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Telegraph
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
A sprawling family epic full of brains and mystery
Flashlight, the engrossing sixth novel by the American writer Susan Choi, opens with Louisa and her father making their way down a breakwater at the tail end of a Japanese sunset. Louisa's mother is absent: she 'isn't well'. Her father, who holds a flashlight in one hand and Louisa's hand in the other, confesses that he has never learned to swim: 'I grew up a poor boy. I had no YMCA.' He tells Louisa to 'act thankful now' to her mother for making her learn. And, Choi, writes, 'those are the last words he ever says to her. (Or are they the last words that she can remember? Did he say something more? There is no one to ask.)' He vanishes into the water. No body is ever found. Fans of Choi's work – which delights in playing with the reader's expectations – may remember the set up. This prelude was first published four years ago as a short story, also called Flashlight. At the time, Choi talked about 'wrestling with this material… trying to figure out what it wants to be – a short novel, or a long novel, or stories, or one story'. Her 447-page, six-part, sprawling family epic, which takes in five countries, spans several decades, and is mostly written in a free-indirect style that allows Choi to switch between four main characters, is her answer. The narrative proper begins with Louisa's father. It's spring 1945; he's six years old. His parents are Korean exiles, who left their homeland, Jeju island, for Japan, and while his Japanese name is Hiroshi, at home he is Seok. Later, when he emigrates to the US on a graduate visa, he goes by Serk. (Shifting identities are a running theme in Choi's work, not least in her last novel, Trust Exercise, a bestseller that won the 2019 National Book Award.) Next, we meet Anne, Louisa's mother, who has abandoned her family and her chances of a high school diploma for a man who abandons her once she becomes pregnant. She is forced to give up the baby, Tobias – after a vivid labour 'where the vengeance of God tore her entrails out by the roots' – but he will re-emerge later as a pivotal character. Novels developed from a short story are legion: Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway, Jonathan Franzen's The Corrections, Haruki Murakami's The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles, Charles Baxter's Saul and Patsy. But in freeing their writer from length restrictions, novels pose a counter-challenge: can a writer justify the many tangents of their narrative? Choi stripped most of the backstory out of her original story leaving her with plenty of gaps to fill in. Is Louisa's mother ill? Why did her father make them leave the US, and Louisa's fourth grade, for a sabbatical in Japan? And what is the significance of her father's flashlight? Choi takes too long to get to the meat of her story: what happened, or will happen, to Serk? Less patient readers may stop. But it pays to persevere. Choi is an astute, convincing writer, whose prose bristles with vivid imagery. In that opening section, 10-year-old Louisa lies in bed while 'the dark slid itself onto her chest like a snake, organising its weight into nearly stacked coils that might go on forever and bury her, crush her, if she didn't leap out of bed just in time.' Choi's choppy rhythm conveys a child's breathless angst. If Trust Exercise was about who controls a story, then Flashlight is about what happens when your own story is out of control. Louisa spends her life dealing with the aftermath of her father's supposed drowning. A child psychologist reminds her that she told the person who found her that her father had been kidnapped. 'No I didn't,' she retorts – the reality of what happened to them remaining a riddle for most of the novel. The book's title, Flashlight, is a metaphor that works hard throughout, illuminating certain events while keeping others in the dark. Serk doesn't know about Anne's son; Anne doesn't know about Serk's Korean heritage. The flashes of understanding that occur to characters as the decades roll by are like shapes that emerge from the gloom when someone sweeps a torch beam to and fro. And ultimately, the light Choi shines on an astonishing international scandal – revealed in the 'Acknowledgements' section for those who want to skip ahead – makes Flashlight a rewarding read. The expansion was well worth it.
Japan Times
19-06-2025
- Business
- Japan Times
Japan firms exit Tokyo exchange at record pace in delisting rush
Japanese companies are leaving the Tokyo Stock Exchange at the fastest pace in over a decade, reflecting a surge in deals and management buyouts as they face more pressure to make better use of their capital. The number of firms that delisted their shares from the TSE or announced plans to do so has reached 59 in the first half, rising from 51 a year earlier and marking the most on record for a comparable period, according to exchange data going back to 2014. If firms continue to exit the TSE at this pace, the figure for 2025 will exceed last year's annual record of 94 companies. The trend reflects the Tokyo bourse's broad push to make the Japanese market more appealing for foreign investors by ensuring that listed companies offer high shareholder returns, while firms that aren't meeting their goals face the threat of being taken off the exchange. The TSE has called on companies to pursue goals including improving their valuations and cutting overly close ties with other companies in the form of cross-shareholdings. Those reforms made Japanese shares one of the world's best performers in recent years, while encouraging activist shareholders to demand even more changes from company managers. For investors, increased activism has boosted calls to raise returns with measures such as stock buybacks, while mergers and acquisitions have soared. "The decrease in the number of listed companies as a result of the activation of the capital market is a welcome development,' said Hiroshi Matsumoto, senior client portfolio manager at Pictet Japan. Japan is following in the footsteps of overseas markets like the U.S. and U.K., where more companies have gone private over the last 20 years on stricter rules to stay listed as well as growth in private market financing. The Tokyo exchange has emphasized since last year that its priority for listed firms is quality rather than a big numbers of companies. "The TSE's intentions are going as planned,' said Hajime Nakajima, managing director at Deloitte Tohmatsu Equity Advisory. Companies whose shares are considered cheap will increasingly become targets of M&A and management buyouts, and "more and more of them will exit the market,' he said. The number of listed companies on the Tokyo bourse fell to 3,842 last year, marking the first decrease since the merger of the TSE and the Osaka exchange in 2013, according to TSE data excluding figures from the Tokyo Pro Market. The number will likely fall further to 3,808 by the end of June, based on Bloomberg calculations of data including figures from the exchange. The TSE reorganized in 2022 its equity market into Prime — with the biggest firms, Standard, and Growth — listing the smallest companies. Since then, the TSE has urged listed companies to improve corporate governance and take steps to bolster their value. In addition, the transition period for companies that fail to meet listing standards expired at the end of March, and if they continue to fall short, they're scheduled to be delisted in October 2026 at the earliest. Many companies left the Tokyo exchange after getting bought out by other firms and investment funds. ID&E, a construction consulting firm, became a wholly owned subsidiary of non-life insurer Tokio Marine, who saw business opportunities in its new unit's disaster prevention and mitigation tactics. Guidelines that the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry released in 2023 suggesting best practices for corporate takeovers have helped fuel the M&A boom. In cases where both a company and its subsidiary were listed, a not uncommon arrangement in Japan's share market that's been criticized as leading to conflicts of interest, parent firms have bought out units to steer clear of governance concerns. The planned takeover by Japan's biggest telecom firm, Nippon Telegraph & Telephone, of its unit NTT Data Group is one example of that. As the costs of maintaining a public listing rise and activist shareholders push for more payouts and policy changes, takeovers of companies by management are climbing. I'rom Group, a company that supports clinical trials, teamed up with U.S. investment firm Blackstone to take its shares private, in one such instance. Tao Zhiyuan, a portfolio manager at AllianceBernstein Japan, said that Japan's chemical sector has "many interesting niche-top stocks,' but a lot of them are too small for global funds to invest in. If Japan as a whole "sees an increase in the number of large, strong companies through M&A, the number of investment targets from a foreign perspective will increase,' he said.
Yomiuri Shimbun
25-05-2025
- Science
- Yomiuri Shimbun
New Satellite to Make Detailed Survey of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Across Entire Globe in 3 Days
The Yomiuri Shimbun Observation satellite GOSAT-GW is unveiled to the press at the Tanegashima Space Center in Kagoshima Prefecture last Tuesday. To enhance the observation of greenhouse gases from space, the government will launch a new satellite in June. GOSAT-GW, the third in its series, is capable of performing observations across a plane rather than the current method of observing each point. This makes it possible to survey the earth's entire surface within three days. The government will also strive to swiftly make public the analytical findings of the observations, with the use of AI, thus supporting the often-sluggish efforts of various countries to fight global warming. The Environment Ministry launched its first greenhouse gas observing satellite, GOSAT, in 2009, and the second one in 2018 to measure atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane and other gases. Since the current GOSAT series satellites can only observe points of about 200 kilometers distance at a time, observations have been limited to the country level. On the other hand, the GOSAT-GW can make observations across a wide plane in one go. According to the National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), its sensors can observe an area of about 900 kilometers at a time, allowing a seamless survey of the entire globe. With its spatial resolution set to be up to 100-fold greater than the current satellites, the new satellite will enable city-level measurements of emissions. The GOSAT-GW is also capable of measuring nitrogen dioxide (NO2), an air pollutant emitted by the combustion of fossil fuels at such facilities as thermal power plants, which is useful for estimating the possible sources of greenhouse gases and their amounts more accurately. The new satellite is capable of making simultaneous measurements of both CO2 and NO2, a world first.a The monitored data will be analyzed by the NIES using AI and other methods, and the NIES aims to make the findings public online within two to three days. The GOSAT-GW is scheduled to be mounted aboard the H2A rocket No. 50, to be launched by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) on June 24. Countries and regions must report their greenhouse gas emissions to the United Nations if they are members of the Paris Agreement, an international framework on global warming countermeasures. Since last year, developing countries have also been included, but some countries are unable to prepare accurate data. Furthermore, the United States' announcement of its withdrawal from the agreement has raised concerns about delays in countermeasures. The government has already provided emissions analysis results to five countries, including Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan, and aims to make satellite-based verification methods an international standardization. 'We want to support decarbonization efforts by countries and companies by disseminating objective data measured via satellite observations, both at home and abroad,' said Hiroshi Tanimoto, Director of the Earth System Division of the NIES.
CBC
07-04-2025
- Politics
- CBC
From razing rubble to blowing up homes: IDF soldiers share how they expanded Gaza buffer zone in new report
Breaking the Silence report details how perimeter around Gaza expanded at least 1 kilometre into the strip A new report from (BtS), an Israel-based NGO, has compiled testimony from soldiers who detail how they razed plots of land during the war in their mission to expand the buffer zone between Gaza and Israel deeper into the strip. BtS, which was founded by Israel Defence Forces veterans, has released a report titled The Perimeter: Soldiers' testimonies from the Gaza Buffer Zone 2023-2024, containing information from interviews with dozens of IDF soldiers who served in Gaza and participated in the expansion of the buffer zone, which the report refers to as the perimeter. CBC News was able to speak to one of those soldiers who provided details of the IDF's activities in the area that runs north to south along the border. Since it was founded in 2004, BtS has published reports based on more than 1,400 accounts from IDF soldiers based on their experiences while serving in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem since September 2000, in its effort to "expose the public to the reality of everyday life in the Occupied Territories" and "bring an end to the occupation." In a statement to CBC News, BtS said the creation of the perimeter through "confiscation of land" will cause significant obstacles to reconstruction efforts in the Gaza Strip and "undermines its long-term sustainability." The organization says that statements by Israeli officials, including that the territory would "remain in Israeli hands" and that Palestinians would not be allowed to return, amount to what BtS calls "ethnic cleansing." BtS is also calling on the Israeli government to return to the negotiating table and seek a diplomatic solution to return the hostages and bring peace to the region. 'A future of no security' Israeli forces have maintained a perimeter running north to south along the border between Gaza and Israel since at least the early 2000s. In 2015, the United Nations Humanitarian Agency OCHA noted that the buffer zone extended 300 metres into the strip. Palestinians generally have not been allowed within that distance of the fence separating the two regions. Since Oct. 7, 2023 — when Hamas-led militants stormed across the Gaza-Israel border, killed over a thousand people and kidnapped 250, according to Israeli tallies — the perimeter has been expanded to at least one kilometre into Gaza, according to IDF soldiers who told BtS about their involvement in the mission to extend it. Though the report does not name the soldiers, it does give their ranks and the general areas and periods they served. One IDF soldier featured in the report, a warrant officer who served in northern Gaza between January and February 2024, told BtS that the buffer zone would reach as far as 1.5 kilometres into Gaza, civilians would be banned and everything would be razed. When asked what the area would look like after they were through, they replied: "Hiroshima. That's what I'm saying, Hiroshima." "This is a policy by the current Israeli government, which leads us to a future of no security," Joel Carmel, the advocacy director at BtS, told CBC News in a video call. Carmel says Israel's ongoing push to extend the perimeter into Gaza during the war means the expanded zone where Palestinians are not allowed could become a permanent fixture in post-war Gaza, and that Israel is choosing a future for Gaza where "no one can ever come back" to that area. Recent media reports, some citing Israeli humanitarian organization Gisha, have said that when Israel's expansion of the buffer zone is complete, it will encompass as much as 17 per cent of the Gaza Strip's area. OCHA says 65 per cent of the enclave is now within "no-go" areas, under active displacement orders or both. Israel has not fully explained its long-term goals for the areas it is now seizing, though Gaza residents say they believe the aim is to permanently depopulate swaths of land, including some of Gaza's last farmland and water infrastructure. Carmel points to a statement by Israel's Foreign Minister Eli Cohen in October 2023 where he said that "Gaza's territory will shrink" after the war ends. CBC News reached out to the IDF and Israeli government officials for comment but did not hear back before publication. In their testimonies to BtS, IDF soldiers who participated in the expansion of the perimeter, detail the destruction left behind and how the perimeter's presence impacts both Palestinian and Israeli societies. IN PHOTOS | In the ruins of Gaza: Leaving Gaza as a 'mound of rubble' One soldier who spoke to BtS and CBC News served as a sergeant first class in northern Gaza in November 2023. They said that their unit was tasked with blowing up more than 100 buildings in the perimeter during their tour in Gaza. Though CBC confirmed the identity of the sergeant, they spoke on the condition that their identity be kept confidential out of fear for their security and livelihood. According to the sergeant, IDF soldiers were told in a briefing that the areas they were told to destroy were near enough to Israeli settlements and cities that they were a security threat and had to be destroyed. The sergeant told CBC that this was the first time the perimeter was mentioned during their mission. They began their tour in northern Gaza, an area that was already mostly rubble, where they were tasked with razing abandoned homes and buildings. Soon, they said their mission expanded to blowing up houses in southern Gaza, where they noted there were still signs of life. It was at this point, the sergeant said, questions about the purpose of the mission began to grow in their mind. "The houses there were not nearly as destroyed as in the north," the sergeant told CBC News over Zoom. "You see the signs of people's lives were there, and their stuff." The sergeant noted that the reservist training they received didn't cover how to blow up houses. Instead, they said, they were taught how to blow up tunnel entrances and set up mines on bridges and in fields. "Houses … are not really something we trained for," the sergeant said. "Even the commanders were kind of learning it as we were going." The sergeant said that when they left Gaza in December 2023, it was a "mound of rubble." 'Everything is destroyed' Professor Adi Ben-Nun of the Geography Information Systems department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem has been tracking the destruction in Gaza and the expansion of the perimeter since the beginning of the war. He says that before Oct. 7, 2023, there were about 180,000 buildings in Gaza, based on United Nations estimations. He says 120,000 of those buildings were destroyed before the ceasefire was broken in March. Data detailing the destruction since then is not yet available. He says the agricultural land within the perimeter contained about 3,000 buildings, and that it has all been "completely demolished." "You must understand that it's not only the building, it's the roads, the electricity, the water structure, the sewage …everything is destroyed," he told CBC News during a video call, where he demonstrated the satellite imagery he used to track the destruction. Using his computer, Ben-Nun toggled between two satellite images he created using Google maps — one showing the state of the perimeter before Oct. 7, and the other after. The map from before shows green patches of land and buildings. On the map from after, the greyish-beige colour of war emerges; tank tracks and destroyed buildings are all that can be seen. He says that based on this level of destruction, it would take generations for Gazans to rebuild what has been lost. "Even if people are allowed to go back home," Ben-Nun said, "there is no home."
