This morning’s Japan-related news links:

• Twenty-eight percent of Japanese voters would pick the ruling Liberal Democratic Party or its candidates under the proportional representation system if the Upper House election were held now, an Asahi Shimbun survey showed. [Link]
• Yokozuna hopeful Hakuho kept his eyes firmly on the prize as the Mongolian ozeki posted a bread-and-butter fourth win against Kakizoe at the Summer Grand Sumo Tournament on Wednesday. [Link]
• A 17-year-old boy suspected of decapitating his mother is also believed to have cut off her right arm, painted it white and placed it in a flower pot. [Link]
• Households with less than 5 million yen in annual income surpassed 50 percent in 2006 — for the first time since 1981, a survey conducted by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has suggested. [Link]
• The Wakayama prefectural board of education has been appraising how well teachers and students sing the “Kimigayo” national anthem at school ceremonies since April 1999, it has been revealed. [Link]
• A woman who won a 2004 damage suit at the Supreme Court over Minamata disease filed a lawsuit Wednesday demanding that the state revise its criteria for recognizing the disease’s sufferers. [Link]
• Over 80 percent of Kochi Medical School patients who were diagnosed as having dementia between 1995 and 2005 and were advised to stop driving ignored the instructions and continued driving, a survey has found. [Link]
• The Foreign Ministry is inviting former employees at private enterprises and others with various experience to apply for positions as “consular senior volunteers” to improve services for Japanese tourists and residents at embassies and consulates overseas. [Link]
• A manager and an employee of a steak restaurant in the Minami entertainment district of Chuo Ward, Osaka, have been arrested on suspicion of abducting, raping and robbing a female customer in her 20s. [Link]
• A record 205 individuals qualified for workers’ accident compensation insurance in fiscal 2006 after being diagnosed with depression and other psychological disorders brought about by work-related stress, according to Japan’s health ministry. [Link]

Afternoon Update:

• A high school boy in Fukushima Prefecture who murdered his mother and severed her head said he did it to prove that he could kill in war. [Link]
• Justice Minister Jinen Nagase proposed that Japan move to accept unskilled foreign workers, a “personal idea” that has startled bureaucrats and complicated debate on reforming a problem-ridden trainee-intern program. [Link]
• Prime Minister Shinzo Abe reaffirmed his intention to continue reforms in areas such as education and the economy on Wednesday during his first parliamentary debate in half a year with main opposition Democratic Party of Japan President Ichiro Ozawa. [Link]
• A boy who was abandoned at a controversial drop-off point at a hospital in Kumamoto Prefecture said that his father told him to get in the post to play hide-and-seek. [Link]
• Only about 9 percent of bodies of people who died of unnatural causes unknown reasons handled by Japan’s police in 2005 underwent autopsies, with the remaining 134,905 bodies only examined by sight and noninvasive means. [Link]
• A couple under arrest for dumping the body of the wife’s infant son has told investigators that the victim died after they placed him in the helmet container under the seat. [Link]
• Tokyo was one of 16 cities selected Wednesday by former U.S. President Bill Clinton through his foundation’s climate initiative to work with the world’s largest energy service companies and banks in a landmark program to reduce energy consumption in existing buildings. [Link]
• An assistant police inspector in Saitama Prefecture faces charges for living with a South Korean woman while knowing that she was illegally staying in Japan. [Link]
• A play depicting the thoughts and fears of both a bone marrow donor and recipient will open Friday at Park Tower Hall in Shinjuku Ward, Tokyo. [Link]
• A health ministry study has shown that roughly 40% of Japanese elementary and junior high school students have breakfast without their parents. [Link]
• The number of Japanese people who committed suicide or tried to commit suicide after becoming mentally ill due to overwork came to a record 66 in fiscal 2006, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has revealed. [Link]
• The parents of murdered English teacher Lindsay Ann Hawker appeared on Japanese TV this morning, calling on the nation to find their daughter’s killer. [Link]