We kept circling back to war—not just the ongoing violence between Israel and Palestine but also the history of military aggression of and in Japan It’s invasion of neighboring nations in the Pacific and the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki she earned a master’s degree studying literature related to the atomic bomb and frequently teaches on the topic It clicked for me then why Eiko’s work is so powerful Her art isn’t a historical reenactment of devastation she draws our attention to how trauma reverberates and lingers in landscapes—like the empty streets and train stations in Fukushima—and potentially I spoke with Eiko over Zoom while she was on tour with Wen Hui weaving together a series of personal recollections about war They don’t (and perhaps never could) offer solutions for ending conflict but instead pose a more pressing question: What is life in the shadow of war I want to start with the piece that you're currently touring So much of it is about your personal recollections of conflict What are your experiences growing up in post-war Japan which happened to be the year America’s occupation ended Japan’s delay in inevitable surrender allowed the US to air raid most Japanese cities and drop two atomic bombs I grew up reading novels and seeing films created by the people who experienced World War ll Even comic books had grotesque stories and descriptions which I later realized were created by World War ll survivors I learned that Japan’s military men often mistreated prisoners of war While they might not have talked about their experiences when they came back but he surrendered to Soviet troops and became a POW in Siberia for four years My other uncle was a painter but pretended to be blind I learned that even if people can’t change a system under fascist power I was surrounded by grown-ups who regretted Japan’s aggression in World War II I knew many victims of America’s air raids recognized that Japan’s military perpetrated violence in the countries they invaded was that around 65% of Japanese soldiers starved to death You're making me think about Japan's current depopulation crisis. In a recent T Magazine photo essay capturing impermanence in Kyoto and Koyasan's landscape and abandoned buildings the author wrote tellingly about "the discomfort of living in the knowledge that all steady states must collapse." So many young people move to the big cities There are communities that no longer have a bus line because so few people live there In a large series of photographs with William [Bill] Johnston he captures you wandering the deserted streets of Fukushima At this point even natural disasters are hard to distinguish from human ones due to global warming—though a nuclear meltdown is clearly a man-made disaster communities became a no-man's land for a long time plants and animals thrived and took over the land But it was important for me to be there and to be upset You can measure the radiation by machine but you cannot see or smell it I need to feel it so deeply that I cannot forget can other people see that in the photograph I wouldn’t have brought anyone else with me to Fukushima except Bill and radiation is more dangerous for younger people Or how do you think it will affect the next phase of your career When I was younger I had other obligations Many friends I am happy to spend time with are also dead We've worked together now three times and in our personal conversations we've talked often about aging You both were constantly moving around Green-Wood’s historic chapel dragging You were only illuminated by this large projection on the walls—a film that you made in a rock quarry in Sweden "What does it mean for our two aged bodies to have these large massive rocks around us?" I'm curious how you would answer that so this wrinkled body is like an older tree There's a texture to my body that is old though granted some trees are much much older Stone time is a whole lot longer than tree time When I am with a material that is so different from our bodies When Margaret and I performed with the stones our audience saw a different time from our human time scale Yet our lives are still so short next to stone there's this vulnerability to being around the dead In some ways I’d imagine it’s the same vulnerability with your body on display The viewer is witnessing you and recognizing your body and how it’s aged They hold a time that is of a different scale A cemetery is intended to be a forever place and you think it will last the rest of time The bodies buried deep underground don't stay in place That is one of the reasons why I love working in a cemetery There's such a massive amount of what used to be bodies within the landscape And even though you don't want to think about it when you walk through there which was in late September in the middle of COVID we chose a site that you had to walk a long while to get to In Japan we say fireflies are the spirit of the dead In a cemetery we give away our power of planning and our power of choreography We become an extension of the landscape and the time this cemetery holds rural environment from the nineteenth century it's a park." But I always make sure to correct them we're a cemetery." You can't get away from the dead here And in some ways we shouldn't get away from the dead you were the sole performer in this massive natural amphitheater in the middle of Green-Wood The audience was watching you in this beautiful act of care when so many people were just taking stock of how much had been lost Being there in the cemetery forced them to look deeper at that loss even though there’s evidence of it all around you It's not as immediate and sad as visiting your closest friend dying in a hospital A cemetery is a great place for a human being to feel and to be able to think about death beyond our fading body or maybe my grandchild who is going to live way beyond my life Sometimes the grandchild passes before the grandmother but there's nothing we can do to change that I found so many graves for young children there too The good thing is that even though we may not want to die there might be a sense of attention given to it My husband is a priest who deals with death a lot He describes religion beautifully as providing a framework for understanding what you're experiencing rather than simply saying “Don’t worry about it.” I know not everyone is religious but it does help to remind us we're not alone in facing mortality His chant allowed us to think and weep collectively with the people who knew them I appreciated that religion made a certain culture that enabled us to collectively mourn rather than look at each other You don't have to be a consumer buying an expensive gravestone You just need to do what you think is appropriate to mark death in which your dying does not get personal attention or care You die in the middle of many people screaming where there’s a funeral service and lots of people come When they are thought of for the last time I remember my teacher performing his dances I'm very much encouraged by my own recollection of those moments I think the death of someone I care about brings that person’s voice more vividly into my body I might ask myself what I want others to remember about me FOX21 News Colorado has been charged with second-degree attempted murder Gerhardt Konig is accused of pushing his wife into the bushes near a cliff's edge on March 24.The doctor who is accused of trying to kill his wife on a Hawaii hiking trail pleaded not guilty on Monday during a court appearance via video conference Gerhardt Konig's not guilty plea is "a substantive response to the allegation that he tried to kill his wife," his attorney and thus far only one side has been shared," Otake said "The other side to this story will be shared within the court process at the appropriate time." Arielle Konig alleged she was on the Pali Puka Trail on Oahu with her husband to celebrate her birthday on March 24 when Gerhardt Konig stood near the edge and asked her to take a selfie with him She said she didn't feel comfortable being that close to the edge allegedly "yelled at her to come back he pushed her into the bushes," the documents said As Gerhardt Konig pushed her toward the cliff's edge he "was yelling something to the effect of I'm so f------- sick of you!'" according to another court document Arielle Konig said he hit her in the head with a rock about 10 times while grabbing the back of her head and smashing her face into the ground She said she then saw her husband take two syringes from his bag and "attempt to use them on her but she was able to get them away from him," the documents said Gerhardt Konig was arrested and charged with second-degree attempted murder Arielle Konig said she suffered a broken thumb bruising on her head and body and severe lacerations to her face and scalp She was hospitalized and has since been released The Konigs live on Maui with their two sons Arielle Konig filed a petition for a temporary restraining order "I am fearful that if Gerhardt is released from custody he will return to Maui and attempt to harm or kill me as well as harm or kill our children or other family members." Gerhardt Konig accused her of having an affair "which led to extreme jealousy on his part" and led him to try to "control and monitor all of my communications," the petition said She said they went to individual and couples counseling AD Leave a rating/comment#Nihonga / UkiyoeBack to ArticlesSHARE Yuki Otake presented Playboy — his most personal collection yet in sync with the pulsing bassline that rattles throughout the warehouse a dissonance of textures: coarse wool against slick nylon structured coats swallowing softer silhouettes underneath Tokyo-born designer’s debut New York Fashion Week show — his brand was selected for the Global Fashion Collective showcase at the Chelsea Factory in Manhattan just two years after it first hit the scene It’s not difficult to see why: His designs are assured “Fashion is always evolving,” Otake tells me the day before the show nursing a coffee at The Ace Hotel New York “Editing isn’t just about clothes — it’s about identity about continuously reshaping and editing yourself Otake’s path into fashion wasn’t forged by industry connections nor was it shaped by glossy magazine dreams his younger brother was diagnosed with cancer a shift that forced him to question not just what was possible for his brother he didn’t want his brother to see dreams as luxuries he became the youngest designer and production manager at United Tokyo — a huge milestone given its moniker and abundant use of the Playboy rabbit logo This is actually an homage to Otake’s grandmother and the Playboy × Gucci tracksuit she always used to wear when he was growing up wasn’t just branding — it was a symbol of something playful The Playboy collection distorts and redefines the sensuality of American casualwear through Otake’s precise marked by sharp structure and meticulous detail He dismantles the iconic Playboy logo and reimagines it with code lace — a fabric he has used since his earliest designs which are sewn into lace fabric to create decorative patterns sculptural texture that adds depth and dimension its delicate yet structured quality has become a hallmark of Otake’s work A similar dissonance courses through every silhouette — distressed leopard-print denim layered under a sharply tailored coat; lace where it shouldn’t be; a collarbone revealed at an unexpected angle. “Sensuality isn’t just about exposure — it’s about imbalance,” Otake tells me “The friction between reckless and refined The room is still buzzing with residual energy with the kind of stunned quiet that follows something unexpected lodged somewhere beneath the skin.   Where all of this leads. “I’m already thinking about what’s next I’m planning to expand across Asia and make a name for myself in New York soon,” he says Shop Vi E Dit’s latest collection here. Eiko Otake is a movement-based, interdisciplinary artist. She was born and raised in Japan and has been a resident of New York since 1976. After working for more than 40 years as Eiko & Koma, she now performs as a soloist and directs her own projects collaborating with a diverse range of artists. Home Clinical Trial Registration:UMIN Clinical Trials Registry, identifier UMIN000036667. Volume 8 - 2021 | https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2021.633076 This article is part of the Research TopicInteraction in Robot-Assistive Elderly CareView all 9 articles Social interaction might prevent or delay dementia but little is known about the specific effects of various social activity interventions on cognition This study conducted a single-site randomized controlled trial (RCT) of Photo-Integrated Conversation Moderated by Robots (PICMOR) a group conversation intervention program for resilience against cognitive decline and dementia PICMOR was compared to an unstructured group conversation condition Sixty-five community-living older adults participated in this study The intervention was provided once a week for 12 weeks Primary outcome measures were the cognitive functions; process outcome measures included the linguistic characteristics of speech to estimate interaction quality Baseline and post-intervention data were collected PICMOR contains two key features: 1) photos taken by the participants are displayed and discussed sequentially; and 2) a robotic moderator manages turn-taking to make sure that participants are allocated the same amount of time one of the subcategories of cognitive functions verbal fluency significantly improved in the intervention group a part of the subcategories of linguistic characteristics of speech the amount of speech and richness of words and answers in total utterances were larger for the intervention group This study demonstrated for the first time the positive effects of a robotic social activity intervention on cognitive function in healthy older adults via RCT The group conversation generated by PICMOR may improve participants’ verbal fluency since participants have more opportunity to provide their own topics asking and answering questions which results in exploring larger vocabularies PICMOR is available and accessible to community-living older adults Clinical Trial Registration:UMIN Clinical Trials Registry determining the effectiveness of social activity intervention on cognitive health is necessary Cognitive changes in older adults are highly variable from person to person which may also lead to diversity in the level and manner of participation in a group conversation and of outcomes If there is enough of an imbalance in the amount of speech for the participants the participants may end up participating in functionally different cognitive tasks no study so far has measured the manner of participation in a group conversation or its differential effects on cognition in healthy older adults the number of spoken words contributed by the participant or interviewer serves as a metric to improve the standardization of the individual interviewers' interview skills the number of words spoken by each participant during conversation sessions has not been reported which are oriented to eliminate older adults’ communication difficulties with healthcare professionals but they are applicable to the communication among older adults as well Specific recommendations are the use of photos as supports giving each participant equal opportunity to talk and verifying comprehension through question and answer sessions The design of the robot-guided intervention proposed here—specifically the control on the amount of speech from each participant—is based on the recommendation that each participant has equal opportunity to talk We assume that the amount of speech or the number of words in each conversation intervention is a fundamental variable representing intensity which is equivalent to the amount of weight in resistance training This paper addresses the lack of quantification of conversation intervention in the existing studies The objectives here are to propose PICMOR as a protocol designed to guarantee the intensity of conversation intervention and then to discuss the effect on cognition in the light of linguistic characteristics This study’s purpose was to gather evidence of the effects of PICMOR on cognition in healthy older adults and to validate PICMOR using a randomized controlled trial (RCT) We will discuss the effects and their possible sources Group conversation without guidance or feedback was used in the control group; conversation was encouraged in both groups (instead of using a control group with less conversation) to allow variation in speech amounts among participants to emerge and examine the possibility that balanced speech may have positive effects on the cognition of older adults This paper first focuses on the primary and secondary outcome measures of the trial we explore process outcome measures: linguistic characteristics of speeches in both groups to compare interaction quality and the number of photos taken and memory recall scores of the intervention to estimate engagement Our hypothesis is that participants who complete the PICMOR intervention will show subsequent improvement on certain subcategories of cognitive functions and quality of life from baseline to post-treatment compared to participants in the active control program There were no drop-outs to follow-up during the intervention The assessors were not involved in the intervention delivery Intervention group participants received weekly 30 min intervention sessions each followed by 30 min of explanation about the intervention The active control sessions in the control group involved 30 min of weekly unstructured conversation among the group and 30 min of health education about successful aging The common instruction to both groups is “Please talk as usual as possible although you do not know each other in the beginning.” Each group was divided into four-person subgroups with both men and women formed on the basis of participants’ availability The Institutional Review Board approved this study All participants provided written informed consent This study was registered after the onset of participant enrollment The participants were community-living healthy adults aged over 65 years recruited from the Silver Human Resources Center The exclusion criteria were as follows: dementia; neurological impairment; any disease or medication known to affect the central nervous system; MMSE-J score less than 24 PICMOR is an integrative intervention program supporting the preparation of conversation topics, time management, and turn-taking in conversations, and reflection on the topics. The PICMOR program consists of three phases: preparation, conversation, and recall (see Figure 2). A block diagram of RCT based on the PICMOR program is shown in Figure 3 In order to make participants well-prepared and focused during the conversation preparation and recall phases precede and follow the conversation Experimental setup for Photo-Integrated Conversation Moderated by Robots (PICMOR) A block diagram of the RCT based on the PICMOR program 24 photos were used for each participant during the 12 weeks of intervention The photos were used rather than video clips or sounds because participants can talk while the photos are displayed during the moderated conversation phase it’s time to start a conversation session.” is given in the beginning of the first round “Thank you very much for active conversation to you all.” is given at the end of the second round The instruction named “x” is given occasionally when the imbalance of the amount of speech among participants is observed A block diagram of the moderated conversation phase in the PICMOR program Each participant wore a headset-microphone that recorded his/her voice to measure each participant’s speech precisely This audio data was transmitted in real-time from the microphones to a computer via cables to precisely measure and balance the amounts of speech and to transcribe the speech for linguistic analysis we also recorded videos to capture the details of each conversation Participants were filmed from behind to protect their privacy The primary outcome measures in the present study were cognitive performance measures evaluated by standardized neuropsychological tests conducted by well-trained examiners. The following tests were selected hypothesizing that the conversational intervention would lead to improving memory, attention, executive function since conversations are reported to require these functions (Ybarra et al., 2008; Ybarra and Winkielman, 2012) and Digit Symbol Coding tests were also used Digit Span Forward assesses simple memory span and Digit Span Backward assesses working memory capacity The Digit Symbol Coding test assesses the process speed and memory in digit symbol coding performance which requires the subject to write down each corresponding symbol as fast as possible letter fluency was evaluated to measure verbal function; specifically participants were asked to pronounce as many words as possible starting with the Japanese character “ka” in 1 min and then the total number of words was counted The secondary outcome measures covered subjective physical and mental status and quality of life. The Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology-Index of Competence (TMIG-IC) (Koyano et al., 1991), the Japanese version of the Geriatric Depression Scale short form (GDS-15-J) (Sugishita et al., 2017), and the WHO Quality of Life questionnaire 26 (WHO QOL 26) (Tazaki and Nakane, 1997) were used Welch’s t-test was used to compare the means of continuous variables (Age and TMIC-IC) and Fisher’s exact test was used to compare frequency distributions of categorical variables (Gender and Education) between groups To estimate the intervention effects on the aforementioned outcome measures, linear mixed models with random-effect intercepts for participants were performed for all outcome measures using the “lmer” function in the R package, “lme4” (Bates et al., 2015) we quantified the conversational characteristics for each participant as a simple index based on the number of unique words the speech contains much more information in terms of the number of vocabulary items We also assigned tags indicating the defining characteristics of the Coimagination method to each utterance we checked the data for any correlations between each participant’s total number of utterances and their percentages of tags to ascertain whether those who tended to provide their own topics also had a higher total number of utterances In addition to this analysis at the individual level we also conducted a similar analysis at the aggregate level; that is according to the total number of utterances (hereafter referred to as the “Higher” and “Lower” subgroups We did this with the data for both the intervention and control groups pooled participant’s data within them and then analyzed the differences in the proportions of the tags between the subgroups we were able to examine the extent to which speech characteristics differ according to the total number of utterances and the conditions (i.e. We conducted these analyses with R Ver. 3.4.3 (R-Core Team, 2020) We evaluated participants’ engagement in preparing topics for future conversations based on the number of photos taken per session per participant under the assumption that more photos indicated more effort to find topics for the next conversation session We also referred to the participants’ comments on why they took a large or small number of photos We evaluated the accuracy rates of the photo recall tasks If the accuracy rate of the immediate recall task was high we assumed that attention and short-term memory were functioning well if the accuracy rate of the delayed recall task was high recent memory was estimated to be well-functioning Seven participants were excluded at screening because they meet our exclusion criteria. Therefore, a sample of 65 people was divided into intervention and control groups (intervention: n = 32, control: n = 33). Participants in each group were divided into eight subgroups of four to five participants. Basic characteristics of study participants at baseline are presented in Table 3 The only significant difference found between groups was a significantly higher GDS-15 score in the control group All participants completed the program and post-measurement Table 4 summarizes cognitive test scores within participants (pre- and post-experiment) and between participants (intervention and control groups) In Logical Memory I and II and Digit Symbol tests overall scores significantly improved after the intervention there was no significant time × group interaction on the scores neither main effects nor interaction effects were found a significant time × group interaction was obtained The regression coefficient of time × group associated with verbal fluency was 2.024 (f2 = 0.017) meaning the number of generated words between pre- and post-experiment was approximately two words more than in the control group—from 11.8 at pre-experiment to 13.6 at post-experiment—while there was little change in the control group from pre-experiment (11.4) to post-experiment (11.2) and WHO QOL26—no intervention effects were found Comparison of Pre/Post cognitive test scores in intervention and control groups The linear mixed model (random effect of group) suggests that logTTR in the intervention group was larger than in the control group (p = 0.029) The results demonstrate that the program intervention led the speech to contain more diverse information robot Bono-05 can promote and suppress speech during the session The average number of instances of promotion and suppression of speech by the robot during each session per participant was 1.20 (SD = 1.81) and 0.95 (SD = 1.67) Boxplots for results of conversational analysis (B) standard deviation (SD) of number of words ***p < 0.001 Supplementary Table S1 presents the total number of utterances per participant and the breakdown of the tags. The percentage-stacked bar plot for the data is shown in Figure 6. In the analysis at the individual level for this data, we found no clear tendency for those who tended not to provide topics to also have a lower total number of utterances. However, suggestive results were revealed at the aggregate level. As shown in Table 5 which gives the proportions of the four types of tags within the intervention and control groups the intervention group has higher percentages of topic provision even among the subgroups of participants with the fewer utterances in the intervention and control groups the differences in the percentages of these tags between the Higher and Lower subgroups is small the percentage of questions is even higher in the Lower subgroup We implemented Fisher's exact tests to compare the differences in proportions of the three focal tags (i.e. and reply) and their complements within the subgroups of intervention and control groups 1) the Higher and Lower subgroups of the control group 2) the Higher and Lower subgroups of the intervention group 3) the Higher subgroups of the control and intervention groups and 4) the Lower subgroups of the control and intervention groups All the differences were significant at the 5% level except for the reply tag in the case of 2) The percent stacked bar plot for four types of utterances The horizontal axis stands for the rank order of the total number of utterances (the person on the left has the most utterances and the person on the right has the least) within the control and intervention groups The numbers and proportions of four types of utterances within the subgroups All participants in the intervention group successfully used smartphones to take photos it was their first time using a smartphone The number of photos per session per participant ranged from 2 to 116 (M = 15.43 Participants who took many photos mentioned that they were interested in or excited about taking photos while those who took few photos said that they were busy The total number of photos taken was 5,924 The average scores on immediate and delayed recall tasks were 98.88 and 97.60% Robots assisting older adults with cognitive impairment or dementia have been studied but they didn’t aim at improving cognitive functions Two of the common points regarding the conversational protocol of the previous studies as compared to that of the PICMOR program are that 1) topics are set such as “childhood memories,” “hobbies,” “siblings and parents,” and “movies/books,” and 2) a daily picture prompt is used The intention in using these topics and prompts was to stimulate the conversation to get spontaneous responses in order to take full advantage of this synthetic aspect of conversation Differences between the two conversational protocols include the following: 1) the role of participants in the previous studies was that of a speaker (answering the questions asked by interviewers) while the PICMOR program participants were both speakers and interviewers (alternating between the two); 2) the amount of speech was regulated by the trained human interviewers in the previous studies but by the robot moderator in the PICMOR program; 3) pictures were provided by the researchers in the previous studies while photos were taken by the participants in the PICMOR program; 4) only the PICMOR program had a recall phase conversation length was a common factor among all the studies web-based conversational interventions were more intensive while the PICMOR program lasted for 12 weeks and were weekly Considering the common points and differences verbal fluency improvement may have resulted from spontaneous speaking where the amount of such speech was regulated by the protocol Even though the PICMOR program was less intensive the preparation of topics and taking photos beforehand and the asking questions and recalling the photos while conversing may have increased concentration and engagement so as to amplify the intervention effect Further investigation into the essential parts of the protocol is needed which declines significantly at the onset of dementia may gain some time to go below the level of dementia in later life this intervention may increase verbal fluency our analysis at the aggregate level found that the intervention group had higher percentages of utterances relevant to the Coimagination method (characterized as topic provision with a smaller total number of utterances in the intervention group No clear correlations were found at the individual level These results suggest that the intervention created an environment in which even those who speak less can talk relatively more about relevant things The results also provide the following possible explanation of the mechanism of improvement of verbal fluency through our intervention program by talking about their own topics (providing topic tags) participants retrieved vocabulary they had already had by actively listening to and asking questions about topics provided by other participants (question tag) the vocabulary triggered by other participants’ utterances was retrieved by actively listening to and answering questions about their own topics (reply tag) the vocabulary that they had had was further retrieved The scores of both groups improved significantly after the Logical Memory I and II and Digit Symbol tests The major reason may be that both intervention and control conditions included active group conversation Another reason may be that the tests had learning effects The trial will be conducted with a less active control condition to clarify the main reason for these improvements The interesting point is that both groups engaged in conversations but the manner of participation was different This might have led to the difference in verbal fluency which was reported to improve in previous conversational intervention studies The implication here is that the manner of participation in conversations is a key to the gaining of cognitive benefits from them that the lack of conversation intervention quantification in the existing studies is a problem and that controlling the amount of speech for intensity management is effective PICMOR is applicable to practice and measurement support using methods with group sessions such as cognitive stimulation therapy and group reminiscence therapy Methods with group sessions generally require at least one trained facilitator per group leading to increased training and hiring costs PICMOR may increase scalability by obviating the need for human facilitator per group A human instructor can remain to support participants who have special needs several group conversations can be coordinated by one human instructor operating multiple robots building robots should also become cheaper at increased scale This study was of relatively short length and held infrequent (i.e., weekly) sessions. Thorough investigation of the demonstrated effect of PICMOR warrants a longer study with more frequent sessions: for example, two or three times a week for two years, as in FINGER, the multi-modal lifestyle intervention study (Ngandu et al., 2015) This should also increase the visibility of the effects A follow-up study is planned to investigate whether PICMOR may slow down cognitive decline and delay dementia for years While the verbal function improvement is certainly an effect of conversation some of the effects of PICMOR may be caused not by group conversation but by using photos and robots The purpose of this study is to propose an effective and reproducible intervention program in which group conversation characterized by balanced speech production is realized The effect of each item should be further studied to make clear which aspect of PICMOR is essential for positive effects to occur The datasets presented in this article are not readily available because a joint research agreement is required for data sharing, but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. Requests to access the datasets should be directed to MO-M, bWlob2tvLm90YWtlQHJpa2VuLmpw The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by RIKEN The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study ST: the robot platform for the experiment and manuscript writing KW: manuscript concept and manuscript writing HS: data collection and manuscript writing All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version This work was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (17H05920; 18KT0035; 19H01138 the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JPMJCR20G1) TKi has received consultant fees from Otsuka and speaker’s honoraria from Banyu TKu has received speakers’; honoraria from Dainippon Sumitomo and has received research funds from Suntory The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest We are deeply grateful to Yoshinori Fujiwara (Tokyo Metropolitan Geriatric Hospital and Institute of Gerontology) Hiroyuki Suzuki (Tokyo Metropolitan Geriatric Hospital and Institute of Gerontology) The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frobt.2021.633076/full#supplementary-material Supplementary Table 1 The numbers of four types of utterances and their sum per participant Compensatory mechanisms in higher-educated subjects with Alzheimer's disease: a study of 20 years of cognitive decline PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Sex differences in exercise efficacy to improve cognition: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials in older humans CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Bartoń, K. 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Available at: https://www.who.int/mental_health/neurology/dementia/guidelines_risk_reduction/en/ Google Scholar “A system that assists group conversation of older adults by evaluating speech duration and facial expression of each participant during conversation,” in IEEE international conference on robotics and automation CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Mental exercising through simple socializing: social interaction promotes general cognitive functioning PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar On-line social interactions and executive functions PubMed Abstract | CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Social support and verbal interaction are differentially associated with cognitive function in midlife and older age CrossRef Full Text | Google Scholar Kishimoto T and Kudo T (2021) Cognitive Intervention Through Photo-Integrated Conversation Moderated by Robots (PICMOR) Program: A Randomized Controlled Trial Received: 24 November 2020; Accepted: 17 February 2021;Published: 12 April 2021 Copyright © 2021 Otake-Matsuura, Tokunaga, Watanabe, Abe, Sekiguchi, Sugimoto, Kishimoto and Kudo. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited in accordance with accepted academic practice distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms *Correspondence: Mihoko Otake-Matsuura, bWlob2tvLm90YWtlQHJpa2VuLmpw Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher 94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or goodLearn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish Get the best experience and stay connected to your community with our Spectrum News app. Learn More District Court judge upheld a 1994 state law prohibiting anyone under the age of 21 from acquiring firearms and ammunition except for hunting and other specified purposes In denying a motion for preliminary injunction in the case of Elijah Pinales, et. A. v. Anne E. Lopez District Judge Jill Otake ruled that the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate that they were likely to succeed in their constitutional challenge and had failed to show that enjoining the age restriction would serve the public interest 18; firearms dealers Aloha Strategics LLC and JGB Arms LLC; and the advocacy group Second Amendment Foundation It alleges that the state’s firearms age-restriction laws violate the Second Amendment “There is a strong historical tradition in this country of restricting the type of arms that people under 21 years old may keep and bear,” Otake stated in her ruling adding that the plaintiffs had not demonstrated that the state’s current laws are inconsistent with that principle.  Otake noted in her decision that “this order in no way affects the ability of people under 21 to use firearms in accordance with the State’s law “Hawaii’s gun laws protect public safety and save lives,” said Ewan Rayner who along with fellow deputy solicitor general Thomas Hughes represented the state in the case. “Today’s decision confirms that the state’s age limit on acquiring a firearm which has been in effect for over 30 years is consistent with a long history of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of our youths.” Michael Tsai covers local and state politics for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at michael.tsai@charter.com A former Pittsburgh doctor Monday pleaded not guilty to charges that he tried to kill his wife last month in Hawaii Police arrested Gerhardt Konig, 46, a former UPMC anesthesiologist who lived in Mt. Lebanon, after authorities say he bludgeoned his wife Arielle’s head with a rock and tried to push her off the cliff of a Hawaii hiking trail March 24 who got married at their million-dollar South Hills home in 2018 moved from Pennsylvania to Hawaii about two years ago in Pittsburgh — Konig appeared from jail via a video link in a criminal courtroom in Honolulu and entered his plea in front of Circuit Court Judge Rowena Somerville Konig’s not guilty plea this morning was not just a formality but a substantive response to the allegation that he tried to kill his wife,” attorney Thomas M said in a prepared statement after the plea hearing “There are two sides to every story — and thus far only one side has been shared,” Otake said Konig’s attorney said his client plans to explain in court what happened on the morning Konig walked with — and allegedly attacked — Arielle Konig at Nu’uana Pali Lookout whose narrow ridges are bounded on both sides by steep drops The couple had traveled to a Waikiki hotel on Oahu from their home in Maui leaving the kids home with a nanny and family to celebrate Arielle’s 36th birthday Arielle Konig had been hospitalized with lacerations and a broken thumb which she said was crushed by her husband with a rock Her updated medical condition was not available Monday Konig remained jailed Monday in Oahu Community Correctional Center Konig was denied bail after a grand jury indicted him March 28 A judge also has issued an order barring any contact between Konig and his family Investigative stories and local news updates Coverage of the Hawaiʻi State legislature in 2025 Award winning in-depth reports and featured on-going series Get the week’s news delivered straight to your inbox A proposed settlement could become final by early 2025 Parties to a proposed Maui wildfire settlement have agreed to dismiss a federal class action lawsuit inching the process toward relief for victims of the August 2023 fires.  District Court Judge Jill Otake will allow the suit to end The fire victims want the federal case dismissed Kamehameha Schools and others who are being sued in the Maui fires case A document filed Tuesday makes their position clear Otake issued an order saying that not all of the parties in the litigation had signed the dismissal document as required by rules governing civil cases She gave the parties a day to fix the technical error and refile the global insurance industry wants to keep the federal case open and Otake hasn’t ruled out the insurers’ request The outcome could have a significant impact on a final settlement and payment for victims The important action related to the fires is happening in state court but a prolonged federal class action could delay and possibly kill the proposed settlement After a string of defeats in state court, insurers want to use the federal courts to pursue lawsuits against HECO and others found to have caused the fire which killed 102 people and destroyed much of Lahaina.  The insurers, including some 140 companies from across the globe, have argued that the federal courts provide a more impartial forum for them than Hawaii state court lawyers for the settling parties have accused the insurers of “blatant forum shopping,” seeking help from Otake after their losses before state judges By early 2025, the Hawaii Supreme Court is expected to decide a question that could help the parties finalize the proposed settlement the potential for a home-court advantage for the Hawaii parties is apparent including insurers from as far away as London and Zurich are fighting individual Maui fire victims and some of Hawaii’s oldest institutions which are trying to get money to the victims Josh Green helped negotiate the proposed settlement and has criticized the insurers The insurers have essentially argued that they should have a say in whether the federal case is dismissed a continuing federal case could mean more than a supposedly fairer venue for the insurers It also could mean a quagmire of federal court proceedings and appeals that could cause the proposed settlement to fall apart The insurers have paid out more than $2.3 billion in claims to Maui fire victims so far, and they want to be able to sue the parties responsible for the fire to recoup their losses Such so-called subrogation suits are customary in mass disaster litigation But the settling parties want Hawaii courts to stop the subrogation suits instead of being able to sue those responsible for starting and fueling the fires the insurers would have to go after the fire victims – essentially sue their own customers – to recoup the insurance losses Reports of a global settlement were greatly exaggerated It’s true that Hawaiian Electric Industries and its subsidiaries have agreed to pay $1.99 billion and Kamehameha Schools $872.5 million The state of Hawaii is expected to contribute approximately $800 million And the rest of the $4.04 billion will be covered by parties such as Spectrum and Hawaiian Telecom The victims and their lawyers have agreed that’s enough It specifically requires “each and every Subrogation Plaintiff” to give up their claims before the proposal can become a final settlement And the insurers won’t give up those claims the proposed settlement gives the settling parties another option: They can get an order from a trial court requiring the insurers to recoup their losses from the fire victims rather than the parties responsible for starting the fire the victims and other settling parties have asked Maui Circuit Court Judge Peter Cahill for such an order The insurers argue that order would be contrary to Hawaii law And those are the key questions that Cahill has punted to the Hawaii Supreme Court The Hawaii Supreme Court is expected to make a decision in early 2025 If Otake dismisses the federal case and the Supreme Court rules for the settling victims and defendants that will allow the proposed settlement to become final and the process of allocating settlement proceeds can start How to address victims who opt out of the settlement isn’t clear Also not known is how much each victim will get and when Another issue is legal fees for the victims’ lawyers which could eat up $1 billion of the $4.04 billion settlement If the Supreme Court rules in favor of the insurers then the current proposed settlement would likely fail putting the victims back in limbo unless the insurers agree to settle Civil Beat’s coverage of Maui County is supported in part by a grant from the Nuestro Futuro Foundation Unfortunately, being named a finalist for a Pulitzer prize doesn’t make us immune to financial pressures. The fact is, our revenue hasn’t kept pace with our need to grow, and we need your help Civil Beat is a nonprofit, reader-supported newsroom based in Hawaiʻi. We’re looking to build a more resilient, diverse and deeply impactful media landscape, and we hope you’ll help by supporting our essential journalism Civil Beat has been named the best overall news site in Hawaii for the 14th year in a row by the Society of Professional Journalists Hawaii Chapter Amerie Otake of Kiffmann’s Maui Elite Taekwondo Center became the 2024/2025 USAT Taekwondo National Team champion this week after taking the gold in black belt sparring division at the USAT Taekwondo Nationals at the Dallas Ft She is the second female on Maui and at Kiffmanns to become a USAT National Team Member and this is her second big victory of 2024 she won the gold at the US Open Taekwondo International Championship in Reno Other Kiffmann athletes to medal at Nationals were Kaiao Elaban Copyright © 2025 Maui News Publishing Company LTD | https://www.mauinews.com | 100 Mahalani Street Chef Kesao Otake will now serve as lead sushi chef at both the Preston Hollow and Knox Henderson locations of Anchor Sushi Bar. Otake, who has been an integral part of the Preston Hollow team since Vandelay Hospitality Group opened Anchor Sushi last year brings his extensive experience from kitchens in California and the Michelin-starred Nozawa Bar in Beverly Hills he was the lead sushi chef at the award-winning Sushi Sake in Richardson his commitment to sourcing the freshest seafood includes weekly orders from Tokyo “I recruited Chef Kesao because I have long been a huge fan of Sushi Sake, where he came from in Richardson,” Hunter Pond said, owner of Vandelay Hospitality Group “I think it is a top sushi establishment in Texas and when we were looking for the position to lead Vandelay’s sushi department he interviewed and simply wow’d me with his depth of knowledge and execution The relationships he has in Japan give us access to the quality of fish rarely found in Texas.” “A Body with Fukushima.” Photo: Jen Bootwala/Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts Eiko Otake’s performance of A Body with Fukushima on November 7 at the University of Houston’s Dudley Recital Hall The performance also possessed the persuasive duality of difficult subject matter reaching the viewer through a conduit of stunningly beautiful and captivating imagery The film component of the live event was a compilation of photographer William Johnston’s images showing Eiko Otake in the deserted ruins of land and water following the earthquake and subsequent disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in 2011 The imagery resonated with me in the same way as Shōhei Imamura’s Black Rain another important film dealing with the subject of devastation due to radiation Imamura’s film chronicles the long-term effects of a toxic rain that fell from the sky in the wake of the bombing of Hiroshima In both Black Rain and A Body in Fukushima each scene is rendered with an aesthetic sense that makes the viewing a compelling experience despite the magnitude of the subject matter Otake’s diminutive dancer’s body sometimes commanded the space it inhabited and sometimes it was seemingly devoured by it Tilting off the edge of a deserted railroad platform cocooned in kimonos in an empty station waiting room partially emerging from a cover of vines and weeds As the film fills the stage at the Dudley Recital Hall Otake emerges from the lobby and proceeds down the aisle observing the lone figure progressing slowly toward the stage like a refugee embracing a burden she must carry I remember seeing Eiko Otake and her longtime collaborator Koma Otake perform at the Lincoln Center Out Of Doors Festival on a beautiful New York summer night in 2011 One thousand people surrounded the Paul Milstein Reflecting Pool where row upon row of audience members were silent and transfixed This is how people watch Otake’s work; this recent night at the University of Houston was no exception As the work progresses and Otake takes the stage a second projection of the film appears on the right wall of the concert hall have become partially surrounded by Johnston’s images We are inside the film as it moves to the other walls of the concert hall As dwellers of this world that Otake has created for us we are in and of deserted houses and streets and train stations; we are the foliage that grows unchecked and untended everywhere; we are the bags and bags of radioactive soil lined up like soldiers in an amphitheater; we are the shallow pools of water and the waves but we are shepherded through by Otake’s arcing shapes This delicately carved body standing up to the concrete ruins of demolished buildings fortifies us The performer merges and separates from the projected images; her clothing sometimes acts as tiny screens to show bits of images The film shows the words “I am afraid.” As Aurora Picture Show curator Salome Kokoladze explained in her insightful pre-performance introduction the text shown in the film uses the present tense to reflect Eiko Otake’s feelings at the time she was experiencing them The film explains that the red cloth we see both in the film and live on stage is made from pieces of the lining of her mother’s kimonos The fabric becomes an extension of her silhouette Sometimes the streamer of silk presents like a flower I think of my mother’s bracelet that I wear when I need to be brave when I need to feel she is looking out for me as she did for all of her life I am glad Otake has chosen to take this fabric with us into the desolate and deserted landscape The contemplative movements of the dancer begin to give way to sweeping motions of the arms and body that encompass the stage the intensity that has been building over the course of the performance releases comes flooding out in a series of body waves….perhaps indicative of a body in mourning or perhaps representative of the earth sending its ocean waves to decry the injustice of man-made destruction A rumpled banner of paper that she pulls apart and gives to audience members in pieces We are all a part of this narrative; we are the earth and we are the people of this story We have heeded her call to bear witness and acknowledge that we are part of the world she fields questions from audience members with humor and grace but you can pick something and respond.” As an artist myself who tries to respond to events that overwhelm the world The evening began with seeing Otake standing barefoot in the lobby as the audience was still filing in Eiko Otake has that magical power of presence that does not need that formality Eiko Otake: A Body with Fukushima was co-presented by Aurora Picture Show and Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts on November 7 2023 at the Dudley Recital Hall at the University of Houston and website in this browser for the next time I comment Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" HAA Cultural Events Calendar Today's print edition Home Delivery or all-in-one nutritious onigiri (riceballs) 2024 saw Japan embrace a variety of age-friendly climate-conscious and socially driven solutions in a year-long push toward better health At this year's Wellness Tokyo expo held from Nov attendees crowded a booth displaying beginner-focused Pilates equipment such as "barrels" used to stretch the chest The machines feature gentler curves or mats in lower positions than traditional Pilates equipment making them more accessible to people with less flexibility.googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1499653692894-0'); }); Such kinds of products and services are part of a growing subset designed to meet the needs and desires of older adults which imports the equipment from South Korea said she sees an increasing opportunity to market the products to more medical institutions in Japan specifically for use among people in need of rehabilitation In a time of both misinformation and too much information quality journalism is more crucial than ever.By subscribing Your subscription plan doesn't allow commenting. To learn more see our FAQ Sponsored contents planned and edited by JT Media Enterprise Division Sandy Ong is a freelance writer based in Singapore This is the fifth in a Nature Index series of profiles about emerging early-careers researchers in Japan Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00664-3 This article is part of Nature Index 2023 Japan Advertisers have no influence over the content How we call out the infuriating mistakes we spot in school science textbooks My fight to unlock cannabis and psychedelic drugs for use in medical research Nickel production is notoriously dirty — here’s how to make it greener Structurally complex phase engineering enables hydrogen-tolerant Al alloys Sustainable nickel enabled by hydrogen-based reduction HT is an interdisciplinary research institute created and supported by the Italian government whose aim is to develop innovative strategies to pr.. UNIL is a leading international teaching and research institution with over 5,000 employees and 17,000 students split between its Dorigny campus Department of Energy and Environmental Materials and advance cancer research in a leading translational institute Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute We are seeking a tenure-track associate professor to promote interdisciplinary research in nanoprobe life sciences or related interdisciplinary field Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker Thomas Otake was just bumped from another high-profile case The federal prosecutors pursuing felony conspiracy charges against three former Honolulu officials are trying to remove a prominent defense attorney from the case.   The U.S. Attorney’s office said it’s a conflict of interest for defense attorney Thomas Otake to represent former Honolulu Corporation Counsel Donna Leong because Otake’s law partner Loretta Sheehan is a “significant government witness,” according to a motion to the U.S Otake and Sheehan both work for the law firm Davis Levin Livingston “Although her testimony is primed to cut against Leong the task of discrediting Sheehan will fall on Otake – Sheehan’s partner from the same law firm,” Assistant U.S “These entanglements jeopardize the integrity of the proceedings; needlessly so.”  Attorney’s office asked the court to convene a hearing to discuss Otake’s alleged conflict of interest Otake said he plans to contest any effort to disqualify him.  Leong was indicted last year alongside former Honolulu Police Commission chair Max Sword and former managing director Roy Amemiya The trio is accused of improperly granting former police chief Louis Kealoha a $250,000 exit package as an incentive to persuade him to retire while he was under a federal corruption investigation The feds said city officials needed approval from the Honolulu City Council before paying off Kealoha A trial is scheduled for June 26 before U.S District Court Judge Leslie Kobayashi.  Sheehan was a member of the Honolulu Police Commission at the time the retirement deal was being considered she has publicly criticized the deal as an unnecessary “golden parachute.” The city could have fired Kealoha for cause at no cost is at the “nucleus of this case,” Chiang wrote The situation may compromise Otake’s ability to provide a “full-throated defense” and might give Leong cause to later argue that she was deprived of proper legal representation Otake said his client is innocent and wants him to represent her.  “I believe this alleged conflict has been manufactured in an attempt to kick me off the case,” he said.  “I take my ethical obligations very seriously and would withdraw if I thought there was an unresolvable issue,” he added I will not give in to improper attempts by the government and others to gain advantage in a case by interfering with someone’s Sixth Amendment right to counsel of their choice.”  Sheehan declined to comment on the federal government’s motion on Tuesday because she is a witness in the case.  The attempt to disqualify Otake comes after he was recently bumped from another case over conflicts of interest He was the lead trial attorney for alleged crime boss Michael Miske until a federal judge found that his prior representation of two other people connected to the case was problematic.  a former federal public defender who cracked open the Kealoha corruption scandal said if Leong is comfortable with Otake representing her the feds are unlikely to get Otake removed from the Leong case “I don’t think that’s going to fly,” he said adding conflict of interest issues are often addressed by creating an ethical barrier between attorneys Japan observed a moment of silence to mark the 14th anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami that left more than 22,000 people dead or missing with over 27,000 people still displaced today In a memorial ceremony held in the city of Fukushima Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said he will pass down the lessons of the disaster to future generations and make Japan one of the most disaster-prone countries globally “the world's foremost disaster prevention country.”googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1499653692894-0'); }); a record 9.0-magnitude quake struck off the coast of Japan’s Tohoku region triggering a tsunami with waves that reached a maximum height of 40.5 meters Sponsored contents planned and edited by JT Media Enterprise Division. Volume 14 - 2022 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2022.867417 Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) enables the investigation of white matter properties in vivo by applying a tensor model to the diffusion of water molecules in the brain Using DTI metrics including fractional anisotropy (FA) an attempt has been made to detect age-related alterations in the white matter microstructure in aging research the use of comprehensive DTI measures to examine the effects of cognitive intervention/training on white matter fiber health in older adults remains limited we developed a cognitive intervention program called Photo-Integrated Conversation Moderated by Robots (PICMOR) which utilizes one of the most intellectual activities of daily life To examine the effects of PICMOR on cognitive function in older adults we conducted a randomized controlled trial and found that verbal fluency task scores were improved by this intervention we collected in this pilot study diffusion-weighted images from the participants to identify candidate structures for white matter microstructural changes induced by this intervention The results from tract-based spatial statistics analyses showed that the intervention group who participated in PICMOR-based conversations had significantly higher FA values or lower MD including the left anterior corona radiata who participated in unstructured free conversations a larger improvement in verbal fluency task scores throughout the intervention was associated with smaller AD values in clusters including the left side of these frontal regions The present findings suggest that left frontal white matter structures are candidates for the neural underpinnings responsible for the enhancement of verbal fluency Although our findings are limited by the lack of comparable data at baseline we successfully confirmed the hypothesized pattern of group differences in DTI indices after the intervention which fits well with the results of other cognitive intervention studies To confirm whether this pattern reflects intervention-induced white matter alterations longitudinal data acquisition is needed in future research although the fibers considered to reflect intervention/training effects differ among studies possibly due to differences in intervention/training methodologies a consistent pattern can be seen in the DTI indices of the post-intervention period: larger FA values or smaller values in other metrics in the intervention group compared to the control group conversations among group members are prompted and chaired by a robot The robotic management enables equal allocation of speaking time to everyone and each participant is encouraged by the robot to talk about a topic within the allocated time The system also enables giving everyone equal discussion time and the participants are required to ask and answer questions the robot monitors the utterances of each participant in real-time and automatically encourages and stops their utterances to guarantee equal amounts of speaking time The nature of this communication task involves exercising executive functions by encouraging the participants to talk within a limited time to have a flexible discussion by asking and answering questions to temporarily store and manipulate information necessary to ask questions and to refrain from interrupting other group members we expected that cognitive ability involving executive functions such as the ability to produce words within a certain length of time would be better trained by group conversations employing the PICMOR method than by conventional group conversations had differential functional connectivity between the two groups The purpose of this pilot study was to identify candidate structures for white matter alterations induced by conversation-based interventions which were also associated with enhanced verbal fluency by examining the hypothesized pattern in DTI measures after the intervention period 65 people were enrolled and randomly assigned to the intervention or control groups The intervention period lasted for 12 weeks during which both the intervention and control groups participated in group conversations once a week The intervention period was followed by a post-assessment of cognitive function For group conversations during the intervention period both the intervention and control groups were divided into eight subgroups each with four members (except for one control subgroup with five members) and instructed to talk with other members of the subgroup In the group conversation provided for the control group participants joined unstructured free conversations where they talked freely among subgroup members the group conversation provided for the intervention group was controlled by a robotic assistive system in which a robot acted as a chairperson and assisted the conversation by encouraging each participant to describe their daily life experiences and discuss them with other group members Each participant was prompted by the robot to talk about an event along a predetermined theme for 1 min using a photo displayed on the screen they had taken beforehand The 1-min talking period was repeated to explain another event related to the same theme using another photo the other members of the subgroup were required to listen carefully and ask questions later during which the participant had to answer questions raised by other group members The 2-min discussion period was repeated to discuss the second event the robot monitored the utterances of each member in real-time and controlled the conversations by encouraging or stopping utterances to balance the amount of talking time for each person strict time management and automatic turn-taking based on the actual speech time of each participant were achieved All members were provided with 1-min talking periods and 2-min discussion periods the dwi2mask command was executed to generate a whole-brain mask from the preprocessed dataset Using the preprocessed data and whole-brain mask a diffusion tensor model was fitted at each voxel using FSL’s dtifit program a part of the FMRIB’s Diffusion Toolbox (FDT) The default outputs of this procedure included whole-brain maps of AD respectively) corresponding to the three directions of water diffusivity as follows: The RD maps were created using the fslmaths command lower values in FA or higher values in the other three metrics in the intervention group relative to the control group White matter fiber tracts showing significantly higher FA values in the intervention group than in the control group (displayed in red) The results are overlaid on the mean FA skeleton (shown in green) and the standard MNI152 T1 1-mm3 brain template The value of z in the horizontal plane represents the MNI z-coordinate White matter fiber tracts showing significantly lower MD values in the intervention group than in the control group (displayed in blue) White matter fiber tracts showing significantly lower AD values in the intervention group than in the control group (displayed in blue) White matter fiber tracts showing significantly lower RD values in the intervention group than in the control group (displayed in blue) White matter structures showing significant differences in DTI metrics between the intervention and control groups We found no significant correlations between increased task scores and other metrics Negative correlation between increases in verbal fluency task scores throughout the intervention period and AD values in the cluster including the left ACR and ALIC (displayed in blue) The cluster is overlaid on the mean FA skeleton (shown in green) and the standard MNI152 T1 1-mm3 brain template MNI coordinates of the peak voxel are x = –24 White matter structures whose AD values showed negative correlations with increases in verbal fluency task scores throughout the intervention period This pilot DTI study aimed to identify candidate structures for white matter alterations possibly induced by the PICMOR intervention program and comprehensive DTI metrics including FA and RD were compared between the intervention and control groups We found significantly larger FA values or smaller values in the other three indices in the intervention group compared to the control group in numerous white matter fiber tracts no region showed the inverse DTI index pattern larger improvements in verbal fluency task scores from baseline to follow-up were associated with smaller AD values in several white matter regions These findings suggest that conversation-based cognitive interventions have the potential to maintain or improve white matter fiber health in older adults and that left frontal white matter structures are candidate regions that contribute to the enhancement of verbal fluency by this intervention the PICMOR method could have a beneficial effect on older adults’ health at both the behavioral and neural levels and RD in the intervention group were observed in both left and right frontal regions although a significant correlation with task scores was identified only on the left side these findings could be interpreted as evidence that conversation-based cognitive interventions have the potential to induce structural and functional changes not only on the left side of the frontal area as a core region for verbal fluency but also on the right side of this area as a supplementary region that indirectly supports verbal fluency This idea should be further examined in future studies by employing equivalent criteria for statistical significance among different modalities we cannot rule out the possibility of baseline differences To examine whether the possible white matter alterations identified in this pilot study were indeed induced by PICMOR-based conversations it is necessary to collect longitudinal DTI data including both pre- and post-intervention periods and to compare longitudinal changes between intervention and control groups we successfully identified the hypothesized DTI pattern intervention-induced increases in FA or decreases in MD which should be confirmed by future research using a longitudinal study design Although we cannot conclusively identify the neural underpinnings of the beneficial effects of PICMOR on cognitive function due to the lack of DTI data at baseline this pilot study successfully identified candidate structures by comparing comprehensive DTI metrics at follow-up between the intervention and control groups The observed DTI pattern is consistent with those identified in other cognitive intervention studies Taken together with ample evidence from aging research that normal aging is associated with changes in DTI indices the present findings suggest that conversation-based cognitive interventions have the potential to maintain or improve white matter fiber health in adults affected by age-related alterations the findings from the regression analysis suggest that left frontal white matter structures are candidates that contribute to the intervention-induced enhancement of verbal fluency Definitive conclusions may be obtained by comparing in future research longitudinal changes in DTI measures from baseline to follow-up in candidate regions The datasets presented in this article are not readily available because joint research agreement is required for data sharing. Requests to access the datasets should be directed to Hikaru Sugimoto, aGlrYXJ1LnN1Z2ltb3RvQHJpa2VuLmpw This study was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board of RIKEN The participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study HS collected and analyzed the data and wrote the manuscript under the supervision of MO-M This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI (Grant Numbers JP16H06280 and JP20H05574) and the Japan Science and Technology Agency (Grant Numbers JPMJCR20G1 All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher and Kiyotaka Nemoto for their kind guidance regarding the analysis of diffusion-weighted images We also thank the staff of the Advanced Imaging Center Yaesu Clinic for their technical assistance with MRI 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procedure of the Attention and Calculation Task (2001) Sex dimorphism in the white matter: fractional anisotropy and brain size Effect of head size on diffusion tensor imaging White-matter changes correlate with cognitive functioning in Parkinson’s disease Shared lesion correlates of semantic and letter fluency in post-stroke aphasia flexible and open software framework for medical image processing and visualisation Diffusion MRI noise mapping using random matrix theory Denoising of diffusion MRI using random matrix theory A coordinate-based ALE functional MRI meta-analysis of brain activation during verbal fluency tasks in healthy control subjects Associations between modifiable risk factors and white matter of the aging brain: insights from diffusion tensor imaging studies Permutation inference for the general linear model Brain structural changes after multi-strategic metamemory training in older adults with subjective memory complaints: a randomized controlled trial Citation: Sugimoto H and Otake-Matsuura M (2022) Tract-Based Spatial Statistics Analysis of Diffusion Tensor Imaging in Older Adults After the PICMOR Intervention Program: A Pilot Study Received: 01 February 2022; Accepted: 26 April 2022; Published: 03 June 2022 Copyright © 2022 Sugimoto and Otake-Matsuura. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) *Correspondence: Hikaru Sugimoto, aGlrYXJ1LnN1Z2ltb3RvQHJpa2VuLmpw This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks The action you just performed triggered the security solution There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page Your browser does not support JavaScript, or it is disabled．Please check the site policy for more information Hiroshima Prefecture--Designed by renowned architect Shigeru Ban and facing the Seto Inland Sea the Simose Art Museum here has been named the “world’s most beautiful museum” by UNESCO This followed the organization’s decision to award the Prix Versailles architectural award to the museum in December 2024 The facility opened in March 2023 and stands on a 4.6-hectare site It features eight box-shaped Movable Galleries in various colors “Its use of vibrant colors is particularly fascinating and rare for a museum setting,” said Jerome Gouadain president of the World Prix Versailles Organization Founded by the UNESCO headquarters in 2015 the Prix Versailles recognizes outstanding achievements in architecture and design in eight categories The Museums category was added in 2024 to mark the 10th anniversary of the award Other nominees included six facilities in China “I made the best use of the environment of the museum with a width of about 400 meters “I believe it was recognized for its Movable Galleries floating on water and other innovative aspects.” ASAHI HAIKUIST SPECIAL/ 12th Matsuyama Photo-Haiku Contest Results ‘Nyx’s Lantern’ wins top manga prize at Tezuka Osamu awards Movies from East Asia steal the show at Tokyo filmfest Information on the latest cherry blossom conditions Please right click to use your browser’s translation function.) A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II In-house News and Messages No reproduction or republication without written permission This year’s must-see shows range from a Nordic Pavilion exploring transgender spaces to a compelling Lebanese project confronting the realities of ecocide Frieze returns to The Shed in May with more than 65 of the world’s leading contemporary art galleries and the acclaimed Focus section led by Lumi Tan The artist’s new installation at Green-Wood Cemetery in New York explores loss Time seems to accumulate indefinitely in the works of dancer and choreographer Eiko Otake Eiko – she goes by her first name – has addressed the imprinting of death and trauma on the body through collective memory often with longtime collaborator Takashi Koma Otake Her explorations of loss have included practicing her own death talking with the dead and moving through sites of remembrance with actions that evoke the slow intensity of butoh (Japanese dance theatre) and the emotional urgency of a funeral Eiko performed A Body in a Cemetery – the latest in her series ‘A Body in Places’ (2014–ongoing) which involves honouring the dead at sites ranging from irradiated Fukushima to Fulton Street in Lower Manhattan She danced through the cemetery carrying water illness and accumulating death at the height of the pandemic Eiko never uses an object only once: the kimono became a vessel for past performances and past lives as it travelled with her from Fukushima to Santiago to Brooklyn holding the potential for intimacy and renewal amidst so much grief Eiko now returns to Green-Wood with Mother (2023) a site-specific installation that breathes new life into videos created in the aftermath of her mother’s death in 2019 nestled within one of the alcoves of Green-Wood’s historic chapel she faces the camera and tenderly speaks to her absent mother tracing their union from her birth through the nearly 50 years that the two lived apart after Eiko left Japan at the age of 20 The process of one body becoming two involves the mother’s realization of her child’s independent needs Eiko recalls or imagines her mother saying: ‘Eiko’s happiness is different from my happiness,’ while reflecting on her own feelings about being part of her mother despite being apart from her ‘I will always be your daughter,’ she responds What begins as a meditation on her mother’s ‘good death’ – at 93 years old holding her daughter’s hand – gives way to an exploration of the emotional complexities and contradictions of the mother-child relationship admiration and pain wrapped up in its shifting Most striking about Mother is the way Eiko negotiates the quasi-eternity of the cemetery: time is both ever-present and evasive The exhibition is scored to the chapel’s periodic chiming of bells so that her eulogy exists in an infinite loop – birth As Eiko reflects in the exhibition’s press release: ‘From their own birth mothers contain all the eggs that they will ever have in life We have been formed from unmeasurable time.’ This idea comes across best in the video With Mother in Twilight (2019) silent dance with a printed portrait of her mother in the casket Her liveness contrasts with the new sculptural work below it where the same portrait lies on a bed of plastic tarp piles of dirt and wilted flowers as both the afterlife of a performance and a body in repose The only sound is the gentle crumbling of paper as she wraps the portrait around her body and waves it in the wind You wonder if the green and purple light filtering in through the chapel’s stained-glass windows is part of the choreography before a bell chimes and Eiko begins all over again: ‘Mom you gradually stopped eating and died without any medical intervention Eiko Otake, ‘Mother’ Courtesy: the artist; photograph: Maria Baranova Mariana Fernández is a writer and curator based in New York a show of the East Village artist’s photographs and archival materials paints a picture of her queer community a gripping retrospective traces decades of the artist’s experimentation with the medium abstraction and how art becomes a language of survival the artist’s pointilist canvases probe the politics of legibility and identity Building on his presentation at the Venice Biennale the show is most effective when it engages with haptics at a distance a show of abandoned projects sees the artist contemplating endings paintings that blend surrealism and social realism depict the disaffection of modern workers adopts an idealist vision of what it means to be a citizen of the world the artist's sculptures adapt Kente cloth as a framework for pan-Africanism claustrophobic paintings of horse races meditate on risk © FRIEZE 2025 Cookie Settings | Do Not Sell My Personal Information Federal prosecutors convinced a judge that Thomas Otake had conflicts of interest with other defendants has been abruptly terminated as counsel of record and lead trial lawyer for former Honlulu business owner Michael J who is accused of controlling and directing a racketeering organization that operated behind the facade created by several well-known Miske-owned companies In a court order signed Thursday afternoon Mansfield ruled Otake’s prior representation of two other clients in criminal proceedings “related to” the charges pending against Miske creates a legal conflict of interest Prosecutors say both prior clients will be called as witnesses in the trial of Miske and six remaining co-defendants creating a conflict requiring Otake’s removal from the case After being informed of the apparent conflict by prosecutors several weeks ago admitting a serious conflict and filing a motion to remove himself from the case Thursday’s order reconsidered and reversed that decision and ordered him removed from the case effective immediately although its chances of success are unknown and Otake is frozen out of the case while any future appeal is being considered The government identified Otake’s two prior clients only as Client 1 and Client 2.  Prosecutors say Client 1 assisted several others who have pleaded guilty to being part of a drug trafficking conspiracy and who are also expected to be witnesses at Miske’s trial Client 1 assisted with packaging drugs for distribution and with transporting T.T arranged to smuggle drugs into a correctional facility housing defendant Dae Han Moon,” the government said in a supplemental memo in support of its motion Otake and his co-counsel … should have been aware that Client 2 was substantially linked to Miske’s criminal activities.” Client 2 was allegedly given one of five stevedore union positions that Miske reportedly purchased “because Client 2 ‘does some of Miske’s dirty work,’” according to the supplementary memo was turned over to defense counsel last year It indicated Client 2 “committed criminal acts on Miske’s behalf such as violent assaults.” Another separate report described Client 2 as “a fighter” who “collected debts for Miske.” Miske allegedly arranged for Client 2 to be placed in a union job “as a reward for (his) services.” These additional details about the nature of Otake’s conflict appear to have convinced Mansfield to reverse his earlier stance and allow Otake to withdraw from the Miske case.  The legal drama continued Friday morning when federal Judge Derrick Watson presided over a hearing on two motions the first to disqualify both Otake and his co-counsel as a result of a different set of conflicts and a second to split off two counts of obstruction of justice against Miske to a separate trial suggested as a means of avoiding their removal from the case altogether The government’s case was argued by Clare Connors former Hawaii attorney general and  now U.S a long-time federal defender now in private practice who was added to the Miske legal team last year The government’s motion to disqualify both Otake and Panagakos stems from their role in soliciting character reference letters in 2018 and 2019 which were later filed in court in an unsuccessful attempt to have Miske released on bond pending trial Two of the letters were later determined to have been fraudulent and serve as the basis for two counts of obstruction of justice which were added to the case in a third superseding indictment in December.  The government said it intends to call both attorneys as trial witnesses related to the two charges setting up the argument over whether this is a conflict that can only be resolved by disqualifying the attorneys The motion to sever the two obstruction of justice charges would allow Kennedy to handle the trial on those two charges while clearing the way for Otake and Panagakos to remain as key parts of the larger trial on the other 20 charges according to the defense team’s legal filings Kennedy forcefully argued during Friday’s hearing that the allegedly fraudulent letters represent “manufactured conflicts” that could easily be avoided at trial by establishing essential facts through documentary evidence and the testimony of other witnesses who were involved in the process Kennedy also argued it would would create a constitutionally impermissible hardship to strip Miske’s defense of its two most knowledgeable attorneys and a violation of his 6th Amendment right to the attorneys of his choice it was repeatedly noted that Miske retained Otake and Panagakos in August 2017 three years before he was indicted and arrested the FBI had obtained a search warrant for a Boston Whaler Miske had purchased not long before the disappearance and alleged murder of Jonathan Fraser The warrant alerted Miske to the need to retain legal counsel Miske already had a relationship with Otake who had represented him in a case involving an assault at Miske’s M Nightclub in downtown Honolulu and Otake and Panagakos have spent many years working on Miske’s case since they were retained in 2017.  Panagakos has become the attorney most familiar with the unprecedented mountain of evidence amassed by the government in the case against Miske and his co-defendants If she were disqualified on the basis of the alleged conflicts her loss of knowledge would impact not only Miske but also each of his co-defendants about the fraudulent letters when they were first filed in court in 2020 but waited until the summer of 2022 to discuss the matter with Otake and Panagakos and until last month to file a motion for disqualification.  Miske’s attorneys argued the government actively concealed information about the false letters and then “has inexcusably delayed in filing its motion to disqualify based on an alleged conflict.” has been prejudicial to Miske’s defense and should preclude granting the motion to disqualify Otake and Panagakos the government argued that after learning of the allegedly fraudulent letters it had to investigate whether this was true the government explained it had taken a series of investigative steps “including a series of federal search warrants and witness interviews,” in order to corroborate that the first letter was fraudulent FBI agents attempted to interview those who wrote the other letters and subpoenaed documents related to the character reference letters from Otake and Panagakos Watson recessed Friday’s hearing shortly before noon without providing notice as to when or if it will be reconvened The judge did not disclose any inclination as to how he might rule on the motions Court minutes issued later Friday only said that motions were taken under advisement and an order will be issued later Watson bristled at a suggestion the latest delay in the trial recently moved back from April to September He reminded those present that he had received a request to continue the trial dates to September that had been stipulated but agreed to the delay requested by attorneys on both sides Watson also suggested attorneys review their summer vacation plans as well as weekend schedules,  “because we are going to trial in September.” The feds tried to get a Honolulu defense attorney booted from Donna Leong’s legal team can continue representing a former city official under indictment despite an effort by federal prosecutors to have him removed from the case Donna Leong, Honolulu’s former corporation counsel, is fighting federal charges that she conspired with two others to improperly grant a $250,000 severance payment to former police chief Louis Kealoha She hired attorneys Lynn Panagakos and Otake to defend her But federal prosecutors, including Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Wheat, took issue with Otake was a law partner to a witness in the case was a Honolulu police commissioner at the time of Kealoha’s payout Sheehan testified that she once had a conversation with Otake about confidential commission matters and that she believed they had an attorney-client relationship That could create a conflict of interest for Otake who said the government wants to ensure Leong gets a fair trial “We want to protect the integrity of the verdict,” he said Otake told the court he did not remember any such conversation he wouldn’t allow it to affect his representation of Leong Leong wants to keep on Otake on her legal team Sheehan testified that she had no objection to Otake continuing to defend Leong as long as confidential information wasn’t shared In a written ruling on Wednesday District Court Judge Leslie Kobayashi wrote that as long as Sheehan signs a conflict of interest waiver The judge wrote that there is no actual conflict and that Leong has a constitutional right to use the attorney of her choice Otake characterized the government’s effort to limit his role in the case as an effort to rob his client of the best legal representation He noted he has won federal trials despite federal prosecutors having a conviction rate near 100% “Do I think that might have something to do with this effort?” he asked “Certainly what a compliment it is that they file these kinds of motions against you Otake,” Kobayashi said to chuckles in the courtroom alongside former managing director Roy Amemiya and former police commission chair Max Sword Earlier this year, a federal judge ordered Otake be removed from another case involving accused Honolulu crime boss Michael Miske because Otake had attended a 2014 meeting with Miske and a witness in the case Correction: An earlier version of this story stated Otake was removed from the Miske case because he had withdrawn Civil Beat is a nonprofit, reader-supported newsroom based in Hawaiʻi. 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Civil Beat has been named the best overall news site in Hawaii for the 14th year in a row by the Society of Professional Journalists Hawaii Chapter. in a landscape that manifests both through shifting seasons.expositionBY Eiko Otake Born and raised in Japan and a resident of New York since 1976 She worked for more than 40 years as Eiko & Koma but since 2014 has been performing her own solo project A Body in Places.02.25.21August 2019 I was invited to perform at the Cemetery long before the pandemic started You can't really come to the cemetery and not think about death or the people who have died And that's a good thing to think about I have thought about death as long as I can remember It is hard to know about death because by the time I die I will not be here to feel my non-existence I thought that performing was my practice of dying We learn about death by attending to other people’s dying but not in a way we can attend to other people’s dying I am sorry for the people who die when so many people also die But we also learn about death by missing the dead The Green-Wood Cemetery is now my working place Every day the ups and downs of the landscape the shadows of trees and graves that the setting sun casts I knew no one among the 560,000 dead the cemetery holds I did not know how my body would relate to this particular That changed once I began working in the cemetery This is a working cemetery witnessing a new surge of the dead I pronounce the names of the people buried and cremated there I tell myself that we should not forget those whose graves were never built my rehearsals are no more than a process of choreography I am aware that my walk into the site is not the practice of approaching the audience I imagine myself on a day when the audience will be here only to realize that the graves would be so much closer to me than the audience members The Institute of Science Tokyo was inaugurated on Tuesday as a new university created by the merger of the Tokyo Institute of Technology and Tokyo Medical and Dental University "We aim to be one of the world's top science universities," the new university's chief executive officer said at a news conference at one of its campuses in Tokyo's Meguro Ward.googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1499653692894-0'); }); who hails from the Tokyo Institute of Technology reiterated the new university's intention to apply for the government's financial support program for universities of international research excellence recalled "a number of challenges" for the merger as the two predecessors had different cultures "But we shared a goal of reaching higher levels," Tanaka said The Institute of Science Tokyo is the first Japanese national university to have both CEO and CAO posts Despite the country's declining population Tanaka said that the number of people who want to study again is expected to increase "We aim to be a university that is open (to these people)," he said The new university has 6,242 undergraduates and 7,116 postgraduates YoutubeImage of Eiko Otake by William Johnston A Body in a Cemetery is a new place-inspired performance conceived by internationally acclaimed artist Eiko Otake It is presented as part of this year’s Graveyard Shift series From the artist: I have no intention to offer a theatrical production My performance announcement is my promise to be there and to offer my body for a duration of time My lone body will mark the place and the time when audiences can gather to meditate on how landscapes hold not only the deaths of people throughout history but also the flow of constant lives and deaths of all species We will observe the Cemetery carefully and actively so we can hear the transformation of lives and deaths For more about this program, please visit Eiko Otake’s website for a letter from the artist About the ArtistEiko Otake is a choreographer and performer who has spent decades practicing dying and mourning for the dead A Body in a Cemetery will be the latest manifestation of her solo project A Body in Places which began in 2014 as a twelve-hour solo performance at Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station Various iterations of the project have continued since then including a performance as part of The Hiroshima Panels exhibition at Pioneer Works in 2015 which was simultaneous with an exhibition of photographs of Eiko shot by William Johnston Eiko performed A Body in Places last at the Metropolitan Museum of Art for three days in 2017 Other reflections on death include Offering at six Manhattan parks following 9-11 which includes four partners who are now deceased Important Notice: The performance will start 30-minutes earlier than originally scheduled at 5:30 PM We recommend arriving before 5:10 PM as the performance site is a 20-minute walk from the main entrance Eiko Otake dances with a stillness at once excruciating and exquisite Her work is a negotiation of precision and flow was titled A Body in Places; it has so far included “A Body in a Station,” put on at Manhattan’s Fulton Center and “A Body in Fukushima,” a photo series in which Eiko’s movements are documented against a landscape made desolate by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster Eiko Otake and Takashi “Koma” Otake met in Tokyo in 1971 as students at an avant-garde theater company run by Tatsumi Hijikata a choreographer and co-founder of the performance genre Butoh They settled in New York in 1976 and toured often public outdoor performances to take their work beyond the confines of traditional art spaces they became the first collaborators to jointly receive a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant.” she occasionally delights in “playing the nuisance” and “personifying the maggot.” Her irreverence and playful nature seem to necessarily coexist with the sometimes devastating subject matter she addresses in her work I spoke with Eiko at her Manhattan apartment She was preparing to board a train bound for Wesleyan University where she is currently participating in a three-year residency and co-teaching a class on the atomic bomb with her photographer-collaborator from “A Body in Fukushima,” the historian William Johnston she began to form rice balls to make onigiri for her train journey I hoarded it and consumed it hours later in my own apartment Guernica: Can you tell me about your upbringing in Japan Eiko Otake: I was born in Japan in 1952 and left in 1972 I returned for a year and a half between 1974 to 1976 I had lived in Japan until I turned twenty I don’t think I aspired to be a dance artist though I was more interested in journalistic rather than purely artistic work had a lot to do with the time in which I grew up I had participated in the late-sixties student movement as a high school and college student my grandfather was a painter—a rather scandalous and well-known one in his time so there was a proximity to art in my early years I was kind of a bookworm until I became “on the street” political in my late teens so I think my relationship to art came through visual arts and reading I felt I had nothing important to write about because my own life hadn’t really happened to me yet that feeling prompted me to be rather brave in starting to live and work with Koma and leaving Japan I wanted to experience something singular that I couldn’t shake out I did not intend to be a dance professional but I wanted to find something I could write about I think my actions or decisions always arise as antidotes you studied with arbiters of the Japanese avant-garde dance movement of the 1960s Did you decide to study with them primarily to gather material for your writing Eiko Otake: I think my actions or decisions always arise as antidotes from some frustration or ways in which I wish to be antagonistic toward something I come into contact with I was involved in political circles and got really tired because of the sectarianism The fights between the sects in the new left were becoming fiercer than their fights with the government or corporations I was too young to be involved in such intense political thoughts and actions Using the body as a central axis rather than as a tool like in theater and political demonstrations I was also realizing that everything I was reading and saying seemed not to be my own words—I was borrowing other people’s phrases from books going into dance was a way of doing something I’d never done before Yet it was a little bit of an escapist choice at the time Guernica: Tell me about your creative and life partnerships—your work as Eiko & Koma and also the husband-and-wife artists Maruki Iri and Maruki Toshi whose Hiroshima Panels [painted folding panels depicting the consequences of the atomic bombing] you recently performed alongside Eiko Otake: I was moved when I visited the gallery that houses their works I was touched seeing a video that depicted the Marukis’ creative process though of course I don’t want to make too direct of a comparison between them and Koma and me I liked it because I wasn’t ready to work alone; I didn’t yet have the tools I am three and a half years younger than he is which was huge when we first started to work together But we were very different people and soon I learned to argue and respond We have always argued a lot in working together What’s good about this whole collaboration process is that it creates layers It’s not like having an idea of one’s own and just working on it Because Koma and I are performance artists our preparation “disappears,” so we are not able to show that layering process as clearly We have to be pretty independent within our own performances: in one evening The weight in our relationship is pretty equal like set-making—he is very visual and has that singular focus—while I did much more conceptualizing and finding a structure and core of the work it is never like a work is more strongly created by one of us I don’t know why it took me so long but I think it’s because I continued to find challenging work as part of Eiko & Koma so I felt I was working with my own voice and body even in that context even though I’m still the same person as the one I’d already become a long time ago Guernica: Can you walk us through your creative process and I would then bring in certain materials to build on and discuss the idea and usually I come up with a title that reflects that and then I bring to the table some literature on how the body dies but by naming it “Grain,” there is suddenly a level of abstraction with two Asian bodies eating cooked white rice spread across the space We have to design the set and do the movement but once we have the universal myth of the grain and the body The whole project is about my body in different places I address the station: the piece becomes my duet with the station The premiere of my solo work was at the Philadelphia Station and I had to sit there for a long time watching asking myself how I would move in the space and who I would be moving past I choreograph depending on the place and work with it But my thinking and process are not seen during the performance Viewers do not need to know my process and choices I need the preparation in order to arrive at the moments of a performance Mine is the body of any other woman from Asia Guernica: How do you develop these layers as a solo artist Eiko Otake: I think I develop them in performance when I am looking at each person So the layers here are not as much about how I am dancing as how I am looking someone else is looking at me looking at her she is aware not only that I am doing so but that time has moved on I intend to look at every single person and to catch their eye This depends on how intimate the space I perform in is So these layers come from me performing almost spontaneously but gathering what is accumulated during the performance people look at me and project their imagination onto me: “She looks like my grandmother,” “She looks like someone in a hospital.” People look at me a certain way because I have a kind of broken body—I do not have an Olympian’s body I am not in sync with the ideal of a healthy body I foreground my weak body as my thinking body and pose the question of why people think that healthy bodies are the only ones worth watching The perception that viewers have of me is another layer I don’t even want to emphasize the Japanese part nor do I particularly want to use it as a woman’s body I want to put forth a body which is useless but wants to be useful Sometimes my audience members talk about “silence” in my performance two librarians wrote that the library had never been so quiet as when I performed But I do not think the library was actually quieter But a performance is both a kinesthetic and visual experience so one sees more So viewers notice and see the “silence,” which I think is profound in adding layers of experience to being in a place and some pieces are set in conditions of physical discomfort There’s a tension between luxuriating in the moment and engaging with that discomfort I want to go to a place where I can be emotionally engaged in complexity and transformation I want the audience to feel that the time we spend together is governed by different values than in everyday life No counting of money or making a shopping list How do we get to that place of transformation By tapping into pain and awareness beyond the experience of our own pleasure The density of the world is due to our memories so all that density lives in and around our bodies and how they move through time and space In order to experience what I call the “grotesqueness of time,” I think it’s important to experience the potential pain that our minds and bodies carry We have an inkling that there are things that are very hard in this world and not seeing them is escaping from them I move in a way that attenuates the fact that time is not even and space is not empty I need to carry this complexity and density of experience that goes beyond my own if there is somewhere important for me to be Going to Fukushima is very different from just reading about it Not everyone should go there because it is very radioactive I really was stunned by how upset my body felt I could imagine it before but now that I have gone there I feel like I shouldn’t be consumed by creating art which shields me from the real world One of the reasons I left a theater convention for this project is that I get very happy creating better-looking and feeling work in the theater—I can improve the light I’m in a situation where I do not have the capacity to improve my surroundings Guernica: Making “A Body in Fukushima” left you physically exposed to nuclear radiation; in “A Body in Station” at the Fulton Center the crowds surged as you moved through the station and some people got very close How do you navigate exposure and vulnerability Eiko Otake: I want to be clear: I never want to present myself as a danger-seeking artist especially being somewhat of a senior in my field has never quite grown up because we resisted many of the decisions associated with becoming adults Many children were exposed to much more radiation involuntarily and I went only for a short time in 2011 and twice more in 2014 though I made no attempt to be too courageous I was aware that I was leaving soon and wanted to do all the things that I could so that I would leave with few regrets I regret that I covered myself with radiated piles of leaves We are often stuck between not wanting to be danger-seeking and not wanting to regret having lost an opportunity We humans get used to a danger and begin to worry less and desire more As for vulnerability to the crowd in “A Body in a Station,” that’s by design—it is the essence of this piece When vulnerability to the crowd becomes a danger because I don’t necessarily want to cross that line it’s important to me that I don’t always perform with a safe distance between me and the crowd I like navigating the boundary of realizing they’re really close and being able to run away from them what’s the point of performing in such a place So I deal with the crowd by going very close to them or sometimes letting them come very close to me as I can leave the crowd and wait till they come back to me It is the viewers who make a dancer a performer and her movement a performance Guernica: Do you think making art is about pushing into that space Think about all the visual artists who use hazardous materials and one person’s line is different from another’s but that line within the same person changes every mother grapples with this: “Where is my boundary?” and sometimes determined by one’s own discipline but often bound by available choices and which direction one is looking and how calmly I’d be very close to people and other times I’d be invisible amid the crowd so what I’m gaining and losing also shifts That’s what’s beautiful about being outside the theater: I lose control I was first shocked that I did not gain much attention from the passersby during the rehearsals When I realized not many people were watching me I then realized it was because people thought it was a photo shoot rather than a performance Only when movement is watched by people does it become something to be watched It is as John Cage defined music: as sound conceived to be heard If I’m not presenting my movement as something to be seen nobody thinks of it as something they want to watch What is not considered interesting is seen as not interesting But if there were enough people already watching me in a performance it signaled to the passersby that something was happening that they might want to pay attention to Eiko Otake: Pleasure comes when desires are being met A bowl of rice tastes amazing when you’re hungry I didn’t want to look at them because that whole experience was hard for me which came about precisely because of what a hard time I had been having I didn’t do anything special there; it is the same Eiko with her dance But what made it special for me was the context of the place and what had happened there before I was there My disgust and shock while being there despite knowing the situation beforehand made dancing there memorable I was crying a lot and I felt I couldn’t move It took me a long time before I could prompt myself to dance I remember that sense of being totally overwhelmed—and to this day I am still overwhelmed—and that gives me some satisfaction when I look at those photographs as something that came out of such difficulty When someone shares with me their experience of something profound that happened to them at one of my performances in a way that does not seem like flattery but we are engaged in something human—dancing befriending the security guards who work at a station I certainly think a big city like this could use those human acts When I’m walking in the East Village and I see young artists filming something I have a little smile thinking of how those people are just watching the street in their own creative These are all no-cost acts in which we can engage More than 80% of our finances come from readers like you And we’re constantly working to produce a magazine that deserves you—a magazine that is a platform for ideas fostering justice If you value Guernica’s role in this era of obfuscation, please donate Help us stay in the fight by giving here DarkMatter: Be the Kill-Joy 3-11 Still Haunts Teow Lim Goh: Split A Kind of Flag-Planting Guernica is a non-profit magazine dedicated to global art and politics With contributors from every continent and at every stage of their careers We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in settings This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings we will not be able to save your preferences This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again I visited the historic Evergreen Cemetery in Colorado Springs the stage for artists Eiko Otake and David Harrington’s With the Dead an adaptation of Otake’s 2020 show at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn included eight CC alumni dancers: Will Burglechner ’23 The evening began with a talk led by Harry Weil vice president of education and public programs at Green-Wood Cemetery he spoke with Evergreen Cemetery Director Cheryl D Godbout and Dianne Hartshorn of Heritage Evergreen about the history of cemeteries their place in the Victorian age as romantic spaces for people to enjoy nature and art and how they are each working to once again make cemeteries spaces for the living “Art enters into the conversation of death and dying in such a unique way,” says Weil His goal is to create programs that get people comfortable with the uncomfortable “We have become a death-denying society We can face and embrace the emotion and deal with our own mortality.” guests were ushered outside to where the roads of the cemetery were lined with the graves of Colorado Springs’ history I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting when I agreed to write about a dance performance in a graveyard But was I expecting every repressed ounce of grief that I had tucked away inside of me to be exposed as this was the central focus of With the Dead It started with dancers participating in a walk that resembled a funeral procession calling each other into the fold and leaning on one another for support with the audience following closely behind all accompanied by Harrington’s haunting violin Otake danced and lamented over a large piece of black cloth – the manifestation of her grief tearing strips and sharing them with each other passing on and sharing the weight of their grief Once the cloth was divided throughout the group some pieces spread into the watching crowd each finding tombstones to mourn over and reflect upon Otake notes that cemeteries are places of memory and contemplation where a community’s stories and histories lie she performed in two cemeteries to reflect on and converse with the dead “You can’t really come to the cemetery and not think about death or the people who have died “I thought that performing was my practice of dying We learn about death by attending to other people’s dying But we also learn about death by missing the dead.” Otake’s performance was a powerful and moving experience It exposed areas of grief in my life in the very space that we often consider to be an endpoint connecting back with Weil’s focus for visitors and the very essence of Otake’s art it was a space to reflect on life and what we carry through it While another graveyard dance is not scheduled during her time in Colorado Springs, you can see Otake’s exhibit, Eiko Otake: I Invited Myself, vol. II through July 29 at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College As her first museum solo-exhibition, I Invited Myself foregrounds the artist’s video and media Rather than presenting a cohesive overview of the artist’s career, the exhibit places an emphasis on transition over statis Viewers are strongly encouraged to return as select media will rotate over the course of the exhibition Alexa GromkoDirector of External Relations and Editorial Content(719) 389-6038 Office of Communications & Marketing A new experience for TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRC Challenge Program’s trio of young Japanese drivers – Nao Otake, Yuki Yamamoto and Hikaru Kogure – on the snow-laden tracks of the Arctic Rally produced several important milestones: second place for Otake, plus maiden Finnish Rally Championship stage victories for both Otake and Yamamoto. The Challenge Program drivers had previously sampled Finland’s gravel stages and asphalt roads in France and Italy last year. But the roads around Rovaniemi, the Arctic Rally host city, were a step into the unknown for all three, featuring icy and snowy forest lanes run both in daylight and at night. Arctic Rally is the opening round of the Finnish Rally Championship, putting the Challenge Program trio up against Finland’s most promising youngsters in the SM3 category for front-wheel-drive Rally4 cars. After a sensible first day of learning by Otake, where he rose from eighth to fourth place on the first leg, he put the hammer down on the second leg. Otake moved from fourth to second place on the second leg’s first two stages; he then scored his first Finnish SM3 stage win on the Ounasvaara test, closing the gap to the rally leader to under 30 seconds. A spin on the penultimate stage meant Otake and co-driver Marko Salminen couldn’t contend for victory; regardless, Otake secured a career-best second place finish, improving on his third place from last year’s Ralli Mikkeli. Yamamoto’s pace was also excellent throughout the event, running in second place after the first stage and taking his first SM3 stage win on the Arctic Rally’s final test, Ristilampi. A fuel pump issue on stage two had forced Yamamoto and his navigator Miika Teiskonen to retire and restart the next day, leaving them to finish eighth overall. There was also a strong resurgence on the second day for Kogure. He had been unlucky to retire on the first day, when he slid wide on a slow bend and became stuck in the snow; his determination shone through the next day, going second-fastest during Otake and Yamamoto’s stage wins. Those quick times from Kogure and co-driver Topi Luhtinen helped them charge up to fifth place by the finish. Nao Otake:“I’m pleased with my result, though I still need to improve and work hard. It was difficult to keep a consistent pace across all the stages, especially at night when it was so snowy and difficult to see where I was going! It helped that our pacenotes were quite good, even if they were a little too safe in some of the trickier corners. What matters most is that I feel like I’ve gained lots of confidence from this rally, so I’m feeling great for our next event on snow.” Yuki Yamamoto:“I’d found a great feeling with the car during our pre-event test, which allowed me to adapt to the unique challenges of contesting a snow rally for the first time so quickly. During last season, I had set some good stage times but lacked consistency; here we found a nice rhythm and good consistency, so I'm very happy with how the rally went regardless of our finishing position.” 1. Justus Räikkönen/Mikael Korhonen (Peugeot 208 Rally4)2h15m02.8s 2. Nao Otake/Marko Salminen (Renault Clio Rally4)+2m10.1s 3. Mille Johansson/Julia Thulin (Ford Fiesta Rally4)+8m47.7s 4. Niko Patajoki/Juha Lummaa (Ford Fiesta Rally4)+12m23.3s 5. Hikaru Kogure/Topi Luhtinen (Renault Clio Rally4)+13m25.8s 6. Topi Kärki/Esko Lappalainen (Ford Fiesta Rally4)+17m25.5s 7. Leevi Lassila/Juho Koski-Lammi (Ford Fiesta Rally4)+18m13.0s 8. Yuki Yamamoto/Miika Teiskonen (Renault Clio Rally4)+18m32.2s 9. Adam Grahn/Marcus Sundh (Ford Fiesta Rally4)+39m14.9s TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRC Challenge Program is supported by following partners. TOYOTA GAZOO Racing Presents 2023 Rally Team Setups French roads provide tough lessons at season’s end for rookie trio Japanese trio complete their first Finnish rally campaign First asphalt rally in Italy for young Japanese trio 2022Save this storySaveSave this storySaveAll products featured on Vogue are independently selected by our editors we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links Photo: Courtesy of Kirsten TanIt is four in the afternoon and the Japanese dancer-choreographer Eiko Otake is making coffee for the Singaporean pianist Margaret Leng Tan We are in Otake’s apartment overlooking midtown Manhattan are teasing each other about how incorrigibly nocturnal they are “I’m pretty sure you do too.” While working out our schedules for this interview I replied to an email at a little past 3 a.m. and was surprised to see a reply come in from Otake 20 minutes later a response from Tan at a quarter to four in the morning: “What a coven of vampires we are!” Otake and Tan are celebrated avant-garde artists from storied lineages an exponent of the German modern dance movement Neue Tanz and the Butoh legend Kazuo Ohno; Tan was the protégée of pioneering conceptual musician John Cage and Otake gives a wry smile as she says: “I told Margaret “I didn’t want a dancer-and-pianist relationship with you anymore,” Otake says “just a Margaret-and-Eiko relationship.” Tan readily accepted which The New York Times called a momentous meditation on “loss and survival Otake and Tan performing at the Cathedral of St In a year that has seen a 339% increase in hate crimes against the Asian American community, often targeting vulnerable elders, it was beautiful, and radical, to watch two septuagenarian Asian women artists sharing a stage and their visionary practices making and holding space for each other’s presence “Friendship is radical because it can protest against the norm,” Otake says at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C Following performances of her music-theater portrait in Singapore and Australia later this year she will present Metamorphoses (Book II) at the Library of Congress in November and at National Sawdust in Brooklyn next season Tan playing Henry Cowell’s “The Banshee” as part of Otake’s The Duet Project in April followed by a major multi-site exhibition in Colorado Springs and the next phase in an ongoing collaboration with performance art pioneer Joan Jonas I am struck by the sense of urgency both women have; how deeply in love with their crafts they still are; how busy they have been and will continue to be they will stay on to sow the creative seeds for a new project Otake opens a bottle of bubbly rosé just to celebrate the grand nothingness of being alive on this day From Otake’s A Body in Fukushima to express my pure delight at what fabulous role models they are: iconoclastic artists who have never conformed to what is expected of them still as nocturnal and impulsive as millennials from close to 5 a.m.: “For Margaret and me we need to breathe every breath we still have!” To cap off Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month Vogue: Can you describe your embodied relationship to your instruments—the piano Margaret Leng Tan: The piano is an extension of my body The ultimate moment of truth for me is when my fingertips make contact with the keys or the strings My entire body is poised in a state of supreme alertness the real performance has to come as a betrayal to the preparation I never want a performance to be derived purely from good preparation I want to be open to the moment before the audience It plays itself; I am not actively doing anything What have you noticed about each other’s craft MLT: What connects us is our unspoken understanding of the three-dimensionality of space We share an acute awareness that the space is alive: when we occupy this living space there is an energy that binds us Perhaps that is why we enjoy working together I adore her and completely respect her craft But I have a side of me where I don’t want to be “just right.” I want to fail and survive it I see this as a deep manifestation of being a child of the Japanese post-war era it was important to me that I did not have a body or a practice that might intimidate those who are less able-bodied than what mainstream society considers to be a person with a productive physicality “Productivity” can be a very alienating word I am more interested in what my body can hold You personify what Cage said about error: “Error is merely our inability to adjust immediately from a preconception to an actuality.” That is so wise In a performance some things may work out better than others but there is no right or wrong way to get there You are the epitome of what Cage wanted—that artists should come out from their ivory towers Tan’s toy piano debut at Lincoln Center You both left your countries of origin at a formative age MLT: In 1962 I came all the way from Singapore to New York to audition for Juilliard I was 16 but I probably looked like I was 12 When I first arrived I was staying with a Chinese family who took me every Sunday to church in Chinatown where the sermon was in Cantonese There was this young man of about 20 who started taking an interest in me but I still had to focus on my Juilliard audition all that homesickness dropped away and I felt: I’m going to make it The conservatory was a goldfish bowl but I thrived in that intense and competitive environment the dean invited me to be in the pioneer class of the doctorate program—I didn’t even have to audition That’s how I became the first woman to graduate from Juilliard with a doctorate in 1971 EO: My background was completely the opposite I was a political science major in college but I dropped out to protest the Vietnam War My father had been drafted into the military during World War II He realized he would likely be killed and worse yet but I was learning all the time—from great books and films I worked in an arthouse cinema so I could watch those films for free I was the person who tore the ticket stubs saved enough money to leave on a ship to Europe Your friendship and artistic collaborations have spanned two decades and you are thinking of working together again soon Can you share random observations about the process with us MLT: When we first talked about working together all those years ago I remember that this is how Eiko put it: “You don’t need me But it would be nice to work together.” Isn’t that wonderful That trust remains a springboard for our collaborations But it's also about our future—and that is still so exciting to me MLT: This will probably be our last big collaboration talking about death makes me love life even more MLT: I remember hearing Mieczysław Horszowski play at the Cathedral of St John the Divine when he was in his nineties I think we should continue for as long as we have something to say Ryan Murphy Has Finally Found His Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy The Best Books of 2025 So Far Here’s Everything You Need to Know About Adolescence, the British Netflix Drama That’s Quickly Gone Viral “I Didn’t Want to Box Myself In”: On Mayhem, Lady Gaga Crafts Perfect Pop for a Chaotic World Listen to The Run-Through with Vogue a weekly podcast featuring the most exciting stories and hot takes from the worlds of culture Never miss a Vogue moment and get unlimited digital access for just $2 $1 per month Eiko and Johnston followed abandoned train tracks through desolate stations into eerily vacant towns and fields in Fukushima the explosions of the Daiichi nuclear plants made the area uninhabitable Through both vulnerable gestures and fierce dance Johnston’s crystalline images capture her movements within desolate Fukushima landscapes “By placing my body in these places,” Eiko says “I thought of the generations of people who used to live there I danced so as not to forget.” A project of witness A Body in Fukushima grapples with the harsh realities of human failure we actually change them and ourselves in ways that may not always be apparent but are important.” The exhibition is part of a series of programs at Pioneer Works that explore the discourse between art and trauma and Robert Croonquist of Hibakusha Stories for their support in the organization of the exhibition and related programming Prison officials must immediately provide sanitary living conditions and take appropriate measures to protect inmates A federal court on Tuesday ordered the Hawaii correctional system to finally follow its own official plan for coping with the COVID-19 pandemic but stopped short of appointing a special master to oversee efforts to prevent infections in state prisons and jails Inmates and staff who alleged the state failed to follow its own Pandemic Response Plan were “credible,” and the lawyers who filed a lawsuit accusing the state of violating the inmates’ constitutional rights during the pandemic likely will win the case at trial Otake ruled the state Department of Public Safety failed to protect inmates from coronavirus outbreaks that have caused the deaths of at least nine prisoners so far The state claimed its failures to follow protective protocols during the pandemic were “occasional lapses,” but Otake found practices such as cramming 40 to 60 inmates in a single room in the Hilo jail “demonstrate objective deliberate indifference.” “The evidence before the Court demonstrates that (the state) has not taken reasonable available measures to abate the risks caused by the foregoing  conditions knowing full well — based on multiple prior outbreaks — that serious  consequences and harm would result to the inmates,” Otake wrote The lawsuit on behalf of the inmates cited major COVID-19 outbreaks at six correctional facilities where Hawaii inmates are held and pointed out that about half the state’s inmate population has been infected 2,200 inmates had become ill with COVID-19 since the pandemic began The lawsuit alleges state corrections officials “failed to implement most of the precautions public health experts have issued to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in DPS correctional facilities.” who argued the case on behalf of the inmates alleged corrections officials “knowingly and recklessly exposed inmates … to a highly contagious potentially lethal virus” in violation of the inmates’ constitutional rights The Attorney General’s office countered in legal briefs that the department has been “proactive and vigilant” in responding to the pandemic despite problems such as overcrowded jails and inmates who refuse to be vaccinated Prison and jail officials cited mandates in the department’s Pandemic Response Plan which calls for new admissions to prison and jails to be tested and quarantined the use of protective gear and an array of other steps to try to prevent the spread of the disease “Policies are meaningless if they are not followed.” In a particularly scathing portion of the ruling Otake cited the example of an inmate who alleged he was moved from the Hawaii Community Correctional Center in Hilo to Halawa Correctional Facility on Oahu last month while he was ill with the symptoms of COVID-19 Corrections officials “knowingly (1) transported symptomatic inmates from a facility with an active COVID-19 outbreak (4) but whose infections were unconfirmed due to late or no testing (6) to a facility with no active COVID-19 cases that previously experienced an outbreak and (7) then housed those inmates with COVID-negative inmates,” Otake wrote “There is almost no clearer an example of complete disregard for the Response Plan and abandonment of precautionary measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 between DPS facilities and islands,” she wrote in the decision While Otake declined to immediately appoint a special master to oversee the COVID-19 prevention effort in Hawaii prisons and jails she made it clear she can do so in the future if the prison system continues to fall short of the requirements of its own Pandemic Response Plan Otake issued a preliminary injunction ordering the state to follow the response plan and referred the case to Federal Magistrate Judge Kenneth Mansfield to assure compliance with the injunction She ordered lawyers on both sides of the case to attend monthly status conferences on the case beginning next week Otake also approved a request to certify the case as a class action lawsuit meaning it can proceed in federal court on behalf of all inmates who are subject to the same conditions Kevin Dayton is a reporter for Civil Beat. You can reach him by email at kdayton@civilbeat.org our takes and other stuff you should know about public information government accountability and ethical leadership in Hawaii The members of Civil Beat’s editorial board focused on ‘Let The Sunshine In’ are Patti Epler Part 1: Mufi Hannemann is taking over as chair of the Hawaii Tourism Authority Hannemann was elected at a special board meeting on Wednesday and his ascension is effective immediately who is still the president of the Hawaii Lodging and Tourism Association a Hawaiian Airlines executive who now has his hands quite full with the effort by Alaska Airlines to buy Hawaiian Miyasato is managing director of state and government affairs for Hawaiian The HTA had been in a state of uncertainty earlier this year It came under fire for the way it handled a two-year marketing contract and survived a legislative effort to kill it or reorganize it under the Department of Business The Legislature ended up cutting its funding which Gov Josh Green promised to make up out of his discretionary budget Part 2: Now that Vlad Devens has been ensconced on the Hawaii Supreme Court he is closing down his law practice and handing off old cases to others One of those cases is a long-standing dispute between Civil Beat and the State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers over police misconduct records Devens and his associate Keani Alapa have been involved in that legal saga for the last decade riding it all the way to the state Supreme Court a couple of times as SHOPO continued to challenge lower court rulings requiring more disclosure Civil Beat eventually prevailed except for one issue that is still floating out there awaiting an appellate court decision That one has to do with whether the county police agencies have to disclose the names of police officers who have been disciplined on annual summaries to the Legislature Devens filed a motion withdrawing as the attorney in that case and informing the court that what used to be known as the Law Offices of Vladimir P LLC will now be known as Alapa & Otake it looks like well-known criminal defense lawyer Tommy Otake is taking over Devens’ old desk The Blog hopes he can get some help with all those millions of documents and covert tape recordings the federal government has laid on him in the Miske organized crime case Football is king, even in Hawaii: For the past 13 years, Civil Beat has been publishing the salaries of public employees in Hawaii. The latest version of this well-read feature is nearly complete with only Maui County still to be added That means the current pay for tens of thousands of workers is now at your fingertips — 69,500 for 2024 alone. We’ve also published a reader’s guide explaining how to slice and dice the numbers the highest-paid public employee in the islands was University of Hawaii football coach Todd Graham at $800,000 annually Graham resigned in January 2022 and was replaced by Timmy Chang, who retains the No. 1 earner status despite making quite a bit less — about $600,000. (UH provided the enormous salary range of $400,000-$1.2 million and that’s what appears in the latest iteration of the database, but sports media sites pay close attention to details such as the actual pay of head college football coaches.) Placing second in the overall pay sweepstakes in the 2024 database is Joana Magno staff physician for Hawaii Health Systems Corp. At the other end of the spectrum are part-time “student helpers” earning $10 per hour Throwing a bit of shade on the database sunshine is UH’s decision to withhold the identities of its 1,535 graduate assistants while still listing the positions and pay levels The university cited restrictions in the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act even though it did provide the names of graduate assistants in the 2020 and 2022 fiscal year databases Educating the masses: Okay, here’s a topic that goes straight to the heart of our Let The Sunshine In project we’ve been following efforts to bring more transparency and accountability to state and local government any effort to truly reform government depends on adequate civic education and media literacy and former social studies teacher Amy Perruso told us last summer they are made and they have to be taught these skills.” Perruso is vice-chair of a coalition formed by the Hawaii Judiciary that is taking steps to enhance civic education and encourage public engagement for people of all ages The Commission to Promote and Advance Civic Education (PACE) collaborates with the Judiciary the State Bar Association and the Department of Education • A civic education speakers bureau that has judges and attorneys reaching out to hundreds of young people ranging in age from third-graders to university students.  Attorneys spoke to 500 sixth-graders during Constitution Day at Ewa Makai Middle School just blocks away from the site of the Honouliuli concentration camp where Japanese-Americans were interred during World War II • A survey of educators and school administrators to gauge what it would take to “create a more vibrant civic education experience for all students,” according to Jan Kagehiro communications and community relations director for the Judiciary • Recognizing high schools that are doing civic education right as “Schools of Democracy.” To get that designation schools must provide diverse learning experiences that foster civic understanding and community engagement; help students shape their own civic learning and “emphasize the ideals of the Aloha Spirit law,” Kagehiro said • Conducting a workshop for teachers in the “Law and Public Safety Pathway,” a program helping students interested in planning protective services and security. Teachers will observe court proceedings at Kaahumanu Hale and have opportunities to speak with judges and attorneys they are made and they have to be taught these skills.” The PACE efforts are especially welcome because last session the Legislature rejected three measures to boost civic education and media literacy One proposal would have funded the hiring of two full-time civic education specialists to help train Hawaii’s instructors on how to teach the subject That responsibility currently falls to a single specialist in social studies A second would have pushed for more instruction in media literacy at a time when misinformation is rampant sometimes at the highest levels of government A third would have enabled the Legislature’s Public Access Room to hire someone to develop an “outreach and engagement program” in cooperation with the DOE and UH to help students better understand what goes on at the State Capitol She has vowed to push for similar bills in the coming session Honolulu Civil Beat is a nonprofit organization and your donation helps us produce local reporting that serves all of Hawaii Ideas is the place you'll find essays, analysis and opinion on public affairs in Hawaiʻi. We want to showcase smart ideas about the future of Hawaiʻi, from the state's sharpest thinkers, to stretch our collective thinking about a problem or an issue. Email news@civilbeat.org to submit an idea Sign up for our FREE morning newsletter and face each day more informed By Michael Tsai Attorney Jill Otake has been nominated for a federal judgeship in Hawaii The Trump administration has nominated Assistant U.S Attorney Jill Otake as the new federal district judge for Hawaii The move comes as something of a surprise as Otake an ‘Iolani School graduate who has spent most of her legal career in criminal litigation as a prosecuting attorney was one of three people recommended by U.S Mazie Hirono and Brian Schatz to replace outgoing Chief Judge Susan Oki Mollway two years ago when Barack Obama was still president Hirono and Schatz announced Otake’s nomination this morning in a joint statement private attorney Clare Connors and former state Attorney General David Louie were initially reviewed and recommended by the seven-member Federal Judicial Selection Commission The Obama administration ultimately nominated Connors Senate and the position has remained vacant The Trump administration apparently drew from the same list of recommendations to select Otake Otake graduated from Georgetown University where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Russian language and the University of Washington School of Law She previously served as a deputy prosecuting attorney for King County a clerk for Hawaii State Supreme Court Justice Simeon Acoba Otake handled several successful prosecutions including one against the operator of a popular Thai restaurant chain who paid employees to enter into sham marriages with her relatives so they could stay in the United States Otake returned to Hawaii in 2014 to work as an assistant U.S she has successfully prosecuted a federal racketeering case involving a Halawa Correctional Facility guard who accepted bribes to smuggle drugs into the facility and a gang member who orchestrated the severe beating of an inmate Both were affiliated with the powerful USO Family prison gang Michael Walker to murder Walker’s wife Otake is the sister of local defense attorney Thomas Otake The venue for dozens of wildfire lawsuits could be determined as soon as Monday An army of lawyers converged on Honolulu’s federal court Wednesday to argue over a question that will have a major impact on lawsuits related to the Maui wildfires that destroyed much of Lahaina in August The question: Were the fires more like Hurricane Katrina which devastated much of the New Orleans metro area The answer could determine whether dozens of lawsuits filed against Hawaiian Electric Industries the state of Hawaii and other defendants remain in federal court District Court Judge Jill Otake will send the cases back to state court where they were filed.  More than 50 lawyers crowded into Otake’s courtroom for a nearly two-hour hearing as well as numerous plaintiffs who lost their lives The hearing turned on the question of whether the federal court actually had jurisdiction to hear dozens of cases that lawyers for Hawaiian Electric Spectrum and Kamehameha Schools have moved from Maui state court to federal court in Honolulu Federal courts generally have limited jurisdiction with the power only to hear cases involving the U.S Federal courts can also hear so-called “diversity” cases where the opposing parties are all from different states and the amount in controversy exceeds $75,000 Certain statutes expand the jurisdiction of federal courts in some instances including most injury and wrongful death tort lawsuits fall under the jurisdiction of state courts In Maui wildfire cases, lawyers for some defendants have invoked a federal statute that gives federal courts jurisdiction over certain cases. Called the The Multiparty, Multiforum Trial Jurisdiction Act of 2002 the law says the federal court may have jurisdiction in cases arising out of a “single accident where at least 75 natural persons have died in the accident at a discrete location” as long as some other criteria are met considerable debate on Wednesday focused on whether Lahaina was a “discrete location.”  While Congress didn’t define “discrete location,” federal courts have provided some guidance A deadly fire that destroyed a nightclub in Rhode Island in 2003 was found to have been a “discrete location.” In another case a court found the New Orleans metro area was not a discrete location saying “the proposition that the metro New Orleans area constitutes a ‘discrete location,’ is ‘untenable and would effectively deprive the Louisiana state courts of jurisdiction over any dispute related to Hurricane Katrina.’” The bulk of Wednesday’s arguments were made by plaintiffs’ attorney Jesse Creed, a Los Angeles lawyer also licensed in Hawaii, and Hawaiian Electric Industries lawyer Brad Brian of the California firm Munger Tolles & Olson Although Otake showed few signs of favoring one side or the other during their oral arguments the judge at one point seemed to question the idea that a town like Lahaina could be considered a “discrete location” under the statute when she asked Brian where he would say he was at that moment.  “I would probably say Honolulu,” Brian said noting that the statute says “’at’ a discrete location.” “I would say I’m ‘at’ Honolulu.” Creed later shot back that Brian’s answer showed that a place like Honolulu or Lahaina simply wasn’t the sort of place envisioned by Congress’s term “at a discrete location.” Creed faced his own share of confounding questions Otake tried to get Creed to say how big a “discrete location” could be “What is the large end of a discrete location?”  train wreck or hotel fire would be a discrete location under the statute a building that caught fire from falling debris from a plane crash would be a discrete location But he said a burn zone encompassing a hotel where a fired started plus an adjacent property to which the fire spread would not be a discrete location Otake at one point also indicated she wasn’t convinced Lahaina was completely analogous to the New Orleans metro area “There’s a big gap between Lahaina and New Orleans.” Otake seemed uncomfortable with the idea of remanding only the state’s class action to state court That would mean similar cases taking place in multiple venues Creed after the hearing accused the utilities of removing the cases to federal court as a stalling tactic, wasting money on legal fees. Hawaiian Electric Industries alone had spent $34.9 million on legal fees related to the fire between Aug. 8 and the end of 2023, the company reported in February “These are wealthy corporations who are trying to drag victims of the negligence from Maui court to Honolulu,” he said “is the right thing to do under the law and the right thing to do under any sense of justice.” Otake indicated she will weigh in on the remand requests by Monday either with an order deciding the matter or a request for more briefs Civil Beat’s coverage of Maui County is supported in part by grants from the Nuestro Futuro Foundation Mother as a piece of artwork is an exception for the artist Until 2021 when she was commissioned and performed Slow Turn a full-length monologue to mark the 20 years since the 9/11 attacks Since the work is the result of a personal loss as an artist the key is to maintain a critical distance while making a work of art “I am an immigrant with a heavy foreign accent was where being personal intersects with commonality as humans across individual differences Even though some people did not grow up with biological mothers or had difficult relationships with their mothers I hope to ring something more universal.”  From traversing the remnants of irradiated Fukushima to practicing her death encountering the impermanence of life is a way to initiate an acquaintance with the physical as well as the emotional experiences of the person of the past Mother drew a lineage across the past with the present where memory is replete with future possibilities an image of her mother on a creased and wrinkled paper which has also been used as a troupe in performances before transmuted to be a “metaphor for a body.” The photograph immortalised the deceased in their memory and cordial relationship everyone shares with their mother irrespective of their presence or absence— it apprises and defines “who we are Even though the installation drew on elements from her mother’s funeral the exhibition engaged viewers beyond Otake’s personal experience It is not important to share her memories but in constructing a performance and an installation some of her memories dictated some details “This does not mean I want my viewers to know it only matters that I am not ambivalent in performing these details makes the time and space I share with the audience more dense I am not concerned if viewers like it or not but striving for that density is important to me It is more profound than each viewer feels a strange density in which they are compelled to make their discoveries their discoveries lasting more than what is prescribed.”  Dance is an amalgamation of visual art, including space, body, movements, and time. Since the human body and performance is crucial to Otake’s practice, one is curious to know about her interest towards the sensorial experience of the body Aware of the vulnerability of the body that sets our course of existence but one cannot cut a body in half and survive and nationalities yet every living thing has a body I think in residing intentionally in one’s body one can also imagine others Having a body is common among us and with other species Otake has been bestowed with several awards and the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award Otake refrains to mention about the absolute consequentiality of her practice She values an experience that presents the unknown She makes work only to present time and space where people are collective yet do miss their individuality Mother was on view at The Green-Wood Cemetery Dilpreet Bhullar shuttles between New Delhi and Mumbai With an MPhil in Comparative Literature (University of Delhi) she has been the recipient of the Alliance for Historical Dialogue and Accountability Fellowship (Columbia University New York) and International Centre For Advocates Against Discrimination Fellowship she is the Editorial Manager of the magazine TAKE which is dedicated to South Asian contemporary arts When a famed Indian artist used a protest poet’s words without credit it raised a deeper question: who gets to speak The veteran curator on the Sharjah Biennial 16 and collection-building as history-writing This selling exhibition has been conceived as a collaboration between WWF to further ocean conservation initiatives across the UK A museum at Cambridge University examines Britain’s role in the transatlantic slave trade between 1750-1850 Exclusive preview for subscribers. Learn More Make your fridays matter. Learn More © Copyright 2019-2025 STIR Design Private Limited Please confirm your email address and we’ll send you a link to reset your password All your bookmarks will be available across all your devices Password must be 8 characters long including one capital letter By creating an account, you acknowledge and agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy by STIR Select the Conversation Category you would like to watch Please enter your details and click submit Single account access for STIRworld.com,STIRpad.com and exclusive STIRfri content Verification link sent to check your inbox or spam folder to complete sign up process by Dilpreet Bhullar | Published on : Jun 17 Publisher and President: Minako Suematsu) won the inaugural award for Best in Healthcare Reporting at the WAN-IFRA Asian Media Awards on November 6 for a story on the systemic issue of overwork among doctors in Japan written by Tomoko Otake Best in Healthcare Reporting recognizes and celebrates excellence in healthcare journalism It shows exceptional standards in reporting and writing and delves into critical healthcare topics or issues.googletag.cmd.push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1499653692894-0'); }); “I’m very grateful to be recognized for my story on the systemic issues behind a young doctor’s death in Japan doctors can still be forced to work incredibly long hours This isn’t just about their well-being; it’s a safety concern for everyone who needs healthcare.” said the win confirms the publication’s mission to produce world-class journalism as a global news company “This win is testament to the depth of Tomoko’s reporting I’m proud that her piece was recognized for shedding light on the overwork crisis among Japan’s medical professionals and the need for both the healthcare sector and government to implement truly effective reforms.” Award winners were announced at the 23rd Asian Media Awards held in Singapore. A complete list of winners can be found here Young doctor’s suicide highlights overwork culture at Japan hospitals The World Association of Newspapers (WAN-IFRA) is a nonprofit nongovernmental organization representing the world’s press Its authority and legitimacy stem from its global network of 3,000 news publishing companies and technology entrepreneurs and its 60 member publisher associations representing 18,000 publications in 120 countries The World Association of Newspapers (WAN-IFRA) Asia Media Awards Serving as the nation’s premier English-language news source since 1897 The Japan Times provides both the local angle and a global perspective under the core values of independence and fairness Readers now access our world-class journalism via newspaper Corporate Affairs Management Division (Kumano) Email: [email protected] The press release may be downloaded in PDF format Nao Otake achieved a maiden class podium finish as the next generation of TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRC Challenge Program drivers continued their progress on their second starts in the Finnish Rally Championship at Ralli Mikkeli Based in the town of Mikkeli in the south-east of Finland the rally took place over generally fast gravel roads were held across Saturday to form a competitive distance of 106.27 kilometres The rally gave the three drivers (all in Renault Clio Rally4 cars) the chance to build upon their strong performance in the non-championship Varaosaexpert Ralli in Lahti two weeks earlier and confirm the progress made since their Finnish championship debuts at the Pohjanmaa Ralli in June Yuki Yamamoto made a great start to the rally going fourth-fastest in the SM4 class on the opening stage he and co-driver Miika Teiskonen were soon forced to retire in SS3 due to a fuel pump issue capitalised on incidents for several of his rivals to climb up into third place after four stages He continued his consistent driving and pace in the final loop of three stages to secure a podium finish 20 seconds ahead of his nearest competitor Hikaru Kogure was hampered at the beginning of the rally by a braking issue but once this was fixed in service he bounced back to set fourth-fastest time in SS3 and climb up to sixth overall in the class together with co-driver Topi Luhtinen Quotes:Hikaru Kogure:“On this rally I could find an improvement in performance from Pohjanmaa but to be honest I am not completely satisfied with the speed compared to my team-mates We had a brake issue in the morning and lost a lot of time but after that I still felt we were quite slow The stages were fast but also twisty even though the speed was high and in the recce I found it difficult to judge the bend numbers for the pacenotes But at least we could finish the rally without any big moments and gain experience and data for the future.” In the morning the pace was not so good but it was getting better during the rally There were many things I could try and I was able to find a good rhythm The biggest challenge on this rally was to only drive each stage twice in recce But my pacenotes were quite OK: I could trust them and myself Of course I made some mistakes and I learned a lot from those and this rally will be good experience for me.” Yuki Yamamoto:“Our rally was going well until we had the problem some of the Finnish drivers were quicker than us but I think I was driving on my level and the same as what I could do in testing It was disappointing to have to retire but I know that it’s part of the game sometimes We missed out on the experience from the rest of the rally but I have some positive things to take from the stages we did and also some less positive things that I can improve on for the future So I can keep my head up and try to focus on the next rally.” Mikko Hirvonen (TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRC Challenge Program chief instructor):“This was again a good rally overall It was unfortunate that Yuki had the technical issue early in the rally because he started very strongly and it would have been exciting to see if he could have kept that speed consistently through the race Hikaru also had some issues at the beginning but after that he was able to find good speed Nao did really well and being consistent allowed him to finish third The stages were really challenging and fast with a lot of high-speed corners where you needed to have good confidence in your notes After Lahti where they were able to drive each stage four times in the recce it was interesting to see if they can still trust their notes after only two passes they didn’t make any big mistakes and they learned more about what they need from their notes in order to be more confident 1 Henri Hokkala/Kimmo Pahkala (Ford Fiesta Rally4) 2 Niko Patajoki/Juha Lummaa (Ford Fiesta Rally4) 3 Nao Otake/Marko Salminen (Renault Clio Rally4) 4 Matteo Fontana/Alessandro Arnaboldi (Peugeot 208 R2) 5 Niko Kalmi/Aki Sparre (Ford Fiesta Rally4) 6 Hikaru Kogure/Topi Luhtinen (Renault Clio Rally4) Retired Yuki Yamamoto/Miika Teiskonen (Renault Clio Rally4) TOYOTA GAZOO Racing WRC Challenge Program is supported by following partners Progress and podiums for young Japanese drivers in Lahti Japanese trio make their Finnish Rally Championship debuts Three new drivers chosen to pursue their WRC dreams Katsuta keeps up his record on demanding Belgian roads Thomas Otake has been at least temporarily terminated over alleged conflicts of interest Watson is expected to issue a decision soon on whether attorney Thomas Otake will be permanently disqualified from representing accused racketeering boss Michael J Watson’s ruling will cap an intense two-month legal battle between prosecutors and Miske’s defense team over government attempts to disqualify both lead attorneys because of alleged conflicts of interest all being played out as the trial looms just six months ahead was at least temporarily terminated as Miske’s lead trial attorney on Feb 9 by order of Magistrate Judge Kenneth Mansfield Mansfield determined Otake “has a conflict of interest based on his prior representation” of two clients expected to be witnesses in Miske’s trial and are identified in court filings only as Client 1 and Client 2 Mansfield’s decision came as he reconsidered an earlier ruling declining to dismiss Otake but the judge’s latest order said he had been unaware of the conflicts created by these two witnesses at the time of his initial ruling quickly appealed Mansfield’s decision to Watson who is in overall control of court proceedings in the case of Miske and his co-defendants They maintain neither of the prior cases cited by the government had much and those cases were not “substantially related” to the Miske case Otake confirmed his understanding “that ‘Client 1’ did not know Mr and had no direct and personal information about Mr there is nothing in the record to support the government’s claim that Client 2’s case was substantially related to Miske publicly available information suggests Otake’s two former clients were indeed part of the larger group of criminal conspirators that prosecutors refer to as the Miske Enterprise whether those associations are enough to create insurmountable legal conflicts of interest for Otake is something Watson will have to determine Even if there are grounds for the government’s conflict claims Otake’s removal from the case would cause a substantial hardship on Miske’s defense according to the appeal by Panagakos and Kennedy Otake has represented Miske in other matters at least since the beginning of 2013 and was retained in the present case in August 2017 Otake also represents Miske in a pending felony assault case in state court The long-standing and ongoing relationship between attorney and client means Otake’s permanent removal from the defense team would necessarily impinge on Miske’s constitutional right to a counsel of his choosing And in a proper balancing of competing interests the constitutional right to counsel of choice under the Sixth Amendment should carry more weight than the court rule on conflicts The Panagakos/Kennedy appeal is also highly critical of the government for raising the conflict of interest issue at this late date more than two and a half years after Miske’s indictment and arrest Panagakos accused prosecutors of deliberately concealing information about the conflict of interest issues which the attorneys maintain only came to their attention recently The fact that this dispute has emerged as an issue this late in the proceedings appears more likely another indication of how extensive and complex this case Miske and 10 co-defendants were indicted and arrested in mid-July 2020 The original 22-count indictment contained charges including conspiracy A third superseding indictment added two obstruction of justice charges against Miske in December 2022 Six of the original co-defendants have pleaded guilty as part of plea agreements with prosecutors At least seven others who were charged separately also pleaded guilty Watson will have to determine whether any of the circumstances described by prosecutors create actual conflicts of interest for Otake whether they are substantial enough to outweigh Miske’s right to his own attorney of choice and whether they can be sufficiently mitigated by procedures short of Otake’s permanent removal from the case Just last month, Watson denied another government motion seeking to disqualify both Panagakos and Otake from the Miske case on other grounds stemming from their involvement in soliciting and handling character reference letters collected in support of Miske’s unsuccessful bid for release on bond including two determined to have been fraudulent The judge repeatedly characterized the government’s allegations of conflicts of interest as “speculative” at best and ruled the government “has not come close” to establishing the existence of a disqualifying conflict of interest created by the fraudulent letters Although the hearing technically only dealt with Panagakos’ status since Otake at that point had already been terminated from the case Watson said his order finding no conflict created by the letters or by a conversation at the office of one of Miske’s lawyers Whatever Watson decides on Otake’s alleged conflicts and continued participation in the Miske case the legal clash already has had the effect of putting new information about the government’s case against Miske and his co-defendants into the public record as prosecutors have tried to bolster their evidence of legal issues stemming from the new roles of Otake’s former clients as witnesses against Miske According to information cited by prosecutors Client 1 was arrested and charged in a 2018 drug case along with two co-defendants they identified only as J.S Based on documents previously filed in court, including dozens of previously sealed search warrants and related documents as well as previous indictments and plea agreements, J.S. and T.T. can be identified as Jacob “Jake” Smith and Timothy Taboada Client 1 appears to be Catherine Nicole Zapata who was Taboada’s girlfriend at the time of their arrest in 2018 All three were named in the same 2018 criminal complaint that alleged Taboada sold methamphetamine from his residence in Kaneohe The drugs were supplied by Smith and several others associated with Miske Zapata assisted Taboada by packaging drugs for resale and “driving Taboada to meetings where the defendant knew that Taboada would be buying or selling methamphetamine,” according to admissions in her 2019 plea deal with prosecutors Prosecutors also disclosed they had moved for a downward departure from sentencing guidelines for Client 1 because of her assistance in providing information used in obtaining an indictment against Hunter Wilson the motion regarding Client 1 was filed the day after Miske was arraigned in July 2020 Court records appear to further confirm the identity of Client 1 as Zapata Miske appeared in court for arraignment and plea on July 16 the government filed a sealed motion in Zapata’s case The transcript of her subsequent sentencing hearing confirms the sealed motion requested a downward adjustment in her sentence prosecutors say Zapata will be presented as a witness during Miske’s trial “to prove that: members of the Miske Enterprise (including but not limited to Miske) participated in a racketeering enterprise; one of the objectives of the Miske Enterprise was to distribute illegal drugs; Miske knew of and benefited from those criminal pursuits; and other members of the Miske Enterprise (e.g. with whom Client 1 was involved) could operate more efficiently as criminals in Hawaii by virtue of being associated with the Miske Enterprise.” Prosecutors say it is immaterial whether Zapata can provide testimony directly implicating Miske because of the conspiracy charges he faces It is “a basic principle of federal criminal conspiracy law is liable for foreseeable criminal acts of his co-conspirators and vice versa,” according to the government’s memo in opposition to the latest appeal “Client 1’s illegal drug trafficking activities relate directly to the illegal drug trafficking activities of the Miske Enterprise which means their respective interests are at odds prosecutors have provided new public information regarding the second client they plan on calling as a witness Otake represented Client 2 in an assault case in 2012 and again two years later when Client 2 was again charged with assault in a family court case A review of cases in which Otake was the attorney of record in state court found just a single client who fit this profile A person by the same name appeared in the contact list of a white iPhone 4 used by Wayne Miller who pleaded guilty in December 2020 of being a key member of Miske’s racketeering conspiracy and Miller gave investigators the name of the person whose phone number appeared under the name “Drew,” according to a copy of an FBI report on a 2019 interview of Miller The FBI Form 302 report became public when it was filed in court as an exhibit by an attorney for Delia Fabro-Miske a co-defendant in the case who had been married to Miske’s son Because this person has not previously been associated with the Miske case and has been identified only through circumstantial information Civil Beat will refer to him only as “Drew.” Miller told federal investigators that Drew was going to help distribute $300,000 worth of cocaine that Miller along with Miske co-defendant Michael Buntenbah were planning to bring back from California in July 2014 Drew also gave Miller the post office box address in Manoa for  “Nick Miles,” which Drew said was “a safe location to send contraband.” Miller told investigators it had then been successfully used to ship marijuana a woman identified in the FBI report as Drew’s girlfriend or wife “was attempting to set up a food vending business to sell food items outside of M Nightclub,” according to the report has emerged as one of the most important witnesses in the Miske prosecution He has pleaded guilty and has provided extensive information about the Miske Enterprise to investigators He is apparently being held in protective custody in a federal facility on the mainland and all information about him has been scrubbed from the Bureau of Prison’s online federal inmate locator Miske once described Miller as a close and true friend in a character reference letter submitted to the court in 2006 when Miller was being sentenced for the 2001 armed robbery of a Windward Oahu credit union He served a 10-year sentence for the offense and quickly became one of Miske’s most trusted associates after he was released from federal prison in early 2014 Prosecutors have pointed to other reports containing information on Client 2 now believed to be person identified here as Drew that have been provided to defense attorneys in the process of discovery One report indicated he “committed criminal acts on Miske’s behalf such as violent assaults.” Another said he “was a fighter” who “collected debts for Miske,” who then arranged for him to be placed in a union job “as a reward for (Client 2’s) services.”  Another report disclosed “Miske had purchased five stevedore union positionsand gave one of them to Client 2 in part because Client 2 “does some of Miske’s dirty work.” another report discloses that after Miske and others assaulted a victim he wants to give you $10,000.” This offer of a payoff appears to have followed the December 2012 beating of a rival promoter and another person on a street outside the parking lot for Miske’s M Nightclub Felony assault and criminal property damage charges were filed against Miske and his half-brother The initial case was dismissed after prosecutors failed to get the case to trial in time Stancil eventually pleaded no contest to reduced charges The case against Miske is still active and set for trial Otake represents Miske in this long-running criminal case Prosecutors say Client 2 will be called as a witness to show Miske and other associates “engaged in violent assaults to advance the interests of Miske and the Miske Enterprise.” He is expected to testify about “particular violent assaults that took place in Mike’s presence,” including at Miske’s M Nightclub as well as about “illegal drug activity” by members of the Miske Enterprise In addition to the alleged conflicts involving Otake’s two former clients the government argues Otake is a key witness to a mid-2014 meeting between Otake took place in the parking lot of a Waikiki elementary school soon after Miller returned from California where a planned deal to purchase more than 20 pounds of cocaine from a group with ties to a Mexican cartel had been broken up by drug enforcement agents along with $300,000 in cash put up by Miske Prosecutors allege Miske arranged the meeting in order to get Otake’s opinion about whether to believe Miller’s story about the drug bust and to assess whether Miller might have been double-crossing him The 2014 drug deal is the basis for Count 15 which charges Miske with a drug trafficking conspiracy for his part in the planned cocaine deal “The meeting itself is a critical provable overt act in the charged drug conspiracy he was the lead actor,” prosecutors said in a court filing this week he was literally the reason the meeting occurred.” “Otake is a critical and necessary witness,” creating an insurmountable conflict who accompanied Miller to California as they attempted to make the drug buy have pleaded guilty and are expected to testify against Miske and others Final written arguments were submitted to Watson on Wednesday The judge previously indicated he would decide the matter without a further hearing The trial of Miske and his remaining co-defendants is scheduled to begin after Labor Day