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Japanese police had taken protective measures for applicants of illegal part-time jobs, known as yami baito, and their family members in 125 cases as of the end of November, it was learned Thursday. According to sources at the National Police Agency, 30% of such people, including those involved in a recent series of violent robberies in the Tokyo metropolitan area, were between the ages of 10 and 19, and 40% were in their 20s. Meanwhile, people in their 30s, 40s and 50s or older each accounted for 10%. The agency also found that in many robbery cases, applicants between the ages of 10 and 19 and those in their 20s were instructed to directly engage in criminal acts such as transporting stolen money and articles, while older people were told to sign mobile phone contracts and open bank accounts. Source link

Naha – Dave Roberts, manager of the 2024 World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers, was given a special honor award from Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, on Thursday. Roberts, who was born in the city, was presented the award by Mayor Satoru Chinen at the city assembly hall. “This is beyond my wildest dreams, and I am humbled,” Roberts said. He led the Dodgers, featuring Japanese stars Shohei Ohtani and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, to their first World Series title in four seasons. “Winning the World Series for the Los Angeles Dodgers (and) the city of Los Angeles was incredible,” he said. Roberts was born in 1972 to a father from the United States and a Japanese mother from Okinawa. He became manager of the Dodgers in 2016 and has clinched eight division titles, four National League pennants and two World Series championships. Source link

Anthony Scaramucci, the hedge-fund manager hired and fired by Donald Trump in his first term as president, jokes that he owes his ex-boss a token of thanks. “I probably have to buy Donald Trump a Christmas gift,” he quipped, when asked about the runup in the price of Bitcoin following the reelection of a man he once called a friend but now considers a danger to the country. “Like a gift card to McDonald’s.” Like many of the investors who stuck with cryptocurrency through its ups and downs, its scandals and scams, Scaramucci is basking in an I-told-you-so glow today. Source link

Base salaries for regular workers in Japan rose by a record figure, a further indication of progress toward a positive economic cycle that will support market speculation of a near-term rate hike by the central bank. Base pay for full-time workers increased by 2.8% in October from a year ago, the biggest gain for comparable data back to 1994, the labor ministry reported Friday. Real cash earnings remained unchanged, avoiding a decline for the first time in three months and beating economist estimates of a decrease. Growth in nominal wages for all workers accelerated to 2.6% from 2.5% the previous month, matching estimates. A more stable measure of wage trends that avoids sampling problems and excludes bonuses and overtime showed wages for full-time workers increased by 2.8%. Source link

Washington – The first humans who spread across North America during the last Ice Age put mammoths at the top of their menu, according to scientists who secured the first direct evidence of the diet of these ancient people. The researchers deciphered the diet of a woman who lived roughly 12,800 years ago based on chemical clues in the bones of her son, whose remains were found in southern Montana. Because the 18-month-old was still nursing at the time of death, his bones bore the chemical fingerprints of his mother’s diet, passed along through her milk. They discovered that her diet was mostly meat from megafauna — the largest animals in an ecosystem — with an emphasis on mammoths. Megafauna made up about 96% of her diet, with mammoths comprising about 40%, followed by elk, bison, camels and horses, and a negligible contribution from small mammals and plants. Source link

The conservative party of embattled South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol faces a quandary: How do members distance themselves from an unpopular leader without handing a big win to their political opponents. For now, they are trying to accomplish that by blocking Yoon’s impeachment in a vote set to take place in the coming days over his imposition of martial law earlier this week, while also asking him to quit the People Power Party, or PPP. Han Dong-hoon, the party’s leader, sought to thread that needle in a meeting with colleagues on Thursday, saying he condemned Yoon’s “unconstitutional martial law” while also saying he needs to think about “the hearts of my supporters as a conservative politician.” Source link

How do I rank the year in gaming when the best game I played this year wasn’t really a game at all? In June, Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree was released to near-universal acclaim, with critics and general audiences alike awed by its expansive maps, pulse-pounding boss battles and artful fine-tuning of the game’s difficulty, a trademark characteristic of developer FromSoftware and industry icon Hidetaka Miyazaki. Like so many millions who set launch weekend aside to play Shadow of the Erdtree, I can’t count how many times the game brutally punished me for my mistakes — just as I can’t count how many times I rose from the mat for another round. The only problem in Shadow of the Erdtree’s race for end-of-year awards is that it’s technically DLC (gaming parlance for downloadable content meant to add to the base game) for 2022’s Elden Ring. Source link

Hiroshi Kagawa, a pioneer in Japanese soccer journalism, died at a hospital in Kobe on Thursday from what is believed to be natural causes. He was 99. A native of Kobe, Kagawa played soccer for a pre-World War II powerhouse team at Hyogo Prefectural Daiichi Kobe Chugakko, which is now Hyogo Prefectural Kobe High School, and other clubs including one he helped finish second in the Emperor’s Cup national tournament. He joined the Sankei Shimbun newspaper in 1952 and served as chief editor of the Sankei Sports newspaper before becoming a freelance journalist in 1990. Kagawa covered a total of 10 FIFA World Cup tournaments, starting with the 1974 event in West Germany. At age 89, he was the oldest journalist reporting on the 2014 tournament in Brazil. He was induced into the Japan Football Hall of Fame in 2010 and received the FIFA Presidential Award in 2015 for his contribution to the sport. Source link

Natsuo Yamaguchi, the former leader of Komeito, said Thursday that he will not run for a constituency seat in next summer’s House of Councillors election. Speaking to reporters, the 72-year-old did not say whether he will aim to secure a proportional representation seat in the upper chamber of parliament or retire from politics. Yamaguchi won a seat in the House of Representatives, the lower chamber, in 1990. He is serving his fourth term as an Upper House lawmaker from the Tokyo prefectural constituency, after first securing the seat in 2001. He served as the chief of Komeito, the Liberal Democratic Party’s junior partner, for 15 years until September this year. The party’s internal rules stipulate that lawmakers who are over 69 years old or who have been serving for more than 24 years will not receive the party’s official backing in an election, in principle. Source link

South Korea’s main opposition leader said it may be difficult to garner enough support from the ruling party to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol this week over his declaration of martial law. In an interview on Thursday, Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung said the situation remains in a “state of flux” ahead of a parliamentary vote set for the next few days on launching impeachment proceedings against Yoon. Whatever happens in the vote, he said he remains committed to removing the president. While Lee’s party controls a majority in the legislative body, it needs a minimum of eight votes from Yoon’s People Power Party to move forward with the motion to oust the president. Source link