Japan News for December 13, 2006
Some Japan news/links for this morning:
-China, India and Japan will be the key motors of the Asian economy in 2007, with a potential slowdown in the United States expected to have a minimal impact on Chinese growth according to S & P.
-”Inochi,” meaning “life,” has been chosen in a poll for the kanji character of 2006, a year marked by the birth of the first grandson of the emperor, a series of reported student suicides related to bullying, and a number of child abuse cases, the Japan Kanji Aptitude Testing Foundation has announced.
-Trans-Pacific radio comments on the anniversary of the fall of Nanking.
-A wacky gaijin Santa Claus story!
-Japanese people select the most-entertaining Christmas-themed movie! (My pick would be #3)
Afternoon update:
-A Chinese/U.S./UK group will begin shooting for the film version of “The Rape of Nanking,” U.S. author Iris Chang’s historical account of the 1937 Nanjing massacre, is set to begin in January in Nanjing. Nothing improves Sino-Japanese relations like film adaptations of horribly flawed unprofessional books that demonize the Japanese!
-Taiwanese drivers may soon be allowed to use their driver’s licenses in Japan. How about America?
-Japanese geologists believe that there may soon be a volcanic eruption on Iwo Jima.
-As more Japanese public library users reportedly are damaging books and magazines by clipping out pages or marking them up, librarians are concerned that the social morals of library users are deteriorating.
-A powerful Japanese business lobby is calling on the government to protect Japan’s “national interests” by hindering foreign acquisitions of Japanese companies with new rules and regulations.
-Japan’s economy minister has written on his blog that the Philippines had lost credibility by postponing twin Asian summits this week and doubted Manila’s stated reason of an impending typhoon.
-While countries have begun drawing up lists of luxury items they will deny North Korea in response to the country’s nuclear test, the impact has yet to be seen in the handful of stores that sell imported goods in Pyongyang, according to the Japan Times.
-Celebrity dog Masao-kun has died.
-Several men stormed into a Taiwanese company’s workshop in Hokkaido this morning, attacked an employee and stole 200 kilograms of sea cucumbers worth about 600,000 yen before fleeing.
-The Kyoto District Court has found a former researcher at the University of Tokyo who developed the Winny anonymous file-sharing software program guilty of assisting users in copyright violations through peer-to-peer online file exchanges, and sentenced him to a fine of 1.5 million yen. Absolutely ridiculous.
