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· 每日跟讀單元 Daily English,國際時事跟讀Daily Shadowing

Topic: New mayor seeks 100-yen tax on visitors to Miyajima island

Taro Matsumoto campaigned in the mayoral race in Hatsukaichi-shi, Hiroshima Prefecture, on a pledge to institute an entrance tax for visitors to Miyajima island, home to Itsukushimajinja shrine, a World Heritage site.

松本太郎在(日本)廣島縣廿日市市的市長選舉競選期間,誓言(當選後)要開始對造訪世界遺產嚴島神社所在地宮島的遊客,徵收入島稅。

Matsumoto, who took office on Nov. 3, 2019, is determined to fulfill his campaign promise.

2019年11月3日就任的松本,打定主意要落實他的競選承諾。

Matsumoto told reporters a day after the election that he aims to introduce the tax in 2021 to fund infrastructure improvements to the increasingly popular tourist attraction.

松本在選後隔天告訴記者,他的目標是在2021年導入徵稅制度,以籌措經費來改善此一人氣漸增的觀光景點的基礎建設。

"The island needs maintenance and repair work, including placing power lines underground and repairing roads," he said. "I’m focused on introducing the tax as a stable source of income."

「這座島需要維護與修繕,包括電線地下化與修路,」他說。「我會專注於導入充作穩定收入來源的(入島)稅。」

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Topic: Apology does little to quell fury over Mori’s sexist remarks 道歉難以平息森喜朗的性別歧視發言所引發的怒火

Criticism over the sexist remarks uttered by Tokyo Olympic organizing committee chief Yoshiro Mori spread in the Cabinet and overseas after his apology fell flat and he rejected calls to resign.

就在日本東京奧運組織委員會主席森喜朗的道歉未獲預期效果以及他拒絕應外界要求下台後,針對他的性別歧視發言的批評,已在內閣與海外蔓延開來。

Cabinet ministers were in unison on Feb. 5 in blasting Mori’s contention that having a large number of women on sports associations’ committees would lead to prolonged meetings because they tend to talk too much.

日本閣員2月5日齊聲砲轟森喜朗的論點,即宣稱運動協會的委員會中若有太多女性委員,將會拉長會議時間,因為女性易於說個沒完。

Justice Minister Yoko Kamikawa, one of two women in Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s Cabinet, expressed concern that Mori’s remarks would set back the government’s plans to have women take up 30 percent of leadership positions in Japan.

(日本)首相菅義偉內閣中唯二女閣員之一的法務大臣上川陽子擔心,森喜朗的發言會導致政府的讓女性位居3成日本領導地位的計畫受挫。

Source article: https://features.ltn.com.tw/english/article/paper/1431209 ; https://features.ltn.com.tw/english/article/paper/1431912

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Topic: In Japan, the Elderly Often Live, and Die, Alone

Cicadas, every Japanese schoolchild knows, lie underground for years before rising to the earth’s surface in summer. They climb up the nearest tree, where they cast off their shells and start their short second lives. During their few days among us, they mate, fly and cry. They cry until their bodies are found on the ground, twitching in their last moments, or on their backs with their legs pointing upward.

每個日本學童都知道,蟬會在地下蟄伏多年,而後在夏天爬到地表。牠們會攀上最近的樹,在那裡脫殼並展開短促的第二段生命。在與我們人類共處的短短幾天內,牠們交配、飛翔並鳴叫。牠們鳴噪,直到身軀落地,在臨終時抽動,或背部貼地腳朝天。

Chieko Ito hated the din they made. They had just started shrieking, as they always did in early summer, and the noise would keep getting louder in the weeks to come, invading her third-floor apartment, making any kind of silence impossible. As one species of cicadas quieted down, another’s distinct cry would take over. Then, as the insects peaked in numbers, showers of dead and dying cicadas would rain down on her enormous housing complex, stopping only with the end of summer itself.

伊籐千惠子討厭蟬噪。蟬兒才剛開始呼噪,一如既往的初夏。喧噪聲會在未來幾周變得越來越吵,侵擾她的三樓寓所,並扼殺所有的寧靜。當一種蟬安靜時,另一種蟬又會接著聒噪。而後當蟬的數量達

到高峰,成批死掉或垂死的蟬就會灑落在她偌大的住宅社區中,直到夏天本身結束為止。

“You hear them from morning to evening,” she sighed.

「從早到晚都聽見牠們在鬧。」伊籐嘆道。

It was the afternoon of her 91st birthday, and unusually hot, part of a heat wave that had community leaders worried. Elderly volunteers had been winding through the labyrinth of footpaths, distributing leaflets on the dangers of heatstroke to the many hundreds of residents like Ito who lived alone in 171 nearly identical white buildings. With no families or visitors to speak of, many older tenants spent weeks or months cocooned in their small apartments, offering little hint of their existence to the world outside their doors. And each year, some of them died without anyone knowing, only to be discovered after their neighbors caught the smell.

這是她91歲生日的下午,天氣異常的熱,這波熱浪令社區主事者憂心。一些年長志工走過迷宮般的小徑,向171棟幾乎一樣白色大樓的數以百計像伊籐這樣獨居的住民發送傳單,提醒他們中暑的危險。許多年紀大的房客沒有家人或訪客可說話,繭居在小寓所幾周或幾個月,讓門外的世界幾乎察覺不到他們的存在。每年他們之中都有一些人在無人知曉的情況下死去,直到鄰居聞到屍臭才被發現。

The first time it happened, or at least the first time it drew national attention, the corpse of a 69-year-old man living near Ito had been lying on the floor for three years, without anyone noticing his absence. His monthly rent and utilities had been withdrawn automatically from his bank account. Finally, after his savings were depleted in 2000, the authorities came to the apartment and found his skeleton near the kitchen, its flesh picked clean by maggots and beetles, just a few feet from his next-door neighbors.

孤獨死第一次發生,或至少頭一次獲得全日本注意,是伊籐家附近一名69歲男子的屍體倒臥在地三年,沒有人發現他不見了。他的每月房租和水電瓦斯費都從個人銀行帳戶自動扣款。最後,他的存款在2000年耗盡,當局來到他家,在廚房附近發現他的骷髏,肉身已被蛆和甲蟲吃光,離隔壁鄰居只有幾英尺遠。

The huge government apartment complex where Ito has lived for nearly 60 years — one of the biggest in Japan, a monument to the nation’s postwar baby boom and aspirations for a modern, U.S. way of life — suddenly became known for something else entirely: the “lonely deaths” of the world’s most rapidly aging society.

伊籐住了近60年的龐大公家住宅社區是日本最大的公家住宅社區之一,標誌著日本戰後嬰兒潮與對現代美式生活方式的嚮往,突然間因為全然不同的事而聲名大噪:世界上老化速度最快社會的「孤獨死」。

“4,000 lonely deaths a week,” estimated the cover of a popular weekly magazine this summer, capturing the national alarm.

今年夏天,某暢銷周刊在封面標題上估計「每周有4000人孤獨死」,令舉國為之一驚。Source article: https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0067/321753/web/

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Topic: Japan to fund AI matchmaking to boost birth rate

Japan plans to boost its tumbling birth rate by funding artificial intelligence matchmaking schemes to help residents find love.

日本計畫透過資助人工智慧配對相親計畫,幫助國民尋找愛情,以提高該國不斷下降的出生率。

From next year it will subsidize local governments already running or starting projects that use AI to pair people up.

從明年開始,日本政府將提供補貼,資助地方政府已經在運行以及新啟動的人工智慧配對相親項目。

Last year the number of babies born in Japan fell below 865,000 - a record low.

去年,日本新生嬰兒數跌破86.5萬,創下歷史新低。

The fast-greying nation has long been searching for ways to reverse one of the world’s lowest fertility rates.

日本的生育率為全世界最低的國家之一,這個快速高齡化的國家長期以來一直在尋找扭轉局面的方法。

Boosting the use of AI tech is one of its latest efforts.

加強人工智慧技術的運用,是其最新舉措之一。

Next year the government plans to allocate local authorities 2bn yen to boost the birth rate, reported AFP news agency.

據法新社報導,日本政府計畫明年撥款20億日圓給地方政府,以提高出生率。

Many already offer human-run matchmaking services and some have introduced AI systems in the hope they will perform a more sophisticated analysis of the standardised forms where people submit their details.

許多企業已經提供了人工婚介服務,一些已經引入AI系統,希望能夠對民眾提交的標準化表格進行更精密的分析。

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Japan set to target zero emissions by 2050 in policy shift 日本政策轉變準備2050年達到零碳排

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga is set to bind Japan to a target for carbon neutrality by 2050, a shift in stance that will bring the country in line with the European Union and more than 60 other nations in efforts to combat climate change.

首相菅義偉要訂出日本須在2050年前達到零碳排的目標,此立場轉移將使該國在力抗氣候變遷上,與歐盟和其他60多國一致。

Japan previously said it would aim to reduce emissions by 80% by 2050 and achieve net-zero emissions sometime in the latter half of the century.

之前日本說會設定2050年達到削減碳排量80%的目標,並且在本世紀後半葉某個時間點做到淨零碳排。

Japan is the world’s fifth-biggest emitter of carbon dioxide. Under pressure from many business sectors, moves are also afoot to increase the use of renewable energy as the government starts forcing the shutdown of older, dirtier coal plants.

日本目前是全球第五大二氧化碳排放國。在許多產業界的壓力下,政府著手強制老舊火力發電廠關閉的同時,也正增加採用可再生能源等措施。Source article: https://features.ltn.com.tw/english/article/paper/1416436 ; https://features.ltn.com.tw/english/article/paper/1421876