Japan News for February 06, 2007

This morning’s news links:

• Making students stand up during class or instructing them to leave classrooms for the purpose of maintaining order do not constitute legally-banned corporal punishments, the education ministry said Monday in a notice to boards of education across the country. [Link]
• A man robbed a bank in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Monday afternoon, pointing what looked like a handgun [but what was in reality a model gun] at a customer and ran away with about 19 million yen in cash, police said. None of the five customers and bank clerks was injured at the Oshino branch of Hokkoku Bank, police said. [Link]
• Homeless people and their supporters clashed with Osaka Municipal Government workers and hired guards Monday as the city began forcibly removing tents and huts set up by homeless people in Nagai Park. [Link]
• Twitchfilm has posted a link to the theatrical trailer of theatrical trailer for Kôji Shiraishi’s A Slit-Mouthed Woman (Kuchisake-onna). [Link]
• Almost four in five Japanese eat rice daily, according to a recent survey. [Link]
• Attracted by the high quality of the snow, more and more Australian skiers have been visiting the ski slopes of Hakubamura, Nagano Prefecture, and some are even purchasing and operating resort inns in the village. [Link]
• Stippy has posted Part 2 of Prison in Japan, a firsthand account of a foreigners experience in a Ryuchijyo (Prison for people that haven’t been convicted of any crime). [Link]

Evening update:

• The Japanese government plans to take the position that Japan should not fall in with North Korea’s demand for oil unless there is progress on the abduction issue. Thus, Tokyo likely will adopt a more severe stance toward North Korea in the round of six-party talks set to resume Thursday in Beijing. [Link]
• A South Korean newspaper is angered that a map at the homepage of the Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China (i.e., the Chinese government) exclusively marks the body of water that separates the Korean Peninsula from Japan as the Sea of Japan.・ [Link]
• The annual snow festival opened Tuesday in the Hokkaido capital of Sapporo featuring about 300 snow and ice sculptures that were made despite shortages of snow and rainy weather stemming from this year’s warm winter. [Link]
• The Japanese movie ‘Fourteen’ (Ju-Yon-Sai) of director Hiromasa Hirosue has won a special prize at the 36th International Film Festival of Rotterdam. [Link]
• Three shooting incidents, believed to be related to the shooting death of Sumiyoshi-kai boss Ryoichi Sugiura, occurred in Tokyo on Monday and Tuesday. Investigators are wary of the incidents, fearing that they could develop into a bloody fight between rival yakuza syndicates over their territory. [Link]
• Japan Airlines Corp will scrap its president’s room and private rooms for other board members from its headquarters building in Tokyo and make them work together in one larger office as part of its management reform efforts, company officials said Tuesday. [Link]
• Tokyo is demanding an explanation over a Chinese research vessel’s entry into disputed waters and calling for prior notification of any further activities, Japan’s chief government spokesman said Tuesday. [Link]
• China has warned Japan against “sensationalising” research activities by a Chinese vessel in the waters near the disputed Senkaku islands, the foreign ministry in Beijing confirmed. “The Diaoyu islands have been Chinese soil since ancient times, and China has indisputable sovereignty over the area,” a Chinese official, also unidentified, was quoted as telling the Japanese diplomat. [Link]
• A group of citizens in Osaka and its vicinity will sue the state and public broadcaster N-H-K over a government order for N-H-K to air intensive coverage of North Korea’s past abductions of Japanese nationals on its shortwave international radio service. [Link]
• Japan’s Supreme Court has upheld a high court decision ordering the Hiroshima prefectural government to pay three Japanese atomic-bomb survivors in Brazil all the healthcare benefits they are entitled to without applying a statute of limitations. [Link]
• Elizabeth Ponsolle des Portes, president of French luxury industry promoter Comite Colbert, recently visited brand-obsessed Japan. The Japan Times has interviewed her. [Link via FG]
• Asahi Breweries said Monday it will market Louis XIII Black Pearl French brandy with a price tag of 1 million yen per 700-milliliter bottle. Asahi will sell 60 to 70 bottles produced by the Remy Cointreau Group, which is limiting the number of bottles it produces to 786. [Link]