This morning’s Japan-related news links:

• Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has apologised in parliament for the country’s use of women as sex slaves during World War II. [Link]
• Seiyu, Wal-Mart’s supermarket chain in Japan, is to start selling U.S. beef — a move that comes at a time when most major retailers in Japan are still worried about possible health hazards. [Link]
• Two Chinese men under indictment for trespassing have been served new arrest warrants for allegedly stealing expensive watches and other items worth a total of 120 million yen from a store in the Aoyama area of Tokyo. [Link]
• The Miyazaki District Court on Monday rejected a damages suit filed by a group of Chinese who sought compensation from the state and a Tokyo company for being forced to work as laborers in Japan during World War II, in another loss by plaintiffs in a series of such lawsuits. [Link]
• Major Japanese broadcaster Fuji TV sued disgraced Internet startup Livedoor on Monday for 34.5 billion yen (US$292 million) in damages for stock losses. [Link]
• Adam Richards has taken a look at the state of education reform in Japan over at Trans-Pacific Radio. [Link]
• The Great Swifty has reviewed the Japanese dorama Ima Ai ni Yukimasu. [Link]
• The Japanese government has decided to dispatch an election monitoring team to East Timor for its presidential election scheduled for April 9. [Link]
• Nearly 90 percent of public elementary schools across Japan have created “safety maps” to guide children along routes to school and in areas where they play to limit accidents and crimes targeting children. [Link]
• The privatization of Japan’s post office bank is raising fears that the government-nurtured colossus could leverage its size to stamp out rivals, foreign and domestic, according to Business Week. [Link]
• Kouichi Toyama, one of the 14 candidates running for Governor of Tokyo, has posted a video of his views on YouTube, in which he calls for the destruction of Japan. [Link]

Afternoon Update:

• Katsuji Ebisawa, head of the Yokozuna Deliberation Council of the Japan Sumo Association, expressed regret in a meeting Monday at the sneaky “henka” moves by Asashoryu against ozeki Chiyotaikai to get his 13th win and by Hakuho in the playoff. “It’s not against the rules, but it’s very regrettable, especially when yokozuna make such moves against ozeki,” he said. [Link]
• A former high school teacher charged with 11 counts of child prostitution was handed a two-year prison sentence in a ruling at the Hakodate District Court on Monday. [Link]
• Seven Australians who saved the lives of several Japanese skiers during last month’s tragic avalanche in the Hakkoda mountain range of Aomori Prefecture were officially honored in Sydney on Monday. [Link]
• Which of the 笛apan痴 Three Greats・do Japanese people most want to see? If you want to know the answer, or you’re wondering what the hell “Japan’s Three Greats” are, What Japan Thinks has the information you’re looking for. [Link]
• The Defense Ministry’s think tank expressed concern in its annual report Monday over China’s growing influence in the East Asian region as well as the lack of transparency in its expanding military power. [Link]
• Boston Red Sox rookie Daisuke Matsuzaka pitched five hitless innings but walking five Cincinnati Reds left him silent and dissatisfied after the spring training game on Monday. [Link]
• The Tokyo District Court ordered Japan Airlines International Co on Monday to pay about 15 million yen in damages to flight attendants with children who sued the airline for illegally reducing their daytime work to one to two days a month and thus their salary. [Link]
• A Chiba woman accused of trying to murder a male acquaintance with an agricultural pesticide has told police she had previously poisoned a neighbor’s dog with the chemical and knew how lethal it was. [Link]
• Japan will send six Self-Defense Force troops next month to Nepal to participate in a UN military observer mission. [Link]
• Sumo wrestler Tochiazuma indicated Sunday he may retire after medical tests revealed he had suffered a brain infarction in the past. [Link]
• U.S. Navy Adm. Timothy Keating on Monday took the helm of the Hawaii-based U.S. Pacific Command to oversee U.S. military operations in a vast area that includes Japan and part of Africa. [Link]
• Mainichi’s WaiWai reports that Japanese consumers love Bilk, the world’s first beer made from milk and Nakahara, the diary based in the small Hokkaido town of Nakatsu, can’t keep up with orders for the brew, which has sold out almost everywhere since hitting the market last month. [Link]