Japan News for March 05, 2007

This morning’s Japan-related news links:

• Ampontan on the comfort women issue: why are the House of Representatives and the New York Times now sticking pins in the voodoo doll they’ve created of contemporary Japan? The House seems poised to pass a maudlin, facile resolution about comfort women during the Second World War, taking at face value the word of a woman who can’t get her story straight and whose testimony may be fraudulent, while the Times has added fuel to the fire by intentionally—and maliciously–garbling a quote from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. [Link]
• Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will continue to follow a 1993 official statement that acknowledged and apologized for the Japanese Imperial Army forcing women to become sex slaves in World War II, his assistant Hiroshige Seko said Sunday. Seko made the comments on TV Asahi a day after South Korea expressed “strong regret” over Abe’s remarks disputing that the Imperial Japanese Army forced foreign women into sexual slavery during World War II. [Link]
• Pope Benedict XVI will beatify next month 188 Catholics who were martyred in various parts of Japan in the early 16th century, a Vatican diplomatic source said Saturday. While many of the saints and the blessed in Japan were clerics in Nagasaki, which was a port city open to foreign traders in feudal Japan, the latest list of the blessed represents a regional diversity from northeastern to southwestern Japan. [Link]
• More than half of all illegal computer access in 2005 was made using computers at Internet cafes, and about 70 percent of such cases in which suspects have not been identified were from cafe computers, according to Japan’s National Police Agency. [Link]
• Japanese midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura has been voted Scottish Premier League Player of the Month for February, the league announced Saturday. Nakamura has been in excellent form for the Hoops and his trademark free kicks and all-round team performances have helped ensure Gordon Strachan’s side maintain their unbeaten record. [Link]
• Stickers telling people to remain silent in elevators at the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare have started to attract the attention of users. [Link]
• New “Series N700″ bullet trains are being produced at a factory here before making their debut on the Tokaido-Sanyo Shinkansen Line in July. Nippon Sharyo, Ltd. is conducting final tests, including some for air-tightedness, on the first 16-carraige trains before they are delivered to the railway operator. [Link]
• The political and moral image of Japan whose past is bespattered with crimes, has not changed in the new century, claimed observers of the North Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). “If Japan is ready to settle honestly problems of its past, it has no grounds to express discontent at hearings (at the US Congress) or the resolution,” the KCNA statement stresses. [Link]

Afternoon update:

• Japan will not apologize again for its World War II military brothels, even if the U.S. Congress passes a resolution demanding it, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told parliament Monday. [Link]
• The Japan Organ Transplant Network, a Tokyo-based transplant-coordinating entity, will start accepting online registrations Monday from people who are willing to donate their organs in the event of brain death. [Link]
• Japan’s top government spokesman said Monday that Tokyo is undecided about whether to extend the nation’s air force mission in Iraq when it expires in July, but that a decision is expected by the end of this month. [Link]
• Former porn star turned popular TV regular Iijima Ai (34) hinted on her blog at the weekend that she plans to retire from showbiz at the end of March. She appeared as scheduled on yesterday’s edition of “Sunday Japon” on TBS but didn’t give details of her reasons. [Link]
• The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Friday welcomed Japan`s announcement of a new contribution of US$186 million. The Fund said in a release that Japan`s contributions to Fund had risen to more than US$662 million since its creation in 2002, making it the organization`s third-largest donor. [Link]
• Some 47 percent of Japanese people trust the advice of experts given on TV health programs, a survey has shown. [Link]
• Record high temperatures for March were logged at 11 monitoring points in five prefectures on Sunday, with three points recording summer-like temperatures of over 25 C. The temperature in Tokyo rose to 18.6 C, a level equivalent to mid-April. [Link]