Japan News for February 19, 2007

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    This morning’s Japan-related news links:

    • A nuclear reactor in Fukushima Prefecture automatically shut down Sunday morning after detecting excessive radioactivity, but there was no impact on the surrounding environment, its operator Tokyo Electric Power Co said. [Link]
    • Brewery Sapporo Holdings denied reports Sunday that it was seeking help from its bigger rivals to block a takeover attempt by a U.S. investment fund. Major Japanese newspapers including the Mainichi reported Sunday that Japan’s No. 1 beer maker Asahi Breweries was considering a white-knight bid to block the investment fund’s takeover of Sapporo. [Link]
    • Daniel Njenga of Kenya won the Tokyo Marathon on Sunday, navigating a revamped course in steady rain and chilly temperatures. [Link]
    • Liberal Democratic Party members of Tokyo’s Shinagawa Ward Assembly have attached sales receipts for comics, detective novels and even pornography to their funding reports for political research expenses, according to information disclosed by the assembly. [Link]
    • The United States sent eight more U.S. F-22 stealth fighter planes to the southern Japanese island of Okinawa on Sunday in their first full deployment overseas. [Link]
    • Trans-Pacific radio has a report marking the anniversary of President Franklin D. Roosevelt issing Executive Order 9066, which started the wartime internment of Japanese-Americans. [Link]
    • The second Japan Blog Matsuri is now taking submissions! The theme for this month is “Japanese Gadgets.”
      [Link]

      • Afternoon Update

      • Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara, expected to run for re-election this spring, angered Liberal Democratic Party bigwigs when he said he would not accept the party’s backing. “I have been working without any party affiliation,” Ishihara said Friday. “I want to keep that as my principle.” [Link]
      • Police sent papers to prosecutors Monday on three 14-year-old junior high school students in Fukuoka Prefecture suspected of abusing a 13-year-old schoolmate who later committed suicide. The students at the town-run Miwa Junior High School in the town of Chikuzen are alleged to have tried to remove Keisuke Mori’s pants in a school bathroom on Oct 11, 2006. Keisuke hung himself in a shed at his home later in the day, leaving four notes in which he said, “I cannot live anymore because of bullying.” [Link]
      • American folk singer Paul Stookey, a member of the legendary group Peter, Paul & Mary, sang a song dedicated to abductee Megumi Yokota on Sunday at a concert in Tokyo to an audience of about 80. [Link]
      • Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should himself go to North Korea in an effort to win a sincere response on the issue of Pyongyang’s abductions of Japanese nationals, senior ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Taku Yamasaki said Sunday during a television program. [Link]
      • Government authorities have rapped the knuckles of private English school chain Nova Corp. for allegedly shortchanging students on refunds and providing false accounts of its cancellation policy. The company may get a directive forbidding it from enrolling new students if clear evidence of legal violations is found in further investigations. [Link]
      • Four people were found dead inside a parked car in an apparent group suicide in western Japan, police said Monday. [Link]
      • North Korea on Monday denounced Japan over what it called an intensified effort to suppress a pro-Pyongyang organization in that country. An unnamed spokesman for the North’s Foreign Ministry released a statement saying that the Japanese authorities’ suppression of “Chongryon” and Koreans in Japan has reached an extremely grave phase, according to the (North) Korean Central News Agency. [Link]
      • The Japanese and Chinese governments are considering setting up a hotline to discuss military issues including North Korea, the Nikkei newspaper reported. A hotline with China, if installed, would be another sign of improved relations of Japan and China since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited the country last year soon after taking office in September . [Link]
      • The Yamaguchi-gumi, the nation’s largest crime syndicate, and its affiliated gangs have stepped up their efforts to gather intelligence on police, such as noting license plate numbers of investigation vehicles. [Link]
      • Beppu Onsen Master & Japan Probe reader Joel Dechant will be on the national radiowaves tomorrow:
        2/20 (Tu) 11:30 – 11:50 N-H-K Dai-1 Radio, “Konnichiwa 80 chan” live from Kannawa Onsen in Beppu
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