Japan News for March 16, 2007

This morning’s Japan-related news links:

• Japan and the United States have asked Australia to include India in a new four-way security arrangement in the region. The Australian Government has been reportedly receptive of the idea but is no hurry to implement it. [Link]
• Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao will visit Japan for three days from April 11, government sources said Thursday. This will be the first visit by a Chinese leader in about seven years–the last such visit was made by former Premier Zhu Ronji in October 2000. [Link]
• Japan Economy News has examined the latest increase in the number of foreign workers at Japanese companies and created an interesting graph that shows the geographic origin of such workers over the past decade. [Link]
• Mongolian grand champion Asashoryu put his awry start to the Spring Grand Sumo Tournament firmly behind him by gunning down compatriot Ama to move into the winning column on the fifth day of action in Osaka on Thursday. [Link]
• Israeli media sources reported Thursday that Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Jordan agreed on a plan to build an agro-industrial park in the West Bank, on Wednesday. This comes as part of efforts backed by Japan to promote economic co-operation and development in the Middle East. [Link]
• Japan’s navy received a fifth Aegis-equipped destroyer Thursday, and the ship will boost the country’s monitoring of North Korea’s missile threat, a defense official said. [Link]
• A loose bolt fell through the roof of a platform at JR Tokyo Station on Thursday and hit a passenger on the head, leaving him with injuries that required hospital treatment, officials said. [Link]
• The Liberal Democratic Party and its coalition partner New Komeito are considering creating a new system to allow a baby born within 300 days of its mother’s divorce either to be included in her new husband’s family register or to be registered as an illegitimate child in the woman’s family register, sources said Thursday. [Link]
• A travel agency in Osaka has launched package tours of Miyazaki Prefecture that includes visits to the Miyazaki Prefectural Government headquarters to take advantage of the popularity of comedian-turned Governor Hideo Higashikokubaru. [Link]
• Are most Japanese prepared for an earthquake? Not according to the latest survey translated by What Japan Thinks. [Link]

Afternoon Update:

• Takafumi Horie, the 34-year-old Internet entrepreneur who rattled corporate Japan with his celebrity lifestyle and brash takeover bids, was found guilty and sentenced to two years and six months in jail on Friday for his role in a securities fraud at his former company Livedoor. [Link]
• Central Tokyo observed its latest ever first snowfall Friday morning, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. The quantity of snow was so small that it did not cover the ground. [Link]
• FBI agents raided the North American headquarters of Japan’s All Nippon Airways on Thursday, authorities said. In a statement issued by ANA’s headquarters in Tokyo, the company said it had not yet confirmed the reason for the investigation. [Link]
• The main pro-Pyongyang group of Korean residents in Japan will send a delegation to the U.N. Human Rights Council, meeting this month in Geneva, to give testimony on what it says is a discriminatory crackdown by Japanese authorities on its members, group officials said Thursday. [Link]
• Sixty-nine percent of Japanese voters oppose the government’s plan to extend the Self-Defense Forces’ reconstruction mission in Iraq by two years, an Asahi Shimbun survey claims. [Link]
• Japan’s Vice Defense Minister Takemasa Moriya on Thursday countered remarks by U.S. Ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer that the percentage of Japan’s defense outlay in the gross domestic product is too low. “The percentage of our country’s defense expenditure is not extremely low…Germany and Canada are 1.1%, Italy is 1.0% and Japan is 0.944%” in 2005, Moriya said at a press conference, according to news reports. [Link]

Update 2: Don’t forget to check out the airing of blogger/onsen maniac Joel’s TV appearance on NHK in the coming week!

2007/03/17(土) 06:00 ＢＳ－ｈｉ　　　　
2007/03/20(火) 10:00 ＢＳ－ｈｉ　　　
2007/03/25(日) 10:05　 総合 [To air if the sports event is rained-out.]