Japan News for June 12, 2007

This morning’s Japan-related news links:

• Japanese elementary school student attendance will be taken at school gates with IC tags embedded in their nameplates, according to an education ministry projection Monday of life in 2015. [Link]
• Kim Jong-Il’s health has reportedly deteriorated to the point where he cannot walk more than 30 yards without having to sit down, or at least some sources say so. [Link]
• U.S. government officials have met Japanese Diet members requesting revisions to Japan’s law against child prostitution and child pornography to make mere possession of child pornography a crime. [Link]
• Mongolian yokozuna Asashoryu gained a measure of revenge by beating compatriot and fellow grand champion Hakuho to win the Honolulu Mayor’s Cup in an exhibition tour of Hawaii on Sunday. [Link]
• A man in Osaka has been arrested for dumping his wife’s body in a refrigerator that had been abandoned on the rooftop of an apartment complex where they lived. [Link]
• New Miss Universe Riyo Mori said Monday she had confidence in herself and knew she could win the title, unlike conventional Japanese women who are often seen as timid. [Link]
• Japan’s first case of wild frogs infected with a deadly fungus that has been wiping out frogs around the world has been confirmed, just months after the fungus was detected in captive frogs imported from abroad, a team of scientists announced at a weekend conference. [Link]
• Goodwill Group Inc. Chairman Masahiro Origuchi said he will sell nursing-care provider Comsn Inc. to an outside company, but he won’t resign for the uproar caused by the original plan for the scandal-ridden subsidiary [Link]
• The eldest son of former Finance Minister Masayoshi Takemura was handed a suspended prison sentence Monday after being convicted of growing and possessing cannabis. [Link]
• The skipper of a Maritime Self-Defense Force submarine that collided with a tanker off Miyazaki Prefecture last year admitted his responsibility for the accident at a governmental maritime accident inquiry session Monday. [Link]
• Opponents of capital punishment said on Monday Japan would see more death sentences imposed after legislation is enacted giving victims and their relatives a bigger say in court and a new system of lay judges is introduced. [Link]
• Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) President Ichiro Ozawa appeared in a news conference in Kagoshima with Yoshiro Yokomine, the father of profession golfer Sakura Yokomine, on Monday, announcing that the party will field the golfer’s father as an official candidate. [Link]
• An ambitious new nonprofit is on the verge of launching a new top-level domain for the Asia-Pacific region: “.asia” domains. [Link]
• Motohiro Shimamura, a curator at the Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Cultural History,has been arrested for molesting a woman in Yokohama over the weekend. [Link]
• Self-styled 21st century pop queen Hamasaki Ayumi finished off her ･1.8-billion, 16-show Asian tour on Sunday, by cruxifying herself. [Link]
• Japan, acknowledges Shukan Bunshun, has a well-earned reputation as a “Rorikon Taikoku” (a country with a world-class Lolita complex). [Link]

Afternoon Update:

• Kuniya Akagi, who was arrested last week on suspicion of Passport Law violations, was a mysterious figure until Pyongyang revealed details about him during Japan-North Korea working-level talks in November 2004. Tracing Akagi’s history suggests he was connected to abductions of Japanese that took place in Europe. [Link]
• Pledging to devote herself to resolving the abduction issue, Kyoko Nakayama, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s special adviser on the long-standing problem, formally announced Monday she will run as a Liberal Democratic Party candidate in next month’s House of Councilors election. [Link]
• The majority of members of a government panel agreed Monday the constitutional interpretation should be revised to enable Japanese maritime forces to defend U.S. military vessels by exercising the currently barred right to collective self-defense. [Link]
• The beginning of the rainy season is expected to come more than a week later than usual in most areas of Japan as the seasonal rain front has remained in the country’s south, the Japan Meteorological Agency said Monday. [Link]
• Japan’s Kyodo News Agency sent its largest ever delegation to visit China on Monday as part of the two countries’ joint efforts to strengthen media exchanges. [Link]
• The site of the headquarters of the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryun) has been sold to an investment company led by a former head of the Public Security Intelligence Agency, it has been learned. [Link]
• China’s ambassador to Japan urged on Monday that the two Asian giants cooperate on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. [Link]
• The number of foreign visitors to Japan came to 7.33 million last year, of whom 71.6 percent or 5.25 million were from other Asian countries such as China and South Korea. [Link]
• A government panel investigating the 2005 fatal derailment of a West Japan Railway Co train in Amagasaki, Hyogo Prefecture, plans to seek improvement of the train operator’s retraining programs for employees who make operational errors, seeing them as a factor behind the accident that killed 107 people. [Link]
• An unemployed man has been arrested for manufacturing an explosive often used by international terrorists, Tokyo police said. [Link]
• A 59-year-old man who was arrested Sunday on suspicion of abandoning his wife’s body in a refrigerator on the roof of their apartment building in Moriguchi, Osaka Prefecture, has said he had no money to pay for her funeral. [Link]
• A divorced woman may move to Japan with her daughter over the wishes of the child’s father, even though he fears Japanese law won’t allow him to enforce visitation orders, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled Monday. [Link]
• The Financial Services Agency on Monday ordered the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ to improve its business practices, in view of numerous problems with its investment trust business and foreign operations. [Link]
• Japan and Switzerland have determined that the Japanese translator of the global bestselling Harry Potter series, Yuko Matsuoka, effectively resided in Japan through 2005, upholding claims by the Japanese tax authorities over her failure to declare taxable income in the three years up to 2004. [Link]
• Amazon Japan says it will introduce a new service – unlimited express shipping for an annual fee of 9,300 yen. [Link]
• A 15-year-old Tokyo high school student was seriously injured in the head by an arrow that a teacher shot during club activities at the school. [Link]
• A survey has found which commercial insecticide Japanese use the most to kill cockroaches. [Link]
• Natsuko Gal・Sone attended an event in which a Guinness world record was set, but the occasion was not an eating contest. She was present at the unveiling of the world痴 largest ground advertisement. [Link]