Japan News for May 08, 2007

This morning’s Japan-related news links:

• Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made an offering to Yasukuni Shrine in late April on the occasion of the Tokyo shrine’s spring festival, a source familiar with the matter said Monday. [Link]
• Japan’s top spokesman denied on Monday that the government would review its arms export ban, just days after the defence minister said it was time to rethink the controls so Tokyo could develop weapons with the United States. [Link]
• Interested in attracting more Middle Eastern tourists to the Far-Eastern reaches of Japan, representatives from the Japan Cooperation Center for the Middle East (JCCME) Tuesday announced plans for increased investment in the Middle East tourism sector. [Link]
• A Japanese weekly has awared the Osaka police the title of “Japan’s worst police force” for their high-pay and lack of achievement. [Link]
• All over Japan, retailers are scrambling to keep up with a new look known as “bon-kyu-bon.” It means “big-small-big” and it signals a change in the way Japanese women look: They’re getting curvier. [Link]
• 119 people were killed in traffic accidents during the Golden Week holiday period, marking the lowest number recorded since 1970. [Link]
• Followers of former AUM Shinrikyo spokesman Fumihiro Joyu reported to the Public Security Intelligence Agency on Monday that they have officially organized themselves into a new group consisting of 163 members. [Link]
• East West Magazine has taken a look at the sport of “shin sumo”, also known as women’s sumo wrestling. [Link]
• Former Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui is set to visit Japan at the end of the month. [Link]
• A Japanese man strangled his newlywed wife after she snooped on his mobile phone and discovered a pornographic image. [Link]
• After confirming increases in the number of Humpback and Minke whales which had been threatened with extinction, the IUCN has moved to downlist these two species to a lower rank of extinction risk. [Link]
• Indian tourists spent more than Japanese tourists in London for the first time last year. [Link]
• A government deregulation panel on Monday compiled a report calling for allotting landing slots at Haneda and Narita airports to airlines by auction. [Link]
• Former Morning Musume member Nozomi Tsuji is reportedly getting married to actor Taiyo Sugiura, and is currently two months pregnant. The two started dating last year. [Link]
• A Chinese fringetree covered with white flowers that resemble snow has proved a popular attraction at a shrine in Gifu as summer approaches. [Link]
• In a bid to prevent people taking sneak see-though snapshots of female athletes using infrared photography, a sports equipment manufacturer in Kumagaya, Saitama Prefecture has developed underwear that blocks out infrared rays. [Link]

Afternoon Update:

• Japan’s health ministry was “negative” in 2006 on the possibility of a causal relationship between the influenza drug Tamiflu and abnormal behavior, despite reports from at least two doctors who said such links could not be denied in the deaths of two teenagers, medical and pharmaceutical sources said Monday. [Link]
• Katrin Fraser, a prominent fund-raiser with close ties to the White House, is expected to take over as director for Korea and Japan at America’s National Security Council (NSC). [Link]
• A dusty crate of munitions found under an American homeowner’s stairwell Sunday was a Japanese World War II training kit that contained four inert mines, a variety of fuses and a pineapple-style grenade that may have been dangerous. A bomb disposal team denoated the grenades. [Link]
• South Korea and Japan will hold talks this week to discuss the North Korean nuclear ambitions and other regional security issues. [Link]
• The New York Yankees shipped struggling Japanese pitcher Kei Igawa to the minor leagues on Monday. [Link]
• Japan geared for its perennial clash with conservationists over lifting a commercial hunting ban Monday ahead of the polarized International Whaling Commission’s annual meeting. [Link]
• Breaking up is hard to do, so visitors to Kyoto, Japan’s ancient capital, seek divine intervention to lose that not-so-special someone. [Link]
• The “real Japan” can be found in Tokyo’s back alleys, according to the Chosun Ilbo. [Link]
• Clarification from the article posted earlier this morning: Reuters is reporting that Shinzo Abe did not visit the Yasukuni Shrine in April, he only sent an offering. [Link]
• Japanese police have released video footage of a man sought in connection with the death of a British NOVA teacher Lindsay Anne Hawker. Our news post on the case has been updated with the video. [Link]