Japan News for April 08, 2007

This morning’s Japan-related news links:

• Voters will go to polling stations today in the first of the two unified rounds of nationwide local elections slated for this month ahead of the House of Councillors election in summer. The elections will pick governors of Tokyo and 12 others of Japan’s 47 prefectures, mayors of four major cities, and assembly members of 44 prefectures and of 15 of the country’s 17 largest cities. [Link]
• The president of a trading company in Yamaguchi Prefecture was arrested Saturday, along with seven executives and employees of the firm, for importing shellfish from North Korea despite trade embargoes against Pyongyang. [Link]
• Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is leaning toward allowing Japan to exercise the right to collective self-defense — currently banned in line with an official interpretation of the Constitution — in a limited number of cases such as a ballistic missile attack against the United States, a government source said Saturday. [Link]
• Yahoo Japan Corp said Friday some 4,492,200 messages have been erased from its email service as a result of a program glitch. [Link]
• A friend of a woman believed abducted and murdered by North Korean agents in the 1970s received a phone call from the woman in March 1974, several months after she disappeared, police investigating the case have learned. [Link]
• Japan’s education ministry has drawn up curriculums for non-Japanese junior high school students who find it difficult to keep up with classes due to language problems. [Link]
• Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has refused to tell Chinese reporters whether he plans to visit the Yasukuni Shrine. [Link]
• Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) has come under fire for describing a scene in a television show as an “off-the-street interview” with an Akihabara otaku when in fact the man being interviewed was contacted in advance. [Link]
• The Nagoya District Public Prosecutors Office has released a Chinese employee of auto parts maker Denso Corp who was arrested on suspicion of taking out product design data, with a view to suspending indictment against him. [Link]
• In response to global warming, Japan hopes to develop rice farms that can better withstand heat and use less water, Japanese news agency Kyodo reported Saturday. [Link]
• The Osaka High Court has rejected the claims of four people convicted of professional negligence resulting in death and injury in a July 2001 accident on an pedestrian overpass bridge in Akashi, Hyogo Prefecture, that killed 11 people and injured 247 others. [Link]
• The Japanese Air Self-Defense Force (ASDF)’s F-4 fighter jets and the Japan-based U.S. Air Force’s F-22A stealth fighters will participate in a joint exercise around Okinawa in mid-April, a senior Defense Ministry official said in Tokyo on Friday. [Link]
• An Osaka woman and her live-in boyfriend face arrest for abusing her 10-year-old daughter by piercing the victim’s arm with a hypodermic needle. [Link]
• Greenpeace activists who hoped to raise opposition in Japan to whaling sailed away Saturday after a 12-day mission in which they were unable to hold public events on their ship. [Link]
• The number of homeless people in Japan decreased from about 25,300 four years ago to about 18,500 as of January this year apparently due to economic recovery and welfare, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said Friday [Link]

Afternoon Update:

• U.S. Army Garrison, Japan, headquartered at Camp Zama, has won the Army Community of Excellence Award for 2006. The command also picked up the Commander in Chief’s Annual Award for Installation Excellence. [Link]
• Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s arrival in Tokyo was delayed Sunday amid reports Iran refused to allow his plane to fly across its airspace. [Link]
• A humanoid robot designed to look like a young woman was a popular attraction at a department store in Yokohama on Thursday as it called for voters to participate in nationwide local government elections. [Link]
• Sony Corp. said Saturday it has no plan to pursue further development of advanced microchips in a three-way pact with NEC Electronics and Toshiba, in a potential blow to the Japanese chip sector’s bid to join hands to better compete with overseas rivals. [Link]
• The Osaka Mint has opened its gates for visitors to stroll through its 560-meter-long compound to view hundreds of blooming cherry blossom trees. [Link]