Government of Japan
The government of Japan is a constitutional monarchy in which the power of the Emperor is limited and is relegated to ceremonial duties. As in many other states, the Government is divided into three branches: the Legislative branch, the Executive branch, the Judicial branch; the Government runs under the framework established by the Constitution of Japan, adopted in 1947. It is a unitary state, containing forty-seven administrative divisions, with the Emperor as its head of state, his role is ceremonial and he has no powers related to Government. Instead, it is the Cabinet, comprising the Ministers of State and the Prime Minister, that directs and controls the Government; the Cabinet is the source of power of the Executive branch, is formed by the Prime Minister, the head of government. He or she is appointed to office by the Emperor; the National Diet is the organ of the Legislative branch. It is bicameral, consisting of two houses with the House of Councillors being the upper house, the House of Representatives being the lower house.
Its members are directly elected from the people. The Supreme Court and other inferior courts make up the Judicial branch, they are independent from the executive and the legislative branches. Prior to the Meiji Restoration, Japan was ruled by successive military shōguns. During this period, effective power of the government resided in the Shōgun, who ruled the country in the name of the Emperor; the Shoguns were the hereditary military governors, with their modern rank equivalent to a generalissimo. Although the Emperor was the sovereign who appointed the Shōgun, his roles were ceremonial and he took no part in governing the country; this is compared to the present role of the Emperor, whose official role is to appoint the Prime Minister. The Meiji Restoration in 1868 led to the resignation of Shōgun Tokugawa Yoshinobu, agreeing to "be the instrument for carrying out" the Emperor's orders; this event restored the country to the proclamation of the Empire of Japan. In 1889, the Meiji Constitution was adopted in a move to strengthen Japan to the level of western nations, resulting in the first parliamentary system in Asia.
It provided a form of mixed constitutional-absolute monarchy, with an independent judiciary, based on the Prussian model of the time. A new aristocracy known as the kazoku was established, it merged the ancient court nobility of the Heian period, the kuge, the former daimyōs, feudal lords subordinate to the shōgun. It established the Imperial Diet, consisting of the House of Representatives and the House of Peers. Members of the House of Peers were made up of the Imperial Family, the Kazoku, those nominated by the Emperor, while members of the House of Representatives were elected by direct male suffrage. Despite clear distinctions between powers of the executive branch and the Emperor in the Meiji Constitution and contradictions in the Constitution led to a political crisis, it devalued the notion of civilian control over the military, which meant that the military could develop and exercise a great influence on politics. Following the end of World War II, the Constitution of Japan was adopted as an intention to replace the previous Imperial rule with a form of Western-style liberal democracy.
The Emperor of Japan is the ceremonial head of state. He is defined by the Constitution to be "the symbol of the State and of the unity of the people". However, he is not the nominal Chief Executive and he possesses only certain ceremonially important powers, he has no real powers related to the Government as stated in article 4 of the Constitution. Article 6 of the Constitution of Japan delegates the Emperor the following ceremonial roles: Appointment of the Prime Minister as designated by the Diet. Appointment of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court as designated by the Cabinet. While the Cabinet is the source of executive power and most of its power is exercised directly by the Prime Minister, several of its powers are exercised by the Emperor; the powers exercised via the Emperor, as stipulated by Article 7 of the Constitution, are: Promulgation of amendments of the constitution, cabinet orders and treaties. Convocation of the Diet. Dissolution of the House of Representatives. Proclamation of general election of members of the Diet.
Attestation of the appointment and dismissal of Ministers of State and other officials as provided for by law, of full powers and credentials of Ambassadors and Ministers. Attestation of general and special amnesty, commutation of punishment and restoration of rights. Awarding of honors. Attestation of instruments of ratification and other diplomatic documents as provided for by law. Receiving foreign ambassadors and ministers. Performance of ceremonial functions; the Emperor is known to hold the nominal ceremonial authority. For example, the Emperor is the only person that has the authority to appoint the Prime Minister though the Diet has the power to designate the person fitted for the position. One such example can be prominently seen in the 2009 Dissolution of the House of Representatives; the House was expected to be dissolved on the advice of the Prime Minister, but was temporarily unable to do so for the next general election, as both the Emperor and Empress were visiting Canada. In this manner, the Emperor's modern role is compared to those of the Shogunate period and much of Japan's history, whereby the Emperor held great symbolic authority but had little political power.
Today, a legacy has somewhat continued for a retired Prime Minister who still wields considerabl
Natural disaster
A natural disaster is a major adverse event resulting from natural processes of the Earth. A natural disaster can cause loss of life or damage property, leaves some economic damage in its wake, the severity of which depends on the affected population's resilience, or ability to recover and on the infrastructure available. An adverse event will not rise to the level of a disaster if it occurs in an area without vulnerable population. In a vulnerable area, such as Nepal during the 2015 earthquake, an earthquake can have disastrous consequences and leave lasting damage, which can require years to repair. A landslide is described as an outward and downward slope movement of an abundance of slope-forming materials including rock, artificial, or a combination of these things. During World War I, an estimated 40,000 to 80,000 soldiers died as a result of avalanches during the mountain campaign in the Alps at the Austrian-Italian front. Many of the avalanches were caused by artillery fire. An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves.
At the Earth's surface, earthquakes manifest themselves by vibration and sometimes displacement of the ground. Earthquakes are caused by slippage within geological faults; the underground point of origin of the earthquake is called the seismic focus. The point directly above the focus on the surface is called the epicenter. Earthquakes by themselves kill people or wildlife, it is the secondary events that they trigger such as building collapse, fires and volcanoes. Many of these could be avoided by better construction, safety systems, early warning and planning; when natural erosion, human mining or underground excavation makes the ground too weak to support the structures built on it, the ground can collapse and produce a sinkhole. For example, the 2010 Guatemala City sinkhole which killed fifteen people was caused when heavy rain from Tropical Storm Agatha, diverted by leaking pipes into a pumice bedrock, led to the sudden collapse of the ground beneath a factory building. Volcanoes can cause widespread consequent disaster in several ways.
The effects include the volcanic eruption itself that may cause harm following the explosion of the volcano or falling rocks. Secondly, lava may be produced during the eruption of a volcano, so as it leaves the volcano the lava destroys many buildings and animals due to its extreme heat. Thirdly, volcanic ash meaning the cooled ash, may form a cloud, settle thickly in nearby locations; when mixed with water this forms a concrete-like material. In sufficient quantities, ash may cause roofs to collapse under its weight but small quantities will harm humans if inhaled. Since the ash has the consistency of ground glass, it causes abrasion damage to moving parts such as engines; the main killer of humans in the immediate surroundings of a volcanic eruption is the pyroclastic flows, which consist of a cloud of hot volcanic ash which builds up in the air above the volcano and rushes down the slopes when the eruption no longer supports the lifting of the gases. It is believed. A lahar is landslide; the 1953 Tangiwai disaster was caused by a lahar, as was the 1985 Armero tragedy in which the town of Armero was buried and an estimated 23,000 people were killed.
Volcanoes rated at 8 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index are known as supervolcanoes. According to the Toba catastrophe theory, 75,000 to 80,000 years ago a supervolcanic eruption at what is now Lake Toba in Sumatra reduced the human population to 10,000 or 1,000 breeding pairs, creating a bottleneck in human evolution, killed three-quarters of all plant life in the northern hemisphere. However, there is considerable debate regarding the veracity of this theory; the main danger from a supervolcano is the immense cloud of ash, which has a disastrous global effect on climate and temperature for many years. A violent and destructive change either in the quality of Earth's water or in the distribution or movement of water on land below the surface or in the atmosphere. A flood is an overflow of water that'submerges' land; the EU Floods Directive defines a flood as a temporary covering the land with water, not covered by water. In the sense of'flowing water', the word may be applied to the inflow of the tides.
Flooding may result from the volume of water within a body of water, such as a river or lake, which overflows, causing some of the water to escape its usual boundaries. While the size of a lake or other body of water will vary with seasonal changes in precipitation and snow melt, it is not a significant flood unless the water covers land used by man, like a village, city or other inhabited area, expanses of farmland, etc. A tsunami known as a seismic sea wave or as a tidal wave, is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water in an ocean or a large lake. Tsunamis can be caused by undersea earthquakes such as the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami, or by landslides such as the one in 1958 at Lituya Bay, Alaska, or by volcanic eruptions such as the ancient eruption of Santorini. On March 11, 2011, a tsunami occurred near Fukushima and spread through the Pacific Ocean. A limnic eruption occurs when a gas CO2 erupts from deep lake water, posing the threat of suffocating wildlife and humans.
Such an eruption may cause tsunamis in the la
OECD
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development is an intergovernmental economic organisation with 36 member countries, founded in 1961 to stimulate economic progress and world trade. It is a forum of countries describing themselves as committed to democracy and the market economy, providing a platform to compare policy experiences, seek answers to common problems, identify good practices and coordinate domestic and international policies of its members. Most OECD members are high-income economies with a high Human Development Index and are regarded as developed countries; as of 2017, the OECD member states collectively comprised 62.2% of global nominal GDP and 42.8% of global GDP at purchasing power parity. OECD is an official United Nations observer. In 1948, the OECD originated as the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation, led by Robert Marjolin of France, to help administer the Marshall Plan; this would be achieved by allocating United States financial aid and implementing economic programs for the reconstruction of Europe after World War II.
In 1961, the OEEC was reformed into the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development by the Convention on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and membership was extended to non-European states. The OECD's headquarters are at the Château de la Muette in France; the OECD is funded by contributions from member states at varying rates and had a total budget of €374 million in 2017. The Organisation for European Economic Co-operation was formed in 1948 to administer American and Canadian aid in the framework of the Marshall Plan for the reconstruction of Europe after World War II, it started its operations on 16 April 1948, originated from the work done by the Committee of European Economic Co-operation in 1947 in preparation for the Marshall Plan. Since 1949, it was headquartered in the Château de la Muette in France. After the Marshall Plan ended, the OEEC focused on economic issues. According to Yanis Varoufakis, the OEEC can be seen as a continental planning commission established by the victorious United States following the successful model of their planning commissions of the New Deal.
The economic philosophy these commission followed can be characterized as Keynesian. The lead in the organisation should be with a strong integration of the Germans. In the 1950s, the OEEC provided the framework for negotiations aimed at determining conditions for setting up a European Free Trade Area, to bring the European Economic Community of the six and the other OEEC members together on a multilateral basis. In 1958, a European Nuclear Energy Agency was set up under the OEEC. By the end of the 1950s, with the job of rebuilding Europe done, some leading countries felt that the OEEC had outlived its purpose, but could be adapted to fulfill a more global mission, it would be a hard-fought task, after several sometimes fractious meetings at the Hotel Majestic in Paris starting in January 1960, a resolution was reached to create a body that would deal not only with European and Atlantic economic issues, but devise policies to assist less developed countries. This reconstituted organisation would bring the US and Canada, who were OEEC observers, on board as full members.
It would set to work straight away on bringing in Japan. Following the 1957 Rome Treaties to launch the European Economic Community, the Convention on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development was drawn up to reform the OEEC; the Convention was signed in December 1960 and the OECD superseded the OEEC in September 1961. It consisted of the European founder countries of the OEEC plus the United States and Canada, with Japan joining three years later; the official founding members are: During the next 12 years Japan, Finland and New Zealand joined the organisation. Yugoslavia had observer status in the organisation starting with the establishment of the OECD until its dissolution as a country; the OECD created agencies such as the OECD Development Centre, International Energy Agency, Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering. Unlike the organisations of the United Nations system, OECD uses the spelling "organisation" with an "s" in its name rather than "organization". In 1989, after the Revolutions of 1989, the OECD started to assist countries in Central Europe to prepare market economy reforms.
In 1990, the Centre for Co-operation with European Economies in Transition was established, in 1991, the Programme "Partners in Transition" was launched for the benefit of Czechoslovakia and Poland. This programme included a membership option for these countries; as a result of this, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, as well as Mexico and South Korea became members of the OECD between 1994 and 2000. In the 1990s, a number of European countries, now members of the European Union, expressed their willingness to join the organisation. In 1995, Cyprus applied for membership, according to the Cypriot government, it was vetoed by Turkey. In 1996, Estonia and Lithuania signed a Joint Declaration expressing willingness to become full members of the OECD. Slovenia applied for membership that same year. In 2005, Malta applied to join the organisation; the EU is lobbying for admission of all EU member states. Romania reaffirmed in 2
Shibuya
Shibuya is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. A major commercial and business center, it houses the two busiest railway stations in the world, Shinjuku Station and Shibuya Station; as of May 1, 2016, it has an estimated population of 221,801 and a population density of 14,679.09 people per km2. The total area is 15.11 km2. The name "Shibuya" is used to refer to the shopping district which surrounds Shibuya Station, one of Tokyo's busiest railway stations; this area is known as one of the fashion centers of Japan for young people, as a major nightlife area. Shibuya was the site of a castle in which the Shibuya family resided from the 11th century through the Edo period. Following the opening of the Yamanote Line in 1885, Shibuya began to emerge as a railway terminal for southwestern Tokyo and as a major commercial and entertainment center; the village of Shibuya was incorporated in 1889 by the merger of the villages of Kami-Shibuya, Naka-Shibuya and Shimo-Shibuya within Minami-Toshima County. The village covered the territory of modern-day Shibuya Station area as well as the Hiroo, Daikanyama and Ebisu areas.
Shibuya became a town in 1909. The town of Shibuya merged with the neighboring towns of Sendagaya and Yokohama to form Shibuya suburban ward of Tokyo-fu in 1932. Tokyo-fu became Tokyo Metropolis in 1943, the present-day Shibuya-ku was established as an urban special ward on March 15, 1947; the Tokyu Toyoko Line opened in 1932, making Shibuya a key terminal between Tokyo and Yokohama, was joined by the forerunner of the Keio Inokashira Line in 1933 and the forerunner of the Tokyo Metro Ginza Line in 1938. One of the best-known stories concerning Shibuya is the story of Hachikō, a dog who waited on his late master at Shibuya Station every day from 1923 to 1935 becoming a national celebrity for his loyalty. A statue of Hachikō was built adjacent to the station, the surrounding Hachikō Square is now the most popular meeting point in the area. During the occupation of Japan, Yoyogi Park was used as a housing compound for U. S. personnel known as "Washington Heights." The U. S. military left in 1964, much of the park was repurposed as venues for the 1964 Summer Olympics.
The ward itself served as part of the athletics 50 km walk and marathon course during the 1964 games. Shibuya has achieved great popularity among young people since the early 1980s. There are several famous fashion department stores in Shibuya. Shibuya 109 is a major shopping center near Shibuya Station famous as the origin of the kogal subculture. Called "Ichi-Maru-kyū," which translates as 1–0–9 in Japanese, the name is a pun on that of the corporation that owns it — Tōkyū; the contemporary fashion scene in Shibuya extends northward from Shibuya Station to Harajuku, where youth culture reigns. During the late 1990s, Shibuya became known as the center of the IT industry in Japan, it was called "Bit Valley" in English, a pun on both "Bitter Valley", the literal translation of "Shibuya", as well as bit, the computer term for binary digits. During the early morning of January 1, 2019, a 21-year-old man named Kazuhiro Kusakabe drove his minicar into the crowd of pedestrians celebrating New Year's Day on Takeshita Street.
The man claimed his actions were a terrorist attack, stated that his intention was to retaliate against the usage of the death penalty. The man was soon apprehended by authorities in a nearby park. Shibuya includes many well-known commercial and residential districts such as Daikanyama, Harajuku, Higashi, Omotesandō, Yoyogi. Hatagaya Sasazuka, Honmachi Yoyogi Uehara, Ōyamachō, Hatsudai, Motoyoyogichō, Yoyogikamizonochō Sendagaya Sendagaya, Jingūmae Ebisu-Ōmukai Kamiyamachō, Udagawachō, Shōtō, Shinsenchō, Maruyamachō, Dōgenzaka, Nanpeidaichō, Sakuragaokachō, Hachiyamachō, Uguisudanichō, Sarugakuchō, Daikan'yamachō, Ebisuminami Hikawa-Shimbashi Shibuya, Ebisu, Hiroo Shibuya is run by a city assembly of 34 elected members; the mayor is an independent backed by the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito. Shibuya mayoral election, 2003 In 2015, as the council passed "Ordinance for Promoting Respect of Gender Equality and Diversity in the Ward", Shibuya Ward became the first Japanese municipality that issues same-sex partnership certificates According to this ordinance, same-sex couples who live in Shibuya are allowed "to rent apartments together, have gained hospital visitation rights as family members".
Shimizu expects the ordinance to bring three benefits to same-sex couples: " rental housing within the ward, medical institutions within the ward, employment conditions within the ward". In order to apply for the certificate, couples must be 20-years-old or older residents of Shibuya Ward and have to state that "their relationship is based on love and mutual trust" in a notarized document. Koyuki Higashi and Hiroko Masuhara, a lesbian couple, were the first to receive this certification. Since the Shibuya Ward passed the ordinanc
Peace Corps
The Peace Corps is a volunteer program run by the United States government. Its official mission is to provide social and economic development abroad through technical assistance, while promoting mutual understanding between Americans and populations served. Peace Corps Volunteers are American citizens with a college degree, who work abroad for a period of two years after three months of training. Volunteers work with governments, non-profit organizations, non-government organizations, entrepreneurs in education, information technology and the environment. After 24 months of service, volunteers can request an extension of service; the program was established by Executive Order 10924, issued by President John F. Kennedy on March 1, 1961 and authorized by Congress on September 21, 1961 with passage of the Peace Corps Act; the act declares the program's purpose as follows: To promote world peace and friendship through a Peace Corps, which shall make available to interested countries and areas men and women of the United States qualified for service abroad and willing to serve, under conditions of hardship if necessary, to help the peoples of such countries and areas in meeting their needs for trained manpower.
Since its inception, more than 235,000 Americans have joined the Peace Corps and served in 141 countries. The Peace Corps shows "the willingness of Americans to work at the grassroots level in order to help underdeveloped countries meet their needs"; the Peace Corps has affected the way people of other countries view Americans, how Americans view other countries, how Americans view their own country. Following the end of World War II, various members of the United States Congress proposed bills to establish volunteer organizations in developing countries. In December 1951 Representative John F. Kennedy suggested to a group that "young college graduates would find a full life in bringing technical advice and assistance to the underprivileged and backward Middle East... In that calling, these men would follow the constructive work done by the religious missionaries in these countries over the past 100 years." In 1952 Senator Brien McMahon proposed an "army" of young Americans to act as "missionaries of democracy".
Funded nonreligious organizations began sending volunteers overseas during the 1950s. While Kennedy is credited with the creation of the Peace Corps as president, the first initiative came from Senator Hubert H. Humphrey, Jr. who introduced the first bill to create the Peace Corps in 1957—three years before Kennedy, as a presidential candidate, would raise the idea during a campaign speech at the University of Michigan. In his autobiography The Education of a Public Man, Humphrey wrote, There were three bills of particular emotional importance to me: the Peace Corps, a disarmament agency, the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty; the President, asked me to introduce legislation for all three. I introduced the first Peace Corps bill in 1957, it did not meet with much enthusiasm. Some traditional diplomats quaked at the thought of thousands of young Americans scattered across their world. Many senators, including liberal ones, thought it an unworkable idea. Now, with a young president urging its passage, it became possible and we pushed it through the Senate.
It is fashionable now to suggest that Peace Corps Volunteers gained as much or more, from their experience as the countries they worked. That may be true, they made them better. Only in 1959, did the idea receive serious attention in Washington when Congressman Henry S. Reuss of Wisconsin proposed a "Point Four Youth Corps". In 1960, he and Senator Richard L. Neuberger of Oregon introduced identical measures calling for a nongovernmental study of the idea's "advisability and practicability". Both the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee endorsed the study, the latter writing the Reuss proposal into the pending Mutual Security legislation. In this form it became law in June 1960. In August the Mutual Security Appropriations Act was enacted, making available US$10,000 for the study, in November ICA contracted with Maurice Albertson, Andrew E. Rice, Pauline E. Birky of Colorado State University Research Foundation for the study. John F. Kennedy was the first to announce the idea for such an organization during the 1960 presidential campaign, on October 14, 1960, at a late-night speech at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor on the steps of the Michigan Union.
He dubbed the proposed organization the "Peace Corps." A brass marker commemorates the place. In the weeks after the 1960 election, the study group at Colorado State University released their feasibility a few days before Kennedy's Presidential Inauguration in January 1961. Critics opposed the program. Kennedy's opponent, Richard M. Nixon, predicted it would become a "cult of escapism" and "a haven for draft dodgers."Others doubted whether recent graduates had the necessary skills and maturity for such a task. The idea was popular among students and Kennedy pursued it, asking respected academics such as Max Millikan and Chester Bowles to help him outline the organization and its goals. During his inaugural address, Kennedy again promised to create the program: "And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country". President Kennedy in a speech at the White House on June 22, 1962, "Remarks to Student Volunteers Participating in Operation Crossroads Africa", acknowledged that Operation Crossroads for Africa was the basis for the development of the Peace Corps.
"This group and this effort were the progenitors of
National Diet
The National Diet is Japan's bicameral legislature. It is composed of a lower house called the House of Representatives, an upper house, called the House of Councillors. Both houses of the Diet are directly elected under parallel voting systems. In addition to passing laws, the Diet is formally responsible for selecting the Prime Minister; the Diet was first convened as the Imperial Diet in 1889 as a result of adopting the Meiji Constitution. The Diet took its current form in 1947 upon the adoption of the post-war constitution, which considers it the highest organ of state power; the National Diet Building is in Nagatachō, Tokyo. The houses of the Diet are both elected under parallel voting systems; this means that the seats to be filled in any given election are divided into two groups, each elected by a different method. Voters are asked to cast two votes: one for an individual candidate in a constituency, one for a party list. Any national of Japan at least 18 years of age may vote in these elections.
The age of 18 replaced 20 in 2016. Japan's parallel voting system is not to be confused with the Additional Member System used in many other nations; the Constitution of Japan does not specify the number of members of each house of the Diet, the voting system, or the necessary qualifications of those who may vote or be returned in parliamentary elections, thus allowing all of these things to be determined by law. However it does guarantee universal adult suffrage and a secret ballot, it insists that the electoral law must not discriminate in terms of "race, sex, social status, family origin, property or income". The election of Diet members is controlled by statutes passed by the Diet; this is a source of contention concerning re-apportionment of prefectures' seats in response to changes of population distribution. For example, the Liberal Democratic Party had controlled Japan for most of its post-war history, it gained much of its support from rural areas. During the post-war era, large numbers of people were relocating to the urban centers in the seeking of wealth.
The Supreme Court of Japan began exercising judicial review of apportionment laws following the Kurokawa decision of 1976, invalidating an election in which one district in Hyōgo Prefecture received five times the representation of another district in Osaka Prefecture. The Supreme Court has since indicated that the highest electoral imbalance permissible under Japanese law is 3:1, that any greater imbalance between any two districts is a violation of Article 14 of the Constitution. In recent elections the malapportionment ratio amounted to 4.8 in the House of Councillors and 2.3 in the House of Representatives. Candidates for the lower house must be 25 years old or older and 30 years or older for the upper house. All candidates must be Japanese nationals. Under Article 49 of Japan's Constitution, Diet members are paid about ¥1.3 million a month in salary. Each lawmaker is entitled to employ three secretaries with taxpayer funds, free Shinkansen tickets, four round-trip airplane tickets a month to enable them to travel back and forth to their home districts.
Article 41 of the Constitution describes the National Diet as "the highest organ of State power" and "the sole law-making organ of the State". This statement is in forceful contrast to the Meiji Constitution, which described the Emperor as the one who exercised legislative power with the consent of the Diet; the Diet's responsibilities include not only the making of laws but the approval of the annual national budget that the government submits and the ratification of treaties. It can initiate draft constitutional amendments, which, if approved, must be presented to the people in a referendum; the Diet may conduct "investigations in relation to government". The Prime Minister must be designated by Diet resolution, establishing the principle of legislative supremacy over executive government agencies; the government can be dissolved by the Diet if it passes a motion of no confidence introduced by fifty members of the House of Representatives. Government officials, including the Prime Minister and Cabinet members, are required to appear before Diet investigative committees and answer inquiries.
The Diet has the power to impeach judges convicted of criminal or irregular conduct. In most circumstances, in order to become law a bill must be first passed by both houses of the Diet and promulgated by the Emperor; this role of the Emperor is similar to the Royal Assent in some other nations. The House of Representatives is the more powerful chamber of the Diet. While the House of Representatives cannot overrule the House of Councillors on a bill, the House of Councillors can only delay the adoption of a budget or a treaty, approved by the House of Representatives, the House of Councillors has no power at all to prevent the lower house from selecting any Prime Minister it wishes. Furthermore, once appointed it is the confidence of the House of Representatives alone that the Prime Minister must enjoy in order to continue in office; the House of Representatives can overrule the upper house in the following circumstances: If a bill is adopted by the House of Representatives and either rejected, amended or not approved within 60 days by th
Chiyoda, Tokyo
Chiyoda is a special ward located in central Tokyo, Japan. It is known as Chiyoda City in English, it was formed in 1947 as a merger of Kanda and Kōjimachi wards following Tokyo City's transformation into Tokyo Metropolis. The modern Chiyoda ward exhibits contrasting Shitamachi and Yamanote geographical and cultural division; the Kanda area is in the core of the original commercial center of Edo-Tokyo. On the other hand, the western part of the Kōjimachi area represents a Yamanote district. Chiyoda consists of a surrounding radius of about a kilometer; as of May 2015, the ward has an estimated population of 54,462, a population density of 4,670 people per km², making it by far the least populated of the special wards. The total area is 11.66 km², of which the Imperial Palace, Hibiya Park, National Museum of Modern Art, Yasukuni Shrine take up 2.6 km², or 22% of the total area. Called the "political center" of the country, Chiyoda meaning "field of a thousand generations", inherited the name from the Chiyoda Castle.
With the seat of the Emperor in the Imperial Palace at the ward's center, many government institutions, such as the National Diet, the Prime Minister's Official Residence, the Supreme Court and agencies are located in Chiyoda, as are Tokyo landmarks such as Tokyo Station, Yasukuni Shrine and the Budokan. Akihabara, a district known for being an otaku cultural center and a shopping district for computer goods, is located in Chiyoda, as are fifteen embassies; the Chiyoda ward was created on March 1947 by the merger of Kanda Ward and Kōjimachi Ward. It has been a site of a number of historical events. In 1860, the assassination of Ii Naosuke took place outside the Sakurada Gate of the Imperial Palace. In 1932, assassins killed prime minister Inukai Tsuyoshi. In 1936, an attempted coup d'état, the February 26 Incident, occurred. In 1960, Socialist Party leader Inejirō Asanuma was assassinated in Hibiya Hall. In 1995, members of Aum Shinrikyo carried out the Tokyo subway sarin attack. Chiyoda is located at the heart of former Tokyo City in eastern mainland Tokyo.
The central area of the ward is furthermore occupied by the Imperial Palace. The east side of the ward, bordering Chūō, is the location of Tokyo Station; the south side, bordering Minato, encompasses the National Diet Building. It is exclusively occupied by administrations and agencies; the west and northwest are upper class residential. To the north and northeast are several residential neighborhoods and the Akihabara commercial district. Chiyoda is run by a city assembly of 25 elected members; the current mayor is an independent. For the Metropolitan Assembly, Chiyoda forms a single-member electoral district, it had been represented by Liberal Democrats for 50 years until the landslide 2009 election when 26-year-old Democratic newcomer Zenkō Kurishita unseated 70-year-old former Metropolitan Assembly president and six term assemblyman, Liberal Democrat Shigeru Uchida. In the 2013 election, no Democrat contested the seat and Uchida won back the district against a Communist and two independents.
The Tokyo Fire Department has its headquarters in Ōtemachi in Chiyoda. For the national House of Representatives, together with Minato and Shinjuku, forms the prefecture's 1st electoral district since the electoral reform of the 1990s; the district is represented by Constitutional Democrat Banri Kaieda. The ward is home to the National Diet, the Supreme Court of Japan and the residence of the Prime Minister of Japan and is the political nerve center of Japan; the Embassy of the United Kingdom is in Ichibancho in Chiyoda. The Embassy of Belgium has been located in the Kojimachi area since 1902 and at its location in Nibancho since 1928. During the reconstruction project from 2007 to 2009, the Belgian embassy was temporarily in Shibakoen, Minato ward; the Embassy of Ireland is located in the Kōjimachi area of Chiyoda. The Embassy of Israel is located in Niban-cho in Chiyoda; the Embassy of the Philippines is in Fujimi in Chiyoda. On December 31, 2001, Chiyoda had 6,572 buildings which were taller.
Some of the districts in Chiyoda are not inhabited, either because they are parks, because they consist only of office buildings, and/or because they are small. The area on the eastern side of Akihabara Station is the location of several districts that cover at most a few buildings. Kanda-Hanaokachō is, for example, limited to the Akihabara Station and the Yodobashi Camera department store. Understanding the address system in the Kanda area can be troublesome for non-locals. Kōjimachi Area, former Kōjimachi Ward The Banchō area, an upper class residential area, home of the embassies of Belgium, the UK and Israel. Chiyoda - "1 Chiyoda, Chiyoda-ku" is the official address of the Imperial Palace Fujimi, location of the Philippines embassy as well as several schools Hayabusachō - Houses the Supreme Court of Japan and the National Theater Hibiya Kōen - Address for Hibiya Park, a large park south of the Imperial Palace Hirakawachō Iidabashi Kasumigaseki - The nerve center of Japan's administrative agencies Kioichō - The name, ki-o-i, is a three-kanji acronym consisting of one kanji each from the names of the Kishū Domain, Owari Domain, Ii clan, whose daimyō residences were here during the Edo period Kitanomaru Park, North of the imperial palace
.jpg)
