Japan to recommend southwest islands for UNESCO listing again – Tokyo
Japan’s cabinet on Tuesday approved recommending again by Feb. 1 a chain of southwestern islands as a candidate for UNESCO’s World Heritage list in 2020, after withdrawing the initial bid on the U.N. body’s advice to conduct a further review.
The 43,000-hectare area covers Amami-Oshima and Tokunoshima islands in Kagoshima Prefecture as well as the northern part of the main Okinawa island and Iriomote Island in Okinawa Prefecture. The area boasts extensive subtropical forests that are home to rare species such as the Amami rabbit, Okinawa rail and Iriomote cat.
Tokyo marked the area as a candidate for the natural heritage list in February 2017 but dropped the bid last June after a UNESCO panel sought the addition of a forest in a former U.S. military site in northern Okinawa. In line with the panel’s opinion, Japan will include the forest, rich in rare plants and animals, in its new proposal. The site it occupies was returned by the U.S. military to Japan in December 2016. The fresh bid highlights Tokyo’s efforts to conserve biodiversity on islands with their various endemic species, fend off invasive species and welcome tourists to the area.
After the formal recommendation is submitted to the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, a UNESCO advisory panel will conduct an on-site survey in the fall and release its evaluation in around May 2020. Then, the World Heritage Committee will decide whether to register the islands in the summer of 2020.
For this year’s registration, Japan has recommended as a cultural heritage site the Mozu-Furuichi Kofungun tomb site in Osaka, one of the largest ancient tombs in the country. At present, Japan has four UNESCO World Natural Heritage sites including the Shiretoko Peninsula of Hokkaido, the country’s northernmost main island, and the Ogasawara Islands in the Pacific, about 1,000 kilometers south of Tokyo.
Government cuts subsidies to Tokyo Medical University over unfair entrance exams – Tokyo
Japan’s education ministry says it will not provide any subsidies to Tokyo Medical University for this or next fiscal year after it was found to have discriminated against female applicants in its entrance examinations. The ministry said the decision is based on the indictment last year of university leaders over the backdoor admission of a bureaucrat’s son in exchange for a government subsidy. Seven other universities that were similarly found to have manipulated their entrance exams will also have state subsidies reduced, according to the ministry.
Among them, Nihon University will face a 35 percent cut in the current fiscal year through March as the school’s management was additionally called into question over a dangerous late tackle by one of its American football team members that injured an opposing team player in May last year. The foul play had been ordered by two coaches. The six other universities — Fukuoka University, Iwate Medical University, Juntendo University, Kanazawa Medical University, Kitasato University and Showa University — will face a 25 percent cut in fiscal 2018.
Private schools in Japan receive state subsidies depending on the number of students and teachers. In fiscal 2017, Tokyo Medical University received 2.3 billion yen ($21 million) and Nihon University 9.1 billion yen, but the government had made the payment of fiscal 2018 subsidies pending for the schools. Tokyo Medical University admitted in August it had been deducting points from exam scores for over 10 years to curb the enrolment of women, as well as men who had failed the exam previously. Nihon University later said it favoured applicants who are kin to graduates. The unfair treatment of female applicants at Tokyo Medical University was aimed at preventing a shortage of doctors at affiliated hospitals in the belief that women tend to resign or take long periods of leave after getting married or giving birth.
The university also disliked accepting male applicants who had failed in the past because they also tend to fail the national exam for medical practitioners, which would bring down the university’s ratio of successful applicants and hurt its reputation.
When the government suspends subsidies, the university will not receive them in the following fiscal year either. From the third year, the university will see subsidies increase in stages by 25 percentage points and receive the full amount in the sixth year — or fiscal 2023 for Tokyo Medical University — if no further law violations are found.
