Japan News for December 21, 2006
Some news/links for this morning:
-A Mainichi Shimbun staff writer was arrested Monday on suspicion of slapping a passenger with whom he had been arguing with on a train on the Hibiya subway line. The reporter reportedly became upset and assaulted the man because the man repeatedly warned him not to leave an empty coffee can on the floor or a baggage rack.
-Two men who fled when their companion was arrested for alleged robbery and assault outside a restaurant in Kanagawa Prefecture on Dec 10 were identified by police Wednesday as crewmen from the U.S. aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk based in the prefecture’s port city of Yokosuka.
-Amazon Japan has launched an online otaku superstore. [via TokyoMango]
-South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon will visit Japan next week after the conclusion of the current round of the six-party talks in Beijing over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.
-Japan’s Koki Kameda defeated Juan Landaeta of Venezuela by a unanimous decision in their rematch last night, retaining the WBA junior flyweight title. Many Japanese fans had believed that Kameda’s original win over Landaeta had been unfair or even rigged.
-Japan will boost its ability to detect seismic waves from nuclear tests after it failed to quickly analyze data from a test by North Korea in October.
-Shopping, sex and feasting: Christmas in Japan from the Khaleej Times.
-Bullying suicides in Japan’s military? The Hamamatsu base of the Air Self-Defense Force (ASDF) failed to announce the suicide of a member when officials reported penalties for acts of in-house violence after the man was physically abused by a senior member, it has emerged.
-Yomiuri Shinbun takes a look at the ongoing battle between Japan and China over history. In a related story Yasukuni Shrine has decided to “soften” references to China in a war museum on its premises.
-A man who went missing in western Japan survived in near-freezing weather without food and water for over three weeks by falling into a state similar to hibernation, doctors said.
-Business Week takes a look at the top 20 games from Japan.
-Why do the Japanese like being Japanese? What Japan Thinks has poll results.
-Fantastic, scary, and wacky illustrations from the Edo period.
Afternoon update:
-Masaaki Honma, chairman of the government’s Tax Commission, said Thursday he will resign after coming under fire for living with his mistress in one of the posh government properties he had promoted to sell. Honma’s resignation after just 11/2 months at the post is certain to deal a severe blow for Abe, who handpicked Honma as a symbol of his growth-oriented economic policies and had defended him throughout the scandal.
-Hiroshi Kubo, the former head of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s Emergency Public Safety Task Force, has written a book in which he looks at the crime statistics being used to justify taking a hard line on foreigners and juveniles and argues that maybe it’s not quite all there.
-The Asahi Shinbun doesn’t like Abe’s reaction to a recent series of scandals and is accusing him of “playing the martyr” in a new editorial.
-The Japanese government plans to trim overall spending on defense and overseas aid as part of efforts to get its huge public debt under control, but will boost outlays on ballistic missile defense to cope with a growing threat from North Korea.
-Shoichi Nakagawa, policy chief for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party, has called for Japan to “correct” its view on World War II sex slaves, saying the government should reconsider its apology. The government needed to ensure that “what was said more than 10 years ago does not become an accomplished fact,” said Nakagawa.
-Finally, a Nintendo DS game that will teach people how to trade stocks online!
