A government survey released Saturday found that more than 80 percent of respondents were largely unaware of details about an envisioned system that would number citizens to centralize control of tax payments and other personal data.
In total, 83.3 percent of those polled said they are mostly ignorant of the system. Of this total, 41.8 percent responded that they are aware of the plan but not its specific details and 41.5 percent replied that they have never heard of the system.
Only 16.7 percent claimed to have a thorough grasp of system's specific details. (Japan Times)
Numbering system baffles citizens
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Number of flu cases tops million mark
The number of flu-stricken patients reached about 1.11 million in the week ending last Friday, an increase of about 400,000 from the previous week, according to figures compiled by the health ministry.
In the week starting Jan. 16, the number of patients suffering from influenza reported to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry from about 5,000 medical institutions was about triple that of a week earlier. The number of patients per medical institution during that period was 22.73 persons, up from 7.33 persons the week before, according to the ministry. (Yomiuri)
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Students: English useful, but not for me
Seventy percent of middle school students think English ability would be useful for obtaining a job in the future, but only 11 percent want to get a job that requires English, according to an education ministry institute survey.
The survey, conducted by the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry's National Institute for Educational Policy Research in November, covered 3,225 third-year middle school students nationwide.
Eighty-five percent said they think, "It is important to study English" or "It is rather important." (Yomiuri)
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Quake efforts blamed for rise in snow mishaps
This winter's heavier snowfall has seen more than 500 people across seven prefectures die or become injured in snow-related accidents, including cases in which they had been trying to remove snow, it has been learned.
People are trying to remove snow themselves using shovels and other tools because of delays in municipal-led snow removal. The delays have been caused by a shortage of dump trucks--many of which are being used in areas affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake for reconstruction work--to transport snow.
According to data compiled by the Akita, Aomori, Ishikawa, Nagano, Niigata, Toyama and Yamagata prefectural governments, the death toll from such snow-related accidents had reached 31 as of Wednesday, while 479 people had sustained injuries. In Nagaoka City, Niigata Prefecture, 10 workers fell at a construction site while clearing snow on Thursday, six of them sustaining injuries. (Yomiuri)
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Radiation testing on school lunches differs
Municipalities are carrying out tests for radioactive substances on ingredients used in school lunches, but parents are worried whether their children are adequately protected as the tests are conducted in various ways.
According to data compiled by the Fukushima prefectural board of education, 33 of the 59 municipalities in the prefecture test school lunches for radiation.
Using two radiation measuring instruments, the Koriyama municipal government checks school lunches only once a week, although ingredients left over from lunches on the other four school days also are tested. This means that some tests are carried out after the schoolchildren have eaten their lunch. (Yomiuri)
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Free care for Fukushima kids rejected
The government has turned down a request by the Fukushima prefectural government to make medical care free for prefectural residents aged 18 and under.
Tatsuo Hirano, state minister for disaster reconstruction and disaster management, met with Fukushima Gov. Yuhei Sato at the Fukushima prefectural office Saturday to tell him of the government's decision.
"It's necessary to handle this issue carefully because it affects the basis of the medical system," Hirano said. "It would be difficult to implement." (Yomiuri)
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Kawauchi govt heading home / Village 1st to return among those forced out by Fukushima N-crisis
The government of a village forced to relocate due to the Fukushima nuclear crisis will return to the village in April, it has been learned, a move it hopes also will encourage residents to come back.
The village of Kawauchi in Fukushima Prefecture will be the first of the nine town and village governments that evacuated their offices to return to its original municipality.
The village functions were moved to Koriyama City in the prefecture because a section of Kawauchi fell inside the government-designated no-entry zone around the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, and the rest was named an emergency evacuation preparation area. (Yomiuri)
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Royal challenge awaits Noda
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda appears strongly committed to revising the Imperial Household Law to let female members of the Imperial family remain in the royal family even if they marry commoners. The Imperial family is the oldest royal family in the world and Chapter 1 of the Japanese Constitution is about the emperors. For Japan, to ensure stable imperial succession is an important matter.
But much doubt has been expressed about his ability to implement such a revision, which could potentially split public opinion down the middle, because he already faces a large number of urgent and sometimes controversial issues, which include reconstruction of the areas devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami and the subsequent Fukushima nuclear crisis, raising the consumption tax rate, social security reform and Japan's possible entry into the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement. (Japan Times)
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Shotgun swiped with car in Chiba
A car with a loaded shotgun and a box with about 40 shells was stolen early Sunday morning in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture, police said the same day.
A 67-year-old man phoned police around 4:40 a.m. to report that both his car and the shotgun were missing.
Police said the man, a registered hunter, put the shotgun and ammunition in the car at around 10 p.m. on Saturday in preparation for a hunting trip. He covered the gun with a cloth and locked the car before returning to his house. (Japan Times)
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Hosono apologizes for Minamata redress delay
Environment Minister Goshi Hosono on Sunday apologized for the time it is taking to wrap up the issue of providing relief measures for uncertified patients of Minamata disease.
"I would like to apologize for the fact that the issue hasn't been resolved and is still causing you suffering," Hosono said as he met with victims of the disease in Minamata, Kumamoto Prefecture, where Chisso Corp. poisoned the food chain by discharging mercury-tainted water into the ocean decades ago.
It was his first meeting with Minamata patients since he was appointed environment minister in September.
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said last week that uncertified Minamata patients must be given a deadline for applying for government redress, which is being provided by a special law. (Japan Times)
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Japanese, Russian territorial row: No solution in sight
A decades-old territorial dispute that has prevented Japan and Russia from signing a peace treaty is showing no signs of improving following talks between the two country's foreign ministers here, but as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov leaves Japan Sunday some progress has been made in bilateral economic and security cooperation.
Relations between Russia and Japan have been clouded due to a heated territorial dispute regarding four islands off the coast of northern Japan's Hokkaido island.
The dispute over sovereignty is largely concerned with the somewhat ambiguous San Francisco Peace Treaty between the Allied Powers and Japan inked in 1951, which states that Japan must give up its claims to the islands, but recognition of sovereignty over the islands was not given to the Soviet Union either, and therein lies the conflict. (China Daily)
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Chinese tourists return to Japan
After being scared off by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident, Chinese tourists are visiting Japan in record numbers again, generating much-needed business and optimism for the nation's struggling retail and tourism sectors.
During the Lunar New Year holiday that sent millions of people traveling across Asia and beyond, tourists from mainland China thronged popular destinations in Japan, from ski slopes in the northern island of Hokkaido, to electronics stores in Tokyo, to ancient temples in Kyoto. That's quite a change from last spring, when tourism in Japan ground to a virtual halt amid radiation fears following the March 11 nuclear accident.
In December, the number of Chinese visitors rose 32% from a year earlier to a record 80,000, following a similar increase in November. Anecdotal evidence suggests another surge in January. (Wall Street Journal)
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Soccer: Japan draw 0-0 with Qatar in practice match ahead of Olympic q'fier
Japan's Under-23s continued their preparations for their upcoming London Olympic qualifier with Syria with a 0-0 draw against Qatar in a practice match at their camp in Doha on Saturday.
Kashima Antlers duo Yuya Osako and Kazuya Yamamura both started and Cerezo Osaka's Hiroshi Kiyotake came on as a substitute as all 21 of Takashi Sekizuka's squad were given a run out in the match played behind closed doors in the Qatari capital.
(Mainichi)
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Exxon selling Japan unit for $3.9B to cut refining
Exxon Mobil Corp. is selling its Japanese refining and marketing business to partner TonenGeneral Sekiyu K.K. in a $3.9 billion deal that reflects a long-term decline in Japan's demand for fuel and a global strategy to refocus on exploration.
TonenGeneral Sekiyu will buy 99 percent of the shares of Exxon Mobil Yugen Kaisha, which refines and sells fuel and lubricants, the Japanese refiner said about the deal, announced Sunday. Exxon Mobil's stake in TonenGeneral will drop to 22 percent from 50 percent.
Large oil and gas companies have been shedding refining operations in recent years and turning to oil exploration and production in the hope of bigger profits. Tighter rules for car and truck fuel efficiency are expected to weigh on growth in demand for fuel in developed countries for years to come. (AP)
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Japan finds water leaks at stricken nuclear plant
Japan's stricken nuclear power plant has leaked more than 600 liters of water, forcing it to briefly suspend cooling operations at a spent-fuel pond at the weekend, but none is thought to have escaped into the ocean, the plant's operator and domestic media said.
The Fukushima plant, on the coast north of Tokyo, was wrecked by a huge earthquake and tsunami in March last year, triggering the evacuation of around 80,000 people in the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years.
The operator of the complex, the Tokyo Electric Power Co (Tepco), reported two main leakages on its Web site on Sunday, one from a pump near the plant's office building and another from a back-up cooling system at reactor No.4. (Reuters)
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Japan population to shrink by one-third by 2060
Japan's population of 128 million will shrink by one-third and seniors will account for 40 percent of people by 2060, placing a greater burden on a smaller working-age population to support the social security and tax systems.
The grim estimate of how rapid aging will shrink Japan's population was released Monday by the Health and Welfare Ministry.
In year 2060, Japan will have 87 million people. The number of people 65 or older will nearly double to 40 percent, while the national work force of people between ages 15 and 65 will shrink to about half of the total population, according to the estimate, made by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research. (AP)
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Cyber-attack disrupts website of nuclear crisis panel
The website of the government-appointed panel probing the Fukushima disaster was hit by a cyber-attack Saturday night that lasted until Sunday morning.
The content of the website was replaced with a black background and an English sentence reading, "DR. MTMRD from K.S.A. f--- your site," said Shinji Ogawa, the panel's secretary general.
An analysis of the website's access logs showed that the cyber-attack began at 11:13 p.m. Saturday, Ogawa said. (Japan Times)
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TV makers see shakeout approaching
The halcyon days of Japan's TV makers are long over. Now the business has become a drag on the earnings of the nation's electronics giants.
TV demand shrank fast after consumers rushed out to buy digital TVs before broadcasts turned digital last year, making older analog models unusable without satellite or cable TV services.
"The prices of flat-screen TVs are falling rapidly," an official with a major home electronics store in Tokyo said. "Customers have become choosy because they are comparison shopping."
Hitachi Ltd., which has made TVs since 1956, said this month that it will cease production and outsource the work to foreign manufacturers instead. (Japan Times)
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Akihabara opens subculture center
A new landmark has opened in Tokyo's Akihabara electronics district that houses specialty shops for "Akiba culture" goods.
The six-story Akiba Culture Zone, which used to be a Laox Co. computer store until it closed in 2007 after business declined, now has tenants offering such items as comics, animation figurines and pop idol goods.
The shops include K-Books on the first and second floors, which stocks about 140,000 books and comics and about 300,000 recycled items, including games, figures and coterie magazines. (Japan Times)
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Japanese auto suppliers to pay price-fixing fine
Two Japanese auto suppliers have agreed to pay more than half a billion dollars in criminal fines for a price-fixing conspiracy in the sale of parts to U.S. automakers, the Justice Department announced Monday.
Yazaki Corp. agreed to pay a $470 million fine, the second-largest criminal fine obtained for an antitrust violation. The second company, DENSO Corp., agreed to pay a $78 million fine. Four Yazaki executives, all Japanese citizens, will serve up to two years in U.S. prison as part of the deal to plead guilty to one felony count.
The pleas are part of an ongoing investigation that is the largest ever in the Justice Department antitrust division. (AP)
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