Japan News for March 29, 2007

This morning’s Japan-related news links:

• The director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency said Wednesday that Japan would become the first partner in the U.S. program to try to knock down a medium range missile from sea. [Link]
• A high court on Wednesday ordered two local governments to pay 8.6 million yen in compensation to the parents of a junior high school student who committed suicide after his classmates bullied him. [Link]
• President George W. Bush urged Japan and South Korea on Wednesday to reopen their markets fully to U.S. beef and said opening markets to American beef is a part of U.S. foreign policy. [Link]
• A Nozomi bullet train came to a halt just after it left Kyoto Station on Wednesday, when a passenger apparently touched an emergency door lever, police and JR officials said. [Link]
• US senators warned Wednesday of new laws that could be adopted against Asian giants China and Japan for allegedly keeping their currencies low which they said was hurting the US economy. [Link]
• The Osaka High Court on Wednesday overturned a guilty ruling handed down to a man accused of trying to kiss a 19-year-old in a women’s bathroom, citing doubts over the woman’s testimony. [Link]
• The Osaka municipal government announced Wednesday it would revoke on Thursday about 2,100 laborers’ residence registrations at three facilities in Nishinari Ward, Osaka. [Link]
• Japan has launched a special military unit, the Central Quick Response Team, to counter terrorist attacks at home and contribute to peacekeeping missions abroad, the Defense Ministry said. [Link]
• Forward Sota Hirayama scored a pair of goals Wednesday as Japan’s under-22 squad defeated Syria 3-0 in an Asian zone Group B Olympic qualifier. [Link]
• A Niigata city, Jouetsu, intends to abolish the “Nationality Clause”, the guideline enforced by many local, regional, and national government agencies that only citizens may hold administrative positions in the Japanese civil service. [Link]

Afternoon Update:

• The Japanese government 50 years ago proposed that the Tokyo shrine should honor war criminals, documents released by the National Diet Library yesterday suggest, but the government has denied such claims. [Link]
• A man died after being hit by a train on the Toei Asakusa Line during the morning commuter rush on Thursday, apparently after he jumped onto the tracks to commit suicide, police investigators said. [Link]
• A Canadian parliamentary subcommittee criticized Japan’s recent denial of responsibility for sexual enslavement of women during World War II, submitting a motion demanding not only a formal apology by the Japanese Diet but also compensation of the victims. [Link]
• Foreign Policy has just posted an interview with Gerald Curtis, a professor of political science at Columbia University, about the comfort women issue. [Link]
• “One month after the initial controvery erupted, it should be apparent by now that the content of the recent deluge of articles and talk about comfort women has been largely superficial and based on emotions rather than facts,” reports Ampontan in his latest update, which takes a look at the conservative perspective of the issue. [Link]
• A 40-year-old Japanese man was arrested Thursday after he allegedly took a free ride on a British luxury liner that docked at a Japanese port earlier this month and was deported back to Japan from Hawaii on Wednesday, police said. [Link]
• Ryuganji has the translation of last weekend’s box office numbers for Japan: Night at the Museum tops the list. [Link]
• A floppy disc containing names and other private information of 972 people who passed entrance examinations for Waseda University’s commerce faculty has been lost, it has emerged. [Link]
• “Akie Abe remains one of the most popular figures in Japan, to the point where some are saying her husband, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has her to thank if his approval ratings have not dropped below 40 percent,” says South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo in its introduction to an interview with the Japanese first lady. [Link]
• The court battle has begun between legendary manga-ka Matsumoto Leiji and songwriter Makihara Noriyuki . Back in October of last year, Matsumoto claimed that some of the lyrics to the song “Yakusoku no Basho” were lifted without permission from his famous manga “Ginga Tetsudo 999” (Galaxy Express 999). [Link]