The former CEO of Japan's disgraced Olympus Corp, Briton Michael Woodford, returned to Japan on Thursday where he said he will decide the future of his bid to return to his old post.
Woodford, who was fired as chief executive in October and blew the whistle on a $1.7 billion accounting scandal, faces long odds in his battle with current management over future leadership of the Japanese maker of medical devices and cameras.
"There are several people I want to see to establish the way forward," Woodford said in footage carried by TV Tokyo as he arrived at the capital's Narita Airport.
Asked whether he would withdraw his bid to return to Olympus' top job, he said: "At the moment, I have made no decisions at all, I need to talk to many people. I will tell everyone tomorrow." (Reuters)
Woodford in Japan to decide on bid to run Olympus
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Two female Taiwanese students murdered in Japan
Two female Taiwanese students were killed in the dormitory of a Japanese language school in Tokyo Thursday, according to Japanese police.
The two students were identified as 25-year-old Chu Li-chieh from Nantou County and 23-year-old Lin Chi-ying from Taichung, both in central Taiwan.
The two women were found covered in blood in the dormitory of the Intercultural Institute of Japan at around 10 a.m. (Taipei time). One of them died at the scene and the other died a short time later in hospital. Both had sustained fatal injuries to their necks.
(focustaiwan.tw)
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32-year-old homeless man found dead outside Japanese arcade
January is always cold in Japan's Mie Prefecture. This January is no different. For many, it's a matter or turning on the heater. For the homeless, it's a matter of survival.
Recently making the rounds on 2ch is the story of a 32-year-old man discovered outside a Matsusaka City game center in Mie Prefecture. The body of the man, Noboru Tatematsu, was found in a seated postion next to the game center. According to authorities, Tatematsu froze to death.
Tatematsu originally hailed from Nagoya, but at the time of his death, he was unemployed and did not have a fixed address.
Japan does have a large homeless population-something that visitors are surprised to discover. South Osaka and parts of Tokyo, for example, is populated with cardboard and blue-tarp covered shanty towns. (Kotaku)
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Nikkei retreats from 3-wk high as euro worries nag
Japan's Nikkei stock average
pulled back on Thursday from a three-week closing high, weighed
down by concerns that the euro zone debt crisis would keep the
single currency weak against the yen and hurt Japanese
exporters.
"The strong yen against the euro is not seen as a temporary,
short-term problem and it is pressuring the market," said Yutaka
Miura, a senior technical analyst at Mizuho Securities.
"The focus this year is whether Europe's debt problems will
settle and when those problems will begin to impact the United
States. There are no other themes this year except Europe.
Market participants are watching how much longer the yen will
continue to rise against the euro and the dollar."
The euro was trading just above 99 yen on
Thursday, near an 11-year low.
(Reuters)
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Condemned cultist grilled on Hirata
Police have questioned condemned Aum Shinrikyo killer Yoshihiro Inoue as part of their investigation into fugitive cultist Makoto Hirata, who turned himself in on New Year's Eve after almost 17 years on the run, investigative sources said Thursday.
Inoue, 42, was questioned on a voluntary basis as police look into the alleged role played by Hirata, 46, in the 1995 abduction-slaying of a Tokyo notary.
Hirata was quoted by the sources as telling the police that Inoue had him drive a lookout car during the abduction of notary clerk Kiyoshi Kariya, 68. He also told his lawyer he did not know about the abduction plan. (Japan Times)
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Heavy snow plasters Sea of Japan
A strong wintry pressure pattern caused heavy snowfall Thursday on the Sea of Japan coast, especially in the Hokuriku region.
The Meteorological Agency issued advisories for traffic disruptions and possible avalanches.
Some areas in Aomori, Niigata and Tottori prefectures had more than 2 meters of snow as of 9 a.m., 1.5 to 3.3 times the average. Other mountainous regions in eastern and central Japan recorded more than 50 cm of snow in the 24 hours through Thursday morning. (Japan Times)
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Tokyo exodus nuke report's worst scenario
Areas as far as 170 km away from the Fukushima nuclear plant faced the potential risk of being declared permanent evacuation zones, according to a worst-case scenario drawn up at the height of the crisis by the chief of the Japan Atomic Energy Commission.
The report, compiled March 25 at the request of then Prime Minister Naoto Kan, also said areas 250 km away - including central Tokyo - could have been tainted by radiation and require the government to assist those electing to voluntarily "migrate" away from the area.
The alarming 20-page report was written up by commission Chairman Shunsuke Kondo. The Japan Times obtained a copy of the report, the outline of which was first reported last month by the Mainichi Shimbun, from the Cabinet Office using the information disclosure law.
(Mainichi)
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Olympics: Japan will aim for 15 golds: Takeda
Japan will target 15 gold medals at this summer's London Olympics, Japanese Olympic Committee President Tsunekazu Takeda said on Thursday.
In his first address of the year to the JOC and the Japan Sports Association, Takeda said it is important for Japan to haul in the gold in London to improve domestic support for Tokyo's bid to host the 2020 Summer Games.
At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Japan won nine gold medals.
"We will aim for a minimum of 15 gold medals," Takeda said. "It's crucial for us to do well in London so we can drive up public support for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic bid." (Japan Times)
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Japan steps up Asia diplomacy
Despite numerous domestic challenges, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda has his eyes on Japan's strategic future. And it's not all about China.
Unlike many of us, Japan's premier didn't sit back and take it easy at the end of last year. Instead, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda took to the road to visit two of Asia's ascending powers. He spent Christmas in Beijing, after a planned visit for earlier in December was unexpectedly postponed by China's leaders. But it was his trip to New Delhi on December 27-28 that really energized Tokyo's diplomatic agenda.
Noda's willingness to rearrange his schedule to accommodate China's desire to change the summit dates reflects an awareness of the delicacy of the moment for Beijing. (The Diplomat)
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Whalers, activists unite in calls for patrol ship
It is not often Japan's whalers agree with their bitter enemies, the anti-whaling activists of Sea Shepherd, but in this case they do.
With Australia's Southern Ocean patrol ship, Ocean Protector, languishing in Fremantle, both sides of the whaling argument have called for the big red ship to monitor the conflict, which broke out again in Antarctic waters this week.
While the two sides were steaming east off the Australian Antarctic Territory yesterday, Ocean Protector was moored in Fremantle, alongside the Sea Shepherd ship Steve Irwin, which had tied up to refuel.
According to the Fremantle Port Authority, the 8300-tonne Ocean Protector arrived from Darwin and was due to leave yesterday for 'sea duties'. The Steve Irwin, after escorting the storm-damaged Brigitte Bardot to safety, was preparing to head for the Antarctic, hoping to avoid the whalers' security ship, Shonan Maru No. 2.
(The Age)
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Yakuza gangs face fight for survival as Japan cracks down on organised crime
After decades of tacit acceptance, Japan's yakuza gangs are facing their biggest challenge: not from the police, but from ordinary citizens who are under pressure to shun the mob or be named and shamed.
Tokyo recently became the last of Japan's 47 prefectures to introduce local laws aimed at depriving crime syndicates of income by targeting firms that knowingly do business with them. Under the nationwide ordinances, firms that help the yakuza earn money will be warned, and their names made public if they refuse to sever their ties. Repeat offenders face fines of up to 500,000 yen (£4,200) and company officials can face jail terms of up to a year.
The idea, say law enforcement officials, is to shame businesses into turning their backs on the mob. "It is going to be more difficult for the yakuza to collect funds," said Akihiko Shiba, a former police superintendent who is now a lawyer specialising in corporate compliance. "Police once concentrated on the gangs themselves, but the new approach is clamping down on those who help the gangs make money."
The authorities' fight against organised crime took another step forward on Thursday when the national police agency unveiled a new bill enabling officers to step up surveillance of the most violent gangs and take pre-emptive measures if necessary. (guardian.co.uk)
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Poor employment conditions push Japan's young to the edge
"I finally started working," said "Daisuke" (not his real name), 31, to his friends and former classmates at last year's high school class reunion. Listening to other people talk about their work, when he was asked about his own recent affairs, he couldn't help but lie.
Daisuke lives in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, on his own. Since he was fired from his last company, where he worked as a temporary employee, he has spent the last two years unable to secure a stable job. Currently, he lives off welfare assistance.
Daisuke graduated from a private high school in Saitama Prefecture in 1999. Coming from a financially stricken family, he could not afford to attend college. Instead, he began working part time at a restaurant and a convenience store five days a week. At times, he worked for some 14 hours a day. Yet, all he could make was no more than about 130,000 yen a month. (Mainichi)
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Woodford gives up fight to head Olympus, will sue
The former Olympus Corp. CEO who blew the whistle on dubious spending at the Japanese camera and medical equipment maker said Friday he is giving up his fight to regain the presidency and plans to sue the company.
Michael Woodford said he decided to drop his bid when he realized he didn't have the support of Japanese instituational investors, whom he blamed for tacitly allowing the current board to stay on despite acknowledging a massive cover-up.
"Despite one of the biggest scandals in history, Japanese institutional investors have not spoken one single word of criticism, in complete and utter contrast to overseas shareholders who are demanding accountability from directors," Woodford told a news conference at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo. (AP)
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Three 'North Koreans' found off Japan
Japan's coastguard says it has found three people adrift in a small boat off the country's west coast with media reporting they are from North Korea but are not defectors.
"We confirmed three people were on board," a spokesman at the Japan Coast Guard said, adding their vessel was drifting about one kilometre off the western Japanese island of Oki, northwest of the main island of Honshu.
Korean script was visible on the small wooden boat, the official said, while noting the agency had not confirmed where the three had come from. No further details were available immediately.
Public broadcaster NHK reported they were all males and quoted an official as saying they had come from North Korea. (The Australian)
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Oil-yielding algae show promise as domestic, export energy trove
Not many people imagine that resource-poor Japan might one day become an oil exporter. But someone who does is Makoto Watanabe, a leading expert in research on producing oil from microscopic algae.
Research into creating biofuel from so-called microalgae may well grow more important as Japan looks for other energy sources to help reduce the reliance on nuclear power in light of the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 power plant.
"If we can develop technology that taps the potential of microalgae to the fullest extent, Japan may become a country that can export oil," the 63-year-old professor at the University of Tsukuba in Ibaraki Prefecture said at his lab. (Japan Times)
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Ideas on female royalty solicited
The government will begin interviewing experts in various fields from February on the issue of whether female members of the Imperial family should be allowed to create their own branches of the family so they can retain their royal status after marriage, Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said Friday.
Following the hearings with experts in fields such as the Imperial institution, religion and history, the Cabinet Secretariat will draft a possible amendment to the Imperial Household Law, he said. (Japan Times)
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Guards who hosed inmate's rectum seek retrial
Two Nagoya Prison guards who were convicted of causing an inmate's death in 2001 by spraying a firehose into his rectum filed for a retrial Friday against their verdicts, which drew suspended sentences, claiming they have new evidence, their lawyers said Friday.
Former guards Mikio Otomaru, 55, and Masahiro Takami, 51, will file the plea with the Nagoya High Court possibly Wednesday, the lawyers said.
The two were convicted of spraying water into the inmate's rectum in December 2001. The man suffered severe injuries to his rectum and died of bacterial shock shortly afterward, the Nagoya High Court ruled in 2008. The Supreme Court upheld the lower court's ruling last June, and the pair were formally fired. (Japan Times)
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Recovery predicted for April / Business leaders confident, but press for reforms, sales tax hike
The economy will begin recovering in April thanks to rising demand for reconstruction projects in areas devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake, leaders of the nation's three major business organizations have predicted.
At the same time, they expressed anxiety about the European fiscal crises and the sharp appreciation of the yen, and called on the government to quickly implement integrated reform of the social security and taxation systems, including a consumption tax hike.
The leaders of the three organizations --the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren), the Japan Association of Corporate Executives (Keizai Doyukai) and the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI)--presented their opinions about the economy this year at a joint press conference. (Yomiuri)
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Sumo: Hatsu Basho - time for domestic rekishi to shine
For around a decade much has been made of the lack of domestic born talent in professional sumo. No Japanese sekitori has won a yusho now for six full years - the last local winner being then ozeki Tochiazuma back in January of 2006.
And, in truth, when push comes to shove, despite a few "oh so nearly" one-offs, no local lad has really come close in the years since. In fact, of the 32 tournament winners' portraits that currently hang in the rafters at the Ryogoku Kokugikan, just one portraying a Japanese fighter remains, that of the aforementioned Tochiazuma. This portrait will be removed in a few days time when, following the continuous updating of the images, the winner of last year's September and November tourneys will replace the two oldest still in place. This in effect means another pair of these huge 80 kg images of Yokozuna Hakuho are set to appear just before the makunouchi action on Day 1, Jan. 8. (Japan Times)
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Japan's coast guard rescues three drifting in boat with one dead
Japan's Coast Guard said it rescued three men adrift in a boat that had one dead body aboard off Okinoshima Island in western Japan.
Survivors told coast guard officials they had been fishing when their craft's engine failed and they were set adrift, the Coast Guard said in a faxed statement Friday. The vessel had Hangul, or Korean script, on it and the coast guard was still investigating the incident, according to the statement.
(Vancouver Sun)
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