the present study created items for the estimable direct costs and indirect Available online 12 August 2014 costs of child abuse, and calculated the cost of each item. Among indirect costs, future losses owing to child abuse fi Keywords: were calculated using extra costs with a discount rate of 3%. The social cost of child abuse in Japan in the scal Social costs year 2012 was at least ¥1.6 trillion ($16 billion). The direct costs totaled ¥99 billion ($1 billion), and the indirect Child abuse costs totaled ¥1.5 trillion ($15 billion).
    [Show full text]
  • The Japanese Market for Seafood
    GLOBEFISH RESEARCH PROGRAMME Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Fisheries and Aquaculture Policy and Economics Division The Japanese market for Products, Trade and Marketing Branch Viale delle Terme di Caracalla 00153 Rome, Italy seafood Tel.: +39 06 5705 2884 Fax: +39 06 5705 3020 www.globefish.org Volume 117 GRP117coverB5.indd 1 04/02/2015 11:39:02 The Japanese market for seafood by Andreas Kamoey (January, 2015) The GLOBEFISH Research Programme is an activity initiated by FAO's Products, Trade and Marketing Branch, Fisheries and Aquaculture Policy and Economics Division, Rome, Italy and it is partly financed by its Partners and Associate Members. For further information please refer to www.globefish.org The designations employed and the presentation of material in this information product do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) concerning the legal or development status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The mention of specific companies or products of manufacturers, whether or not these have been patented, does not imply that these have been endorsed or recommended by FAO in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned. The views expressed in this information product are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of FAO. Andreas KAMOEY, GLOBEFISH intern. THE JAPANESE MARKET FOR SEAFOOD. GLOBEFISH Research Programme, Vol. 117, Rome, FAO 2015. 45p. Japan remains one of the world’s largest consumers of fish and seafood products, with considerable dependence on foreign fisheries resources, initially through the operation of its distant water fishing fleets, and later through imports.
    [Show full text]
  • Japan Focuses on Next Generation Biofuels Biofuels Annual Japan
    THIS REPORT CONTAINS ASSESSMENTS OF COMMODITY AND TRADE ISSUES MADE BY USDA STAFF AND NOT NECESSARILY STATEMENTS OF OFFICIAL U.S. GOVERNMENT POLICY Required Report - public distribution Date: 6/29/2012 GAIN Report Number: Japan Biofuels Annual Japan Focuses on Next Generation Biofuels Approved By: Jennifer Clever Prepared By: Midori Iijima Report Highlights: In 2011, Japanese ethanol production for fuel increased by an estimated 35 percent to 30,000 kl. Biodiesel production also expanded by 61 percent to 14,000 kl. Imports of ethanol for fuel and other uses also increased by 29 percent while ETBE imports in 2011 held steady. Due to limited agricultural production, and the “food vs. fuel” debate, the Government of Japan has opted to focus determinedly on biofuels derived from cellulosic materials or other materials which do not compete with the food supply. Nevertheless, overall Japanese production of biofuels is expected to continue expanding. Table of Contents Executive Summary: ..................................................................................................................... 2 Overview of Japan’s Transportation Fuel Strategy .................................................................... 3 Policy and Programs: ................................................................................................................... 4 Ministries Involved in the Bio-fuels Policy ................................................................................ 4 Policy Overview.........................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • The Barbie Phenomenon in Japan
    THE BARBIE PHENOMENON IN JAPAN Arisa Shibagaki A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS August 2007 Committee: Marilyn F. Motz, Advisor Esther Clinton © 2007 Arisa Shibagaki All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT Marilyn F. Motz, Advisor This research examines the popularity of Barbie among young adult Japanese women as the “Barbie phenomenon” in Japan. By investigating the historical and cultural aspects of Japanese values of beauty, the author found that the phenomenon emerged from the combination of the values of kawaii (Japanese cuteness) and kakkoii (Japanese coolness). Kawaii is the traditional positive feeling for small and delicate things, and in modern society its meaning extends into popular characters and fashion. Kawaii fashion is usually considered to use lace, ribbon, and frilly materials and colors of pink, white, and pastels. On the other hand, the English- language word “cool” is usually translated into kakkoii (かっこいい), which means that people’s appearance is attractive, and its meaning also extends into people’s behavior and fashion in modern society. Kakkoii behavior is masculine and independent; the colors of black, blue, and khaki and plain materials are usually used in kakkoii fashion. In fact, “Kakkoii” is different from American “cool,” which is a word used for not only an attractive appearance but also individuality and a sense of belonging; however, the words “kakkoii” and “cool” are used without regard for such a difference in Japan. In women’s fashion magazines, both “kawaii” and “cool” are the common key words.
    [Show full text]
  • Japan Biofuels Annual Japan to Focus on Next Generation Biofuels
    THIS REPORT CONTAINS ASSESSMENTS OF COMMODITY AND TRADE ISSUES MADE BY USDA STAFF AND NOT NECESSARILY STATEMENTS OF OFFICIAL U.S. GOVERNMENT POLICY Required Report - public distribution Date: 6/24/2010 GAIN Report Number: Japan Biofuels Annual Japan to Focus on Next Generation Biofuels Approved By: Jeff Nawn Prepared By: Midori Iijima Report Highlights: Due to limited agricultural resources and the debate of “food v. fuel,” Japan is to focus very determinedly on biofuels derived from cellulosic materials or other materials which do not compete with food supply. Ethanol production for fuel in 2009 is 200kl, biodiesel production was roughly 10,000 kl, and ETBE imports were roughly 57,000 kl. Japan reportedly starts importing ethanol for fuel from Brazil this year. Post: Tokyo Executive Summary: Government and private sector research and investment in biofuels have been on the rise since Japan‟s first biomass plan, “Biomass Nippon Strategy,” was unveiled in December 2002. That Strategy was updated in 2008, and the Government of Japan‟s (GOJ‟s) current thinking, given the country‟s limited land resources, is to focus very determinedly on cellulosic biofuel as the future for Japan‟s biofuel production. During the past few years, in the wake of higher food prices, biofuel production has been under considerable criticism by Japanese lawmakers and media, often bearing the blame for driving up commodity prices. In fact, it was this supposed link between biofuels and higher commodity prices that inspired the GOJ to include food prices and food security in the G-8 Summit agenda held in July 2008 in Hokkaido, Japan.
    [Show full text]
  • Highlights of Global Climate for 1998
    CLIMATE CHANGE MONITORING REPORT 2007 October 2008 JAPAN METEOROLOGICAL AGENCY Published by the Japan Meteorological Agency 1-3-4 Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8122, Japan Telephone +81 3 3211 4966 Facsimile +81 3 3211 2032 E-mail [email protected] CLIMATE CHANGE MONITORING REPORT 2007 October 2008 JAPAN METEOROLOGICAL AGENCY Cover: Three-dimensional representations of monthly variations in zonally averaged atmospheric CO2 distribution (concentrations (top) and growth rates (bottom)). This analysis was performed using data archived by the WDCGG. Contents Part I Climate 1 1. Global climate 1.1 Global climate 1 1.2 Global surface temperature and precipitation 4 2. Climate of Japan 2.1 Japan’s Climate in 2007 7 2.2 Major meteorological disasters in Japan 12 2.3 Surface temperature and precipitation in Japan 15 2.4 Long-term trends of extreme events in Japan 17 Column - Long-term trend of heavy rain analyzed from AMeDAS data 24 2.5 Tropical cyclones 27 2.6 The urban heat island effect in metropolitan areas of Japan 29 Part II Oceans 33 1. Global Oceans 1.1 Global sea surface temperature 33 1.2 El Niño and La Niña 35 1.3 Sea ice in the Arctic and Antarctic areas 39 2. The western North Pacific and the seas adjacent to Japan 2.1 Sea surface temperature and ocean currents in the western North Pacific 40 2.2 Sea level around Japan 43 2.3 Sea ice in the Sea of Okhotsk 47 2.4 Marine pollution in the western North Pacific 48 Part III Atmospheric Environment 53 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Cartography in Japan 2003-2007
    CARTOGRAPHY IN JAPAN 2003-2007 NATIONAL REPORT TO THE 13TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE INTERNATIONAL CARTOGRAPHIC ASSOCIATION MOSCOW 2007 THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR CARTOGRAPHY OF JAPAN THE JAPAN CARTOGRAPHERS ASSOCIATION CONTENTS PREFACE 4 I. ACTIVITIES OF THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE FOR CARTOGRAPHY AND RELATED ACADEMIC ASSOCIATIONS 5 1. Activities of the National Committee for Cartography (NCC) 5 2. Activities of the Japan Cartographers Association 6 3. Certification of GIS engineer organized by the GIS Association of Japan (GISA) 7 . ACTIVITIES OF MAPPING ORGANIZATIONS 8 1. Geographical Survey Institute of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT) 8 2. Hydrographic and Oceanographic Department (HOD) of Japan Coast Guard, MLIT 23 3. National Land Survey by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MLIT) 25 4. Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) 26 5. Geological Survey of Japan / National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (GSJ/AIST) 27 6. Technical cooperation 27 7. Satellite for Cartography: Advanced Land Observing Satellite (ALOS) 33 III. ACTIVITIES OF PUBLIC CORPORATIONS, FOUNDATIONS, MUSEUMS AND LIBRARIES 1. Public Corporations and Foundations 36 2. Museums and Libraries 37 IV. ACTIVITIES OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT 38 V. ACTIVITIES OF PRIVATE SECTOR 40 1. Digital Services 40 2. Trends in Map Publication 41 EDITORIAL BOARD Chief : MORITA Takashi Members: KUMAKI Yohta UNE Hiroshi ISHIHARA Kenichiro NAGAI Nobuo BANDO Tomozane OTA Morishige SAITO Tadamitsu KOBORI Noboru PREFACE This report has been prepared as the National Report for Japan to the 13th General Assembly of ICA and 23rd International Cartographic Conference in Moscow, Russia, 2007. The purpose of this report is to introduce cartographic activities taking place in Japan largely from 2003 to 2007.
    [Show full text]
  • Notes on Eight Threatened Species of Lichens in Japan
    Bull. Natl. Mus. Nat. Sci., Ser. B, 37(2), pp. 55–61, May 22, 2011 Notes on Eight Threatened Species of Lichens in Japan Yoshihito Ohmura Department of Botany, National Museum of Nature and Science, Amakubo 4–1–1, Tsukuba, 305–0005 Japan E-mail: [email protected] (Received 17 February 2011; accepted 23 March 2011) Abstract New localities and/or molecular data are provided for the following eight threatened species of lichens in Japan: Chiodecton congestulum, Flavopunctelia soredica, Icmadophila japon- ica, Lethariella togashii, Pseudocyphellaria argyracea, Thysanothecium scutellatum, Usnea fil- ipendula, and U. nipparensis. ITS rDNA sequences were successfully obtained from all species except for C. congestulum, and were compared with the known sequences retrieved from GenBank. Key words : distribution, ITS rDNA, lichenized Ascomycota, Red List. situation of each species as well as molecular Introduction data. The current Red List of Japanese lichens is comprised of 152 taxa: 152 species, 1 sub- Materials and Methods species, and 3 varieties (Ministry of the Environ- ment, 2007; Inoue et al., 2010). Molecular data All collections examined are stored at the of these lichens are of potentially great value for National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo taxonomic, phylogenetic, phytogeographic, and (TNS) unless otherwise indicated. Two speci- ecological purposes. mens of Chiodecton congestulum are stored at During recent field surveys in Japan, fresh ma- Uppsala University (UPS). terials of eight threatened species were collected Lichen substances were examined by thin layer in 2009–2010 from both new and already known chromatography (TLC) (Culberson and Johnson, localities, and the sequences of internal tran- 1982).
    [Show full text]
  • The Social Costs of Child Abuse in Japan
    Children and Youth Services Review 46 (2014) 72–77 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Children and Youth Services Review journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth The social costs of child abuse in Japan Ichiro Wada a,⁎, Ataru Igarashi b a Child and Family Welfare Research Department, Child and Family Research Institute, Tokyo, Japan b Drug Policy Management (DPM), Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The University of Tokyo, Japan article info abstract Article history: The present study calculates the social costs of child abuse in Japan. The items calculated included the direct costs Received 10 June 2014 of dealing with abuse and the indirect costs related to long-term damage from abuse during the fiscal year 2012 Received in revised form 31 July 2014 (April 1, 2012, to March 31, 2013). Based on previous studies on the social costs of child abuse and peripheral Accepted 4 August 2014 matters conducted in other countries, the present study created items for the estimable direct costs and indirect Available online 12 August 2014 costs of child abuse, and calculated the cost of each item. Among indirect costs, future losses owing to child abuse fi Keywords: were calculated using extra costs with a discount rate of 3%. The social cost of child abuse in Japan in the scal Social costs year 2012 was at least ¥1.6 trillion ($16 billion). The direct costs totaled ¥99 billion ($1 billion), and the indirect Child abuse costs totaled ¥1.5 trillion ($15 billion). This sum of ¥1.6 trillion for only the year 2012 is almost equal to the total Japan amount of damages of ¥1.9 trillion caused by the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami in Fukushima Prefecture.
    [Show full text]
  • 2010 Country Update for Japan
    Proceedings World Geothermal Congress 2010 Bali, Indonesia, 25-29 April 2010 2010 Country Update for Japan Hiroki SUGINO 1 and Toshihiro AKENO 2 1Thermal and Nuclear Power Engineering Society, Hokkaishiba Bldg, 31-15,Shiba 2-chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-0014, Japan 2New Energy Foundation, 13-2, Higashiikebukuro 3-chome, Toshima-Ku, Tokyo 170-0013, Japan 1 [email protected]，2 [email protected] Keywords: Japan, geothermal power generation, direct use, On the other hand, power companies now have a responsibility geothermal heat pump, update data, current status to generate or purchase a designated volume of renewable energy or its equivalent under the renewable portfolio standard ABSTRACT (RPS) system promulgated by the national government in April 2003. This report describes the update data of geothermal power generation and direct use in Japan. Japan is one of the most tectonically active countries in the world, with nearly 200 Table 1. Geothermal wells drilled for power generation volcanoes and the blessing of tremendous geothermal energy from April 1, 2005 to December 31, 2008 (excluding resources. In 2009, twenty geothermal power plants were in heat pump wells) operation at 17 locations nationwide. Most are located in the Tohoku and Kyushu districts. Total net output from all Purpose Wellhead Number of Wells Drilled Total Depth (km) geothermal power plants reached 535.26 MWe in 2006. Temperature Electric Other The total installed geothermal power capacity is 0.2% of total Power power generation facilities in Japan in March 2009. The Exploration (all) 20 0 27.0 electricity produced by geothermal energy was 3,063.5 GWh Production >150o C 13 0 20.9 o in FY 2007 (April 2007 - March 2008), which was 0.3% of the 150-100 C 0 0 0 annual electricity production during the corresponding period o <100 C 0 0 0 in Japan.
    [Show full text]