Japan News for March 22, 2007

This morning’s Japan-related news links:

• The Japan Times has posted a Q&A with two historians about the comfort women issue: Were they teen-rape slaves or paid pros? [Link via Ampontan]
• South Korean activist scaled a wall of the Japanese Embassy in Seoul on Wednesday and staged a brief protest of Tokyo’s recent statements about comfort women. [Link]
• An Indonesian court sentenced a man to death for killing a Japanese woman last year. The defendant said he killed the woman because she had accused him of stealing her antiques. He stabbed her in her neck and then took her money, cellular phone and some jewelry. [Link]
• Publisher Shinchosha will soon launch what it calls the country’s first digital subscription magazine, an online comic regularly transmitted to mobile phones, a news report said Wednesday. “Com2″ will contain about 200 pages of cartoons and is geared toward cell phones so readers in tech-savvy, comic-book-crazy Japan can keep up with their favorites on the go. [Link]
• Shogi champion Akira Watanabe, holder of the prestigious Ryuo title, prevailed over Bonanza, the world’s most powerful computer shogi program, in a historic clash on Wednesday. [Link]
• Sagamihara Mayor Isao Ogawa, a fervent opponent of U.S. military facilities in his city, died Wednesday following a long illness, officials said. He was 76. [Link]
• Will there be another puzzle craze after sudoku? The New York Times examines Japan’s popular number puzzles. [Link]
• Freelance photojournalist Yutaka Kamoshida has died of cancer. Kamoshida covered battlefields around the globe, particularly Cambodia’s civil war. [Link]
• Mongolian ozeki Hakuho disposed of Homasho to remain in sole possession of the lead at the Spring Grand Sumo Tournament on Wednesday. [Link]
• Licca, Japan’s version of the dress-up doll Barbie, is going to get a saucy schoolgirl look courtesy of a Sapporo high school, its creators said. [Link]
• What websites do Japanese women between the ages of 20 to 34 prefer? What Japan Thinks has the answer in a recently translated survey. [Link]

Afternoon Update:

• The first major test of power for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Cabinet is quickly approaching — April’s nationwide unified local-level elections. The Japan Times provides some pre-game information. [Link]
• A study of the history of relations between China and Japan has ended because of different ideas on how to approach the project, a report says. [Link]
• The Tokyo District Court ruled Thursday more people should be certified as suffering from illnesses caused by radiation in the 1945 atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, again acknowledging flaws in government criteria for issuing such certification. [Link]
• A Nagoya police sergeant was left with a broken collarbone after being dragged along the road by a car that he had stopped for traveling the wrong way down a one-way street. [Link]
• A court has sentenced former Livedoor Co Chief Financial Officer Ryoji Miyauchi to 20 months in prison without suspension for his role in accounting fraud and other securities law violations by the Internet and financial services company. [Link]
• Pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka made an impressive showing yesterday — one run, one single, one walk and one standing ovation. In 5 2-3 innings, he struck out seven and the Red Sox beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 7-3. [Link]
• A former Mainichi Shimbun journalist is awaiting a Tokyo District Court verdict next Tuesday that hopefully will clear his name, after he was convicted over his report about a secret agreement between Japan and the United States over the 1972 reversion of Okinawa to Japan that U.S. documents have effectively confirmed. [Link]
• The national president of Australia’s biggest and most feared motorcycle gang, The Rebels, is now stranded in Japan, unable to return to his Sydney home. Australian police are now preparing a case for the immigration department to refuse the multi-millionaire a new visa to re-enter Australia. [Link]
• Japanese scientists agreed Wednesday to call Pluto a “quasi-planet,” following a historic decision last year by the International Astronomical Union to demote what was once the ninth planet in the solar system to a “dwarf planet.” [Link]
• A total of about 122,000 police, firefighters, paramedics and Self-Defense Forces personnel would be needed for rescue activities if two major earthquakes struck simultaneously within an area from western Shizuoka Prefecture to Miyazaki Prefecture, according to a government antidisaster panel. [Link]
• Japan’s linking of the anti flu drug Tamiflu to behavioral disorders and a spate of deaths among teenagers in Japan is groundless, Taiwan medical professionals claimed yesterday. [Link]
• Nippon Professional Baseball agreed Wednesday to abolish the so-called “kibo-waku” system, which allows notable amateur players to designate teams they wish to join and vice-versa, next year. [Link]
• Kitano Takeshi’s 13th film, “Kantoku – Banzai!”, will be released on June 2. More details can be found at Ryuganji: [Link]