Japan News for June 24, 2007
Today’s Japan-related news links:
Dubya Is Coming: President George W. Bush plans to visit Japan in early September for a summit with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. [Link]
Okinawa Memorial: Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited Okinawa on Saturday to commemorate a bloody World War Two battle, the day after local lawmakers blasted official plans to alter school textbook accounts of wartime suicides. [Link]
Support, Please: Visiting Afghan Vice President Karim Khalili called for broad Japanese support Friday to help rebuild the war-torn country, and hints that a Self-Defense Forces dispatch could be one option. [Link]
Famous Ex-Deliquient Goes LDP: The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) decided Saturday to field Hiroyuki Yoshiie — a former child delinquent, who later became a teacher at his former high school — in the upcoming House of Councillors election [Link]
Pollution Settlement: The Tokyo High Court proposed Friday that seven automakers pay 1.2 billion yen to hundreds of asthma patients to settle a decade-long court battle over air pollution caused by emissions from diesel-powered motor vehicles in Tokyo. [Link]
Corrupt Colonel: A Ground Self-Defense Force (GSDF) colonel under arrest for accepting bribes from a supplier at one point owed consumer credit companies millions of yen in gambling debts. [Link]
Russian Thieves: Two Russian tourists, suspected of stealing and smuggling more than 100 cars in Japan, have been detained by police in the city of Yokohama. [Link]
Textbook Talks: Japanese and South Korean historians on Saturday began a second round of joint history studies, with a focus on bridging the gaps in their countries’ textbooks. [Link]
Earthquake Near Hokkaido: A moderate earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.1 struck northern Japan Saturday morning, but there was no threat of a tsunami. [Link]
Unfair Advantage: A Keio University law school professor, in charge of setting examination papers for the bar exam in May and grading them, lectured his students beforehand on focal legal issues, which are close to actual questions on the exam. [Link]
Teen Train Suicides: Two 15-year-old girls from Tokyo died Wednesday night in an apparent suicide when they were hit by a train in Fukuoka. [Link]
Killed In Manila: A 34-year-old Japanese tourist on a motorcycle was shot dead in Manila early Saturday. [Link]
Pedo Arrested: A Gunma Prefecture man who lured a little girl into an abandoned home so he could molest her has been arrested. [Link]
Grass Fire: An elderly couple was burned to death after a fire they set to burn off dead grass on a rice field in Iwate Prefecture got out of control. [Link]
Ivy Arsonist: Prosecutors have indicted a man for property damage after he set fire to ivy covering the wall of the Hanshin Koshien Stadium. [Link]
Not The Best Place To Nap: A man died in a hit-and-run accident while sleeping on a road in western Tokyo early on Saturday. [Link]
The Korean Wave Is Dead: Ampontan reports on how a South Korean newspaper clings to the nationalist dream of the continuation of the “Hallyu Boom” despite the obvious truth that the popularity of Korean drama/films has plummeted in Japan. [Link]
