Japan News for April 17, 2007

This morning’s Japan-related news links:

• The level of public support for amending Japan’s Constitution fell to 57.0 percent from 61.0 percent two years ago, with those opposed increasing to 34.5 percent from 29.8 percent, a Kyodo News survey showed Monday. [Link]
• Nineteen city mayoral elections were effectively decided on Sunday, the first day of official campaigning, because of an absence of any challengers, according to election administration committees. [Link]
• Police and Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) officials have searched the home of a 30-year-old MSDF member on suspicion of violating a law on protection of confidential information in a case related to the leak of data on Japan’s Aegis destroyers. [Link]
• Japan’s Maritime Self-Defence Force and the United States and the Indian navies held a joint maritime drill on Monday in the Pacific Ocean off central Japan’s Boso Peninsula. [Link]
• Japan’s penny-pinching savers and earnest salarymen may at last be ready to loosen their purse strings as bank deposits earn more and millions of workers collect retirement windfalls. [Link]
• Nearly 80 percent of Japanese voters feel that a minimum turnout should be required to validate a national referendum on amending the Constitution, according to an Asahi Shimbun survey released today. [Link]
• A 25-year-old Japanese man from Tokyo is feared dead after being washed off rocks on the coast of the state of Western Australia over the weekend. [Link]
• A 36-year-old man died on a road in Chiba Prefecture, apparently after being hit by a thief driving his vehicle when he went outside to check the car’s ringing burglar alarm. [Link]
• A firm that had been left out of a public works project tendering in Soja, Okayama Prefecture, allegedly was added to the list of bidders at the request of the mayor and eventually won, raising suspicions of a violation of municipal by-laws, it was learned. [Link]
• “Rakugo” comic storyteller Hayashiya Shozo has failed to declare approximately 120 million yen in income over a three-year period and has been slapped with roughly 45 million yen in back taxes. [Link]
• Twenty-six smoking toilets, and three more on fire, have put Japanese toilet maker Toto Ltd. in the hot seat. [Link]
• Sendai Kitakami High School, under fire for giving members of its baseball club discounts and exemptions on tuition fees, has decided to disband the team. [Link]
• The worst shooting in American history has occurred at Virginia Tech today. According to the reports on Japanese TV, the shooter may have been asian. [Link]

Afternoon Update:

• Gov. Timothy M. Kaine ofVirginia, who was in Japan today, said it was too early to draw conclusions about how campus authorities handled the deadly shooting rampage at Virginia Tech [Link]
• Japan’s southern Kanto region, including Tokyo and Saitama Prefecture, has been hit by a measles outbreak, the National Institute of Infectious Diseases said Tuesday, warning of a bigger outbreak toward summer. [Link]
• An escaped chimpanzee led zookeepers on a chase around Osaka’s Tennoji Zoo on Monday before being shot with a tranquilizer gun and netted. [Link]
• The population as of Oct 1, 2006, fell at 37 of 47 prefectures from a year earlier, making the number of such prefectures stay at a record high level for two years in a row, the internal affairs ministry said Monday in a report. [Link]
• Gov. Hideo Higashikokubaru recently angered reporters after he said he believed regular press conferences were not necessary unless there were important issues to discuss. [Link]
• The Japanese government held a pilot gathering Monday to elicit public views on its policies in an alternative form to the “town meeting” events which came under fire after officials in charge were found to have planted questions in order to steer discussions in favor of key policies. [Link]
• A season of celebrations of friendly Korea-Japan ties kicked off on Sunday with the 400th anniversary re-enactment of the parade and appointment ceremony of Chosun envoys to the island country in Seoul. [Link]
• Mobile phones have created a sexual revolution in Japan, making the communication devices as much about flings as they are about rings, according to Shukan Bunshun. [Link]
• Japan’s National Police Agency and its Brazilian counterpart signed an agreement Monday to cooperate in investigations such as cracking down on cross-border crimes and pursuing fugitives. [Link]
• Japan will relax visa norms for Indian tourists, a move that is expected to significantly contribute to enhanced people-to-people exchanges and mutual understanding between the two Asian giants. [Link]