The mass Zoom sacking proves it: we should leave firing people to robots

The US mortgage firm Better sacked 900 workers in a video meeting. It’s time to entrust such tricky human resources tasks to artificial beings

Vishal Garg of Better, who sacked 900 staff in a Zoom call this month. 

Photograph: Better.com

Sun 12 Dec 2021 

There is no right way to fire someone, but there is a wrong way to fire 900 people. On Wednesday 1 December, Vishal Garg, the chief executive of Better, an American mortgage provider, convened a Zoom meeting of 900 employees. We don’t know what they expected. Perhaps a Christmas quiz. It wasn’t to be.

“I come to you with not great news,” Garg began. “I do not want to do this. The last time I did it, I cried. This time I hope to be stronger.” Everyone was rooting for him. “If you’re on this call,” he continued, “you are part of the unlucky group being laid off. Your employment here is terminated, effective immediately.” Merry Christmas. Don’t let the laptop screen hit your hand on the way down.
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Garg’s brave message didn’t wash. Employees described the experience as “surreal”. Some found it at odds with Better’s mission statement, which claims “we’re using technology to make [home-ownership] faster and more efficient, and humans to help make it friendly and enjoyable.” Garg was forced to apologise almost at once. “I failed to show the appropriate amount of respect and appreciation for the individuals who were affected and for their contributions to Better,” he said. “I own the decision to do the layoffs but in communicating it I blundered the execution.”

Oh well. Third time’s a charm. The main thing is to learn from your mistakes. Garg will know better the next time he has to fire 900 people.

Sadly, such a situation is unlikely to arise soon. The apology wasn’t enough. On Friday it was announced that Garg, too, would be taking an extended period of time off, effective immediately. You have to feel for the man. He thought he was doing the honourable thing, especially in light of later reports in which he accused the employees of stealing from the company and only working two hours a day. Firing 900 people online in the privacy of your own company is one thing, but having the story leaked to the media is the kind of thing that could damage a corporate reputation. A mass Zoom sacking is all well and good, but it cannot replicate the intimacy of being sacked by Zoom one on one.
You thought you wanted a flying car, but in reality you crave someone to explain to your husband he is loading the dishwasher the wrong way

But those quick to judge Garg, presumably including the 900 people he fired, should ask themselves how they would have handled it. This ill-conceived event might seem to be evidence we are living in a techno-dystopia, but in fact it is a touching throwback to basic managerial incompetence. It’s not easy, firing 900 people over Zoom. It is difficult enough to look one person in the eye, in person, and tell them their services are no longer needed. The management consultancy industry is based on the fact that only psychopaths enjoy these kinds of difficult conversations. The 2009 film Up in the Air had a comparable premise, which was that if you have to be fired by someone, it might as well be George Clooney.

Automation can’t come soon enough. We all like to think that if we found ourselves in such a situation, we would be compassionate and reasonable. Yet whenever technology permits, we embrace laziness and cowardice. Anyone born after 1990 would rather text or email than make a phone call. Why would you speak to someone at the till when the robot checkout is ready and waiting? You might have thought you wanted a flying car, but in reality you crave someone to explain to your husband that he is loading the dishwasher the wrong way. HR is an epicentre of difficult conversations: you’re fired, you’re hired, you’re being rationalised. Technology is rushing to do what humans would rather not, if it’s all the same to you. A sacking robot does not yet exist, but you can bet that engineers are working hard on the prototype.

It isn’t only on Zoom, with its possibilities for panopticon whacking, that the changes are being felt. The technology works both ways. If you feel you are being treated like a robot, you are more likely to respond in kind. Applicants to investment banks are learning to hide keywords in the meta-text of their cover letters, to fool the robotic scrapers into giving them an interview. These institutions have also experienced a rush of bisexual applicants: it’s more likely to get you an interview, and it’s hard to disprove. Some interviews are being replaced by robot questioners, with the footage reviewed after the fact. The true purpose of the metaverse is to obviate tricky chats. Soon a robot will post the advertisement, conduct the recruitment process, hire you, manage your grievances and, in time, sack you. You might wonder why you’re still working at all, but the robot will have a charming answer for that, even if Mr Garg doesn’t.

 

Hubble image captures a stunning spiral galaxy in the constellation of Aquila

By Georgina TorbetDecember 12, 2021

This week’s image from the Hubble Space Telescope captures the glorious spiral galaxy UGC 11537, seen at an angle that shows off both its long spiral arms and the bright clump of stars at its center. It is located 230 million light-years away in the constellation of Aquila (Latin for “eagle”).

As well as being pleasing to look at, this image was collected to further scientific knowledge about the enormous black holes at the galaxy’s heart. “This image came from a set of observations designed to help astronomers weigh supermassive black holes in the centers of distant galaxies,” Hubble scientists wrote. “Hubble’s sharp-eyed observations along with data from ground-based telescopes allowed astronomers to make detailed models of the mass and motions of stars in these galaxies, which in turn helps constrain the mass of supermassive black holes.”

This astronomical portrait from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope showcases an edge-on view of the majestic spiral galaxy UGC 11537. The infrared and visible light capabilities of Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 have captured the galaxy’s tightly wound spiral arms swirling around its heart. The image reveals the bright bands of stars and the dark clouds of dust threading throughout the galaxy.ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Seth

Hubble is back up and running this week, with all four of its currently active instruments operational and collecting science data once again. The telescope had been automatically placed into safe mode following a synchronization error in late October, but the error seems to have been a one-off. In the weeks since the error occurred, the Hubble team turned on first one of the older inactive instruments, then each of the currently active instruments one by one.

No further errors have occurred, but NASA has said that the team is looking into performing a software update in the future. This would allow the instruments to continue operating even if a few synchronization messages were missed, which should prevent problems like this one from happening in the future.

Hubble is getting old, having been in operation for more than 30 years. Soon it will be joined by the James Webb Space Telescope, set to launch in a few weeks, which will be its successor  — however, the two telescopes have distinctly different specialties. Hubble observes primarily in the visible light wavelength, while James Webb will observe primarily in the infrared wavelength. So NASA plans to keep Hubble running as long as possible in addition to James Webb, and has recently extended its operations contract until 2026.

A stunning infrared nebula hides astronomical objects of interest

By Georgina TorbetDecember 12, 2021 

A beautiful image of a distant nebula has been captured using the international Gemini Observatory, located in Chile. The image shows the Chamaeleon Infrared Nebula, a star-forming region that is one of the nearest to Earth in our galaxy.

This nebula is known as an infrared nebula because it glows brightly in the infrared wavelength, though this particular image was taken in the visible light wavelength. It is a reflection nebula, meaning that it is a cloud of dust and gas which is not itself ionized, but which reflects the light of a nearby star. The source of the wispy shape of the nebula is a young, cool star hidden by a dark band in the center of the image which is giving off streams of gas which creates tunnel shapes through the material, as well as giving off light which illuminates the nebula.

This ethereal image, captured from Chile by the international Gemini Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab, looks as delicate as a butterfly’s wing. It is, however, a structure known as the Chamaeleon Infrared Nebula, which is located near the center of the even larger Chamaeleon I dark cloud, one of the nearest star-forming regions in our Milky Way.International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA Acknowledgments: Image processing: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF’s NOIRLab), J. Miller (Gemini Observatory/NSF’s NOIRLab), M. Zamani (NSF’s NOIRLab) & D. de Martin (NSF’s NOIRLab)

There are also two other objects of interest in the image. “The bright red object to the right of the image center marks where some of the fast-moving stream of gas lights up after colliding with slower-moving gas in the nebula,” NOIRLab writes. “It is known as a Herbig-Haro (HH) object and has the designation HH 909A. Other Herbig-Haro objects have been found along the axis of the star’s outflow beyond the edges of the image to the right and left.”

There are signs that there might be the very early stages of planet formation happening here as well. “Astronomers have suggested that the dark band at the center of the Chamaeleon Infrared Nebula is a circumstellar disk — a reservoir of gas and dust orbiting the star,” NOIRLab writes. “Circumstellar disks are typically associated with young stars and provide the materials needed to build planets. The reason the disk appears as a band rather than a circle in this image is that it is edge-on, only revealing one edge to observers here on Earth. Astronomers believe that the nebula’s central star is a young stellar object embedded within the disk.”

Julian Assange has a stroke in Belmarsh prison: Fiancée blames extreme stress caused by US extradition battle

Julian Assange had a stroke in Belmarsh Prison, his fiancee Stella Moris revealed

 
WikiLeaks publisher, 50, is being held on remand in the maximum-security jail

It is believed the mini-stroke was triggered by the stress of the US court action

Stroke happened at the time of High Court appearance via video link in October

By SARAH OLIVER FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY
 11 December 2021 

Julian Assange has had a stroke in Belmarsh Prison, his fiancee Stella Moris revealed last night.

The WikiLeaks publisher, 50, who is being held on remand in the maximum-security jail while fighting extradition to America, was left with a drooping right eyelid, memory problems and signs of neurological damage.

He believes the mini-stroke was triggered by the stress of the ongoing US court action against him, and an overall decline in his health as he faces his third Christmas behind bars.

It happened at the time of a High Court appearance via video link from Belmarsh in October.

A 'transient ischaemic attack' – the interruption of the blood supply to the brain – can be a warning sign of a full stroke. Assange has since had an MRI scan and is now taking anti-stroke medication.

Ms Moris, 38, a lawyer, said: 'Julian is struggling and I fear this mini-stroke could be the precursor to a more major attack. It compounds our fears about his ability to survive the longer this long legal battle goes on.


WikiLeaks publisher, 50, Julian Assange (pictured with his son Gabriel) has had a stroke in Belmarsh Prison, his fiancee Stella Moris revealed last night

'It urgently needs to be resolved. Look at animals trapped in cages in a zoo. It cuts their life short. That's what's happening to Julian. The never-ending court cases are extremely stressful mentally.'

She said he was kept in his cell for long periods and was 'short of fresh air and sunlight, an adequate diet and the stimulus he needs'.

Assange faced a major legal setback on Friday when the High Court overturned a judgment made this year preventing extradition to the US to face charges under the US Espionage Act.

His lawyers successfully argued he would be kept in conditions in the US that could lead to a serious risk of suicide. The High Court reversed the earlier ruling after the US government offered assurances about his potential imprisonment.

But Ms Moris said: 'I believe this constant chess game, battle after battle, the extreme stress, is what caused Julian's stroke on October 27.

He was feeling really unwell, far too ill to follow the hearing, and he was excused by the judge but could not leave the prison video room.

'It must have been horrendous hearing a High Court appeal in which you can't participate, which is discussing your mental health and your risk of suicide and in which the US is arguing you are making it all up.

'He had to sit through all this when he should have been excused. He was in a truly terrible state. His eyes were out of synch, his right eyelid would not close, his memory was blurry.'
Assange's partner fears US extradition will lead to his suicide



Ms Moris (pictured) said Assange was kept in his cell for long periods and was 'short of fresh air and sunlight, an adequate diet and the stimulus he needs'

Assange was examined by a doctor, who found a delayed pupil response when a light was shone into one eye – a sign of potential nerve damage.

Ms Moris and Assange have two sons, Gabriel, four, and Max, two, and have been engaged for five years. She said he had 'more or less' recovered – but she fears the attack shows his health is failing.

She visited him for around an hour yesterday, taking the children to see him in a prison hall shared by dozens of inmates and their loved ones.

She said Assange was distressed about being kept from his family, adding: 'He finds the prospect of a third Christmas in prison difficult.'

The US wants Assange to face allegations of conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defence information after Wikileaks published hundreds of thousands of leaked documents relating to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

He sheltered at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in 2012 because he feared extradition, staying for seven years until he was forcibly removed and sent to Belmarsh in 2019.

He has until December 23 to appeal against last week's judgment, and could face many months – potentially years – on remand in the UK.

Ms Moris said: 'It remains an outrage that someone who is not serving a prison sentence should be held in prison for years on end.

'Julian is not a threat to anyone and it is a complete disregard to his individual liberty and our right to a family life.

'The US plays dirty every step of the way – it's a war of attrition. We can see from the fact that he has suffered a mini-stroke this is having a dangerous impact on him.'

A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said last night he would not comment on an individual prisoner.
'What a shame!', Stella Morris on Court's decision about Assange's case

Hackers take over Narendra Modi’s Twitter account with 73m followers and declare Bitcoin ‘legal tender’


Namita Singh
Sun, December 12, 2021, 

File: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks on day three of COP26 on 2 November 2021 in Glasgow, Scotland (Getty Images)

The verified Twitter handle of India’s prime minister Narendra Modi was "very briefly compromised", his office confirmed early on Sunday, after a suspicious message naming bitcoin as India’s “legal tender” and offering a cryptocurrency giveaway was posted to his 73 million followers.

"The Twitter handle of PM @narendramodi was very briefly compromised. The matter was escalated to Twitter and the account has been immediately secured. In the brief period that the account was compromised, any Tweet shared must be ignored," tweeted the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

It is unclear how apparent hackers gained access to Mr Modi’s personal profile or for how long it was compromised. The social media giant said that the account “was not compromised due to any breach of Twitter’s systems”, reported the Indian Express.

“We have 24X7 open lines of communication with the PM’s Office and our teams took necessary steps to secure the compromised account as soon as we became aware of this activity. Our investigation has revealed that there are no signs of any other impacted accounts at this time,” a Twitter spokesperson said in a statement.

Users flooded Twitter with screengrabs of the now-deleted tweet, which according to some had already been interacted with and retweeted several hundreds of times.

In the tweet put out in the small hours of Sunday morning, India time, Mr Modi appeared to be announcing that “India has officially adopted bitcoin as legal tender.”

It continued: “The government has officially bought 500 BTC and is distributing them to all residents of the country,” before sharing a link to what looks like a blog.

The Indian Computer Emergency Response System (Cert-In), a government cybersecurity agency, will launch a “full-scale investigation headed by a senior official,” reported the Indian Express citing sources at the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.

This is the second time that an account belonging to Mr Modi has seemingly been hacked with posts featuring links about cryptocurrency. In September last year, a less popular account associated with Mr Modi’s personal website — @narendramodi_in — sent out tweets asking followers to donate to a relief fund through cryptocurrency.

Additional reporting by agencies

LV= chairman quits after members reject £530m Bain Capital takeover

BY:FARAH GHOURI
SATURDAY 11 DECEMBER 2021 


Alan Cook has stepped down as chairman of mutual insurer Liverpool Victoria after failing to secure the backing of members for a £530m deal with a US private equity firm.

Cook resigned within minutes of the vote results being announced, revealing that 69 per cent of LV= members who voted supported the deal, which needed 75 per cent of votes in order to move forward with the deal.

Although 1.2m policyholders could have cast their votes in the ballot, only 15 per cent actually did – marking the general discontent with the contentious deal that has been the subject of widespread scrutiny by members, politicians and the media, over recent weeks.

“Whilst approximately 70 per cent of LV=’s members voted for our proposal, we respect this outcome is not enough for our transaction to proceed,” said a Bain spokesperson following the results of the vote.

The mutual insurer is now instead in discussion with its competitor Royal London about a potential deal.

Royal London confirmed that it had offered to start “immediate and exclusive discussions with LV= to agree a mutual merger that will offer LV= customers the opportunity to have their life savings protected”.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M TAX AVOIDANCE

Shell set for new corporate name as oil giant severs century-old Dutch link

Shareholders have voted overwhelmingly in favour of a plan to end the company's dual share structure and move its headquarters to London from the Netherlands

Proposal will see the company renamed simply as Shell Plc, losing the 'Royal Dutch' title it has had for more than a century.

FRI, 10 DEC, 2021 - 18:00
TOSTERLING AND RON BOUSSO

Royal Dutch Shell shareholders have voted overwhelmingly in favour of a plan to end the company's dual share structure and move its headquarters to London from the Netherlands.

The proposal will see the company renamed simply as Shell Plc, losing the "Royal Dutch" title it has had for more than a century, with approval by 75% of shareholder votes cast.

Shell board members were to meet later to make a final decision, with the move planned sometime in early 2022. The company's boards presented the plan in November, saying the simplification would strengthen Shell's competitiveness and make paying dividends and share buybacks easier.

Critics say Shell's decision was motivated in part by a Dutch court ruling in May that ordered it to cut carbon emissions by 45% by 2030. Shell, which is appealing the ruling, says its environmental policy will not be affected by the move.

"We have considerable operations here in the Netherlands... and that will not be changed one bit by the possible change in location," chairman Andrew Mackenzie said ahead of the vote. A group of protesters outside Friday's meeting in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam chanted "Shell must fall!". One banner read: "You can't run and you can't hide from Climate Justice."

Taxation a factor in move

Taxation was a factor in the move. Because the company's headquarters and tax home are now in the Netherlands, dividends it pays on its "A" shares are subject to a 15% Dutch withholding tax. Equal payments for "B" shares are distributed through a Dividend Access Mechanism that sees them streamed via a trust registered on Jersey to avoid the Dutch tax.

The new single-share structure and British tax home will resolve those issues, as Britain does not levy a dividend withholding tax. It plans to return $7bn (€6.2bn) in proceeds to shareholders from the sale of gas assets in the US.

The Dutch government said it was "disappointed" by Shell's decision. A member of the Green party raised the idea of levying an "exit tax" on the company, but failed to gain support.

Meanwhile, rival BP is beefing up its bid to develop wind projects off Scotland’s coast with the promise of creating hundreds of local jobs if it wins.

The pledge comes amid intense competition to develop wind power off Scotland’s coast and as the oil and gas giant continues a push to expand its offshore wind footprint in the UK and abroad. Partnered with German utility EnBW Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg, BP is among firms awaiting the results of the latest auction of British seabed rights.

If successful, the companies will build some 2.9GW of wind power capacity offshore Scotland, adding to another 3GW they are already developing in the Irish Sea.

• Reuters and Bloomberg

Newspaper says Alibaba has fired employee who accused former co-worker of sexual assault

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding has dismissed a female employee who accused a former co-worker of sexual assault earlier this year, government-backed newspaper Dahe Daily reported late on Saturday.

© Reuters/TINGSHU WANG Logo of Alibaba Group is seen at its office building in Beijing, China

Dahe Daily interviewed the employee, saying she had received notification of termination at the end of November, and published a copy of what she said was her termination letter.

The letter said the employee had spread false information about being assaulted and about the company not handling the case. It added this "caused strong social concern and had a bad impact on the company".

"I have not made any mistakes, and certainly will not accept this result, and in the future will use legal means to protect my rights and interests," the newspaper quoted the employee as saying in the interview.

Alibaba did not respond to a request for comment outside of working hours. A lawyer for the employee did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Alibaba, China's largest e-commerce firm, was rocked by the sexual assault allegation in August after the female employee published an account on the company's intranet stating that she was assaulted by her co-worker and a client during a business trip.

Alibaba fired the co-worker accused of assault, but also dismissed 10 other employees for publicizing the incident.

Chinese prosecutors later dropped the case against the employee's co-worker, stating that he committed forcible indecency but not a crime, but approved the arrest of the client in early September.

In China, issues of sexual harassment and assault were rarely brought up in the public sphere until the #MeToo movement took off in 2018, when a Beijing college student publicly accused her professor of sexual harassment.

(Reporting by Emily Chow in Beijing, Josh Horwitz and Brenda Goh in Shanghai; Editing by Frances Kerry)

Canada Revenue Agency offline as a precaution due to global 'security vulnerability'

The Canada Revenue Agency says it has taken its online services offline after it learned of a possible security threat.

The agency says on its website that it became aware of a "security vulnerability affecting organizations around the world" and decided to take services offline as a precaution.

It says there is no indication the agency's systems have been compromised, or that there was any unauthorized access to taxpayer information.

Further details about the nature of the security vulnerability weren't provided, but on Friday, it was reported that a flaw was uncovered in a utility that's ubiquitous in cloud servers and enterprise software used across industry and government.

Cybersecurity firms said companies and governments were scrambling to patch their systems, with some calling it the worst computer vulnerability in years.

The CRA says it is working to secure its systems and apologizes for the inconvenience.

"We understand that this interruption may be inconvenient to some Canadians. Our services will be available as soon as possible," the agency said on its website Saturday.

Meanwhile, southern Ontario transit agency Metrolinx said the GO Transit website had been brought back online Saturday after a 17-hour outage in response to a cyber threat.

The Crown transit agency said it took the site down on Friday after it was informed by the federal government about the global cyber "vulnerability."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 11, 2021.

--With files from The Associated Press.

UK

Fears grow that Home Office has lost will to resettle Afghans under threat

Mark Townsend 

Priti Patel’s much-trumpeted scheme to allow Afghans to resettle in Britain has been starved of “appropriate resources”, according to officials, as a former senior diplomat voices fears that the UK government appears intent to let the initiative wither away before it has even started.

© Photograph: Wakil Kohsar/AFP/Getty Images Afghans hoping to flee the country gather near Kabul airport in August this year.

The Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS) was announced to great fanfare in August as the Taliban took Kabul, but four months on it has still not started. A senior Whitehall source with intimate knowledge of the scheme said it had been delayed because it had not received adequate support for it to launch.

Adam Thomson, a former Foreign Office director for Afghanistan, said that, based on his experience, it appeared evident that the scheme to resettle vulnerable Afghans had been a cynical show of political opportunism that was now destined to fail.

“It looks like a politically expedient announcement. With the media focus having gone elsewhere, the government has lost political will, lost focus and lost implementation.

“It’s a tried and tested technique. You announce something, you look good. Then somehow circumstances prevent you from actually achieving your targets,” said Thomson, who is also a former UK ambassador to Pakistan and Nato”.

Since the announcement of the resettlement scheme on 18 August more than 100 days have passed with no apparent tangible progress. Its website has not been updated since 13 September and confirms the programme “is not yet open”.

Last week, however, the government issued a statement saying it was committed to the initiative and that the ACRS was “one of the most generous schemes in our country’s history”.

Priti Patel, who launched the Afghanistan Citizens Resettlement Scheme to great fanfare in August.

 Photograph: Aaron Chown/PA

Without offering a timeframe, it promised “more details soon” on a scheme which was promoted by ministers as a programme to help women, children and religious minorities at risk of Taliban reprisals.

Similar disquiet also surrounds the resources and effectiveness of another government relocation scheme involving Afghanistan – the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (Arap).

On Friday, a parliamentary answer revealed that just 84 officials have been assigned to Arap, which was launched in April and conceived to resettle people who worked for the UK in Afghanistan. The same parliamentary response confirmed it had so far received more than 90,000 applications, with more arriving each day – a caseload that suggests each official is dealing with or has processed more than 1,000 applications.

When the Home Office was asked how many officials had been assigned to the resettlement scheme, it would not provide a figure. Similarly, no indication of resources relating to the scheme has been provided, although a Whitehall source said if they had wanted to get the scheme up and running quickly they could have recruited volunteers from the civil service.

The Whitehall source, who has knowledge of the ACRS, said: “The resettlement scheme was a ticket for people to rebuild their life but it’s just not been resourced appropriately.”

Thomson added: “As far as I can tell there’s no cross-Whitehall coordination mechanism that brings together FCDO [the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office], the Home Office and the MoD to actually make sense of Arap and launch ACRS.”

A spokesperson for Adam Smith International (ASI), which delivered UK government aid programmes in Afghanistan between 2002 and 2018, said the failure to open the resettlement scheme had compounded eligibility issues with regard to Arap and had left hundreds in grave danger.

“Almost none of our former staff have had any update or information about their applications since the evacuation finished. The ACRS scheme is not yet open. This has left hundreds of our staff from UK projects in a desperate situation in Kabul, without hope and without information,” they said.

Only about 20 of ASI’s former staff out of more than 230 who applied for resettlement via the Arap scheme have so far been given the chance to relocate to the UK.

The government said: “ACRS is one of the most generous schemes in our country’s history and will give up to 20,000 further people at risk a new life in the UK. We are working across government and with partners such as UNHCR [the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees] to design and open the scheme amidst a complex and changing picture. We are committed to working in step with the international community to get this right.”

History of ghosts and murder awaits Japan PM Kishida in 1929 mansion

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the prime minister's official

 residence in Tokyo on Oct 14, 2021.

PHOTO: REUTERS

TOKYO (BLOOMBERG) - For the first time in nearly a decade, a Japanese prime minister is set to live in the official residence for the premier - a century old structure that is a monument to art deco aesthetics and clouded by an ominous history.

On Saturday (Dec 11) afternoon Premier Fumio Kishida will move into the two-story 5,183-square-meter stone and brick mansion that was opened in 1929, according to the Nikkei newspaper. The Cabinet Office could not immediately be reached by Bloomberg for comment.

The residence underwent a renovation completed in 2005, which reportedly was proceeded with an exorcism by a Shinto priest to ward off evil spirits that some in political circles worried had gathered over the decades.

Mr Kishida, who took office about two months ago, is moving to be nearer to the prime minister's office, a glass and steel structure opened in 2002 a few meters away, to be quickly on hand in case of an emergency. He has been living at a residence for lawmakers, Jiji Press reported, and will be the first premier in the mansion since Mr Yoshihiko Noda in 2012.

The last two prime ministers stayed away. Mr Kishida's predecessor Yoshihide Suga commuted to work from the housing complex for parliament members. The location may have helped him wheel and deal with lawmakers away from the media.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe lived at his private residence in the Shibuya district of Tokyo, about 15 minutes away from the office by car. Even though the official residence was unoccupied, it still cost taxpayers around 160 million yen (S$1.9 million) a year for upkeep, according to Mr Noda.

Mr Abe had lived in the official prime minister's residence for about 10 months during his first time as prime minister in 2006-2007. During that period, the revamped residence became the home to six, short-serving premiers who averaged a little over a year in office and was seen as an inauspicious place for a new leader.

Mr Abe didn't go back when he returned as premier in 2012, and became the country's longest-serving prime minister.

The original residence and office was built as Tokyo emerged from a devastating earthquake in 1923 and inspired by the Imperial Hotel designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright.

The hotel officially opened the same day the temblor struck Tokyo and it survived the cataclysmic event that levelled large parts of the capital and killed tens of thousands of people.

Three years after the prime minister's office opened, young naval officers barged in and assassinated Prime Minister Tsuyoshi Inukai in 1932.

Four years later, the facility was the site of another military uprising, but then Prime Minister Keisuke Okada hid in a closet and survived. Five people were fatally shot and what was thought to be a bullet hole left above a main entrance door served as a reminder of the insurrection that came as the country plunged into militaristic rule.

As Japan emerged from the destruction of World War Two and for the decades that followed, there were no major revisions to the facility, which grew outdated and was seen by many cabinet office workers as gloomy. Former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori told Mr Abe that he saw ghosts there, according to a Sankei newspaper report.

Its grand halls were still put to use hosting foreign guests, such President George H.W. Bush, who became ill during a 1992 banquet there and vomited on the lap of Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa as he passed out.

The government has spent about 8.6 billion yen to transform the residence into a homelike environment. Its intricate word carvings and ornate rooms have been painstakingly restored. Its idiosyncratic decorations have been preserved, including stone owl carvings standing guard outside.

Now all it needs is a new resident.