Japan News for May 13, 2007

Today’s Japan-related news links:

• One third of major amusement parks in Japan were not aware of government-set standards for safety checks on their facilities, a Kyodo News survey showed Saturday. [Link]
• A film celebrating Japan’s wartime “kamikaze” suicide pilots and written by Tokyo’s nationalist governor opened in theatres on Saturday, sparking more of a pacifist than a patriotic response from audiences. [Link]
• Authorities arrested a passenger on a Northwest Airlines flight from Detroit to Nagoya, Japan after he lunged at a flight attendant, FBI officials said. [Link]
• A former head of a Chinese state-owned enterprise, who fled to Japan three years ago after coming under suspicion of embezzling public funds, was extradited to China on Thursday: It is the first time Japan has handed a Chinese national suspected of corruption back to China. [Link]
• Crown Prince Naruhito, the 47-year-old son of Emperor Akihito, had a sample of a polyp, which doctors have described as benign, removed from his duodenum at the Imperial Household Hospital on Saturday. [Link]
• Japanese workers will again ditch their neckties and dress casually this summer to combat global warming in an iconic seasonal campaign known as Cool Biz. [Link]
• Three women in Toyama Prefecture who used a 3-year-old boy to steal DVDs have been arrested on suspicion of theft, and the toddler taken into protective custody. [Link]
• India has begun reconstructing the 1,000-mile Stilwell Road connecting it to China via Burma, more than six decades after the route was built to supply Chinese forces fighting Japanese occupation. [Link]
• The historic home of American architect J.H. Morgan, built in Fujisawa in the 1930s, was completely destroyed in a suspicious fire that broke out in the predawn hours of Saturday. [Link]
• Japan’s Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry will establish a special zone, possibly in Hokkaido or Okinawa, in fiscal 2008 to test Internet technology in various daily situations such as buying vegetables, preventing car accidents and medical services for the elderly. [Link]
• An antique violin worth 20 million yen has been stolen from an exhibition center in Shizuoka. [Link]
• British music and books retailer HMV Group Plc is auctioning its Japanese business, with buyout firms among the bidders. [Link]
• Anti-whaling campaigners held a “national day of action” Saturday in more than 20 coastal communities around Australia to oppose Japanese hunting of humpbacks and other whales that annually migrate to Australian waters. [Link]
• An advisory body of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has recommended forgoing the registration of the remains of the 16th-19th century Iwami silver mine in Shimane Prefecture on the World Heritage cultural site list. [Link]
• A collection of diaries written by a Russian missionary, St Nicholai, who brought Orthodox Christianity to Japan in the 19th century, is to be published for the first time in a Japanese translation. [Link]
• In order to put an end to the stereotype that foreign residents don’t separate their garbage into regular and recyclable waste, the Kawasaki Municipal Government workers’ union has introduced posters showing garbage collection days in seven languages. [Link]
• After a strong backlash from its customers, Japan Post will revive the 580-yen Letax electronic mail service on Monday despite expectations that it will continue bleeding red ink. [Link]
• When ex-porn star Kyoko Teranishi found out her boyfriend had traded her in for her 14-year-old niece, she apparently whipped the teen round the head with a coat hanger for several hours, leaving the girl with serious injuries and landing herself a 500,000 yen fine. [Link]
• Japan is more than just sushi and kimonos, and is eager to prove it; a fellowship program aims to provide European journalists with a deeper and more accurate understanding of modern Japan in general. The program will be held in Tokyo from September 24 to October 6. [Link]
• The Tokyo 2016 Olympic Games Bid Committee is recruiting international staff members. Duties include the translation of documents and materials (Japanese-to-English and English-to-Japanese), liaising and coordinating with overseas organizations, etc. [Link]