Japan News for February 21, 2007

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    This morning’s Japan-related news links:

    • A male passenger on a Japan Airlines flight brandished what appeared to be a knife at a cabin crew member Tuesday evening when he deplaned at Kagoshima Airport and then ran off, triggering a security alert that caused the cancellation of one flight and delays to a few others. The cabin crew member chased the man but lost track of him. [Link]
    • Russia’s prime minister and energy minister will visit Japan next week to discuss a territorial dispute and a row over Moscow’s takeover of the massive Sakhalin-2 oil and gas project. [Link]
    • Members of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet on Tuesday acted in unison to dispel criticism by a ruling Liberal Democratic Party executive lawmaker that they lack “absolute loyalty” to the premier. Meeting for the first time since LDP Secretary General Hidenao Nakagawa’s Sunday remarks, the cabinet members rose promptly as Abe entered the waiting room. [Link]
    • Resource-poor Japan’s dependence on crude oil from the Middle East declined for the first time in four years year on year in 2006 – albeit by a paltry percentage – amid increased imports from the rest of the world, especially Russia and Africa. [Link]
    • Ice threatened to trap a damaged Japanese whaling ship stranded off Antarctica, anti-whaling activists said, further raising fears of an environmental disaster close to a major penguin colony. [Link]
    • Japan will launch its latest spy satellite on Thursday from a space center on a remote southern island, officials said Tuesday. The intelligence-gathering satellite was originally scheduled for launch aboard a domestically developed H-2A rocket on Feb. 15, but was delayed twice because of heavy clouds and rain. [Link]
    • The number of death row inmates in Japan will reach 100, after the Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a man’s death sentence over a murder-robbery in 2000, which will subsequently be finalized. [Link]
    • What Japan Thinks has posted part 2 of their translation of the Cabinet Office Japan’s recently released survey into people’s thoughts about public safety in Japan. [Link]
    • A man accused of trying to steal a remote controller for Nintendo’s popular Wii console at an electronics store in Nagoya and injuring guards who confronted him faces charges, law enforcers said. [Link]
    • The Asahi Shinbun has a new editorial on what to do about immigration–offering the inclusive view and how to make people accepted as Japanese. [Link]
    • Shoppers at Japan’s popular casual clothing chain Uniqlo will soon be able to drop off their used Uniqlo-brand clothes for shipment to refugee camps or reprocessing for industrial use. [Link]

      • Afternoon update:

      • A man faces charges for producing obscene DVDs featuring a high school girl he paid to have sex with him, police said. Investigators suspect that he sold tens of thousands of obscene DVDs, netting more than 10 million yen ($83,000). [Link]
      • An assistant police inspector in Kagoshima accused of forcing a man to trample of pieces of paper bearing his family members’ names during an interrogation session has told the victim he wants to apologize, law enforcers said. [Link]
      • South Korea should reduce its high dependence on Japan for technology and steel components to slow a rising trade deficit with Tokyo, a private South Korean think tank said Wednesday. [Link]
      • American-born Japanese citizen Arutou Debito reports on the “disturbing gap” between amount of foreign crime and the Japanese public’s perception of foreign crime levels in his latest Japan Times editorial. [Link]
      • The Japan Department Stores Association is reporting a ‘plus’ in nationwide department store sales for the first time in four months, with sales +0.0% on a year earlier, at 688.6 billion yen. Yes, you read that right: sales are +0.0% against January 2006. [Link]
      • U.S. Army intelligence officials were told that China, the Soviet Union and North Korea planned to invade Japan during the Korean War, according to documents uncovered by Kyodo News at the National Archives in London. [Link]
      • Today’s WaiWai column reports that cooties (lice) are becoming a major problem in Japan, probably because of global warming. [Link]
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