Japan News for January 31, 2007

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    Japan-related links for this morning:

    • Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Tuesday rejected an opposition demand that he sack health minister Hakuo Yanagisawa over his remark comparing women to “birth-giving machines” when referring to Japan’s declining birthrate. [Link]
    • A court rejected a compensation suit filed against the Japanese government by 40 Japanese who were abandoned in China as children after Tokyo’s defeat in World War II. The Tokyo District Court rejected demands for financial compensation for the displaced Japanese, according to a court official who refused to be named, citing protocol. [Link]
    • Mixi, the #1 Japanese social networking site has announced that it has hit 8 million registered users as of January 28th, and is approaching 10 billion page views per month. [Link]
    • The former branch chief of a major courier company, and 25 others, were arrested Monday on suspicion of selling fake brand-name handbags, purses and other goods on Internet auction sites, Osaka police said. [Link]
    • Wal-Mart’s Japanese unit (Seiyu) on Tuesday said its operating profit for 2006 was about half what it had expected, owing to lacklustre sales of clothing and household goods. [Link]

      • Evening update:

      • A senior Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department officer has been arrested for molesting a girl on a train. [Link]
      • Japanese films logged a record 107.75 billion yen in box-office takings in 2006, outpacing those of imported movies (94.8 billion yen) for the first time in 21 years. [Link]
      • The Tokyo District Court on Tuesday ruled that Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara and two bureaucrats illegally disbursed about 400,000 yen for private meals in 2003 and held them responsible for repayment of the money to the metropolitan government’s coffers. [Link]
      • Kyodo NewsTwo newspaper publishers acted inappropriately when they paid participants to take part in public forums intended to popularize the lay judge system, the Supreme Court said Monday. Just as in the rigged town meeting scandal, Dentsu corporation was involved in organizing the events. [Link]
      • Has it already been a year since the first annual “Beloved Wives Day”? Mainichi reports on this year’s celebration. [Link]
      • Japanjin discusses “psychics” and mentalists on Japanese TV. [Link]
      • Anita Alvarado, the Chilean wife of a former Aomori Prefectural Housing Supply Public Corp. worker who was jailed for embezzling some 1.45 billion yen from the corporation, is planning to visit Japan, a Chilean newspaper has reported. Despite the fact that she still has some of the 800 million yen her husband gave her before she fled Japan, it is now too late to take civil or criminal action against her. [Link]
      • Hitachi Ltd has signed a contract to use a giant monkeypod tree in Oahu, Hawaii, for its global advertisements after the tree was saved from possible felling by a real estate developer. Sources close to the matter said Hitachi will pay $400,000 (about 48 million yen) a year for an exclusive right to use the umbrella-shaped tree in Moanalua Gardens near Honolulu International Airport as a commercial image. [Link]
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