Japan News for June 08, 2007

This morning’s Japan-related news links:

• North Korea test-fired a number of short-range missiles into the Sea of Japan, a Korean news agency has quoted a source as saying. [Link]
• Toyota Motor Corp. has announced that it has sold more than 1 million hybrid vehicles since the introduction of the Prius in 1997. [Link]
• Sri Lankan soldiers battled Tamil Tiger rebels in jungles in the island’s restive east on Thursday, the military said, as Japan’s special peace envoy visited camps for war-displaced families in the area. [Link]
• A record high 886 students committed suicide in 2006 as problems at school continued to be a growing source of despair for the nation’s youths, the National Police Agency said Thursday. [Link]
• A moderate earthquake hit Oita Prefecture in western Japan on Thursday evening, following several other tremors in the area from late Wednesday night. [Link]
• Goodwill Group Inc. said Wednesday it will transfer the nursing-care operations of subsidiary Comsn Inc. to another group company, effectively avoiding a health ministry penalty for bilking the insurance system. [Link]
• A huge coral mound thought to be about 300 years old has been found off the coast of Azuchi-Oshima Island near Hirado, Nagasaki Prefecture. [Link]
• The Tokyo metropolitan government will strip Bunkyo Ward office of its designation as an operator of nursing-care facilities because one facility illegally received about 40 million yen from the public insurance program. [Link]
• Despite dwindling numbers from Japan, the Australian tourism industry is being told to stick with Japan, which is its third biggest market. [Link]
• The public and private sectors are set to join hands in an effort to address Japan’s suicide problem by holding a symposium on countermeasures in Tokyo on July 1. [Link]
• The United States raised concern about the transparency of the privatization of Japan Post, the giant postal service that also provides banking and insurance services. [Link]
• The Japanese government will give an award to Stanford University Professor Daniel Okimoto on Thursday in recognition of his work to promote relations between the United States and Japan. [Link]
• More than 150 ornamental products shaped like rats — the Chinese zodiac animal for 2008 — have been put on display at a hall in Tokoname. [Link]
• Time Magazine has lamented the decline of the home-cooked meal in Japan. [Link]
• Harley-Davidson Japan K.K. said Thursday it expects the number of participants in this year’s Fuji Blue Sky Heaven festival in Oyamacho, Shizuoka Prefecture, to surpass last year’s turnout of about 24,000 riders and admirers of Harley-Davidson motorcycles. [Link]
• An industry known for its privacy is flirting with the public, as Japanese love hotel funds look to entice retail investors with attractive returns. [Link]
• Electronics maker NEC said on Wednesday that it will begin selling a new notebook computer adorned with the Hello Kitty character. [Link]
• A bank branch manager who shot video footage up the skirt of a woman on a train has been arrested in Tokyo. [Link]

Afternoon Update:

• Recently released statistics show 2006 saw the biggest rise to date in people in Japan with HIV/AIDS. The report released late last month by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry’s Aids Surveillance Committee found there were 952 people newly diagnosed as HIV-positive and 406 new cases of full-blown AIDS. [Link]
• Welfare minister Hakuo Yanagisawa acknowledged in the Diet on Wednesday that the Social Insurance Agency has not entered 14.3 million pension accounts into its computer system. [Link]
• Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said Wednesday that it has received 54 reports of fires related to electric stoves manufactured by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. [Link]
• Qatar Airways, the national carrier of the energy-rich nation, aims to start flying to Tokyo, having boosted the frequency of its Doha-Osaka flights from zero to daily over a two-year period to March. [Link]
• A variety of baseballs and photos related to the history of Japan-U.S. baseball interchanges were auctioned on Tuesday at New York’s Sotheby’s, with a ball signed by Babe Ruth sold for $ 57,000 attesting to the consistently strong popularity of the U.S. major league slugger. [Link]
• Richard Lloyd Parry reports on Crown Prince Akihito’s operation, and the presence in the hospital of another eminent patient, 64-year old yakuza boss Tadamasa Goto. [Link]
• A middle-aged man who stole food from a supermarket here while cycling from Fukuoka Prefecture to southern Wakayama Prefecture, some 700 kilometers away, has been arrested. [Link]
• Their numbers may still be small but there is growing interest among Japanese men and women in becoming licensed beer tasters. [Link]
• Yoko Ono (74) is to make her first ever appearance on a Japanese music show. She will appear on “Bokura No Ongaku” on the FTV network on June 29. [Link]