The Mainichi News Quiz Answer for June 26
A) To raise awareness of animal cruelty in Japan.
B) To protest against the use of nuclear power in Tokyo.
C) To call attention to attacks on Palestinians in Gaza.
D) To advocate for Tokyo subway fare reductions.
Correct Answer: C) To call attention to attacks on Palestinians in Gaza.
Yusuke Furusawa, 49, has been staging daily demonstrations near stations like Shinjuku and Shibuya in Tokyo since October 2023 to protest against Israel's military actions in Gaza. Often speaking to passersby with a sign reading "Stop Gaza Genocide," he has drawn attention both locally and globally through his presence on social media.
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The Mainichi
44 minutes ago
- The Mainichi
News in Easy English: Tokyo man speaks out daily for Gaza in busy streets
TOKYO -- A man stands in front of busy stations in Tokyo almost every day with a handmade sign: "Stop Gaza Genocide." The man's name is Yusuke Furusawa. He is 49 years old. He works building sets for TV shows. After work, he goes alone to places like Shinjuku and Shibuya stations to speak about Gaza. Gaza is a place where many Palestinian people live. Recently, there has been fighting there. Many people in Gaza have died. Furusawa started this activity in October 2023, after getting sick with COVID-19. As he recovered, he watched videos online about the difficult situation in Gaza. He felt he needed to speak up about it. At first, some people were unkind to him in the street. Because of this, he started taking videos of himself and posting them online. Many people around the world saw these videos. Now, he has about 170,000 followers on Instagram. Foreign visitors to Japan sometimes come just to meet him. They say, "Where are you today?" and thank him for speaking up. He often wears a special scarf and uses a bag with the Palestinian flag on it. Followers from social media gave these to him as presents. One time, an Israeli woman met him and said she agreed the fighting needed to stop. Furusawa explained, "I am speaking about the governments, not about normal people." But not everyone is happy with his actions. Sometimes, people tell him, "You are noisy," or "This has no meaning." Furusawa knows some people dislike what he does, but he keeps standing there. He says, "In Japan, people have the right to live safely and speak freely. If someone loses these rights somewhere in the world, I believe we need to speak up. Is meaning important? I think it is just the right thing to do." (Japanese original by Kohei Chiwaki, Digital News Group) Vocabulary genocide: trying to kill many people from a group or country set: background used on TV programs or movies recover: to get better after you have been sick social media: websites or apps like Instagram or Facebook, where people share information and videos online follower: someone who regularly looks at another person's social media posts government: the group of people who make decisions for a country right: something everyone should be allowed to have or do (for example, the right to speak freely and safely)
Japan Today
a day ago
- Japan Today
Trump urges Hamas to accept 'final proposal' for 60-day Gaza ceasefire
FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, U.S., April 7, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Mohatt/File Photo By Steve Holland and Matt Spetalnick U.S. President Donald Trump urged Iran-backed Hamas militants on Tuesday to agree to what he called a "final proposal" for a 60-day ceasefire with Israel in Gaza that will be delivered by mediating officials from Qatar and Egypt. In a social media post, Trump said his representatives had a "long and productive" meeting with Israeli officials about Gaza. He did not identify his representatives but U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance had been due to meet Ron Dermer, a senior adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump said Israel has agreed to the conditions to finalize a 60-day ceasefire, "during which time we will work with all parties to end the War." He said representatives for Qatar and Egypt will deliver "this final proposal" to Hamas. "I hope, for the good of the Middle East, that Hamas takes this Deal, because it will not get better — IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE. Thank you for your attention to this matter!" he said. Trump told reporters earlier in the day that he is hopeful that a ceasefire-for-hostages agreement can be achieved next week between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza. He is set to meet Netanyahu at the White House on Monday. Hamas has said it is willing to free remaining hostages in Gaza under any deal to end the war, while Israel says it can only end if Hamas is disarmed and dismantled. Hamas refuses to lay down its arms. The war in Gaza was triggered when Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. The two sides have shown little sign of a readiness to budge from their entrenched positions. The U.S. has proposed a 60-day ceasefire and the release of half the hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and the remains of other Palestinians. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said earlier this week Israel has agreed to a U.S.-proposed 60-day ceasefire and hostage deal, and put the onus on Hamas. Trump and his aides appear to be seeking to use any momentum from U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran nuclear sites, as well as a ceasefire that took hold last week in that conflict, to secure a lasting truce in the war in Gaza. Trump told reporters during a visit to Florida that he would be "very firm" with Netanyahu on the need for a speedy Gaza ceasefire while noting that the Israeli leader wants one as well. "We hope it's going to happen. And we're looking forward to it happening sometime next week," he told reporters. "We want to get the hostages out." Gaza's health ministry says Israel's post-Oct. 7 military assault has killed over 56,000 Palestinians. The assault has also caused a hunger crisis, internally displaced Gaza's entire population and prompted accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice and of war crimes at the International Criminal Court. Israel denies the accusations. © Thomson Reuters 2025.
Japan Today
a day ago
- Japan Today
International charities and NGOs call for end to controversial Israeli-backed aid group in Gaza
Palestinians wounded while returning from one of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution centers operated by the U.S.-backed organization, according to Nasser Hospital, are treated in Khan Younis, Monday, June 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Mariam Dagga) By SAMY MAGDY Dozens of international charities and humanitarian groups called Tuesday for disbanding a controversial Israeli- and U.S.-backed system to distribute aid in Gaza because of recurring chaos and violence against Palestinians seeking food at its sites. The call by groups including Oxfam, Save the Children and Amnesty International was made as at least 13 Palestinians were killed from late Monday into Tuesday while seeking desperately needed food, witnesses and health official said. Meanwhile, Israeli airstrikes killed at least 37 people Tuesday in southern Gaza's Khan Younis, according to Nasser Hospital. In other developments, Israel's defense minister, Israel Katz, warned that his country would respond forcefully to the firing of a missile the military said originated from Yemen. Sirens sounded across parts of Israel, alerting residents to the attack and the launch of two projectiles from Gaza. All were intercepted by Israeli defense systems. The missile launch marked the first attack by the Iran-backed Houthi rebels since the end of the brief but intense war initiated by Israel with Iran. Katz said Yemen could face the same fate as Tehran. Nasruddin Amer, deputy head of the Houthi media office, vowed on the social media platform X, that Yemen will not 'stop its support for Gaza ... unless the aggression stops and the siege on Gaza is lifted.' The renewal of tensions came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he planned to meet with U.S. President Donald Trump and other administration officials next week in Washington. Trump has signaled that he is ready for Israel and Hamas to wind down the war in Gaza, which is likely to be a focus of their talks. Speaking to a meeting of his Cabinet on Tuesday, Netanyahu did not elaborate on plans for the visit, except to say he will discuss a trade deal. Iran is also expected to be a main topic of discussion. After brokering a ceasefire between those two countries, Trump has indicated that he's turning his attention to ending the fighting between Israel and Hamas. That war has killed more than 56,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but says more than half of the dead were women and children. The war was sparked by the October 2023 Hamas attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and saw 251 others taken hostage. Some 50 hostages remain, many of them thought to be dead. The bodies of 116 people killed by Israeli strikes were brought to hospitals in Gaza over the past 24 hours, the health ministry said Tuesday afternoon. More than 165 major international charities and non-governmental organizations called Tuesday for an immediate end to the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which the U.S. and Israel backed to take over aid distribution in Gaza from a network led by the United Nations. 'Palestinians in Gaza face an impossible choice: starve or risk being shot while trying desperately to reach food to feed their families,' the group said in a joint news release. The call by the charities and NGOs was the latest sign of trouble for the GHF, a secretive U.S.- and Israeli-backed initiative headed by an evangelical leader who is a close ally of Trump. The GHF started distributing aid on May 26, following a nearly three-month Israeli blockade that pushed Gaza's population of more than 2 million people to the brink of famine. In a statement Tuesday, the organization said it has delivered more than 52 million meals over five weeks. 'Instead of bickering and throwing insults from the sidelines, we would welcome other humanitarian groups to join us and feed the people in Gaza,' the statement said. 'We are ready to collaborate and help them get their aid to people in need.' Last month, the organization said there has been no violence in or around its distribution centers and that its personnel have not opened fire. It has called for the Israeli military to investigate allegations from Gaza's Health Ministry that more than 500 Palestinians have been killed at or near the aid-distribution program over the past month. The Israeli Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday. The GHF is the linchpin of a new aid system that wrested distribution away from aid groups led by the U.N. The new arrangement limits food distribution to a small number of hubs guarded by armed contractors. Currently four hubs are set up, all close to Israeli military positions. Palestinians often must travel long distances to the hubs. Israel demanded an alternative plan because it accuses Hamas of siphoning off aid. The United Nations and aid groups deny there is significant diversion. They reject the new mechanism, saying it allows Israel to use food as a weapon, violates humanitarian principles and will not be effective. The Israeli military said it recently took steps to improve organization in the area. Israel says it only targets militants and blames civilian deaths on Hamas, accusing the militants of hiding among civilians because they operate in populated areas. At least 13 Palestinians were killed in Gaza late Monday and early Tuesday while seeking aid, hospitals said. Three of the deaths occurred in the southern city of Khan Younis, while four were killed in central Gaza. Six people were killed by gunfire Tuesday while waiting to receive aid near the Netzarim corridor, which separates northern and southern Gaza. Dozens of others were wounded, according to the Awda Hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp, and the Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City, which received the casualties. The casualties were among thousands of starved Palestinians who gather at night to take aid from passing trucks in the area of the Netzarim route, a road that cuts through central Gaza from Israel to the Mediterranean Sea. Also Tuesday, an 11-year-old girl was killed when an Israeli strike hit her family's tent west of Khan Younis, according to the Kuwait field hospital that received her body. The U.N. Palestinian aid agency said the Israeli military also struck one of its schools sheltering displaced people in Gaza City on Monday. The strike left no casualties but caused significant damage, UNRWA said. Elsewhere, the Palestinian Health Ministry in the occupied West Bank said Israeli forces killed two Palestinians in the territory, including a 15-year-old, in separate events. The Israeli military said it was reviewing the shooting of the teen, saying it appeared to happen when people threw rocks toward soldiers. In the second death, military officials said a 'suspicious individual' was seen trying to cross into Israel from the southern West Bank, prompting soldiers to open fire. Associated Press writers Tia Goldenberg in Jerusalem, Wafaa Shurafa in Deir al Balah, Gaza, and Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut contributed to this report. © Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
