Japan-related news links for today:

Abe Under Fire: The opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) will demand Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s resignation over the ruling coalition’s crushing defeat in the House of Councillors election on Sunday. [Link]

Drastic Shuffling: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is set to make a drastic Cabinet reshuffle in September following the ruling coalition’s crushing defeat in Sunday’s House of Councillors election, ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) officials said Monday. [Link]

Religious Party Leader On Abe: Kazuo Kitagawa, secretary-general of Komeito, the Liberal Democratic Party’s (LDP) coalition partner, suggested on Sunday that voters haven’t rejected LDP policy and there was no need for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to resign, despite the LDP’s crushing defeat in the House of Councillors election. [Link]

Rain Stops Train: Heavy rain pounded Shizuoka Prefecture and surrounding areas on Monday as an area of cold air moved over Japan’s main island of Honshu, bringing record rainfall to the Shizuoka Prefecture city of Shimada and halting bullet train services. [Link]

A-Bomb Victims Win: The Kumamoto District Court on Monday scrapped the government’s rejection of applications by 19 people seeking registration as atomic bomb sickness sufferers, the government’s sixth loss in a series of similar lawsuits. [Link]

Reporting Blunder: Kagoshima Television Station Co. (KTS), a station affiliated with Fuji Television Network, has apologized for mistakenly announcing that Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) candidate Inao Minayoshi was set to win a seat in Sunday’s House of Councillors election. [Link]

Anti-War Novelist Dies: Famous novelist Makoto Oda, who organized a major campaign against the Vietnam War, died of stomach cancer at a hospital in Tokyo on Sunday. [Link]

Skyscrapers Galore: Tokyo has come in at 7th place in ranking of the world’s top 25 cities with skyscrapers published by the German magazine Spiegel. [Link]

America Bound: Defense Minister Yuriko Koike will visit the United States in early August to meet with U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. [Link]

Violators: Police had arrested 25 people across the country before the close of voting for the House of Councillors election on Sunday evening in connection with 25 cases of suspected violations of the public election law. [Link]

Net Phone Service: Softbank Corp will start an Internet telephone service using the fiber-optic line networks of other carriers in August. [Link]

Embarassed: Two in five Japanese find their own face embarrassing, according to a recent survey by Cross Marketing Inc. [Link]

Drunken Idiot: A drunk man was arrested on suspicion of pulling an emergency door release handle in a Shinkansen train while it was running through a tunnel in Kobe on Saturday afternoon, forcing the driver to apply the emergency brakes and causing the train to stop for about 10 minutes. [Link]

Some Fun: A Ministry of Justice worker who groped a 23-year-old woman after showing her a 10,000-yen note, saying, “Let’s go and have some fun,” has been arrested. [Link]

Ball-Hugging: Japan’s Defense Ministry has unveiled its new official logo (it’s strange). [Link]