Japan News for May 05, 2007

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    Today’s Japan-related news links:

    • As Japan marks its Children’s Day national holiday today an official survey showed the proportion of the population aged below 15 had fallen to a record low. [Link]
    • A total of 270 people are expected to run in Japan’s House of Councillors election in July so far for the 121 seats up for grabs, with the focus being on whether the ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and the New Komeito party can retain a majority, a Kyodo News survey showed Thursday. [Link]
    • Former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone has proposed that the preamble for any new constitution clearly state that the emperor is the symbol of the nation. [Link]
    • The North Korean government and more than 100 lawmakers from the U.S. House of Representatives have backed a resolution urging Japan to apologize for forcing women into sexual slavery during World War Two. [Link]
    • Toyota Motor Corp President Katsuaki Watanabe and Nintendo Co game designer Shigeru Miyamoto are among the world’s 100 most influential people this year, according to U.S. weekly magazine Time. [Link]
    • Japanese Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma said Friday Japan wants to study whether it is possible to extend its Self-Defense Forces’ support for the reconstruction of Afghanistan [Link]
    • A man who ambushed a woman near her Nagoya apartment and raped her has been arrested, and investigators are grilling Uesugi over his possible involvement in 90 similar cases that have occurred in eastern Nagoya over the past three years. [Link]
    • The sister of slain Tokyo bar hostess Lucie Blackman has weighed in on the Blackman family feud, telling the British tabloid magazine Hello! that her mother has been “venomous” and “destructive” toward Lucie’s father, Tim, for accepting $900,000 in condolence money from an associate of Joji Obara. [Link]
    • Fears have arisen over the deteriorating natural environment on the Ogasawara Islands, a set of islands about 1,000 kilometers south of Tokyo, as officials work to eliminate harmful non-native species. [Link]
    • The Imperial Household Agency organized a nature-observing event in the Imperial Palace’s Fukiage woodland area on Friday, allowing the general public to walk through the area for the first time. [Link]
    • A man took the first bullet train of the day from Sendai to Yokohama just to go and record his own upskirt videos at a festival here, according to testimony following his arrest on Thursday. [Link]
    • Finance ministers of South Korea, Japan and China pledged Friday to make steady supports for bilateral currency swap deals being signed among Asian countries to tackle currency speculation. [Link]
    • In an effort to make Japan more attractive to foreign businessmen, the government plans to create an international financial center in Tokyo that will be modeled on the City of London. [Link]
    • Kenzo Oshima, Japan’s ambassador to the United Nations, called on the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday to launch an “intergovernmental negotiation” to expand the 15-member Security Council by appointing a group of new facilitators. [Link]
    • Some Japanese monkey experts want TV star chimp Pan-kun removed from the bright lights so he can live in trees and eat bananas like other chimps his age, according to WaiWai/Josei Seven. [Link]
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