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Of foreign workers with work-related issues in Japan, one in five cited expensive fees they paid to employment agencies, a labor ministry survey showed Thursday. The survey found that 14.4% of foreign workers in Japan are facing problems or difficulties at work. Of them, 19.6% complained about the high agency fees and 16.0% said they did not know who to ask for help. The ministry conducted the survey on foreign workers, the first of its kind, in October to November last year. Valid answers were given by 11,629 foreign workers and 3,534 business establishments. Among the overall individual respondents, 51.5%, or the largest group, found their jobs in Japan through employment agencies or agents in their home countries or regions. As for costs needed to enter Japan, 23.0%, the largest portion of the total, said they paid between ¥200,000 and less than ¥400,000. The survey also showed that 13.2% spent ¥1 million or more. On reasons for hiring foreign personnel, 64.8% of business establishments cited labor shortages. When asked about problems, 44.8% said that they have difficulties in communicating with foreign workers due chiefly to their Japanese language skills. Source link

Rabat – Morocco proposed on Tuesday reforms to its family law, addressing issues such as limits on underage marriage and women’s inheritance rights, which activists have said were not guaranteed under the current code. Based on landmark 2004 legislation that was hailed as a breakthrough at the time, the proposals include raising the legal marriage age and expanding women’s custody rights, said Justice Minister Abdelatif Ouahbi. The new legislation, which still requires parliamentary and royal approval, come after two years of consultations with civil society as well as judicial and religious parties. Source link

Prayagraj, India – Beside India’s holy rivers, a makeshift city is being built for a Hindu religious festival expected to be so vast it will be seen from space, the largest gathering in history. Line after line of pontoon bridges span the rivers at the city of Prayagraj, as Indian authorities prepare for 400 million pilgrims — more than the combined population of the United States and Canada — during the six-weeklong Kumbh Mela. The millennia-old sacred show of religious piety and ritual bathing is held once every 12 years at the site where the holy Ganges, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers meet. Source link

A panel of experts on Thursday called for creating a law that would allow the government to gain cooperation from artificial intelligence developers in the event of a serious problem related to AI technologies. The proposal is included in an interim report prepared by the panel under the government’s AI Strategy Council and was adopted at a council meeting. The report said Japan “should strengthen the government’s command function to promote integrated policies, from research and development to application” and formulate a national strategy in the area of AI. These also require a legal framework, the report added. At the meeting, Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba instructed his government to promptly present relevant legislation to parliament. The government will begin full-fledged legislative work based on the report so that it can introduce the legislation during next year’s ordinary parliamentary session, at the earliest. Ishiba also announced a plan to establish an AI strategy headquarters comprising all Cabinet members and compile guidelines. The report put forward the basic principles of balancing the promotion of AI innovation with risk control and encouraging international cooperation. Risks are growing alongside the rapid progress being made in the development of AI technologies, the report said. When a serious problem occurs, the government should investigate its cause and provide guidance and advice, it said. To ensure the effectiveness of such actions, the report said it would be appropriate to prepare a legal system allowing the government to request that domestic and foreign businesses cooperate and provide information. The report also referred to the possibility that excessive government regulations hamper innovation. “Laws and regulations should be limited to areas where voluntary responses from companies cannot be expected,” it said. Source link

195 major food and beverage firms are planning price hikes for a record 1,380 products in January amid rising logistics and labor costs, Teikoku Databank said Thursday. According to the private research firm, January markups will center on bread products. Yamazaki Baking is scheduled to increase prices of 290 items by 5.6% on average, including its mainstay Royal Bread sliced bread and the its sweet red bean bun. Another major bread maker, Pasco Shikishima, plans hikes of 1% to 5% for its flagship Chojuku sliced bread and 234 other products. Teikoku Databank also said consumers will have to pay more for a total of 6,121 items between January and April, with frozen food and alcoholic drink makers, in particular, rushing to boost prices following bread producers. If the price hike momentum remains intact, 15,000 to 20,000 food and beverage products will be repriced higher for the whole of 2025, compared with 12,520 items this year, the company forecast. Source link

Aaron Rodgers has made it clear that if he plays a 21st NFL season in 2025, he’d like to do so with the New York Jets. But he’s tried to turn the spotlight on the team’s owner, Woody Johnson, when the topic of his future arises. Asked Tuesday whether he believes the organization wants him back next year following another disappointing campaign, Rodgers acknowledged that several decision-makers have to be put in place before the Jets plan their future. New York fired coach Robert Saleh and general manager Joe Douglas during the season. “There’s a GM that has to get hired, I would assume first, and then he’s going to be part of hiring the head coach,” Rodgers said, “so I have to be in the plans of multiple people, starting with the ownership and then the GM and then the head coach.” Source link

ROME – What happens to the world economy and global geopolitics in 2025 will depend significantly on China, the world’s largest exporter and second-largest consumer market. But prevailing assessments of China’s economic health are deeply flawed. The headlines in 2024 have been mixed. China’s GDP is growing, though the precise rate is always a matter of debate. Youth unemployment, which shocked policymakers when it reached a peak of 21.3% in June 2023, has declined to 17.6%. And the property market crisis finally seems to be moderating, with transactions increasing following the government’s bold intervention to support the sector, which, directly and indirectly, accounts for one-third of the Chinese economy. And yet, the dynamism that characterized China’s economy over the last three decades seems to be missing. Consumption growth is slow, as apprehensive Chinese households maintain high savings rates. Likewise, foreign investors’ confidence is at an all-time low. As prices drop, fears of a deflationary spiral are growing, recalling the prolonged stagnation that gripped Japan beginning in the 1990s. Against this backdrop, some now argue that China’s economy has already peaked. Source link

The Japan Atomic Energy Agency said Thursday that uranium has been detected in nuclear fuel debris extracted from one of the three meltdown-hit reactors at Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.’s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. The debris was extracted from the Fukushima Prefecture plant’s No. 2 reactor under the power company’s first trial removal that started in September and was completed on Nov. 7. It has been analyzed at a JAEA research facility in Ibaraki Prefecture. The collected debris is about 9 millimeters long and around 7 millimeters wide, and weighs 0.693 gram. Its radiation level measured 1 to 2 centimeters away stood at 8 millisieverts per hour, the JAEA said. In addition to uranium, iron and zirconium, used in a pipe covering nuclear fuel, were detected from the sample, the agency said. It also found the inside of the extracted debris to be hollow. The analysis at the JAEA and other research facilities will continue for about six months to one year to gather information for use in research toward full-fledged efforts to remove debris from the nuclear reactors. The sample will also be analyzed at the SPring-8 large synchrotron radiation facility in Hyogo Prefecture to find out its crystal structure in more detail. TEPCO said it will start the second trial removal work as early as around March next year. Source link

Chisako Kakehi, a woman sentenced to death for the murders of three elderly men using cyanide compounds, has died, local media reported Thursday. The 78-year-old death row inmate was convicted of murdering the men — with the intent of inheriting their assets — in Kyoto, Osaka, and Hyogo prefectures between 2012 and 2013. Among the victims was her 75-year-old husband, Isao. The other two were men with whom she had entered common-law relationships. In 2007, Kakehi also attempted to kill another male acquaintance to avoid repaying a debt. She was held at the Osaka Detention Center as a death row inmate in the years before her death. Death row inmate Chisako Kakehi, who was convicted of murdering three elderly men between 2012 and 2013 with the intent of inheriting their assets, has died, local media reported Thursday. | Jiji In 2022, Kakehi filed a request for a retrial at the Kyoto District Court in relation to the death of one of her common-law spouses, a 75-year-old man from the city of Itami, Hyogo Prefecture. Her defense team argued that the man’s death was due to an illness and submitted a medical expert’s findings as new evidence. However, the Kyoto court in March this year rejected the application, according to the NHK. Information from Jiji added Source link

Nippon Steel said Thursday it has extended the closing period for its $15 billion purchase of U.S. Steel, expressing confidence that the acquisition will protect and grow the American company. The estimated closing date was revised to the first quarter of 2025 from the third or fourth quarter of 2024 previously. On Monday, a U.S. foreign investment committee referred the decision on whether to approve or block the deal to U.S. President Joe Biden, who has 15 days to decide. Biden and his incoming successor, Donald Trump, have both expressed opposition to the acquisition by Nippon Steel. “Nippon Steel hopes that the President will use this time to conduct a fair and fact-based evaluation of the acquisition. We remain confident that the acquisition will protect and grow U.S. Steel,” Nippon Steel said Thursday. It added that the review process of the antitrust division of the U.S. Department of Justice was also underway, without specifying when it may end. Source link