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Japan Forward
6 days ago
- Politics
- Japan Forward
Tokyo Assembly Candidates, Talk to Young Voters About Definite Plans
このページを 日本語 で読む The next election for seats in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly was announced on June 13. Voting will be held 10 days later on June 22. While this election is widely viewed as a warm-up for the nationwide summer House of Councillors (Upper House) election, Tokyo, the nation's capital, faces a wide range of challenges of its own. Disaster prevention and measures to combat declining births are high priorities. Policies made in Tokyo have an impact on local governments around the country. Therefore, we would like to see a sincere and informed policy debate. Approximately 300 candidates are expected to run for the 127 seats up for grabs in the metropolitan assembly election. Every party has pledged to combat the recent rise in prices by promoting wage increases, advocating support for household finances, and subsidizing rent. However, all of them need to clearly explain the effectiveness and feasibility of the policies they advocate. They must especially let voters know how they will secure the financial resources to carry out their proposals. Mid- to long-term policies addressing these problems cannot simply be left until later. To start, there needs to be a thorough discussion about disaster prevention measures, which are directly related to the lives of Tokyo residents. According to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's own projections, if a major earthquake were to occur directly beneath the capital, approximately 100,000 people would be killed or injured. Another roughly three million people would be forced to evacuate. Additionally, there is concern that Mount Fuji could erupt at any time. In such an event, large amounts of volcanic ash could paralyze city functions. How should we deal with such situations? Furthermore, there is a need to expedite the construction of underground or air raid shelters in preparation for emergencies. Voters listen to the speeches of candidates in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly election on June 13 in Tokyo's Setagaya Ward. (©Sankei by Hideyuki Matsui) Maintaining public order in the capital also requires stronger measures against illegal residence and employment of foreigners. Accordingly, measures regarding foreigners are expected to be included in the central government's basic policy. Hopefully, there will be coordination at all levels of government while addressing these problems. Policies to deal with declining births also need to be thoroughly addressed and aired with the public. According to the 2024 Vital Statistics, Tokyo's "total fertility rate" fell below 1.0 for the second consecutive year. That made it the lowest among all of Japan's prefectures. Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike is tackling this problem. Nevertheless, it is also the role of the metropolitan assembly to ascertain whether the support measures for child-rearing she is promoting are appropriate. Another topic requiring attention is how election campaigns are conducted. There were several notable problems during the Tokyo gubernatorial election in July 2024. For example, there were numerous instances where election notice board squares for candidate flyers were plastered instead with images of animals and nearly naked people. A noticeboar d in Setagaya Ward displays election flyers and details of the revised Public Election Law, on June 13. (©Sankei by Hideyuki Matsui) While not in Tokyo, there were also problems during the Hyogo Prefecture gubernatorial election in November 2024. Those included rampant slanderous attacks on and false information about candidates on social media. Fair, orderly elections are a pillar of democracy. Anything that undermines that ideal cannot be tolerated. Increasing voter turnout is another challenge, especially among younger voters. Consider turnout in the past three metropolitan assembly elections. Overall turnout was 43.50% in 2013, 51.28% in 2017, and 42.39% in 2021. But among voters in their twenties, the turnout was less than 30% in all cases. Tokyo has a population of approximately 14.2 million, and its total budget for fiscal year 2025 is ¥17.8 trillion JPY ($123.5 billion USD). Everyone must bear in mind that whether or not residents can live safely in Japan's capital in the end depends on the choices made by voters. Author: Editorial Board, The Sankei Shimbun このページを 日本語 で読む
Extra.ie
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Extra.ie
Marriage Equality Referendum 10 years on: Almost 6,000 same-sex weddings have taken place
Almost 6,000 same-sex weddings have taken place since the passing of the Marriage Equality referendum in Ireland ten years ago. The referendum took place on May 22, 2015 with 1.2 million people (62%) voting in favour of the amendment of the Constitution. It mean that marriages, regardless of the sex of the partners, would be recognised in Ireland. Almost 6,000 same-sex marriages have taken place since the passing of the Marriage Equality referendum in Ireland ten years ago. Pic: Getty Images Figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) revealed that from November 2015 up until 2024, 5,956 same-sex marriages were celebrated in Ireland. This included 3,178 male marriages and 2,778 female marriages. In 2016, 1,056 same-sex marriages were registered which decreased to 668 in 2024 — 325 were male and 343 were female. Figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) revealed that from November 2015 up until 2024, 5,956 same-sex marriages were celebrated in Ireland. Pic: Getty Images In 2016, civil marriages were the most popular. This is the same compared to 2024 with just over half (52.5%) of same-sex marriages being civil ceremonies. 10.2% of the services were held by the Humanist Association while 10.8% were held by the Spiritualist Union of Ireland. 26.5% were by other religious denominations. In 2016, civil marriages were the most popular. This is the same compared to 2024 with just over half (52.5%) of same-sex marriages being civil ceremonies. Pic: Getty Images Over the last nine years, July has been the most popular month for same-sex weddings to take place, with many likely hoping a July wedding will bring dry and sunny weather. The most popular day is Fridays. A Friday wedding allows for a long-weekend vibe because who wants to go back to work after celebrating your friends wedding the day before? Statistician in the Life Events and Demography Division, Seán O'Connor said the date was collect3ed as part of the Vital Statistics released since the historic vote. 'Overall, same-sex marriages accounted for 3.3% of total marriages annually since 2016,' he shared, 'July and August were the most in demand months for same-sex marriages from 2016 to 2024, while Friday led the way as the most sought-after day to tie the knot. 'Civil ceremonies were the most popular form of ceremony for nearly two-thirds (63.7%) of same-sex couples.'
The Hindu
12-05-2025
- Health
- The Hindu
86,000 ‘excess deaths' in West Bengal in 2021; four times official Covid casualties
According to the 2021 Civil Registration System (CRS) report released recently by the Central Government, West Bengal registered a colossal 86,736 excess deaths in the pandemic years from 2020 to 2021, much higher than the official COVID-19 death toll for the State. It is worth noting that the Delta wave hit the nation in 2021. According to the COVID-19 Health Bulletin published by the West Bengal government in January 2022, a total of 20,619 deaths were reported by the government as the cumulative COVID-19 death toll in the State between March 17, 2020, and January 31, 2022. However, the spike in the number of deaths recorded between 2020 and 2021 in the State, as per the CRS report, is over four times the recorded COVID-19 death toll. The spike in deaths in the State between 2020 and 2021 is also staggeringly higher than the spike between 2019 and 2020. Vital Statistics report For context, the Ministry of Home Affairs recently released a report on 'Vital Statistics of India based on the Civil Registration System' for the year 2021, which contains data on registered births, deaths, infant deaths, and still births across the nation from January 1, 2021, to December 31, 2021. According to the report, cumulatively, almost 21 lakh more deaths were registered in the country in 2021 than in the preceding year. Rural areas hit hardest The CRS report also reveals that a staggering 73,009 (approximately 84%) of these excess deaths in West Bengal occurred in rural areas. Additionally, a higher number of males contributed to the excess deaths of 2021 (51,970) than females (34,766) in the State. Rural males were the single most affected subgroup, with 43,729 excess deaths over one year. At a district level, Hooghly recorded the highest annual spike in deaths in the State, with 13,661 excess deaths in 2021 from 2020. It is followed by South 24 Parganas (+12,426), Paschim Bardhaman (+11,250), Nadia (+9,703), and Kolkata (+8,968). Ashin Chakraborty, a researcher at Kolkata-based data analysis think tank, Sabar Institute, told The Hindu that the excess mortality in Bengal being higher than its reported COVID-19 death toll is a clear case of 'under-reporting' of the pandemic's impact on the population, based on the think tank's analysis of the CRS report and the State's health bulletins. 'Globally, the sudden massive spike in deaths in the pandemic years has been attributed to the impact of COVID-19. There could be other reasons behind some of the excess deaths, but the overall spike during the Delta wave in 2021 in India and West Bengal is unprecedented and beyond general trends,' Mr. Chakraborty said, on being asked whether the excess mortality in 2021 can be pointedly attributed to pandemic-related fatalities. He added that the gap between the State's official COVID-19 death toll and the total registered deaths in 2021 indicates that a large number of COVID-19 patients could not be adequately diagnosed or treated, therefore indicating the deficiencies in West Bengal's public healthcare system. 'We also see that while most of the public policy and media coverage during the pandemic were focused on urban populations, the excess mortality between 2020 and 2021 is significantly higher in West Bengal's rural population. This highlights the severe and perhaps under-reported crisis in these regions,' Mr. Chakraborty said. Notably, North 24 Parganas (-17,428) and Howrah (-13,390) reported a staggering and sudden decrease in registered deaths in 2021 as compared to 2020. Mr Chakraborty said that the substantial decrease in registered deaths in these two districts is an anomaly and warrants deeper investigation. Registered causes of death It is worth noting, that according to the 'Report on the Medical Certification of Cause of Death' 2021, published by the Ministry of Home Affairs this month, medically certified deaths account for 23.4% of total registered deaths at the national level. Of that, the top three medically certified causes of death in India in 2021 were attributed to diseases of the circulatory system (29.8%), 'codes for special purposes — COVID-19' (17.3%), and diseases of the respiratory system (12.7%). Dr Anirban Dolui, a public health expert and a nodal officer of the COVID-19 task force constituted by the West Bengal government in 2020, said that the cytokine storm caused in the body during COVID-19 would severely affect the circulatory and respiratory systems of many affected individuals, thus also leading to deaths registered on those accounts. 'However, the gap between excess mortality and the specific COVID-19 death toll can also be explained by the fact that many of the COVID-19 cases were not under treatment in a medical facility. We do not have data on deaths that were therefore not medically certified,' Dr Dolui said.
TimesLIVE
05-05-2025
- Politics
- TimesLIVE
The scandal of invisibility and futures we can't see
Having succeeded in Bophuthatswana to understand problems associated with civil registration, I was able to take on legislative reforms post apartheid and in the main argue for what my survey of 1983 had shown, that most births occur in public institutions. The important move was then for births to be notified in these institutions. The law was amended to allow for this in 1998 and registration of births improved. Vital registration in South Africa has a coverage of 90% for births and 95% for deaths. And this is because of the initial investment in the changes in law in 1998. Home affairs in subsequent years mounted campaigns for registration including mobile clinics for doing so. Public policy on child support grants and school feeding schemes ensured that events are registered on time and the law moved to an enforceable 30 days. The key for development therefore is based on the drive for unique identifiers across space and time. And human beings, as agents of development, are crucial as subjects, objects and prime movers of identification and identity systems for development. As the then chair of the African Symposium for Statistical Development since 2006, I have been engrossed in among others Civil Registration and Vital Statistics (CRVS). Thus, after ensuring Africa counts in the 2010 Round of Censuses, I led a crusade that led to the ministerial conference on CRVS as a standing commitment to ensure that human identity as a source of citizenship and participation becomes an agenda central to development. I refer to these as the 'know-me' systems. Armed with such systems social, economic, environmental and political interactions are enabled and the obstacles and pain of implementing development imperatives is removed. As a statistician engrossed in standards and working nationally, continentally and globally, and now retired, I bring with me enormous wealth of knowledge, having been one of the 25 person team advising the UN secretary-general on data revolution, which is a central piece of ID systems. I have engaged in the discourse of who owns technology and the associated data. Thus I have brought to the fore the question of what the levers of development would be in an information society, including its central thesis of its political economy. The APAI-CRVS movement is a sad shadow of itself. Into this space ID4Africa and ID4D have snatched the agenda and taken centre stage while Africans slumber. The question of data sovereignty is one that Africans have to answer if they have to live up to Sachs's dream for Africa. Ebrahim Traore of Burkina Faso and his counterparts in Mali and Niger have shown Africa how to bell the cat and the geopolitics provide the wind behind Africa's sail. Africa should catch the sail on the high wave and not procrastinate, otherwise Agenda 2063 and Sachs's rendition of 2100 will be but more of the same for Africans. Dr Pali Lehohla is a professor of practice at the University of Johannesburg, a research associate at Oxford University, and a distinguished alumni of the University of Ghana. He is the former statistician-general of South Africa
The Mainichi
29-04-2025
- Health
- The Mainichi
Lifestyle diseases raise heatstroke hospitalization risk by 2-5 times: Japan analysis
TOKYO -- People with lifestyle-related diseases risk hospitalization from heatstroke at a rate two to five times higher than those without such conditions, according to an analysis released this month by major Japan insurer Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. The finding comes as the risk of heatstroke continues to rise in Japan due to extreme heat associated with global warming. The company's "heatstroke white paper" found that heatstroke severity can differ by a person's health status. Sumitomo Life Insurance conducted the study with a firm handling big data from medical records of some 10 million people including health checkup data from health insurance associations. The relationship between heatstroke and health conditions identified in medical examinations was studied in the records for 2023 and 2024. The analysis found that those taking medication to lower blood pressure faced a 3.5-fold higher risk, individuals using diabetes medication had a 4.9 times higher risk and those on medication for lipid disorders such as high cholesterol were 2.2 times likelier to be hospitalized for heatstroke than individuals not taking these medications. Certain medications that increase fluid loss and lead to dehydration, as well as conditions like arterial sclerosis which worsen blood circulation and reduce the body's ability to dissipate heat, are thought to be among the major factors that heighten the risk of developing severe heatstroke. Additionally, it was found that people were more likely to be hospitalized or require intravenous fluids due to heatstroke if they ate dinner just before bedtime, lacked proper sleep, smoked or had gained 10 kilograms or more from age 20. Getting too little sleep is thought to affect the body's ability to regulate its temperature, while smoking is another major cause of reduced heat dissipation efficiency by worsening blood circulation. The summers of 2023 and 2024 were the hottest since the Japan Meteorological Agency began keeping records in 1898. In the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare's Vital Statistics, the number of deaths due to heatstroke in 2023 reached 1,651, amid a trend of temperatures hitting or exceeding 35 degrees Celsius in the daytime or remaining at or above 25 C overnight. Sumitomo Life Insurance's report stated, "A history of hypertension, diabetes or dyslipidemia may increase the risk of heatstroke. Lifestyle modifications are also important in heatstroke prevention," while recommending people do moderate exercise, improve their health and gradually get used to the heat.
