Japan News for December 23, 2006

I’ll be heading back to America for the next week, so there might not be any news updates for the next few days. Anyway, here are some news links for today:

-The six-nation talks over North Korea’s nuclear programme ended Friday without a breakthrough, and delegates adjourned without setting a date for the next round of talks. North Korea said that it would stay away from future nuclear disarmament talks unless the US dropped its financial curbs on the country.

-Solid criticism of The Australian’s editorial, which sympathized with Takafumi Horie’s view of Japan’s business community.

-Leah Dizon, a model whose exotic looks and background have raised expectations of her revolutionizing Japan’s notoriously fickle pin-up world, has become the latest victim of having very personal photos leaked online.

-Couples have been flocking to Ikuta Shrine in Kobe to buy “match-making” goods after popular actress Norika Fujiwara and comedian Tomonori Jinnai exchanged engagement gifts in a ceremony there.

-Japanese scientists have managed to record the first ever video of a live giant squid.

-Adamu comments on how Shinzo Abe is not getting along with the Japanese press.

-An interesting translation of a survey that asked Japanese people what they envied about the opposite sex.

-In 2006, the Japanese Yen was one of the currency market’s biggest losers. However if you have only been watching the value of USD/JPY, which ended the year less than a percent away from where it started trading in January, you may have not realized that. Instead, the Yen lost most of its value against the Euro and British pound, with the currency falling 10 percent against the former and 12 percent against the latter.