Japan News for March 11, 2007

Today’s Japan-related news links:

• Mongolian grand champion Asashoryu was dumped to a first-day shock defeat at the hands of countryman Tokitenku at the Spring Grand Sumo Tournament on Sunday. Asashoryu appeared boggled from the start in the day’s final bout and quickly found himself in a pickle when newly promoted komusubi Tokitenku grappled him from behind and dropped him at Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium. [Link]
• Shortly after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, the late Emperor Hirohito told his aides he hoped to visit the South Pacific after the war and said he didn’t expect that to be a problem because it would all be Japanese territory by then, according to a newly released journal. [Link]
• Foreign Minister Taro Aso said Sunday he sees no problem with a political party, rather than the government itself, conducting a reinvestigation into the politically sensitive issue of wartime brothels run by the Imperial Japanese Army, reports Kyodo News. [Link]
• January and February saw more than 400 million yen in metal stolen in at least 1,756 incidences nationwide, a surge that coincides with soaring prices and demand in China, especially for copper, and following the heels of last year’s spike, according to a Kyodo News study. [Link]
• Just over one in four voters polled cited “the declining birth rate, the graying of the population and welfare services” as their primary focus of concern in the run-up to two rounds of unified local elections in April, the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper said Sunday. [Link]
• Michael Jackson took a break Saturday from days of parties with die-hard fans and greeted thousands of U.S. troops and their family members at a U.S. Army base south of Tokyo. About 3,000 troops and their family members gathered at a fitness center at Camp Zama. Jackson walked around shaking hands and exchanging words to thank them for their service. [Link]
• Japan’s first accredited high school in the United States has graduated its final class and will be closing after years of slipping enrollment attributed to heightened security after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. [Link]
• Arudou Debito has added three new locations to his “Rogues’ Gallery” of businesses in Japan that ban foreign customers. [Link]
• Japanese supermarket giant Aeon has said that they are going to work with rival group Daiei to create Japan’s largest retail group. [Link]
• Michael Hurt examines anti-Japanese education in South Korea in a new post, entitled “Teaching the Metaphysics of Hate.” [Link]