Japan News for April 24, 2007

This morning’s Japan-related news links:

• Dozens of Japanese lawmakers paid their respects at a controversial Tokyo war shrine on Monday for a spring festival, but Prime Minister Shinzo Abe did not attend. [Link]
• The gangster who allegedly shot former Nagasaki Mayor Itcho Ito to death last week made an apology on Monday, saying, “I caused trouble to the people of Nagasaki and the entire nation.” [Link]
• The Japanese government has chosen the town of Toyako in Hokkaido as the venue for next year’s Group of Eight (G-8) summit. [Link]
• Japan will start providing energy assistance to North Korea only after confirming that tangible steps have been taken to resolve all abduction issues, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Monday. [Link]
• While Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ruling coalition may seem to be cruising easily toward the first revision of the country’s postwar pacifist constitution, it has encountered an unexpected head wind – a decline in public support for the move. [Link]
• Prices for European imports, such as wine and cheese, have surged to levels that may dampen consumption of European products in Japan, mainly due to the appreciation of the euro against the yen. [Link]
• Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen is to visit to Japan in June at the invitation of his Japanese counterpart, an adviser to Hun Sen told Kyodo News on Monday. [Link]
• Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he will tell President George W. Bush that Japan will fulfill its responsibilities in restructuring Iraq when he goes to the U.S. this week. [Link]
• Japan on Monday pledged to help India build an efficient energy-saving system and extend support to ensure energy security. [Link]
• The government’s Education Rebuilding Council reached a basic agreement Monday on a draft proposal that includes a cap on the percentage of state-run university students admitted to graduate schools at the same university, at about 30 percent. [Link]
• A worker at a Yokohama municipal government bus service has been arrested for pocketing fares. [Link]

Afternoon Update:

• Japan and Australia have agreed to a fast-paced timetable of negotiations on a free trade pact after two days of initial talks. [Link]
• The United States has agreed to Japan’s request that it accept Japanese inspectors at U.S. meatpacking plants. [Link]
• Three female candidates won mayoral races Sunday, tying a record set in the 2003 nationwide local elections for the most victories by female mayoral candidates. [Link]
• The Japanese and U.S. governments formally agreed Monday that the U.S. Army will return part of the land of a base called the Akasaka Press Center in Tokyo’s Roppongi district to the metropolitan government. [Link]
• The Cabinet approved a six-month extension of Japan’s naval mission to support U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan, a news report said Tuesday. [Link]
• The health ministry’s drug-assessment panel on Monday decided its members can accept no more than 5 million yen per year from a pharmaceutical company if they are screening and assessing one of its products. [Link]
• In an editorial entitled “Our Guilt Weapon Has Boomeranged On Us,” the South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo comments on how the response of Korea towards the Virginia Tech shooting is similar to a collective sense of guilt that Korea has tried to inflict on Japan. [Link]
• An Osaka man who assaulted and/or raped 18 women aged 12 to 24 years old by pretending to be a gangster has been sentenced to life imprisonment. [Link]
• Shunsuke Nakamura was the toast of the Japanese media – and local Celtic fans – after scoring the goal on Sunday that won the Scottish Premierleague title and then being named the player of the year by his fellow professionals. [Link]
• Nissan Motor Co., Japan’s third- largest carmaker, will offer workers incentives to quit after slumping domestic sales forced the company to cut earnings and sales targets. [Link]
• The price of land on the disputed Dokdo/Takeshima islets keeps rising, with the official land value on the remote and inhospitable islets at about 837,000 US Dollars up 5.36 percent from the previous year, Korea’s Ulleung County said on Monday. [Link]