Japan News for April 09, 2007

This morning’s Japan-related news links:

• Ishihara was reelected in Tokyo winning his 3rd term as governor,while 8 other incumbents won gubernatorial races across Japan. [Link]
• North Korea ordered a female agent to abduct Hideko Watanabe and her two children, who all went missing in Tokyo in 1973, investigative sources said Sunday. [Link]
• Turnout for the Tokyo gubernatorial election was 4.11 points higher this year than last time, metropolitan government officials said. [Link]
• Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has arrived in Japan after a marathon journey during which Iran refused to allow his plane to cross its air space. [Link]
• The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) won three and the largest opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) won two of the gubernatorial elections in five prefectures where their candidates clashed head-on. [Link]
• South Korea, China and Japan promised Sunday that they will step up cooperation in combating new types of influenza amid mounting concerns over threats to their peoples from such pandemic diseases. [Link]
• A group of masked men armed with knives broke into the office of an amusement arcade in Fukuoka and made off with around 3 million yen in cash on Saturday night. [Link]
• Pitcher Kei Igawa was rocked for seven runs in five innings against the Baltimore Orioles in his New York Yankees debut on Saturday. [Link]

Afternoon Update:

• Narita airport opened one of Japan’s largest airport shopping malls on Monday, consisting of duty-free shops in its second terminal. [Link]
• Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara boasted he had reformed the capital’s politics through actions not words when he appeared in television programs this morning following his victory in the gubernatorial election. [Link]
• The Unification Church has confirmed that four people kidnapped in Paraguay, including its two Japanese members, are safe and that negotiations have made progress. [Link]
• Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki met with Japan’s emperor today at the start of his first visit to East Asia set to focus on developing the war-torn country’s oil industry. [Link]
• A candidate in the Kyoto Prefectural Assembly election was left red-faced after polling stations officials mistakenly announced he won. [Link]
• Before Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao’s official visit to Japan, which will be on next Wednesday through Friday, representatives of Chinese students in Japan gathered in Tokyo last week to express their excitement and expectations for the “ice-melting visit.” [Link]
• A woman accused of committing a series of arson attacks and posting photos of the fires on her Internet blog was ordered to spend a decade behind bars in a court ruling today. [Link]
• Japan’s KDDI said on Sunday it aims to offer a cellphone service in the United States using a network operated by Sprint Nextel. [Link]
• A former Mainichi Shimbun reporter appealed a district court ruling Monday which rejected his claim that his career was ruined by an illegal indictment over his report about a secret pact between Japan and the United States over the 1972 reversion of Okinawa to Japan. [Link]
• Forty of the 86 major fish species being caught on the Japanese coastlines are at a low level of stock, and 14 of them, such as Japanese sardines and Atka mackerels, face serious prospects, according to the government’s latest stock evaluation. [Link]
• Japan will offer China help to curb greenhouse gas and Beijing will agree to resume importing Japanese rice when China’s premier pays a landmark visit here this week, reports said Sunday. [Link]
• The New York Yankees placed Hideki Matsui on the 15-day disabled list Sunday after the Japanese outfielder strained his left hamstring during a game Saturday. [Link]