Japan News for February 28, 2007

This morning’s Japan-related news links:

• Shoichi Nakagawa, policy chief of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, has been quoted as saying, “If something goes awry in Taiwan in the next 15 years, then within 20 years Japan might become just another one of China’s provinces.” [Link]
• Miyazaki Gov. Hideo Higashikokubaru (Sonomanma Higashi) admitted to reporters that two women stayed over at his home two nights in a row after being questioned in a Miyazaki Prefectural Assembly meeting about allegations in tabloid magazine reports. [Link]
• An advocacy group slammed Japan’s education minister on Tuesday for comparing human rights to fatty butter and saying too much would give Japan “human rights metabolic syndrome.” [Link]
• The Tokyo High Court overturned a lower court ruling Tuesday that recognized as Japanese nine children born to nine Philippine women and Japanese men, who did not marry the women but acknowledged the children as theirs after their births. The court ruled against the children because their Japanese fathers had officially recognized them after they were born, as opposed to before their births. [Link]
• A 16-year-old boy was found dead in a school gymnasium storeroom in Osaka early Tuesday, apparently after he hanged himself over worries about his grades [Link]
• A 51-year-old woman was killed when a car crashed into an izakaya pub in Izumisano, Osaka Prefecture, at about 11 p.m. Monday. She was drinking at the counter of the Shubo Masu pub and was crushed between the car and the counter. [Link]
• A junior high school boy leaped to his death from a high-rise apartment complex in Sendai in the early hours of Tuesday after taking Tamiflu, an anti-flu drug that has been linked with erratic behavior. As of October 2006, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry had confirmed 16 cases in which children aged 16 or below showed erratic behavior and died after taking Tamiflu. [Link]
• Patrick Macias has posted a picture-laden report on Wonderfest, Japan’s largest figure and model convention. [Link]

Afternoon Update:

• A Japanese advocacy group said Tuesday it will use balloons to scatter flyers over North Korea, offering residents a US$10,000 cash reward for information on Japanese citizens kidnapped by the regime decades ago. [Link]
• A man who threatened a well-known critic on Japan’s largest Internet bulletin board (2-channel), forcing her to suspend a lecture, was arrested Tuesday, police said. [Link]
• A peace summit between Japanese, Palestinian, Jordanian and Israeli officials will be held on March 14, according to Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki. [Link]
• A key Japanese government panel proposed Tuesday that the prime minister, chief Cabinet secretary, foreign minister and defense minister should form the Japanese version of the White House’s National Security Council. [Link]
• Some 6,500 people, including former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, bid farewell to the late Momofuku Ando, the inventor of instant noodles and cup noodles, at a funeral service held by Nissin Food Products Co in Osaka. Ando created a “dietary culture Japan boasts internationally,” Nakasone said in his funeral address. [Link]
• A wild oriental white stork has been found dead in Hyogo Prefecture, and officials are trying to determine its cause of death. [Link]
• A deadly fire that hobbled the mothership of Japan’s whaling fleet in the Antarctic and could cut short this year’s hunt posed no threat to the environment and will not lead Japan to call off future whale hunts. [Link]
• Shizuoka prefectural police revealed Tuesday that they had made a mistake in arresting a 21-year-old man and holding him for 17 days last October on suspicion of spray-painting graffiti on the wall of a building. [Link]
• A principal would not be violating the Constitution by ordering a music teacher to play the piano accompaniment to the “Kimigayo” national anthem during public school ceremonies, the Supreme Court ruled Tuesday. [Link]
• Takeshima/Dokdo researcher Gerry Bevers has appeared in another Japanese news article, this time issuing a statement about the importance of Takeshima Day. [Link]
• In a list of the 11 Top Underground Transit Systems in the World, the Tokyo subway has come in fith place. [Link]
• The reclusive 3rd Kano sister is denying the claims of the “Gorgeous Kano Sisters,” who said she disappeared and stole ¥400 million of their jewelry. It was widely speculated that the whole affair was simply a stunt by the never publicity-shy sisters to promote a new book by Kyoko, but it now looks like the matter will go to the courts. [Link]
• An entire family of four in Japan is heading for a reunion on death row after being convicted separately in a murder and robbery case. [Link]
• Thieves used an excavator to destroy an automatic teller machine (ATM) booth in Kumagaya, Sataima Prefecture in the predawn hours this morning and stole the machine containing about 52 million yen, police allege. [Link]
• Japan plans to attract more youths from South Asia and Africa to expand the pool of foreign students and exchange program participants, who are now mostly from East Asia, top government spokesman Yasuhisa Shiozaki said Wednesday. [Link]
• Japan is negotiating with North Korea to hold a working group meeting on normalizing bilateral relations on March 7-8 in Hanoi. [Link]
• Though once seen as a glamorous job offering a great wage and jetset lifestyle, Japanese women’s long love affair with the airline hostess profession is feeling the pinch — literally at times, according to Yomiuri Weekly. [Link]