| Voting by Foreigners Approved in Maihara |
| - KIPPO News |
The town council in Maihara Town in Shiga Prefecture has approved for immediate implementation an ordinance allowing voting by foreigners with permanent residence status. It is the first such ordinance in Japan.
Approved was the 'local referendum ordinance questioning the will concerning the merger of Maihara Town.' The ordinance aims at confirming the will of town residents about the town's mergers with other cities, towns and villages, and improving the welfare of the residents in the future by reflecting their will.
To be qualified for voting are those with the right to vote plus foreigners with permanent residence status aged more than 20, having lived in the town for more than three months and applied for qualifications for voting.
Town authorities want such foreigners to take part in regional tasks as members of the local community for the creation of a town suited to the 21st Century.
| Last Japanese Coal Mine closes |
| - Edited from ABC News (30/1/2002) |
The industry which provided the fuel for Japan’s economic and military might will close down when the nation’s remaining coal mine shuts its doors. Australia has contributed to its demise.
Fifty years ago there were more than eight hundred Japanese coal mines employing around half a million people. The industry fuelled Japan’s economic and military might and then helped rebuild the nation after the war but it has been unable to fight globalisation. Japan’s high cost mines simply can’t compete with cheaper operations overseas. By the late nineties domestic coal was three to four times more expensive than imported coal.
According to Katsuyoshi Ando, the President of the Japan Coal Energy Centre, Australia has played a major role in the demise of Japan’s coal industry.
"Australia became the main source of our coal" he says, "according to the latest figures about 60% of our coal comes from Australia." That’s about 80 million tonnes a year. "Japan’s coalmines have operated for two hundred years. We have produced 3 billion tonnes of coal. It was not just an energy source but the core of local communities. Today is both a sad day and a historic day."
