ASIA / PACIFIC
Page 16 n THE ASIAN REPORTER
July 3, 2017
14-year-old excites country with
record Japanese chess debut
By Ken Moritsugu
The Associated Press
OKYO — A 14-year-old boy is
taking his country by storm
with a record-breaking start
to his pro career in the Japanese
version of chess.
Ninth-grader Sota Fujii broke a
30-year-old record last month with
his 29th win in a row in the game of
shogi. His face was plastered across
front pages of major newspapers,
getting bigger display than the
bankruptcy filing of Japanese air bag
maker Takata.
Shogi is similar to chess, though
players can reuse captured pieces as
their own, making it more complex.
In competitions, they kneel on the
floor of a traditional tatami-mat room
and play on a thick wooden block that
is the board.
Fujii defeated 19-year-old oppo-
nent Yasuhiro Masuda after a more
than 11-hour battle — with lunch and
dinner breaks.
Kneeling with his eyes cast
downward, the teenage phenom told
dozens of reporters, photographers,
and video journalists crowded around
him that he was both happy and sur-
prised to win 29 consecutive matches.
His accomplishment is all the more
T
CONCERNING QUAKE. Fallen rocks block a road after an earth-
quake in Otaki village, central Japan. The strong earthquake shook resi-
dents in a mountainous region of Japan, injuring at least two people and
knocking roof tiles off homes. (Koji Harada/Kyodo News via AP)
Strong earthquake
injures two, knocks off
roof tiles in Japan
TOKYO (AP) — A strong earthquake shook residents in
a mountainous region of central Japan, injuring at least
two people and knocking roof tiles off homes.
The magnitude 5.6 quake struck about 7:00am at a
shallow depth of four miles in Nagano prefecture, the
Japan Meteorological Agency said. The epicenter was
about 120 miles west of Tokyo.
Authorities said two people had minor injuries. Japan’s
NHK television said an 83-year-old woman in Otaki
village was struck on the head by a falling object in her
house, and a 60-year-old woman in Kiso town was hit in
the leg by a chest of drawers that fell over.
The Fire and Disaster Management Agency reported
multiple incidents of fallen roof tiles and broken glass.
NHK showed a worker in Kiso picking up glass from a
shattered show window at a Nissan car dealer.
There was no danger of tsunami from the inland
earthquake.
The area is no stranger to disaster. A nearby volcano,
Mount Ontake, erupted in 2014, killing about 60 people.
Several people died when a stronger earthquake triggered
landslides in the same area in 1984.
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Difficulty
EASY
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level: Easy
#26798
# 26
Puzzle #21387 (Hard)
All solutions available at
<www.sudoku.com>.
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Ride-hailing services transform Vietnam’s transport culture
Continued from page 4
Vietnam, a communist-ruled country of 93 million, has
about 45 million motorbikes, the highest rate of
motorcycle ownership per capita in Southeast Asia. Some
3.1 million new motorbikes were sold last year.
Practically everyone has mobile phones, and cheap
internet access has enabled most Vietnamese city
dwellers to get online.
Nguyen Tuan Anh, chairman of Grab Vietnam, said the
number of GrabBike drivers has jumped from 100 when
they first launched in late 2014 to more than 50,000, with
hundreds joining every day.
The growth of passengers is “explosive,” he said.
Many Vietnamese now prefer to use ride hailing apps,
viewing their services as safer and cheaper, Tuan Anh
said. “GrabBike brings transparency and that’s why
customers love it. They know that they will not be cheated
by the drivers.”
But Tuan Anh said he knows of more than 100 cases
where GrabBike drivers were attacked in the past year,
often by Xe Om drivers worried about losing business.
Bus stations, hospitals, and schools are hotspots for
conflict. In one case, a GrabBike driver was stabbed in the
lung. In another, police fired warning shots to disperse
crowds of Xe Om and GrabBike drivers who were battling
near a bus station in Ho Chi Minh City.
Similar problems have been reported in Thailand and
Indonesia.
Tuan Anh said GrabBike tells its drivers to be cautious
Retirement Living
Instructions: Fill in the grid so that the digits 1
through 9 appear one time each in every row, col-
umn, and 3x3 box.
Solution to
last issue’s
puzzle
PHENOMENAL FUJII. Sota Fujii, right, replays a move against Yasuhiro Masuda in front of
media after Fujii defeated Masuda to break a 30-year-old record with his 29th win in a row, in the
qualifying round of a major tournament in Tokyo. The 14-year-old boy is taking his country by storm
with a record-breaking debut in Japanese chess, known as shogi. (Muneyoshi Someya/Kyodo News
via AP)
impressive because the matches are public interest in the game has not
the first 29 he has played since been as high since 1996, when a
becoming pro.
player won all seven major
Fujii became the youngest ever to championships in the same year.
qualify to enter the professional
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told
ranks last October. In his first match reporters Fujii had made history with
in December, he defeated Hifumi a victory he thinks will inspire the
Kato, a then-76-year-old master who hopes and dreams of other Japanese.
had set the previous record for the
Fans wonder just how good Fujii is,
youngest-ever pro in the 1950s.
and how far he will go in this year’s
Japan’s Kyodo News agency says tournaments.
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TRANSPORTATION TRANSFORMATION. Nguyen Kim Lan
reads a newspaper while waiting for customers at an intersection in Ha-
noi, Vietnam. Lan, a 62-year-old traditional motorbike taxi driver (or Xe
Om), used to make a decent living shuttling customers, but his clientele
has dwindled as young and tech-savvy Vietnamese increasingly use ride-
hailing apps like Uber and Grab to summon cheaper, safer motorbike
taxis. (AP Photo/Tran Van Minh)
and to seek help from police.
Many Vietnamese seem keen to use such services
despite the potential for conflict.
Tran Thuc Anh, a 21-year-old videogame designer, said
she switched to using GrabBike to commute from bus
stations to and from her office about six months ago.
It costs her half as much as using Xe Om did, she says.
“I just need to be online to book a bike without going
around to look for a traditional Xe Om, so it’s very
convenient,” Thuc Anh said.
Many GrabBike drivers originally worked as Xe Om,
but not all are willing to sign up. Older motorbike taxi
drivers say they don’t know how to use online apps or lack
the cash to buy smartphones. Others are put off by the
cheaper fares GrabBike charges.
But Nguyen Quang Trung, a 30-year-old salesman who
began moonlighting for GrabBike six months ago, said Xe
Om drivers who try to overcharge their customers are
finished.
“Uber and Grab are safe and their fares are reasonable
and customers see this,” Trung said. “Only elder people or
those who are in a hurry use traditional Xe Om. Young
people and people who are not short on time never use Xe
Om.”
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