Prosecutors say Taiwanese-Japanese starlet Makiyo has been barred from leaving Taiwan pending an investigation into her alleged involvement in the beating of a taxi driver in Taipei.
The Taipei Prosecutors Office said Tuesday the 27-year-old singer is accused of kicking a taxi door after her companion, who allegedly was drunk, dragged the driver out and beat him.
Makiyo has apologized and pledged to stop drinking after the Thursday night incident.
Prosecutors say Takateru Tomoyori of Japan was released on bail pending formal charges, possibly attempted homicide. (AP)
Taiwanese-Japanese star implicated in beating
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Cat cafes bare fangs over 'curfew'
Operators of so-called cat cafes, where visitors can play with cats in a relaxing atmosphere, are upset over a revision of the enforcement regulations of the Animal Protection Law that would prohibit the display of cats late at night starting June 1.
The aim of the revision is to keep pet stores in busy shopping districts from displaying puppies and kittens for sale later than 8 p.m.
Cat cafe operators are protesting the government's plan to prohibit all forms of "display" irrespective of the type of business. "Cats are nocturnal animals. [They] are adults and already get enough rest [during the day]," the operator of one cat cafe said.
I recently visited Neko no Iru Kyukeijo 299, a cat cafe in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, at about 8 p.m. There were about 10 customers, some taking pictures of cats with their cell phones and others playing with cats. (Yomiuri)
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Skating: Mao's push for third world title starts at Four Continents
Mao Asada ended last year with a month of triumph and tragedy that are hard to imagine.
Just two weeks after her mother Kyoko passed away at 48 on Dec. 9, Mao laced up the boots again and showed the heart of a true champion in winning her fifth national title with an inspiring effort in Osaka.
The season restarts this week with the Four Continents Championships in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It will mark Mao's last competition before next month's world championships in Nice, France.
With European skaters not taking part in the Four Continents, the women's field is thin. Mao's main competition will come from compatriot Kanako Murakami and newly crowned U.S. champion Ashley Wagner. (Japan Times)
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Outline approved for Hague treaty bills
A Justice Ministry panel on Tuesday gave the green light for the ministry to write bills for new domestic laws in preparation for signing the Hague Convention, which would theoretically promise other countries that Japan will try its utmost to return abducted children.
Critics, however, are not too optimistic because whether children will be returned to their original countries will depend largely on how Japan's family court judges interpret any new laws.
The United States and countries in Europe have urged Japan to sign the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspect of International Child Abduction, and have criticized Tokyo for letting a Japanese parent get away with abducting his or her children from a spouse in failed international marriages. (Japan Times)
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Bullying rose 6.7% in 2010 school year
The number of bullying cases recognized by public and private elementary, junior high and high schools nationwide in the 2010 academic year rose 6.7 percent from a year earlier to 77,630, according to an education ministry survey.
It was the first increase in five years. The number of such cases had been falling since the 2006 school year, when the ministry began collecting such data. An education official said the number rose as teachers became better at recognizing bullying.
(Japan Times)
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New fish markets planned for Tsukiji
The Tokyo metropolitan government and the Chuo Ward Office came to a broad agreement Tuesday to open a fresh-fish market in the current Tsukiji wholesale market--scheduled to be relocated--it was learned Tuesday.
The new fish market will be partially open to the general public, according to Tokyo officials. This is the first time a concrete use for the site has been decided prior to its relocation.
The superannuated Tsukiji wholesale market is scheduled to move to the Toyosu district in neighboring Koto Ward by the end of fiscal 2014. (Yomiuri)
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Hashimoto group claims union tried to tip election
Osaka Municipal Assembly members from Mayor Toru Hashimoto's Osaka Ishin no Kai (One Osaka) group are pursuing allegations that a city labor union attempted to gather votes for Hashimoto's opponent in last November's election in possible violation of campaign laws.
The allegations surfaced Monday when Osaka Ishin no Kai announced it had obtained a 36-page list of 1,800 names of municipal transport workers from a city employee, who told the group the list had been drawn up by the city transport worker union in an effort to support former Mayor Kunio Hiramatsu in the November mayoral race. (Japan Times)
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Matsui remains option for Yanks
The New York Yankees may add one of the three most prominent remaining free agents - Raul Ibanez, Johnny Damon or Hideki Matsui - within a week, according to an ESPN report.
"The Yankees are considering adding a left-handed bat, and Ibanez, Damon or Matsui could be on the team within a week," ESPN said Monday in its online edition.
The sports network quoted a major league source as saying, "The prices still need to come down a little before the Yankees will make a deal with any of the three free agents they are interested in." (Japan Times)
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Shops selling dried herbs spiked with stimulant chemicals on the increase
Dried herbs mixed with stimulant chemicals carefully packaged to dodge drug laws are gaining in popularity among young Japanese, leading in turn to a drastic increase in the shops selling such products.
These "dappo habu" (law-evading herbs) contain stimulant materials whose chemical components are slightly different from those prohibited by drug laws.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government identified two shops selling such products in fiscal 2009. As of last Friday, 89 such shops were in existence, many of them in Shinjuku and Shibuya, areas popular with young people. (Japan Times)
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High cesium found in earthworms
Earthworms collected in Kawauchi, a village near the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, have cesium levels averaging some 20,000 becquerels per kilogram, government researchers said.
The finding indicates the radioactive substance "may accumulate in other animals through the food chain," Motohiro Hasegawa, senior researcher at the Forestry and Forest Products Research Institute, said Monday, noting earthworms are eaten by birds, boars and other wild animals.
Last August and September, Hasegawa and other researchers collected earthworms in Kawauchi, 20 km from the crippled power plant; Otama, 60 km from the plant; and Tadami, 150 km away. (Japan Times)
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Nation's bullet train blues
The central government has decided to start construction work on three sections of three planned Shinkansen bullet train lines - the Shin Hakodate-Sapporo section of the Hokkaido Shinkansen Line, the Kanazawa-Tsuruga section of the Hokuriku Shinkansen Line and the Isahaya-Nagasaki section of the Kyushu-Nagasaki Shinkansen Line. The construction of the new Shinkansen sections, whose total cost is estimated at ¥3.01 trillion, could cause problems for the central government, local governments concerned and local residents.
Since the central government and local governments along the planned Shinkansen lines cannot attain tax revenues large enough to cover the construction costs, the government decided to siphon the fees Japan Railway companies pay to the Japan Railway Construction, Transport and Technology Agency for use of Shinkansen tracks owned by the agency. (Japan Times)
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Renault-Nissan to buy Russian firm in stages
Renault SA and affiliate Nissan Motor Co. may pay for their planned 50 percent stake in OAO AvtoVAZ over two years as goals are met, according to an executive at the Russian carmaker's second-biggest local owner.
A memorandum of understanding may be signed as soon as the end of February or at the Geneva auto show starting March 8, with the transaction completed three months later, Sergey Skvortsov, deputy chairman of Troika Dialog, said in Moscow.
(Japan Times)
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Lollipop Chainsaw gets censored edition in Japan
Looking for the full gory experience of Lollipop Chainsaw? You'll have to buy the premium edition.
Reports have emerged that the regular SKU of the next title from Japanese developer Grasshopper Manufacture will be censored in Japan. This will tone down the blood and violence, and be rated CERO D, according to Siliconera.
However, the premium version has the option to play both censored and uncensored modes, earning it the CERO Z rating - Japan's equivalent of the 'adults only' classification.
The title comes from the studio behind Suda 51 titles such as No More Heroes. Consumers play a cheerleader who takes up a chainsaw to combat the zombie apocalypse. (mcvuk.com)
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Toyota lifts profit forecast as disaster woes fade
Toyota's quarterly profit slid 13.5 percent on production setbacks caused by last year's tsunami disaster and the flooding in Thailand, but Japan's top automaker raised its annual earnings forecast, saying a recovery is on track.
Toyota Motor Corp. reported Tuesday an 80.9 billion yen ($1.05 billion) profit for the October-December third quarter, down from 93.6 billion yen a year earlier.
Showing confidence in its ability to bounce back, the manufacturer of the Prius gas-electric hybrid, Lexus luxury models and the Camry sedan raised its annual profit forecast to 200 billion yen ($2.6 billion) from 180 billion yen ($2.3 billion). (AP)
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Otaku band AKB48 morphs into $200M business
What if the vice president of your university were a genius producer who had put together an insanely successful pop group of 90 singers and then approved the creation of identical doll versions of them?
Weird? Not for Kyoto University of Art and Design and Yasushi Akimoto, the Steve Jobs of otaku (supergeeks) in Japan. The school just hosted a hit exhibition of dolls based on the gals in the band he produces, AKB48.
At 90 members, AKB48 is the Guinness-certified world's largest pop band. Its members are all females in their teens and early twenties, and all its bubble-gum singles top the charts on the day of their release.
The music is, shall we say, an aquired taste; it sounds like arcade game tunes drenched in a massive one-part vocal harmony. Yet intense otaku fandom has lifted the hydra-headed, miniskirted band to the highest levels of Japanese acceptability. It's even acting as Japan's unofficial representative in China.
The original idea behind the group, which was founded in 2005 with 20 girls, is "idols you can meet." (CNET)
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Japan's perverse message; just tax the corporate cash mountains even more
Everyone thinks of Japan as a nation of savers. Stop the blighters from saving and get them to spend instead, it is often said, and the country's economic woes would be over.
In reality, it's a bit more complicated than that. In fact Mrs Watanabe no longer saves that much. The last time I looked, she was down to the sort of pitiful savings ratio we see in the UK and the US. At the vanguard of the ageing process, in fact Japan is moving into that phase of demographics where in aggregate, households may soon be in savings drawdown, rather than further adding to them.
But the same is not true of companies. Poor levels of domestic demand means that in aggregate, there is not enough to invest in, even though Japanese companies are big investors in the future. The consequent surplus is recycled into J-bonds instead, where it finances the deficit. (telegraph.co.uk)
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Thailand a miracle cure for Japanese drug makers
More than a dozen Japanese pharmaceutical and healthcare companies are exploring business opportunities in Thailand as a way of increasing their Asian presence, a seminar heard yesterday.
Pharmaceutical and healthcare companies need to expand outside Japan as the number of elderly in Asia rises while newborn rates drop, said Yasuhiko Shioi, a vice-president of the Toyama Pharmaceutical Association (TPA) and the chief executive of Kokando Co.
Several healthcare firms count on Thailand as a production hub for exporting their products to neighbouring countries due to its geographical advantage. (Bangkok Post)
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Pair indicted over murder of Nepalese man in Osaka
Prosecutors in Osaka on Tuesday indicted a man and a woman over the murder of a Nepali man in Osaka on Jan 16.
Hiroki Shiraishi, 21, a tattoo artist, and Miyoko Shiraishi, 22, are charged with being part of a gang of four that beat a 42-year-old Nepalese Bishnu Prasad Dhamala to death while he was walking home after work in Osaka's Abeno Ward early in the morning on Jan 16. He died later in hospital.
Two other assailants, Hiromasa Ie, 21, and Kuniko Tsukamoto, 21, fled the scene and were traced to Tokyo where they were arrested a week later. (Japan Today)
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Apple offers clues to where Sony needs to go: William Pesek
Kazuo Hirai, charged with halting Sony Corp. (6758)'s downward spiral, could be excused for asking: Do I really want this job?
Last week, the consumer-electronics giant said it expects a $2.9 billion loss in the year ending March 31, putting it on course for an unprecedented fourth consecutive year in the red. It's a stunning reminder of the depths to which the onetime pride of Japan Inc. has plunged in the Apple Inc. age.
Thirty-three years after unleashing the Walkman revolution, Sony is playing catch-up to the upheaval wrought by Steve Jobs's iPod, iPhone and iPad. When Hirai, 51, takes control in April, he must succeed where Chief Executive Officer Howard Stringer, 69, failed. To restore Sony to anything approaching its past glory, Hirai needs a new offering of products that consumers view as game changers. (Bloomberg)
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Japan finds a key to unlock philanthropy
Japan's universities and research institutes have long had to make do with few philanthropic donations. Strict laws governing university finances, and the lack of a philanthropic tradition, have discouraged the gifts that serve Western institutions so well.
But change is coming. This week, the University of Tokyo unveils the country's first institute named after a foreign donor: the Kavli Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe.
The announcement adds Norwegian philanthropist Fred Kavli's name, along with a US$7.5-million endowment, to one of Japan's most successful institutes. (nature.com)
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