Japan News for January 23, 2007
January 23rd, 2007 by James
Some Japan-related links for this morning:
- Cosmetics giant Kao Corp. decided on Monday to stop sponsoring a Kansai Telecasting (KTV) Corp. program after the broadcaster admitted that the program falsely claimed natto, fermented soybeans, helps people lose weight.
- Prosecutors searched head offices of several construction companies in Tokyo on Monday over suspected bid-rigging for a subway extension project commissioned by the Nagoya city government.
- Globaltalk 21 writes that the Liberal Democratic Party, with support from independents, managed to work both the win-loss ends of the recent prefectual gubernatorialelections [The DPJ was mostly MIA].
- A new poll reveals that most Japanese people did not think that 2006 was a good year.
- Sales for Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox 360 dropped 50 percent in Japan in an overall downturn in video game hardware sales for the week. In recent weeks, the Xbox 360 has seen healthier sales in Japan due to solid game offerings like the RPG Blue Dragon and the action game Lost Planet: Extreme Condition.
- Cool New Invention: Gemotion is a soft, ‘living’ display that bulges and collapses in sync with the graphics on the screen, creating visuals that literally pop out at the viewer.
- The latest box office numbers show that The Departed and Marie Antoinette did quite well on their first weekend in Japanese theaters.
- A female dog rescued in November from a ledge 70 meters up a huge concrete retaining wall has become a star with dog-lovers nationwide, with a growing number of inquiries coming in from people who want to become her owner. [Read our post on the rescue from November here .]
- Gray is displacing black as a popular color in Japanese fashion, reports Trends in Japan. [via FG]
- The Osaka High Court on Tuesday overturned a lower court ruling that a park can be registered as a mailing address of a homeless man.
- Japan and China are putting together a coooperation plan on civilian nuclear energy, including measures to prevent technology being passed on to third parties.
- Afternoon update:
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Marie Antoinette in at number 2! Really? In central Osaka it was only running on one screen in a second-rank cinema, and next week (I’ve got tickets for then) it’s moving from Screen 1 to Screen 3 (of 3). I think it was only released in three cinemas in the whole of the Kansai – Osaka Sanbangai, Kobe Mint, and Movix Rokko? Must be a thin week for movies!
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Well Ken, it was playing out here in northern Saitama, and I was one of the many unfortunate enough to see it over the weekend. My gf had really wanted to see it, and luckily she used a free pass she had got from someone, so I didn’t have to pay for it.