A Japanese woman speedway rider whose glamourous presence in the pit lane revitalised the sport has been killed in a high-speed accident just months after her debut, Auto Race's official website said. Hiromi Sakai, 27, only took part in her first full Auto Race in July, when she and her
19-year-old colleague Maya Sato became the first women to compete in the sport for more than 40 years.
Auto Race, or Oto Resu, is a Japanese version of speedway raced on tarmac rather than dirt, using powerful, stripped-down machines with no brakes and handlebars specially modified to make cornering easier.
Gambling is allowed and top riders can make millions of dollars a year. (chicagotribune.com)
Motor racing: Japan woman speedway racer killed in crash
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Tennis: 'I might play until I'm 50!' - Japan's Date-Krumm
Japan's Kimiko
Date-Krumm, at 41 the oldest player at the Australian Open, said
she might continue playing until 50 after being bundled out of
the year's first grand slam on Monday.
The former world number four became the second oldest player
to compete in the Australian Open women's singles in the Open
era behind Beverly Rae, who was 44 when she played in 1974.
While Date-Krumm's time was fleeting, overpowered in the
first round 6-3 6-2 by Greece's Eleni Daniilidou, it had been
worth it, she told Reuters on Monday. (chicagotribune.com)
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Japan police probe find of body with severed genitals
Tokyo police were investigating Monday after finding the body of a naked man whose genitals had been sliced off with a kitchen knife, Japanese media reported.
The corpse of the 49-year-old man, who had been stabbed several times in the chest and stomach, was found lying on a bed in an apartment in the west of the city, NHK reported.
The man's genitals were discovered under the bed and a blood-covered knife was also found in the room, Jiji Press said, citing police sources.
A spokeswoman for Tokyo Metropolitan Police confirmed to AFP that officers were investigating an unnatural death. (Channel NewsAsia)
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Japan key orders jump; policymakers fret over euro
Japan's key gauge of corporate capital spending rose at its fastest pace in nearly four years in November, thanks partly to post-quake rebuilding demand, but policymakers were kept on guard over the potential fallout from the euro zone debt crisis.
Policy chiefs reiterated their concerns about Europe's sovereign debt crisis as Asian share prices and the euro fell on Monday after Standard & Poor's mass downgrade of euro zone countries late last week.
Finance Minister Jun Azumi said he is worried about the euro's fall as the common currency hit a fresh 11-year low of 97.04 yen at one point on trading platform EBS. (Reuters)
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Chinese attacker of Japanese Embassy reveals eccentricities
A Chinese man detained after throwing firebombs at Japan's Embassy in Seoul as a protest over Tokyo's wartime sexual enslavement of Asian women has shown eccentric behavior such as singing Korea's national anthem and cursing Japan in fluent Korean, officials said Monday.
The 38-year-old man, surnamed Liu, was arrested last week after he hurled four hand-made firebombs at the wall of the Japanese Embassy in downtown Seoul. No property damage or human injuries were reported following the attack, but the assault left minor scorch marks on the embassy wall.
The Chinese man from Guangzhou, who came to South Korea on a tourist visa, said he launched the attack because "Japan holds an irresponsible attitude toward the sex slavery issue."
(Korea Times)
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BOJ cuts its economic view for seven of nine regions
The Bank of Japan cut its economic assessment of seven of the country's nine regions as a global slowdown and the yen's gain threaten the nation's recovery from the March earthquake.
Conditions in Hokkaido, Hokuriku, Kanto, Tokai, Kinki, Chugoku and the Kyushu-Okinawa area have deteriorated from October, the central bank said today in its quarterly Sakura Report on regional economies. It left its evaluation of Shikoku and the eartahquake-stricken region of Tohoku unchanged, citing reconstruction demand in the disaster area. (Bloomberg)
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Tokyo Shares End Down As S&P Action, Weak Euro Rekindle Fears
Tokyo stocks fell sharply Monday, as Standard & Poor's credit rating downgrades on several European nations and fresh weakness in the euro translated into a selloff for financial shares such as Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Dai-ichi Life Insurance, as well as prominent exporters such as Sony.
The Nikkei Stock Average dropped 121.66 points, or 1.4%, to 8378.36 following Friday's 1.4% rise. The benchmark index came within a few ticks of setting a fresh 2012 intraday low.
The Topix index of all the Tokyo Stock Exchange First Section issues also fell 9.36 points, or 1.3%, to 725.24, with 31 of 33 subindexes ending in negative territory.
As U.S. markets are on holiday tonight, trading volume wasn't very active considering the underlying volatility, totaling just 1.35 billion shares. (Wall Street Journal)
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Corporate Japan: woeful lack of outside directors
Japan Inc. is often criticized for its poor corporate governance, especially when it comes to monitoring how top management makes decisions.
The Olympus Corp. scandal, based at the very least on the camera maker being caught covering up massive investment losses over almost two decades, has done nothing to dispel this impression. It has drawn tremendous foreign media attention and raised questions about whether other Japanese blue-chip companies are also engaged in shady practices stemming from their bubble days. The general complaint is that Japanese firms lack independent, outside directors. Most board members for a given company come from inside. This creates a cozy internal relationship and closes the doors to outside scrutiny. (Japan Times)
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Radioactive concrete found in new condo
High levels of radiation have been detected in a condominium building in Nihonmatsu City, Fukushima Prefecture, which was built in July using concrete mixed with material taken from an evacuation zone created in the aftermath of Japan's nuclear crisis, the city announced.
The announcement, released Sunday, says about 1 microsievert of radiation per hour was detected in a room on the first floor of the three-story building, which has tenants living in 12 units.
The city intends to move four households occupying the building's first floor from the condominium and discuss the problem with the central and prefectural governments.
Concrete used to construct the building included broken pieces of stone quarried from Namie Town, which was included in the government's evacuation zone after the Great East Japan Earthquake due to its proximity to the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant. (Yomiuri)
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Japan to name islets in disputed area
Japan has decided to name several uninhabited islands in a group that is also claimed by China and Taiwan, a move likely to anger the Asian neighbors.
Japan's chief government spokesman said Monday that 39 uninhabited islands will be given names by the end of March.
The islands all are within what Japan claims as its exclusive economic zone. But four of them are in the Senkaku, or Daioyu, island group in the East China Sea, which is also claimed by Taiwan and China and have been a flashpoint in diplomatic relations.
Soichi Yamagata, on official with the Cabinet office, said the names will be used for new maps. He said the islets are within Japan's established exclusive economic zone and will not change any maritime boundaries. (AP)
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Opposition quick to brand new defense chief an amateur
New Defense Minister Naoki Tanaka drew flak from the opposition camp Monday for making statements over the weekend that seemed to indicate Tokyo was intent on beginning the contentious relocation of U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma in Okinawa by the end of the year.
On the same NHK news program Sunday, Tanaka also seemed to confuse the principle behind the Self-Defense Forces' use of weapons abroad with Japan's arms export ban, exposing his lack of knowledge on defense issues and causing him to be labeled an "amateur" by Nobuteru Ishihara, secretary general of the Liberal Democratic Party.
(Japan Times)
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Sumo: Hakuho, Baruto remain locked together for lead
It was business as usual for yokozuna Hakuho while ozeki Baruto also remained undefeated to share the lead in the title race at the New Year Grand Sumo Tournament on Monday.
Hakuho stayed on course in his bid for a third consecutive title and 22nd overall Emperor's Cup, tearing through little man Toyonoshima in buzzsaw fashion while Baruto made mincemeat of Takayasu to leave the pair at 9-0 with six days remaining at the 15-day meet.
Ozeki Kisenosato remained in hot pursuit of the co-leaders at 8-1, but Kotooshu was tripped up by fellow ozeki Harumafuji for his second defeat to join four wrestlers, including Harumafuji, two off the pace. (Japan Times)
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11 hot-zone holdouts refuse to leave Fukushima homes
Eleven people are still ignoring radiation hazards in the 20-km exclusion zone around the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant and refuse to budge.
The 11 - six males and five females ranging in age from their 50s to their 90s - comprise six households in the municipalities of Tamura, Tomioka, Naraha and Kawauchi, all in Fukushima Prefecture, the local governments said Sunday.
As of April 22, the government had banned 78,000 residents from staying in the 20-km hot zone, which fully or partially encroaches on nine municipalities, including the four with the holdouts. The remaining five - Minamisoma, Futaba, Okuma, Namie and Katsurao - are completely deserted. (Japan Times)
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Snakes on a plane? No, Japanese maids on a train!
In Japan, there are all types of otaku ("geeks"). There are anime otaku, video game otaku, and even train otaku. Otaku from all walks of life seem to like the same thing: maids.
So what happens when you combine a love of the country's public transportation with its fascination with girls in frilly outfits?
You get this. This is the "Maid Train". All aboard!
First introduced back in 2010, the maid train aimed to capitalize on Akihabara's maid cafe culture and earning nerd cred, while luring passengers to ride the rails.
The Seibu Railway Group's Maid Train limited service ran between Ikebukuro and Chichibu stations, passing several anime production companies along the way.
The trains were staffed by maids with names like "Amakusa Chuchu" (Chuchu-GEDDIT?) and served cute maid food and drinks as well as made all the train announcements in their cute maid voices. (Kotaku)
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When the Internet ate my son's manga magazine
The card in the mail delivered sad news, disguised as progress. Shonen Jump magazine, a monthly digest of translated-into-English Japanese manga,, was ceasing print publication. Instead, subscribers were invited to sign up for Shonen Jump Alpha an online-only feed of new manga (the Japanese term for comic books). Shonen Jump Alpha, declared the card, would be a great bargain! There would be more manga content available than ever before, and new chapters in ongoing serials would be posted on a sprightly weekly basis.
My heart sank, however, because I knew someone who was going to be very disappointed. My son. (salon.com)
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Construction boss shot in Fukuoka, cops investigating gangster involvement
The head of a construction firm in Kyushu was shot in front of his office early Tuesday morning, reports broadcaster NHK (Jan.17). At about 5:30 a.m., Takashi Kurose, 52, president of contractor Kurose Construction, located in Nakama City, was struck in the abdomen and arm by at least three rounds from a pistol-wielding assailant aged around 40 and wearing black clothing and a white face mask. According to NHK, Kurose was conscious upon arrival at a local hospital. (Tokyo Reporter)
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New Fukushima probe promises to dig deeper
The head of Japan's latest investigation into the Fukushima nuclear disaster promised to dig deeper than previous inquiries into the events that unfolded after a earthquake and tsunami struck the country in March.
A government investigation concluded last month that the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant withstood the shaking of a magnitude-9 quake on March 11, before succumbing to the tsunami that followed, endorsing findings by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (9501) Three reactors had meltdowns after cooling and backup power was knocked out at the plant in the worst nuclear catastrophe since Chernobyl in 1986.
The new panel appointed by Japan's parliament with subpoena powers may publicly question officials including former Prime Minister Naoto Kan, Kiyoshi Kurokawa, its chairman, told reporters after the inquiry's first open meeting in Tokyo. Kurokawa, a professor emeritus at Tokyo University, said he will present his findings by June. (Bloomberg)
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'Life' lit up for 17th anniversary of Kobe quake
A lighting display event was held on Jan. 16. on a sandbar in the Mukogawa river running through Takarazuka, Hyogo Prefecture, to commemorate the 17th anniversary of the Great Hanshin Earthquake.
A 20-meter-by-10-meter art piece consisting of stones--in the shape of the Chinese character "sei" (life)--was lit to pray for the peaceful rest of the souls of the more than 6,000 people killed by the earthquake that leveled parts of Kobe on Jan. 17, 1995.
Participants also mourned the deaths of victims of the March 11 Great East Japan Earthquake and tsunami.
(Asahi)
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Osaka - Hokkaido
We wanted to make a ski & snowboarding video this year. This is our journey traveling from Osaka to Hokkaido by train, to make it happen. Luckily, some cool guys up in Niseko & Sapporo helped us out.
Grand Hirafu in Niseko. This is an international playground of skiers and snowboarders. Amazing talent constantly just coming down the hill.
Sapporo Kokusai. We got some sick local & national snowboarders. A super cool group of guys who endured a light blizzard, then rocked out on the kicker non-stop. (vimeo.com)
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Olympus probe finds 5 auditors responsible
An internal investigation at Olympus Corp. found that five current and former auditors are responsible for a combined 8.38 billion yen ($109 million) in losses linked to the Japanese company's accounting scandal, and plans to sue them.
The panel's report released Tuesday said it found two accounting firms hired by Olympus as external auditors, KPMG Azsa LLC and Ernst & Young ShinNihon LLC, had not violated their fiduciary duties.
Olympus has admitted a cover-up of investment losses of 117.7 billion yen ($1.5 billion) dating back to the 1990s and is suing 19 former and current executives for damages. (AP)
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