Japan News for May 21, 2007

This morning’s Japan-related news links:

• Mongolian ozeki Hakuho overpowered Kisenosato to maintain his share of the lead with an undefeated record at the Summer Grand Sumo Tournament on Sunday. [Link]
• Japan’s second largest lottery prize of 563 million yen was logged Sunday in a soccer pool, the National Agency for the Advancement of Sports and Health said. [Link]
• More than 40 percent of crime victims in Japan say they felt isolated and had to cope with their experience without any mental or financial support from anyone, according to a government survey published on Sunday. [Link]
• A bearer was arrested Sunday for riding on a mikoshi portable shrine at Asakusa Shrine, despite an organizers’ ban on such behavior, on the last day of the three-day Sanja matsuri festival held in Asakusa, Tokyo. [Link]
• An egg laid by artificially-bred oriental white storks that were released into the wild in 2006 has hatched naturally, a breeding farm in Hyogo Prefecture said Sunday. In 43 years, it is the first confirmed hatching of an egg laid naturally by storks living in the wild. [Link]
• Over the past 10 years, there were at least 13 cases in which unnatural deaths were found to be murders after the victims’ bodies were cremated, following visual examinations by police that determined the deaths were caused by natural causes, according to the findings of a Yomiuri Shimbun survey. [Link]
• Malaysian Prime Minister Abudullah Ahmad Badawi will pay a working visit to Japan on May 21- 25, the Malaysian Foreign Ministry said Sunday. [Link]
• A man was run over and killed by a truck after he tried to stop it from being stolen in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Prefecture, early Sunday. [Link]
• A water pipe burst in central Okayama on Sunday, causing a drop in water pressure and murky water at 72,000 households in and around the area. [Link]
• The shooting death of 23-year-old riot police officer Kazuho Hayashi drew sympathy in the local community Sunday, prompting many to offer flowers on a stand that police had specially set up near the incident site in Aichi. [Link]
• Construction and Transport Minister Tetsuzo Fuyushiba and Hiroko Ota, state minister in charge of economic and fiscal policy, are at loggerheads over whether the government should allow taxi fares to rise in a Tokyo fare zone. [Link]
• Takeshi Kitano was one of 35 top filmmakers from across the globe who handed the Cannes film festival a joint 60th birthday present Sunday, a collective work on cinema. [Link]
• High school student Ryo Ishikawa put his name in the history books in Japanese golf Sunday by becoming the youngest winner on the men’s professional tour at the Munsingwear Open KSB Cup. [Link]
• A Kyoto-based tofu maker is poised to make inroads into the U.S. market on the back of the strong popularity of its products in Japan and health-conscious American consumers. [Link]
• A selection of strange Japanese sweets and desserts, including such concoctions as steamed bean-jam buns on boiled rice with tea, is drawing visitors to an exhibition in Tokyo. [Link]

Afternoon Update:

• A police negotiator ignored phone calls from a former gangster who was holed up at his home here during a 29-hour standoff that ended on Friday night in Aichi, after deeming he was a coward and would surrender, it has been revealed. [Link]
• Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko will leave Japan on Monday for a 10-day European tour to Sweden, the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and Britain. [Link]
• Four teenagers in Mie Prefecture have been arrested for cutting off an 18-year-old girl’s finger after assaulting her. [Link]
• South Korea’s trade deficit with Japan reached US$10.06 billion in the first four months of this year, compared with $8.35 billion during the same period of 2006, a trade body said Monday. [Link]
• A moderate earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.1 struck off northwestern Japan early Monday, but there was no danger of tsunami. [Link]
• The House of Councillors on Monday will start deliberating a set of three education reform bills that were passed last week by the lower house. [Link]
• In the run-up to the Upper House election in July, the ruling and main opposition parties have the agricultural vote firmly in their sights–and they are resorting to pork-barrel policies to win favor. [Link]
• Japanese are getting reacquainted with the kimono, helped by a host of Web sites that are succeeding where pushy sales people and kimono schools have failed. [Link]