Japan News for July 29, 2007

Japan-related news links for today:

Today Is Election Day: Japan’s ruling and opposition parties wrapped up campaigning yesterday for one of the most hotly contested parliamentary elections in years with virtually the same message to the voters — their opponent can’t be trusted to run the government. [Link]

Bad Sign: Embattled Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Liberal Democratic Party appears to have fallen further behind the Democratic Party of Japan in wooing nonaffiliated voters before Sunday’s Upper House election and is also losing women’s support. [Link]

Please Don’t Vote, We’re Trying To Save Money: Citing previous voter turnouts that have failed to reach 60 percent, election commissions in Tokyo and in Osaka, Kanagawa and Saitama prefectures have printed 5 to 15 percent fewer ballots than the actual number of eligible voters in their areas. [Link]

Don’t Come To School Sick: Two hundred and sixty-three schools have been temporarily closed across Japan since April after a measles outbreak, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said. [Link]

Defense Contract Battle: Yamada Corp., a trading firm specializing in defense contracts, and its splinter company Nihon Mirise Corp. have been fighting over the commercial rights on engines to be installed on the Air Self-Defense Force’s next-generation transport airplane, whose introduction the Defense Ministry plans to postpone. [Link]

Damn Trees: Around 23,000 households and businesses in extensive areas of western Gunma Prefecture, including the hot spa town of Kusatsu, suffered a blackout Saturday after a tree fell onto a power cable. [Link]

Russian Rails: Kintetsu World Express Inc. signed a sales agency pact Thursday with a subsidiary of Russian Railways to provide a comprehensive container transport service to major cities throughout western Russia. [Link]

Suicidal Carjacker: Prosecutors in Kyoto have demanded that a man be sentenced to 30 years in jail after he carjacked a woman and intentionally crashed her vehicle in an attempt at suicide, resulting in her death. [Link]

Artificial Womb: Scientists in Japan have created a “womb” for incubating artificially fertilized eggs in their earliest days, helping them grow nearly as fast as they would in the uterus. [Link]

Expensive Glasses: An online auction of John Lennon’s sunglasses frames, which he gave to his Japanese translator at the end of the Beatles’ controversial concerts in Tokyo, is attracting great interest, and organizers hope they fetch as much as $ 2 million. [Link]

Cash Trash: A bag containing 3 million yen has been found in amongst items collected by a recycling company in Hyogo Prefecture. [Link]

Lucky Apartment: A total of 1.3 million yen has been found stuffed into the mailboxes at a Tokyo apartment complex. [Link]