Japan News for April 11, 2007

This morning’s Japan-related news links:

• Google’s Gmail can now be accessed using the standard mobile phone browsers on Japanese carriers DoCoMo and Softbank, as well as au. [Link]
• Former Wakayama Gov Yoshiki Kimura pleaded guilty Tuesday to taking 10 million yen in bribes and rigging bids for his prefecture’s three public works projects in 2004. “I am guilty on both counts,” Kimura, 55, said at his first hearing at the Osaka District Court. “I deeply apologize to the people of Wakayama.” [Link]
• A Japanese man who has ties to a group of leftist radicals who hijacked a Japan Airlines plane in 1970, and has been living in North Korea in exile, plans to return to Japan in June. [Link]
• Garbage collection and recycling is the most common thing looked up on the local government websites in Japan, according to a survey reported on japan.internet.com. [Link]
• Over 70 percent of hospital doctors in Japan work at least 48 hours a week excluding night shifts, and about 20 percent are working at least 64 hours a week, far longer than the 40-hour week set by Japanese laws, a medical survey has found. [Link]
• Hamamatsu City has challenged Utsunomiya City for the title of Japan’s #1 gyoza city, who will prevail? [Link]
• A Japanese-funded masters program on international peace studies will kick off this month at a Philippine university to prepare Asians “to contribute to the work of building international peace.” [Link]
• South Korean ultranationalists have expressed their annoyance at a new U.S. government map that describes the waters between South Korea and Japan as the Sea of Japan. [Link]
• According to a recent survey translated at What Japan Thinks, 95% of Japanese people feel that global warming is happening. [Link]
• A Japanese woman kidnapped in Paraguay on April 1 was released on Tuesday, Kyodo news reported on Tuesday, citing a Unification Church member in Asuncion. [Link]
• True World Foods, one of the largest suppliers of sushi meat in the United States, has entered into a partnership with leading Japanese whale meat trader, Kyokuyo, to distribute Kyokuyo’s new frozen sushi products in the United States. [Link]

Afternoon Update:

• Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka is set to face off against the Mariners and Ichiro Suzuki in his first time pitching at Fenway Park. [Link]
• All Nippon Airways (ANA) has been forced to cancel numerous domestic flights after four labor unions in its group went on a 24-hour strike this morning. [Link]
• It has been found that Akagi Helicopter Co., the owner of a helicopter that recently crashed on a mountain that stands over the border of Nagano and Toyama prefectures, had been warned by the government regulator over safety problems on two occasions during the past five years. [Link]
• China and Japan are poised to conduct their first naval exchanges since the war before the end of 2007, but more transparency and closer contacts are needed to improve trust between Asia痴 most powerful militaries, Japan痴 defence minister said Wednesday. [Link]
• Prime Minister Shinzo Abe decided to lift a self-imposed ban on his use of scheduled flights for domestic trips despite concerns over the government’s crisis management. [Link]
• Opposition leader Ichiro Ozawa has been traveling around Japan with leaders of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, meeting with voters and seeking their support for party candidates. [Link]
• A Defense Ministry official has been arrested for paying a 15-year-old girl to have sex with him in October last year. [Link]
• A 35-year-old woman walking to work was slashed by a man riding a bicycle in Nagoya this morning. [Link]
• The operator of the IC train ticket system PASMO has decided to sell only commuter passes for the time being because it has been flooded with more orders than initially expected. [Link]
• A team of researchers led by professor Hideo Hono of the Tokyo Institute of Technology has developed a new type of alumina cement that conducts electricity like metal by altering the crystal structure at the nano level. [Link]