An avalanche has killed three bathers at a hot spring in northern Japan, where heavy snow also has paralyzed traffic and forced schools to close.
The deadly avalanche hit Thursday in Akita.
Officials say snowstorms have battered coastal cities along the Sea of Japan and large parts of northern Japan since late last year. Some areas have received more than twice as much snow as normal.
The snow has played a role in 56 deaths, and more than 750 injuries, since November. Most of those killed fell from rooftops while shoveling snow. (AP)
Snow paralyzes northern Japan; 3 die in avalanche
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Sumo: Shamed Japan Sumo Association chairman back in post
The discredited ex-chairman of the Japan Sumo Association, who stepped down in 2008 amid a drug-abuse scandal, is back in his job.
Former yokozuna -- grand champion -- Kitanoumi was elected by the board to return as chairman, tasked with increasing transparency in the embattled martial art.
Sumo's image has been seriously tarnished in recent years due in part to the death of a teenage apprentice after a violent training session.
Its credibility took a nose-dive in 2010 and 2011 as long-simmering allegations of bout-fixing bubbled over when evidence emerged as police probed another scandal involving wrestlers placing illegal baseball bets. (AFP)
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Sony more than doubles net loss forecast
Japanese entertainment giant Sony more than doubled its full-year net loss forecast to $2.9 billion, a day after announcing that its president and CEO Howard Stringer would step aside.
The firm on Thursday said it was expecting a net loss of 220 billion yen ($2.9 billion) for the year to March, up from 90 billion yen previously, in what will be its fourth consecutive year of losses.
Last year the Tokyo-based maker of PlayStation consoles and Bravia televisions lost 259.6 billion yen.
Sony also announced a net loss of 201.45 billion yen for the nine months to December, having made a profit of 129.22 billion yen in the corresponding period in 2010. (AFP)
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Tokyo stocks close up 0.76%
Tokyo stocks have closed up 0.76 per cent as hopes for the global economy offset heavy sell-offs in individual companies including Sharp, which sank to its lowest level in more than three decades.
The Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange gained 67.03 points to 8,876.82 on Thursday and the Topix index of all first-section issues rose 0.59 per cent, or 4.49 points, to 762.45.
The bourse halted trade in 241 issues for the whole morning due to a technical glitch. The suspension was lifted when the afternoon session started and its impact on overall market volatility was minimal, brokers said. (tradingroom.com.au)
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Stocking up on useless facts to pass an exam
I have been studying academic juku (for-profit supplementary schooling) for many years and have visited over 50 individually operated juku throughout Japan.
I have been thrilled by the dedication of charismatic educators, and dismayed by the relentless focus on standardized test results and by the lack of a diversity of offerings beyond the narrow confines of the curriculum in an era of hypereducation.
In January, thousands of students in Japan sat for the central university entrance examination (center shiken or center test). For ambitious students, the exam is merely a requirement to check off on their way to the entrance examinations for specific fields of study that follow later.
For others, the exam is a convenient way to avoid multiple examinations. The exam is one of the ultimate goals that supplementary education through primary and secondary schooling focuses on. (Japan Times)
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Ministry seeks again to set smoking rate target
A health ministry panel has approved a draft plan seeking to decrease the smoking rate to 12.2 percent by fiscal 2022, facilitating the ministry's long-hampered wish to officially set a target figure, it has been learned.
The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has sought several times since 1999 to set a target figure for cutting the smoking rate. However, it was foiled each time by stiff opposition from the tobacco industry and related ministries and agencies.
The ministry's latest plan for decreasing the smoking rate by nearly 40 percent to 12.2 percent or less by fiscal 2022 was presented Wednesday at a meeting of the panel for discussing cancer prevention measures. (Yomiuri)
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500 vehicles stranded by snow in Aomori Pref.
More than 500 vehicles were stranded on a section of National Highway Route 279 in Yokohama, Aomori Prefecture, on Wednesday night after a large truck and a bus skidded and became stuck on the road due to a blizzard, according to police.
Early Thursday, Aomori Gov. Shingo Mimura asked the head of the Marine Self-Defense Force's Ominato District Headquarters to send a disaster relief team to the town.
According to the Aomori prefectural government, 250 drivers caught in the gridlock abandoned their vehicles and spent the night at eight public facilities nearby, including an assembly hall and a primary school, opened as temporary shelters by the Yokohama town government and the neighboring city of Mutsu. (Yomiuri)
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Psych test for teen stabbing suspect
A 17-year-old boy arrested on suspicion of stabbing two girls in Saitama and Chiba prefectures will undergo a psychiatric examination after telling police he wanted to kill a person because killing animals wasn't satisfying, according to prosecutors.
The Saitama District Public Prosecutor's Office wants to determine the boy's state of mind at the time of the stabbings and whether he is mentally competent. The tests will be conducted through May 7, the prosecutors said.
The boy was arrested Dec. 5 and sent to prosecutors following the stabbing of a 15-year-old girl in Misato, Saitama Prefecture, on Nov. 18 and an 8-year-old girl in Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture, on Dec. 1. (Japan Times)
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Ice sculptures, snow slides at Hokkaido fest
The City of Sapporo will be hosting the 63rd annual Snow Festival this month. The event is considered a "must see" for tourists and about 2 million people visited the festival last year.
The main draw is a collection of sculptures created entirely out of snow and ice. This year, organizers say that 222 sculptures will be on display.
The festival is held at three different sites in the city. The main site is at Odori Park, which is in the middle of downtown Sapporo. The site will feature 136 sculptures, and stages that will host a variety of performances scheduled to take place throughout the week. (Japan Times)
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Genba meets AKB48 China envoys
Foreign Minister Koichiro Genba met with members of all-girl idol group AKB48 on Thursday and thanked them for taking part in a campaign to attract Chinese tourists and dispel harmful rumors about the safety of Japanese food products.
The "Vibrant Japan" campaign will start Feb. 16 in Beijing, before moving on to Shanghai toward the end of the month and Hong Kong in late March.
During his meeting with three of AKB48's members - Tomomi Itano, Rie Kitahara and Yui Yokoyama - Genba, a Fukushima native, expressed his gratitude for the group's support of disaster-hit areas in the northeast and said he hoped its participation in the campaign will help deepen ties with China. (Japan Times)
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Top court nixes Monju suicide suit
The Supreme Court has rejected a damages suit filed by the family of an official who committed suicide in 1996 after being involved in a partial coverup of a coolant leak at the Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor in Fukui Prefecture, according to judicial sources.
In its decision made Tuesday, the Supreme Court upheld rulings in lower courts that found the now-defunct Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corp. could not predict the suicide of the 49-year-old deputy administration department chief, the sources said. (Japan Times)
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Baseball: Axed Giants general manager Kiyotake, Yomiuri face off in court
Both sides stood fast at their first court session Thursday as former Yomiuri Giants general manager Hidetoshi Kiyotake maintained his firing was illegal while the Yomiuri group countered that his public criticism of the team's chairman was defamatory.
The Tokyo District Court litigation combines Kiyotake's suit and Yomiuri's countersuit.
Kiyotake, who claims he was unfairly dismissed and discredited, has demanded that the baseball club, its chairman, Tsuneo Watanabe, and the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper group pay ¥62 million in damages and run an apology in the paper. (Japan Times)
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E-book apps found 'stealing' private user info
What kind of electronic books do smartphone users prefer? When and how much of each book are they reading? Some smartphone e-book applications have collected this sensitive information for developers without obtaining permission from users, according to sources.
The e-book market has been rapidly expanding, and is expected to grow to 200 billion yen in three years. Therefore, experts are calling for clear guidelines on how e-book software should handle smartphone users' private information, as it can reveal their thoughts and beliefs.
Viewn, an application provided by the SoftBank group, features 42 items, including magazines, newspapers and television programs. Since June 2010, the software collected identification data of smartphones that had installed the app, as well as kept records on items viewed by users--without first obtaining user permission. Furthermore, in September, the app began collecting users' names and e-mail addresses. (Yomiuri)
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Retired police chief, 74, arrested after paying two 16-year-old girls for sex
A 74-year-old retired police chief has been arrested on suspicion of paying two 16-year-old girls for sex in Sapporo, a Hokkaido police spokesman said Thursday.
Keiji Kato, who retired 15 years ago from the Hokkaido force, was arrested Wednesday for allegedly paying ¥6,000 each to the two high school girls to engage in sexual acts simultaneously in a Sapporo hotel Nov. 19 in violation of the law banning child prostitution, the spokesman said.
Kato, who lives in Sapporo, also allegedly paid one of the two girls for sex at another hotel in the city on Dec. 3, the spokesman said. The police quoted Kato as saying, "I didn't know they were minors." (Japan Times)
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Court rules on using stars' images
The Supreme Court on Thursday handed down the nation's first ruling on publicity rights, saying celebrities' names and photos are protected under publicity rights, but rejecting a compensation demand by the plaintiffs in the case, singing duo Pink Lady.
Presiding Justice Ryuko Sakurai said in the ruling: "Celebrities' names and images can help sales by attracting potential customers. They are protected under publicity rights."
By clarifying the status of publicity rights and providing a guideline on what constitutes a violation, the ruling will likely be seen as a wake-up call on using celebrities' names or images in publications and on the Internet without permission.
Pink Lady had demanded that Kobunsha Co. pay them compensation of 3.72 million yen, saying the use of their photos without their agreement in a magazine published by the company infringed on their publicity rights. (Yomiuri)
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Japan's celebration of Spring: Penis and vagina festivals
Dating back more than 1,500 years, Japan's rites of spring are deeply rooted in its agricultural past.
As in all the world's ancient cultures, such observances were believed to promote a successful harvest and produce many babies.
It is ironic that Japan's Penis and Vagina Festival is an annual event dating back to ancient times and today that nation has one of the world's lowest birth rates.
The government hopes to ease the financial burden of child-rearing and encourage more children by offering a monthly stipend of $280 per child.
But these annual festivals, which attract many tourists and fill local coffers, offer more encouragement on a visceral level. (weirdasianews.com)
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Bird life badly hit by nuclear fallout in Japan
Researchers working in the irradiated zone around the disabled Fukushima nuclear plant say bird populations there have begun to dwindle, in what may be a chilling harbinger of the impact of radioactive fallout on local life.
In the first major study on the impact of the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years, the researchers from Japan, the US and Denmark say that analysis of 14 species of birds common to Fukushima and Chernobyl shows the effect on numbers is worse in the Japanese disaster zone.
Published next week in the journal Environmental Pollution, the paper says its findings demonstrate "an immediate negative consequence of radiation for birds during the main breeding season March-July".
Two of the study's authors have spent years working in the irradiated 2,850sq m zone around the Chernobyl plant, which exploded in 1986. A quarter of a century later, the zone is almost devoid of people.
(irishtimes.com)
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Record lows recorded at 38 locations
The nation experienced severe cold weather Friday with temperatures dropping to record lows at 38 locations in the morning, the Meteorological Agency said.
From Tohoku to Kyushu, temperatures hit their lowest records in 16 prefectures, including the town of Kusu in Oita Prefecture, where temperature fell to minus 14.7 degrees. In Mashiki, Kumamoto Prefecture, it was minus 8.4.
Of 927 observation points, over 90 percent, or 874 sites, marked temperatures below zero early Friday, the agency said. The lowest figure observed was minus 32.6 in Esashi, Hokkaido.
The agency said the cold air mass that led to blizzards in several Sea of Japan coastal areas has now passed over the archipelago. (Japan Times)
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Japanese entrepreneurs aim for Silicon Valley
For an emerging generation of Japanese innovators, the dream isn't a job for life at a big company. They have new ambitions, and they're determined to go places. Especially Silicon Valley.
Small but growing numbers of Japanese entrepreneurs are jumping into the startup scene in northern California, particularly since the earthquake and tsunami last March. They include Naoki Shibata, who took the plunge by giving up the sort of life many Japanese in past decades spent their lives trying to attain.
Only 30, Shibata had an executive-level position at online retailing giant Rakuten Inc. and an assistant professorship at the prestigious University of Tokyo, where he earned a Ph.D. Last June he launched AppGrooves, an iPhone application discovery tool.
"I wanted a global company from the first moment," he said. "If you want to reach a global market, then you have to start from Silicon Valley." (AP)
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Japan's parliament approves fourth extra budget to fund disaster relief projects
Japan's parliament has approved a 2.5 trillion yen ($32.9 billion) extra budget bill, the fourth one to fund reconstruction projects after last year's disasters and support the nation's economy.
The lower house on Friday approved the supplementary budget for the fiscal year ending March 31. The bill will be further debated in the upper chamber but will eventually become law due to the lower house's superiority.
The budget includes 740 billion yen ($9.7 billion) to help small businesses hit by last March's earthquake and tsunami obtain loan guarantees to rebuild. The budget also earmarks 300 billion yen ($3.9 billion) to finance green vehicle promotion programs. (Washington Post)
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