Complete cultivation of bluefin tuna achieved
The Oshima Station of the Fisheries Laboratory of Kinki University in Kushimoto Town, Wakayama Prefecture, said it has succeeded for the first time in the world to achieve the 'complete aquaculture' of the bluefin tuna, cultivating them from artificial incubation, to very young tuna to adult fish capable of laying eggs. There has been no precedent for any laboratory in the rest of the world to artificially grow any variety of large-sized tunas.The broodstock of the spawned bluefin tuna came from eggs hatched by those tunas caught in natural sea waters and kept in the laboratory's preserve where they laid eggs from 1995 to 1996. The eggs were artificially incubated and cultivated. The laboratory collected 5,000 eggs laid by the fish raised at the preserve on June 23. These hatched on June 25. Laboratory researchers confirmed they were bluefin tuna from the shape of the very young fish. As a result, the laboratory successfully attained complete aquaculture of the big fish. The university initially started research into the artificial cultivation of tunas in 1970.
There is a very high demand for bluefin tunas in Japan because they are the biggest among the variety of tunas and are the most delicious. But the volume of bluefin tuna captured is small. Cultivation has had problems such as catching juveniles to be used for artificial nurturing but the zones where they could be seized were limited and the volume of the catches was unstable. The latest achievement has become the focus of attention because it opens the way for the possibility of planned nurturing of bluefin tunas and could contribute to the preservation of natural resources of the fish.
Int'l Cosmos Prize to Darwin Research Station
The Expo'90 Commemorative International Cosmos Prize Committee headed by Akito Arima has decided to present the'International Cosmos Prize' for 2002 to the Charles Darwin Research Station on the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador in recognition of its scientific research.The prize was established in 1993 to honor institutes and those who engage in research activities designed to inherit and develop 'The Harmonious Coexistence of Nature and Mankind,'which was the basic idea of Expo'90-the International Garden and Greenery Exposition held in Osaka in 1990. This year's prize to the station headed by Dr. Fernando Espinoza Fuentes is the 10th of its kind.
The research station, established in 1964 by the Charles Darwin Foundation (headquarters in Brussels in Belgium), conducts such activities as terrestrial and marine biological and ecological research on the Galapagos Islands, the protection and breeding of the elephant tortoise which faces the danger of extinction, the environmental education of the islanders and the publication of information on the state of affairs of the islands. In deciding to award the prize to the research foundation, the Prize Committee gave high marks for realizing the compatibility of research into the Galapagos-the starting point of biological evolution on earth-and the protection of nature.
Hyogo donates to U.S. Sept. 11 education fund
The Hyogo Prefectural Government has donated about 85 million yen to the Citizens' Scholarship Foundation of America (CSFA) in Minnesota to provide post-secondary education scholarships to the dependents of those who died or were injured in the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States last year.The prefectural government established a 'Fundraising Committee for the Dependents of the Victims From September 11' shortly after the terror assaults to express its appreciation for support it received from abroad after Kobe and neighboring cities in the prefecture were devastated by a major earthquake in January 1995. It solicited donations from residents of cities, towns and villages and collected 85,494,696 yen. Gov. Toshizo Ido has visited the United States and donated the money to CSFA.
CSFA has agreed to incorporate the Hyogo donation as a 'Friendship Fund'into the Families of Freedom Scholarship Fund that it set up after September 11 and to provide 14 recipients with an annual scholarship of 5,000 US dollars for the coming ten years under the name 'Friendship Fund.'
Performing Arts Messe 2002 in Osaka Aug.2-3
The Osaka 21st Century Association will hold 'Performing Arts Messe 2002 in Osaka'(PAMO 2002) at the Osaka International Convention Center in K]ita Ward, Osaka City on August 2 and 3 in a gathering of stage artists and performing arts groups from Japan and abroad.The two-day show, the third of its kind to be held following those held in 2000 and 2001, will introduce their activities and strive for mutual exchanges to embody 'Theater City Osaka in Kansai.' About 110 groups will take part in the event with display booths and taking part in mini-shows featuring musicals, chamber music, Chinese acrobatic performances and a form of comic monologue in English. Also planned are a class on gospel music by U.S. singers, a hands-on workshop on Japanese Noh comic performance and a variety of seminars. At the same time, JASRAC will hold 'Japanese Sound Festival 2002'to give those interested an experience with traditional Japanese music.
Also, specialists from Australia, France, South Korea and the United States will hold a symposium on the role of the stage arts in society as part of a pre-fair festival on August 1. It will be titled the 'Allure of Stage Arts-Encounter With Different Culture and Inspiration.' There will also be 'Water Entertainment'mainly made up of traditional Japanese music.
Hyogo Environmental Business Week 22-26
The Hyogo Prefectural Government and others will hold a 'Hyogo Environmental Business Week' forum from July 22 to 26 on Awajishima Island and in Kobe City to discuss how industry and corporations should take into account ways to realize a sustainable society.The event will consist of four events. The 'Global Linkage Forum in Hyogo Environmental Unit Session' will hold its meeting at the Awaji Yumebutai International Conference Center in Higashiura Town on July 22 under the auspices of the Hyogo Prefectural Government and others. About 100 municipal officials and relevant people from Australia's state of Western Australia, the State of Washington in the United States, Guangdong Province of China and others will attend and report how to address environmental problems.
The 'Second Tripartite Roundtable on Environmental Industry (China-Korea-Japan)'will be held under the sponsorship of the Environment Ministry of Japan and the Hyogo Prefecture on July 23 and 24 at the Awaji Yumenobutai International Conference Center. About 150 people from China, South Korea and Japan are expected to participate in the gathering. The first roundtable was held in Seoul in June last year on the basis of an agreement reached at the first meeting of environmental ministers of Japan, China and South Korea in 1999.
The International Symposium of the IGES Kansai Research Center is to be held at the International Conference Center, Kobe, in Chuo Ward in Kobe City on July 25 on the basis of the outcome of the first two meetings.
'Green Purchase Messe'is set for July 25 and 26 at the International Conference Center, Kobe, under the auspices of the Kansai Economic Federation and others. It will feature a symposium as well as an exhibition of green products to promote the 'greening of business activities.'
Famous old structures lit up in Nara underway
The 'Light-up Promenade Nara 2002' to bring some of the famous structures in the ancient Japanese capital under an illumination fantasy on summer nights is under way until October 31. The event is being held by the executive committee made up of the Nara Prefectural Government, Nara municipality and 16 organizations to lure tourists during the summer season. This year marks the 15th time the event is being held since the light-up event started in 1988.The structures at 11 locations are lit up from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. every night (from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. in September and October), including structures inscribed on the World Heritage List such as Todaiji Temple, the five-storied pagoda of the Kofukuji Temple and Yakushiji Temple.
Kansai in Focus: 24-year-old young man sustains special elderly nursing home
Mr. Shinichi Ishida is a nursing care staffer at a special elderly nursing home in Amagasaki City, Hyogo Prefecture. The 24-year-old has been on the job since he graduated from a vocational school at age 20. He seems shy at first glance but is a friendly and affable man who never fails to greet every one he meets.Wearing sweat pants and a half-sleeved uniform, he keeps himself busy running round the four-story facility. Ishida is one of a growing number of young men and women who have become visible at health homes for the elderly and special senior citizens' nursing homes in the Kansai region. It probably is no exaggeration to say that with the aging of Japanese society young people are beginning to sustain the country's nursing care sector.
The home where Ishida works is located along Hankyu Corp.'s railway line. It has a staff of 22 nursing care employees, part-time workers and volunteers who look after 50 elderly people. Many nursing care staffers are in their 20s to early 30s. Having been in operation for about nine years, the home has firmly gained a foothold as a facility for the elderly in need of care.
The home is one of the nursing facilities specializing in the care of elderly people who are bedridden, seriously ill or have senile dementia. They are designated as such under Japan's Insurance for Care and Assistance for the Elderly that went into force on April 1, 2000. The law calls for those aged 40 or older to pay monthly premiums toward receiving nursing care. If any elderly person needs nursing care, he or she must get official recognition from a ward office. The total amount of the service fees ranges from 60,000 yen to 360,000 yen a month, depending on the level of care needed.
The bulk of senior citizens at the Amagasaki home are older than 70. Several people are older than either 90 or 100. Many senior citizens at the home are classified with care needs at level 4 or 5 on the basis of a 5-stage official recognition standard for nursing care under the nursing care insurance system.
Those classified as care needs level 5, incidentally, need blanket assistance in all areas of their lives. Much of the physical aid comes from young staffers who work round-the-clock to take them by the hand and look after them with care.
The young people work on early morning, day and night shifts to feed the elderly, change their clothes and diapers. People's general awareness of welfare service is that 'even homemakers can do it.' However, the truth is that caring for the elderly is hard work and it requires a high-level of expertise. Of course, elderly people at the home make little effort to contain how they feel in their daily lives and speak their true feelings to the bewilderment of the young staffers.
When his acquaintance urged him to work at the facility, Ishida did not give much thought to the idea of helping senior citizens, merely thinking he could readily play with them. It did not take him long to realize there was a big gap between what he thought and what the actual work comprised.
Yet, his natural character of working hard has led him to accept the post of a leader of a staff team. 'It is hard,' he said of the care service, but went on to say humbly that 'It is worth doing. I just try not to impose any burden on the elderly.'
'I am really grateful to those young people who are aged the same as my grandchildren for helping me, (but) I should look for Buddha's messenger to come early to take me to the paradise,' Haruko Yamamoto said jokingly. A young woman staffer gently, 'Oh, you said it again.'Although she is 88, she is the most vigorous person among the elderly under the care of the home.
Young people wishing to become certified care workers number more than 25,000 a year in Japan at present, according to the Japan Association of Certified Care Workers. (S)