News Feed

The British public’s decision to leave the European Union sent a shock through Japan, causing a sharp rise in the yen’s exchange rate and a fall in stock prices.
The shock wave might spread to small factories dependent on exports and might affect demand for European travel. People in these industries voiced concern for the future. Company employees and shoppers stopped to watch a big screen displaying stock prices in a district where there are many securities companies in Tokyo’s Chuo ward.
With drooping shoulders, a 40-year-old woman who runs massage shops in Ginza said she sold all her stocks first thing this morning but lost at least 10 million yen (Bt3.45 million).
“If the sale had been delayed, I would have lost more.”
A 56-year-old man from Fujisawa, Kanagawa prefecture, who works at a materials manufacturer in Tokyo, said the price of his company’s treasury stock dropped nearly 20 per cent. “I cannot stand this situation unless there is hope that Brexit will bring us some business opportunities.”
Watching the monitor with a stern look, a 34-year-old company employee, who said he has a foreign currency deposit, said he didn’t expect the yen to become so strong. “I can’t sell the foreign currency I have now. I have no option but to keep the money for the time being.” – The Japan News/Asia News Network, Tokyo

MANDALAY INDUSTRIAL ZONE FACTORIES ACCUSED OF POLLUTING RIVER

Environmental conservation teams say factories in Mandalay Industrial Zone are polluting the Dokehtawady River.
The Resource and Natural Environmental Conservation Committee heard evidence from Earth Rights International, an environmental civil society organisation, on Taungthaman Lake.
“We studied waste being discharged directly into the Dokehtawady River and Taungthaman Lake by the zone over two year ago.
“We didn’t have a chance to meet the environmental conservation teams under the last government. Now we have a chance to meet that team and report our assessment. “A water purification plant at the zone will take two years to complete. Until then, the factories will be polluting the river,” advocate Kyaw Thein said. – Myanmar Eleven/Asia News Network, Mandalay