Japan News for February 23, 2007

Japan news links for this morning:

• The health ministry on Thursday approved a Kumamoto hospital’s “baby box” program that allows parents to anonymously place their unwanted infants into an incubator through an opening in the hospital wall. [Link]
• An online newspaper company is set to create databases on politicians’ revenue and their spending of political funds, company officials said. Japan Internet News Co., based in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, will put up the information on its election site with the cooperation of the Information Clearing House, a nonprofit organization. [Link]
• Japanese internet advertising posted 363 billion yen in sales in 2006, 29.3% year-on-year growth, and is on track to overtake the magazine advertising market. [Link]
• Is Daisuke Matsuzaka’s gyroball a myth, or is it real? And if it is real, what exactly is it? The New York Times investigates. [Link]
• A USS Kitty Hawk sailor sued for beating to death a Yokosuka woman said the Navy and Japanese government should not be held liable for his actions, according to a statement submitted during a hearing Wednesday in Yokohama District Court. [Link]
• South Korea’s defense chief left Seoul Thursday for visits to the United States and Japan for talks on security relations and North Korea’s nuclear drive. [Link]
• Kyoto, Japan will be one of the venues for ‘Live Earth’ concerts, musical performances designed as an exercise in “mass persuasion” about threats of global warming, it has been announced. [Link]
• SAMURAI + DARTH VADER? Japan’s Yoshitoku Company recently announced that they will be offering a “Samurai Vader” quarter-scale costume to Japanese fans celebrating Tango no Sekku, or Japan’s “Boy’s Day” festival on May 5. [Link via Mari]

Evening Update:

• The Fukuoka High Court on Thursday nullified an immigration authorities’ decision to evict a Nigerian man, saying deportation will lead to a decisive breakup of his marriage to a Japanese woman and it will be extremely unsound. In October 2004, the 42-year-old man visited the woman’s father to seek his agreement on their marriage in January 2005, but the father reported him to the police who eventually arrested him for overstaying. [Link]
• The municipal government of Yubari, Hokkaido, which has financially collapsed, on Thursday officially asked the internal affairs and communications minister to designate the city as being under rehabilitation supervised by the central government. [Link]
• A train made an emergency stop near JR Shinjuku Station in Tokyo early Friday morning after a conductor reported having spotted someone falling onto the tracks from a platform. Station workers searched the tracks, but found nobody. [Link]
• A court in western Japan dismissed on Friday a lawsuit by five Korean permanent residents in Japan who sought compensation for the government’s refusal to pay them old-age pensions because they are not Japanese citizens. [Link]
• Cherry blossoms, nature’s way of saying spring is here, are likely to burst into bloom nationwide four to five days earlier than usual. A private meteorological company has predicted the blooms may set a new record for an early start if temperatures warm up in coming weeks. [Link]
• Crown Prince Naruhito marked his 47th birthday on Friday, and said that his wife, Crown Princess Masako, is recovering well from stress-induced illness, but that it would take more time for her to make a complete recovery. [Link]
• The Japan Times has finally picked up the Foreigner Crime File Magazine story. It offers an interesting new piece of information about FamilyMart’s sales: said that of the 15,000 copies in stock ・of the 20,000 to 30,000 that had been printed・1,000 were sold. [Link]
• Newly declassified CIA records, released by the U.S. National Archives and examined by The Associated Press, document more fully than ever how suspected Japanese war criminals were recruited by U.S. intelligence in the early days of the Cold War. The documents also show how ineffective the effort was, in the CIA’s view. [Link]