Japan News for December 18, 2006
Some Japan-releated news/links this morning:
-Japan is set to significantly lower its long-term fertility rate forecast because more women are choosing to remain single or marrying later. Japan’s total fertility rate has already hit record lows, to 1.25 babies per woman in her lifetime in 2005, raising concerns of an impending labor shortage, as well as ballooning medical and pension costs for an aging population.
-Predictions on the eve of the Six Party Talks: More talk about abductions and Japan’s ‘right wing agenda’ from Trans-Pacific Radio.
-The stocks of a South Korean entertainment company whose largest shareholder is popular TV star Bae Yong-joon will be indirectly traded in Japan starting this week. I’m sure all the day-trading housewives out there will be excited.
-The policy chief of Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, Shoichi Nakagawa, has called the U.S. atomic bombing of Nagasaki in 1945 a “crime” that was impermissible from a humanitarian viewpoin.
-The annual magazine Chiezou has released its “Word of the Year” list for 2006.
-US pop star Michael Jackson has postponed an appearance at a Christmas party in Japan, where tickets cost up to 400,000 yen (£1,787). The event has been put back to 8 March, with a fan appreciation event being held the following day.
-FIFA president Sepp Blatter has suggested Japan could continue to host the FIFA Club World Cup in a bid to further establish the competition on the international calendar. The Japanese hosted the event for the second year in a row this week and are due to hold the 2007 edition as the final part of a three-year agreement with FIFA.
-It has been reported that Japan’s education ministry believes current and former public high school principals and some other officials should be subject to retroactive punishment for failing to teach the government-mandated curriculum. Actually punish principals for intentionally removing required classes from schedules? No way.
Afternoon update:
-New York-born candidate Anthony Bianchi did not win the Inuyama mayor’s election, instead coming in third place. He’ll have to wait until the next election if he wants to become Japan’s first foreign-born mayor…
-It has been revealed that a former Nara Municipal Government worker accused of working only eight days in 69 months was actually absent from work for about 15 years. I gotta get me a job at the Nara government.
-Six monkeys in the Shirakami Mountains, a World Heritage Site, have been confirmed to have contracted the herpes B virus, which can infect and kill humans, according to a Nagasaki University assistant professor.
-Daisuke Matsuzaka, a Japanese professional baseball player who recently struck a $52 million deal with the Boston Red Sox, was among Newsweek’s choice of top newsmakers for 2007, the weekly said Sunday on its international edition.
-A female U.S. sailor belonging to the Yokosuka base has been arrested for trespassing after she got drunk and jumped onto the roof of a local resident’s house. The sailor, who belongs to the Kitty Hawk, has reportedly admitted to the allegations.
-A brave guard who clung to the hood of a car as a couple suspected of shoplifting tried to flee a Don Quijote discount outlet was flung to the ground when they slammed on the brakes, leaving him with slight injuries. Five hours after the incident, the couple turned themselves into police because they were upset about hurting the guard.
-Japan’s first high school English debate tournament ended Sunday with a team of students from Shizuoka Prefecture winning the cup and the chance to participate in an international contest next July in South Korea.
-AU/KDDI is so swamped with new customers fleeing Docomo that they have put a halt to new sign-ups while they fix a computer glitch.
-Get ready for next summer by getting yourself a ridiculous-looking solor-powered hat fan!
-The Hyundai Research Institute has concluded that Korea is unlikely to catch up with Japan economically and the gap between the two neighboring countries is expected to widen further because of Korea’s weak technological and labor competitiveness.
-This just in: An N-H-K staff member has been arrested for molesting a young Japanese male student in the train.
