Japan News for July 10, 2007
Japan-related news links for today:
Japanese Comfort Women: The Japan Times is running an article about the memoir of a Japanese comfort woman, who was sold into prostitution by her father during World War II. [Link]
Forget What I Said Earlier: The father of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Norihiko Akagi has retracted his denial that his home was used as a political office by his son. [Link]
Foreign Food Crackdown: The number of imported food products banned for breaking limits on agricultural chemical content has risen more than eightfold since June 2006, after the Japanese government toughened up regulations with the “positive list” system in May last year. [Link]
4% Lead: The Democratic Party of Japan maintained its lead as the party most voters would pick if the Upper House election were held now, an Asahi Shimbun survey showed. [Link]
Settlement: Japanese orphans left behind in China in the closing days of World War II and their lawyers formally decided Sunday that they would accept a final proposal on new livelihood support measures made by the ruling parties’ project team. [Link]
Agent Orange In Japan: The U.S. Board of Veterans’ Appeals found in 1998 that the hazardous chemical defoliant Agent Orange was most likely used in Okinawa, and ruled in favor of a former U.S. serviceman who sought compensation for prostate cancer he blamed on his work there in the early 1960s, according to a board ruling uncovered by the Japanese press. [Link]
One Year: Police on Saturday night found the remains of a baby inside a plastic bag in a car that had been left in the parking lot of a car dealership in Yokohama for a year. [Link]
Megumi Yokota Link: A former North Korean spy, who has been arrested in Seoul for drug trafficking, is likely to be An Myong Jin, who has testified that he saw Japanese abduction victim Megumi Yokota at Pyongyang’s spy training school. [Link]
Council Member Arrested: A council member in Nagareyama, Chiba Prefecture, was arrested Sunday for taking a 14-year-old girl to a hotel and sexually assaulting her. [Link]
Token: Shiseido Co, Japan’s largest cosmetic maker, aims to more than double the ratio of female managers to 30% by 2013 from the current level, company officials say. [Link]
Emperor Invited: A senior official of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games indicated hope Monday that Japan’s Emperor Akihito will attend the opening ceremony. [Link]
US Navy Port Calls: The number of Japanese port calls by U.S. warships has been sharply on the increase ・to 25 calls at 19 ports in 2006 from 11 calls at nine ports in 2002 [Link]
Whoops! A railway traffic controller allowed a bullet train to hurtle past two track maintenance workers at about 285 kilometers per hour after mistakenly canceling a speed restriction, it emerged Monday. [Link]
High School Pimp: A high school boy has been arrested in Saitama Prefecture for forcing three teenage girls into prostitution. [Link]
Rampant Sexual Harassment: An increasing number of cases of teachers sexually harassing students has raised concern at schools nationwide, according to the Yomiuri Shinbun. [Link]
