TRAVEL

Tokiko Shimizu, the Bank of Japan's first female branch chief, says the country's tendency to shield women from responsibility is what's holding many back. At 45, the youngest among 32 regional heads, she is bucking the trend. Shimizu, who last month became head of the central bank's Takamatsu branch on the western island of Shikoku, said male managers in Japan being "soft" on female subordinates has restricted their career growth. Fewer Japanese women are in the labor market than their South Korean, American and Chinese counterparts, even as a shrinking workforce and aging population risks lowering the country's economic output and increasing the social-welfare burden. (Bloomberg)

Japan's Seto Inland Sea, known for its breathtaking vistas and art-filled island of Naoshima, is the site for the inaugural Setouchi International Art Festival until October 31. Also titled as a "100-Day Art and Sea Adventure," about 78 Japanese and internationally recognized artists and art groups are showing a cornucopia of contemporary artworks on seven islands - Naoshima, Teshima, Megijima, Ogijima, Shodoshima, Oshima, Inujima - and the port areas of Takamatsu (on Shikoku Island) and Uno (on Honshu, near Okayama). For Asia, it's a unique, ambitious undertaking, spearheaded by Soichiro Fukutake, an avid art patron and head of Okayama-based Benesse Inc. The Naoshima Fukutake Art Museum Foundation is also involved, with additional backing from local and prefectural governments. (Japan Times)

Agriculture minister Masahiko Yamada reaffirmed Monday that six privately owned stud bulls in Miyazaki Prefecture will have to be killed despite local efforts to save them from the mandated slaughter aimed at containing the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak. After meeting with Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshito Sengoku, Yamada said he would demand that Miyazaki Gov. Hideo Higashikokubaru have the bulls put down in accordance with a special law. (Japan Times)

While most media outlets have chosen to focus on the economic and health aspects of the ongoing spread of foot-and-mouth disease in Miyazaki Prefecture, weekly tabloid Shukan Asahi Geino (July 1) investigates how the outbreak has impacted the businesses most dear to its readership - namely, shops specializing in adult entertainment. On May 18, Miyazaki Prefecture Gov. Hideo Higashikokubaru declared a prefecture-wide state of emergency. Since then, those visiting from outlying areas began canceling reservations in earnest. The owner of Japanese restaurant Igokochiya Anbai, located in Miyazaki City's entertainment district known as Nishitachi, tells the tabloid that sales have fallen to half of what they were a year ago. "In the beginning, the cancellations were limited to certain areas," the owner explains, "but after the state of emergency was declared the number rose rapidly. We are now cutting part-timers and reducing advertising and supply purchases." (Tokyo Reporter)

The rainy season is believed to have begun across a wide area of western and central Japan, including the Shikoku and Hokuriku regions, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. The season began three to nine days later than average in these areas, which also include the Chugoku, Kinki and Tokai regions, the agency said. On Saturday, the agency said the season is believed to have begun in the Kyushu region and nearby Yamaguchi Prefecture in southwestern Japan. (AP)

The government on Monday revised upward its economic assessment for three of the nation's 11 regions in its report on regional economies with no region described as "deteriorating" for the first time since August 2008, just before the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. The Cabinet Office upgraded its assessments for the northern Kanto, southern Kanto and Okinawa regions from the previous report in February, while only downgrading its assessment for the Shikoku region, showing that economic recovery is spreading across the country. (AP)

Torrential rain hit the Kinki region and Shikoku on Monday, causing a mudslide in Kobe and disrupting railway services across wide areas, but no injuries were reported. The Meteorological Agency said the low-pressure system that caused the heavy rain in large parts of the country Sunday developed further, and rainfall of 367 mm was recorded in Kochi Prefecture and 188.5 mm in Hyogo Prefecture for the 24 hours to 10:40 a.m. Monday. (Japan Times)

Towel manufacturer associations in Osaka Prefecture and the Shikoku region both claim to be the top producers in the country, but base their claims on different calculation methods. With a longer history in towel production, Osaka Prefecture used to be the runaway market leader before World War II. In the late 1950s, however, Shikoku overtook Osaka, thanks to success in making cotton blankets. But the towel gap has narrowed in recent years, with 9,381 tons produced in Shikoku and 9,209 tons in Osaka Prefecture last year. The combined volume accounted for 99 percent of domestic towel production. (Yomiuri)

The girl at the cash register of the convenience store gives me a free bottle of iced tea and wishes me "Good luck!" As I remount my bike, I pop a sushi roll she also gave me into my mouth and set off, blissfully relaxed under blue skies, heading for the next temple. At my next halt along the way, a grocer presents me with a bag of mikan tangerines, and others along the village street give me onigiri (rice balls), cans of coffee and other snacks for free. Later, even a man in a repair shop who fixes my bike refuses to accept a penny for his work. Is this paradise? (Japan Times)

Local residents and groups across the nation are stepping up efforts to have their areas certified as global geoparks, where rare landscapes useful for learning how the Earth was formed will be preserved and utilized as natural parks. Preparations are under way in eight areas, such as Muroto in Kochi Prefecture, to follow in the footsteps of Itoigawa river in Niigata Prefecture, which became the nation's first global geopark last year. Associations to promote areas as global geoparks have been established in 20 regions, including the Chichibu area in Saitama Prefecture. Geoparks are areas that are internationally certified as geological inheritance parks, where precious geographical landscape or geological layers remain. (Yomiuri)

The Bank of Japan on Thursday raised its assessments for seven of the nation's nine regional economies as Japan's export-led economic recovery continues amid strengthening demand in emerging economies and the government's stimulus measures. In its quarterly Sakura Report on regional economies, the central bank said the economies of Hokkaido, Tohoku, Hokuriku, Kanto-Koshinetsu, Tokai, Kinki and Chugoku have all seen improvements from three months earlier. The BOJ did not upgrade its assessment for the Shikoku and Kyushu-Okinawa regions in southern Japan. (AP)

Japan is a dangerous country -- in terms of nature, that is. Not only is it battered in late summer by a succession of typhoons, the words "seismically active" are too bland a descriptor for the volcanoes that pepper the archipelago and the tremors that regularly shake the earth underfoot, not to mention the tsunami that can accompany them. However, come to a place like Tokushima Prefecture in Shikoku, and you can also see some of the benefits of spending time on this lively outpost on the Ring of Fire -- soothing hot springs welling up from the volcanic depths, and mountainscapes that both delight the eye and serve as the incubator and protector of rural Tokushima culture. (Mainichi)

A century-old ferry route linking once important gateways on Japan's Honshu and Shikoku islands will be closed next month amid sluggish business prospects for the shipping companies involved. Kokudo Ferry and Shikoku Ferry filed applications with local transportation authorities Friday to end their direct services between Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture, and Uno, Okayama Prefecture, which were launched by now-defunct Japan National Railways in 1910. (AP)

Miyazaki Gov. Hideo Higashikokubaru appears in an English textbook to be used by about 100 universities nationwide, its publisher said Tuesday. The textbook, "Eco-Navigation and Society," devotes three pages to describing Higashikokubaru's former career as a TV comedian, his gubernatorial campaign and his accomplishments in office. (Japan Times)

The coral reefs of Shirahama, Wakayama Prefecture, are being devoured by an explosive increase in poisonous starfish, and only five volunteer divers armed with tongs are combating them to save the rich marine environment. The crown-of-thorns starfish ("oni-hitode") originally lived in subtropical seas. But after the 1990s, they started appearing off Kyushu and Shikoku as well as Wakayama, apparently because of global warming and eutrophication caused by the development of coastal areas of Japan. (Japan Times)

His Holiness the Dalai Lama arrived in Japan this afternoon for a nine-day visit at the invitation of Shikoku Buddhist Association and Okinawa Mahabodhi Association. This is the Dalai Lama's 12th visit to Japan, the earliest being in 1967 when His Holiness, for the first time, travelled outside his exile home of India. (tibetcustom.com)

With wild forests disappearing in Japan, habitat for ordinarily shy mountain wildlife has shifted closer to villages, causing interaction with humans to increase. Bears have done serious damage to crops and timber plantations throughout their range on Honshu, Japan's main island, and Shikoku, the smaller island that sits to the west of Osaka. While cases of injury and death have been rare, black bears are increasingly being shot as "nuisance kills" and by sport hunters, and some isolated populations are nearing extirpation. In 2006, a stunning 4,340 of Japan's black bears were reportedly killed. (yale.edu)

The Bank of Japan on Monday raised its assessment of all of the nation's nine regions for the second consecutive quarter, thanks to pickups in exports and production, as well as an increase in public investment. All nine regions -- Hokkaido, Tohoku, Hokuriku, Kanto-Koshinetsu, Tokai, Kinki, Chugoku, Shikoku and Kyushu-Okinawa -- saw their economic assessments revised upward compared with the previous report in July. (AP)

From the mountain trails of Hokkaido to the six-lane expressways of Shikoku, a fearsome clique of tearaways has emerged to terrorise Japan's roads: leather-clad, rebellious and with a touch of lumbago.
These are the country's "mature riders"; the creaking ex-salarymen - and their molls - who built the Japanese economic miracle. Retired, bored, pushing 70 and with a hankering for the wayward youth they probably never had, they are the last hope for Japan's motorcycle market.
Many of the new breed of grey-haired bikers are mounting their hogs in the belief that the activity will stimulate their brains and stave off senile dementia. Those who, decades earlier, swapped their dreams of the open road for employment, marriage and parenthood are being encouraged to retrain as "return riders" in specially organised refresher courses. (Times Online)

A popular comedian turned Japanese politician says the country needs to shift power to regional governments and embrace a two-party political system. The governor of Japan's Miyazaki prefecture weighed in on the coming general election in an address to foreign correspondents. Hideo Higashikokubaru knows how to command a room. After all, the governor of Japan's Miyazaki prefecture spent two decades as a popular comedian. These days he is using his star appeal to push a different cause: the decentralization of government. (VOA News)

Former New York Yankees pitcher Hideki Irabu is close to signing a deal that would see the Japanese pitcher return to his homeland to play in an independent league. The 40-year-old Irabu is in negotiations with the Kochi Fighting Dogs of the Shikoku-Kyushu Island League, team officials said Wednesday. (etaiwannews.com)