Japan News for April 03, 2007

This morning’s Japan-related news links:

• A growing number of Japanese children have weight problems that could set them up for health problems later in life, and standards must be set to deal with the issue, researchers said on Monday. [Link]
• A 12-year-old boy who plunged from an apartment block to his death on March 27 after contracting an influenza virus was not taking the influenza drug Tamiflu, it was learned Monday. [Link]
• Miyazaki Gov Hideo Higashikokubaru made fun of abnormal behaviors suspected to be caused by the antiviral drug Tamiflu during an address Monday for new prefectural employees, saying, “I was taking Tamiflu with no limit for five days, so I might roll into abnormal behavior or remarks today.” [Link]
• Health experts from the World Health Organization, Southeast Asian countries and Japan held a drill Monday to simulate a human bird-flu pandemic and assess efforts to contain the outbreak. [Link]
• Three out of 10 Japanese internet users believe in internet astrology sites, according to a recently translated survey over at What Japan Thinks. [Link]
• Japan will join the U.N. Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods that has uniform rules for solving disputes over international business transactions to make it easier for domestic companies to swiftly settle conflicts over such deals, government sources said Monday. [Link]
• Masaru Ishii, the president of the Internet-protocol phone service provider Kinmirai Tsushin Inc., which is suspected of defrauding about 2,000 people out of about 30 billion yen, visited China in late November, and his whereabouts are still unknown, sources said Monday. [Link]
• The Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry appointed Thai actress Tik on Monday as goodwill ambassador for the “Visit Japan Campaign.” [Link]

Afternoon Update:

• Paraguayan police arrested several people Monday after two Japanese and two locals were kidnapped in the South American country and a $150,000 ransom was demanded. It is not known whether the four, kidnapped Sunday in a suburb of the Paraguayan capital Asuncion, are safe. [Link]
• Aichi Gov. Masaaki Kanda described handicapped people as “those whose weak, bad genes surfaced” when he addressed newly recruited prefectural government officials on Monday. [Link]
• The disapproval rate for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s cabinet was 43% over the weekend, up from 41% a month ago and the highest since the Cabinet was launched in September, a Japanese daily reported Tuesday. [Link]
• Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will pay a four-day visit to Japan from Sunday to hold talks with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Japan’s aid for Iraq’s reconstruction efforts. [Link]
• Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is considering visiting Japanese Air Self-Defense Force officers in Kuwait, who are in Iraq for reconstruction support, to encourage them, sources familiar with the matter said Tuesday. [Link]
• The average waiting time for operations is longer than five years ago at over 30 percent of major hospitals across Japan due to a shortage of doctors and an increase in patients, a Mainichi Shimbun survey has suggested. [Link]
• The Fair Trade Commission is investigating suspected bid-rigging over projects ordered by the Japan Green Resources Agency and may file a criminal complaint against the agriculture ministry affiliate. [Link]
• The Japanese government is pressing ahead with a plan to equip fire stations in various parts of the country with the latest apparatus to deal with radioactive materials and substances such as biological and chemical agents used in terrorism. [Link]
• Toshio Sasaki, a Japanese sculptor known for large works in public places, died of stomach cancer near his home in Nagakute in Japan at the age of 60. [Link]
• Veteran Japanese diplomat Kiyotaka Akasaka of Japan, who has been closely involved throughout his career with the work of multilateral organizations, began his tenure today as the new chief of the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI). [Link]
• Japanese and Koreans are the world’s slimmest people, according to a South Korean press report on a study on body mass index (BMI) released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. [Link]