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Sumo: Stablemaster Tagonoura dead at 46

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umo stablemaster Keihito Tagonoura, former makuuchi-division wrestler Kushimaumi, died of unknown causes at a Tokyo hospital on Monday, police said. He was 46. A native of Wakayama Prefecture, the wrestler, whose real name was Keita Kushima, won the first-ever amateur championship as a high school student and took 28 titles when he was a student at Nihon University. He debuted in sumo from the Dewanoumi stable in January 1988, joined the makuuchi division in July 1989 and got promoted up to the maegashira No. 1 rank. (Japan Times)

Wanted suspect identified in fatal eatery shooting

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Police continued their manhunt Tuesday for a 65-year-old man wanted in the fatal shooting the previous day of a 62-year-old man in a restaurant in Togane, Chiba Prefecture. News photo Chong Yong Bom Witnesses said Chong Yong Bom, who also goes by the Japanese name Tomio Ishikawa, fled with the gun after shooting Yoshiaki Furukawa at around 10:05 a.m. at a Denny's restaurant, according to the police. They released a photo of Chong and raided his home in Togane on Tuesday.Chong and Furukawa are believed to have links to organized crime groups and got into financial troubles, according to the police. (Japan Times)

Noda plans first visit to Okinawa

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Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda will visit Okinawa from Feb. 26 to 27 to seek local consent for moving ahead with the relocation of a key U.S. base within the prefecture, sources said Tuesday. During his first trip to the prefecture since taking office in September, Noda intends to hold talks with local officials and brief them on discussions with the United States regarding a recent rethink of the realignment of U.S. forces in Japan, the sources said. Noda is expected to stress in his meeting with Okinawa Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima that the new policy on the U.S. forces realignment will ease the military burden on Okinawa. (Japan Times)

Deep-sea temperature up 0.02 degree every decade

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Seawater to a depth of up to 700 meters is warming at a pace of 0.02 degree every 10 years worldwide, according to an analysis by the Meteorological Agency. In its first analysis into deep-water temperatures, the agency says that rises in seawater temperatures could lead to higher sea levels because heat expands, and to an accelerated pace of global warming because the warmer water may absorb less carbon dioxide. The agency used temperature data up to 700 meters below sea level sampled at between roughly 70,000 and 2 million spots each year since the 1950s. The data were collected by observation ships from the agency and other countries, and commercial ships that sampled sea temperatures at research institutes' request. (Japan Times)

Tepco bailout to follow Resona model

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The government's bailout of Tokyo Electric Power Co. will be similar to the 2003 rescue of struggling Resona Holdings Inc., trade and industry minister Yukio Edano said Tuesday. "The capital injection into Resona will be the model for when the government injects capital" into Tepco, Edano told reporters in Tokyo. "It's widely agreed that Resona has returned to health." While the government plans to bail out the utility, which has been relying on aid to cover nuclear disaster-related compensation, Edano said Monday the government expects to receive "sufficient" voting rights in return for a capital infusion, adding he would veto any plan that doesn't include this provision. (Japan Times)

Noda Cabinet approval rating slides to 30%

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The approval rating of the Cabinet led by Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda fell to 30 percent from 37 percent in a January survey conducted immediately after a Cabinet reshuffle, a Yomiuri Shimbun survey has found. In the nationwide telephone survey conducted Friday through Sunday, 57 percent of the respondents said they disapproved of Noda's Cabinet, up six percentage points from the previous survey conducted Jan. 13-14. The approval rating of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan fell to 16 percent, down nine points from the previous survey and marking the lowest rating since the party won control of the government in September 2009. (Yomiuri)

Nikkei rallies, Topix hits 800 for 1st time in 6 mths

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Japan's Nikkei average rallied to a six-month closing high and the broader Topix index breached the 800 level on Wednesday after the Bank of Japan expanded its asset buying programme the previous day. The BOJ's surprise move, which included adding 10 trillion yen ($128 billion) to its asset purchase programme, pushed the yen to a 3-1/2-month low against the dollar, lifting the appeal of exporters' shares. Toyota Motor Corp rose 4.7 percent and Honda Motor Co jumped 3.3 percent, while TDK Corp advanced 4.5 percent and Komatsu Ltd rose 5.3 percent. Financial shares outperformed the market, with Nomura Holdings Inc jumping 5.4 percent, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group up 4.1 percent and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group climbing 4 percent. (Reuters)

Emperor will stay on the job until Feb. 18 surgery

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Emperor Akihito will continue with his official duties right up until he checks into the University of Tokyo Hospital to undergo coronary bypass surgery on Feb. 18. The 78-year-old emperor greeted newly appointed officials including an ambassador and a Supreme Court justice in a confirmation ceremony held at the Imperial Palace as part of his official duties on Feb. 13. He was released from the hospital the day before after undergoing medical imaging tests to determine a course of treatment for narrowing of the coronary arteries. (Asahi)

Matt Johnson's family returns from Japan, with no success finding missing Portage man

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A woman identifying herself as his sister posting on the "Please pray for Matt Johnson" Facebook page last night said that her father and and brother-in-law are back from Tokyo, unsuccessful in their effort to learn more about what has happened to Johnson or to recover his body. The men made the trip last week as part of a private search party assembled by the family to continue the search for Johnson, presumed dead after disappearing while on a hike on Mt. Fuji last month. "Though they did not recover my brother, they were able to experience the same sights, sounds and smells that Matt did, while making lifelong friends with the search crew. My Dad was even able to share with the search crew about Jesus and how we know for sure that Matt is in heaven," the post reads. (mlive.com)

Japanese cosplayer feels heat for flashing Taiwanese police car

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While Japanese cosplayer Ushijima Ii Niku ("Good Meat") was in Taiwan, she caused a media storm after showing up to an event in her underpants. The incident even made the evening news there. But that's not what is angering the country's police force. Ushijima posed for a photo in front of a Taipei squad car. Wearing a short skirt and loose socks, she flashed her panties as looked into the cop car. The image was one in a series of photos Ushijima had taken while in the city: one showed Ushijima revealing her backside in a Taiwanese arcade, another showed her squatting next to a dog and showing her underpants. The Taipei Police, obviously upset about the squad car photo, released a statement, noting that, "It's possible that the police's image was damaged." In Taiwan, she's been getting attacked online for what she did. (Kotaku)

US comic wins Japan international manga award

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American comic book "I Kill Giants" has won the top prize in the Japanese government-sponsored annual international award for manga, the foreign ministry said. The 2008 book, created by American writer Joe Kelly and Spanish cartoonist J.M. Ken Niimura, was awarded the gold prize out of 145 entries from 30 countries and areas, the ministry announced on Tuesday. It portrays a socially isolated girl battling monsters both real and imagined as she comes of age. The three silver prizes went to Asian artists, Pan Liping of China, Cory of Taiwan and Tanis Werasakwong of Thailand. Ten other works were honourably mentioned. (AFP)

With marine basing Decision, U.S. sidesteps stalemate with Japan

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After years of controversy and disagreement, the U.S. and Japan agreed last week to decouple the terms of an agreement to close the U.S. Marines' Futenma air base in Okinawa, after negotiations over relocating the base elsewhere on the island had reached a stalemate. The 2006 agreement had required the relocation of Marine Corps Air Station Futenma to another site on Okinawa as a precondition for reducing the amount of U.S. troops stationed there. But heavy opposition among residents of Okinawa to hosting a new base, even in a less populated part of the island, had made the issue a political hot potato in Japan. The inability to find a solution contributed to the fall of the government of former Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama in June 2010. Hatoyama had campaigned on a promise to scrap the agreement altogether. (worldpoliticsreview.com)

Japan's surging sales of residential solar PV

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From wind and geothermal power to fuel cells, the Great East Japan Earthquake that occurred March 11 off the coast of Fukushima - along with much longer standing energy security concerns - has revitalized clean and renewable energy prospects in Japan. Smoothing the way forward is the introduction of a national feed-in tariff that's slated to go into effect on July 1 this year. Once the world leader in use of solar photovoltaic (PV) energy, solar PV is once again coming on strong in Japan. Domestic sales of solar PV cells rose 30.7% year-over-year in 2011 to 1,296 MW, the first time they've exceeded 1 gigawatt (GW), according to the Japan Photovoltaic Energy Association (JPEA), which noted that government incentives for homebuyers installing solar energy systems boosted the total. As can be seen in the following chart, residential solar PV installations far and away account for the largest share of Japan's solar PV installations. (cleantechnica.com)

Japan's nuclear safety chief apologizes, says country's regulations are flawed, outdated

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Japan's nuclear safety chief said Wednesday the country's regulations are flawed, outdated and below global standards, and he apologized for their failure when a tsunami crippled one plant last year. Haruki Madarame admitted Japanese safety requirements such as for tsunami and power losses were too loose and many officials have looked the other way and tried to avoid changes. "I must admit that the nuclear safety guidelines that we have issued until now have various flaws," he said. "We've even said that we don't need to consider risks for massive tsunamis and lengthy power outages." Madarame, who heads the Nuclear Safety Commission, was speaking at a parliament-sponsored inquiry investigating the meltdowns at the Fukushima Dai-ichi last year. (Washington Post)

Japan, S. Korea dominate electric car and hybrid battery market

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Lithium ion batteries are leading the charge in the electric vehicle market, and no countries produce them better than Japan and South Korea. That's according to Pike Research, which ranks South Korea's LG Chem as the leading vendor in a new report, Electric Vehicle Batteries - Assessment of Strategy and Execution for 10 Leading Lithium Ion Batteries. American company Johnson Controls bucks the Japan/S. Korea trend by grabbing the number two spot, followed by Japan's AESC. "The Li-ion automotive market is currently led by Japanese and Korean companies that originally produced cells for the consumer electronics and computing markets," Pike states. "These veteran companies are being challenged by companies mostly from China and North America that are slowly gaining customers, mostly in their domestic markets." (smartplanet.com)

Japanese PM warns Barak of military strike against Iran

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Japan's prime minister urged Defense Minister Ehud Barak to avoid mounting a military strike on Iran following Israeli claims that Tehran is behind the latest terror attacks in Thailand, India and Georgia. Japan's Kyodo news agency quoted a foreign ministry official as saying that the Japanese PM said a military strike will only exacerbate the current situation. (ynetnews.com)

Japan, one year later: glimmers of life in a ghost town

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Most people in Sendai are living their lives much as though nothing happened on March 11, 2011. On the surface, anyway.

But push on north as the sun is setting over the Tohoku region, toward the town of Minamisanriku, and the blackness overtakes you.

First the mountains roll in toward the coast to swallow up the roads; then, little by little, the lights are extinguished. What's missing is all the ambient light that vital, living towns emit. I've seldom driven in such pitch darkness. That's what a ghost town after dark looks like. And Minamisanriku is very nearly a ghost town.

When I was last in Minamisanriku the roads were strewn with muck or littered with boats, the buildings were decorated with the ropes and buoys of the oyster farms that once thrived here and the tsunami, which struck shortly after the massive earthquake of March 11, toppled buildings.

All that's gone now-the streets scrubbed, most of the debris carted away and sorted into metal or wood or plastic. What's left isn't much of a town. (macleans.ca)

Soccer: Japan's football chiefs vows to keep away yakuza mobsters

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Japan's football chiefs have vowed to shun the country's infamous 'yakuza' mobsters, as the sport worldwide tries to protect itself against the long tentacles of organised crime and illegal gambling. J-League clubs, players and referees issued a joint declaration in Tokyo on Tuesday that they would keep away from "anti-social forces", a euphemism for Japan's underworld gangs. There have been no major mob crimes involving the 20-year-old professional league so far, J-League chairman Kazumi Ohigashi said at a meeting where the declaration was signed. Betting is outlawed in Japan except on horse racing and some other races. An organised lottery on J-League matches began in 2001. (theborneopost.com)

Top court rejects actor's appeal over drug death

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The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by actor Manabu Oshio, upholding a lower court-imposed 30-month prison term for giving the synthetic drug Ecstasy to a girlfriend and neglecting to take proper lifesaving actions when she became ill after consuming it. While Oshio, 33, has the right to file an objection, it is rare for the top court to reverse a decision and he is expected to be imprisoned once the sentence is formally finalized. Because his offense violated an earlier 18-month suspended prison term for drugs, he will effectively be behind bars for four years. In a statement issued through his lawyers, Oshio said he was not happy with the decision. (Japan Times)

Tokyo's rabbit cafes hopping with customers

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Tokyo is full of cafes catering to a wide assortment of tastes, but in recent years a new breed of coffee house has emerged for people who love to hang out with rabbits. Ra.a.g.f, pronounced "raf," opened last fall in the fashionable Jiyugaoka area in Meguro Ward, and is usually packed at weekends with customers reveling in the company of the cafe's 20 to 30 rabbits. "I came here during my break to relax," said a smiling woman in her late 20s as she fed fresh vegetables to some of the rabbits. Customers who want to buy rabbits can purchase the animals from the cafe's breeding center - but the cafe's rabbit "staff" are not for sale. (Japan Times)
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