Golf: Tiger, Ishikawa eliminated early in Match Play

February 25, 2012, 1:17 am

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The roar resonated across Dove Mountain from fans packed around the 18th green as Tiger Woods, needing a birdie on the last hole to stay in his match, hit a shot that dropped out of the Arizona sky and landed 5 feet from the hole. That was followed by silence. Woods missed the putt so badly that it never even touched the hole. No one was more surprised than Nick Watney, who removed his cap to shake hands with Woods after a 1-up victory Thursday in the Match Play Championship. It was the third straight time in this fickle event that Woods failed to get out of the second round, and it raised more questions about his ability to make key putts that once seemed so automatic. (Japan Times)

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Yakuza Godfather targeted in Obama crackdown on Japanese organized crime

February 25, 2012, 1:20 am

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Japan's yakuza organized-crime groups, having operated openly in their home country for more than a century, are facing tougher treatment by an overseas foe: the U.S. Obama administration. The largest of Japan's yakuza organizations, the Yamaguchi- gumi, and two of its leaders will have their U.S. assets frozen and transactions barred under sanctions announced yesterday by the Treasury Department.

The group earns "billions of dollars" a year from crimes in Japan and abroad, including drug and human trafficking, prostitution, money laundering and fraud, the department said in a statement. The U.S. move represents "a slap in the face of the Japanese government" for failing to rein in organized crime, said Jake Adelstein, a Tokyo-based writer who covers the yakuza. (Bloomberg)

Why Japan probably won't have a space elevator by 2050

February 25, 2012, 1:33 am

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Japanese construction company Obayashi wants to build an elevator to space - and they want to use carbon nanotubes to get there. The Tokyo-based company plans to use 60,000-miles of the cylindrical carbon structures, anchored to Earth's surface, to shuttle an elevator to and from a distance about a tenth of the Moon's distance from the Earth. Here's why that probably won't happen. Based solely on the company's meager description - published two days ago in the Daily Yomiuri - it sounds as though Obayashi is flirting with the idea of using the carbon nanotubes in a "ribbon" setup - a popular concept among those familiar with space elevators. The basic idea is to use strong, light, and almost inconceivably flat sheets of carbon nanotube ribbon (think several meters wide, and thin enough to make paper seem bulky) as a rail system that runs perpendicular to Earth and keeps hold of robotic cars that glide along the ribbon to and from the planet. (io9.com)

Soccer: Japan beat Iceland 3-1 in friendly

February 25, 2012, 1:35 am

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The J-League's former top goal scorer Ryoichi Maeda helped Japan beat Iceland 3-1 with an early goal on Friday in a warm-up game for a World Cup qualifier next week. The Asian Cup holders needed only two minutes to open the scoring when defender Tomoaki Makino, after exchanging straight passes with Yoshito Okubo, produced a cross from the left for Maeda to score with his head. Japan controlled the game throughout the first half, never giving the visitors a scoring chance. Iceland played more aggressively after the break, but it was Japan who scored in the 53rd minute with second-half substitute Kengo Nakamura passing to Jungo Fujimoto for his first goal for the national team. (AFP)

Beyond Fukushima Japan faces deeper nuclear concerns

February 25, 2012, 1:35 am

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On a hillside in northern Japan, wind turbines slice through the cold air, mocking efforts at a nearby industrial complex to shore up the future of the demoralised nuclear power industry. The wind-power farm at Rokkasho has sprung up close to Japan's first nuclear reprocessing plant, a Lego-like complex of windowless buildings and steel towers, which was supposed to have started up 15 years ago but is only now nearing completion. Dogged by persistent technical problems, it is designed to recycle spent nuclear fuel and partly address a glaring weakness in Japan's bid to restore confidence in the industry, shredded last year when a quake and tsunami wrecked the Fukushima Daiichi power station to the south, triggering radioactive leaks and mass evacuations (Vancouver Sun)

Fun dining at Japan's street food stalls

February 25, 2012, 1:36 am

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Japan is famed for its elaborate fine dining, but tough economic times means that street-food culture is flourishing in cities such as Kyoto and Tokyo. Street food has never flourished in Japan. The Japanese still see it as rude to eat on the go. But that's starting to change. Sushi started as Tokyo street food, and the best places to eat it are still down by the city's Tsukiji fish market. At one tiny stall, with four stools, I tried chirashi - "scattered sushi". It was the off-cuts of the sushi (mine arrived with salmon, tuna and salmon roe) artfully presented on a donburi. A Tokyo speciality, and - right on the doorstep of Tsukiji - the freshest leftovers I've ever tasted. The best places for ramen - the delicious Japanese noodle dish - are also on the squares down by the fish market. Inoue for instance (4-9-16 Shin Ohashi Dori, Tsukiji, Chuo-ku, Tokyo), serves a light ramen based on chicken stock - a real treat to eat among the shoppers and market workers. (guardian.co.uk)

NHK prepares 8K image sensor

February 25, 2012, 1:39 am

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While Japanese broadcaster NHK demonstrated 8K technology way back in 2008 at CommunicAsia, but only recently developed a smaller and lower-power image sensor for eventual commercialization. Besides offering a staggering 7,680 x 4,320-pixel resolution, the new sensor can also capture extremely fast motion at 120-frames-per-second. Two supporting electronic components have been jointly produced by NHK and Shizuoka University to keep up with the sheer amount of data recorded by the chip. One of them is a high-speed output circuit connected to the sensor, while the other is an analog-to-digital converter to digitally encode the video. (CNET)

Girl group wants Japan to stop killing itself

February 25, 2012, 1:42 am

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Suicide is serious. It's horrible. It's touched me personally as well as many people in Japan, which has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. The ruling political part decided to take action to help prevent it: with a slogan and cute idols. Earlier this month, the Democratic Party of Japan unveiled a new suicide prevent slogan: "Anata mo GKB47 sengen!" (あなたもGKB47宣言!) or, roughly, "Proclaim yourself as part of GKB47!" The slogan seemed inspired by one of Japan's most popular bubblegum pop bands, causing some politicians to dub the slogan as "deeply inappropriate". It even made country's prime minister uncomfortable. According to Japan Today, the "GK" refers to "Gatekeeper", which in Japan is used to refer to those who notice signs of depression in others and helps them seek treatment. The "B" refers to "Basic", as if to infer that this is a basic responsibility that is shared by all. The "47" refers to Japan's forty-seven prefectures. (Kotaku)

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Japan's Miss Earth 2011 led her people in supporting PH peasants fight vs. bio-ethanol

February 25, 2012, 1:43 am

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Japan's reigning Miss Earth 2011 has led her people in supporting the opposition of Filipino farmers in Isabela against the bio-ethanol project in Northern Luzon. Peasant leader Diony Yadao of Danggayan Dagiti Mannalon ti Isabela (Dagami) said Japan's Miss Earth 2011 titlist Tomoko Maeda added her voice against the proposed bio-ethanol project in the province. Maeda was here in Manila to compete in the 2011 edition of Miss Earth. Although she did not win the crown, Tomoko was chosen as one of the 16 semi-finalists eventually won by Olga Alava of Ecuador. The Ms Earth Japan 2011 who attended one of the forum where Yadao spoke, remarked that "she used to know that biofuel is environmental-friendly but after this forum I learned that the biofuel projects have caused serious problems such as land grabbing, environmental impact and unfair labor practices. (allvoices.com)

Tokyo governor backs Nanjing massacre denial

February 26, 2012, 5:49 am

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Tokyo's outspoken conservative governor Shintaro Ishihara on Friday said he agreed with the mayor of Nagoya's statement that the 1937 'rape' of Nanjing by Japanese troops never happened. Diplomatic sparks flew earlier this week when Takashi Kawamura said he believes only a "conventional fight" took place in Nagoya's sister city of Nanjing, instead of the well-documented massacre of Chinese civilians. China says 300,000 people were killed in an orgy of murder, rape and destruction when the eastern city -- then the capital -- fell to the Japanese imperial army, and the incident has haunted Sino-Japanese ties ever since. (AFP)

Skepticism grows over scientists quake forecasts

February 26, 2012, 5:49 am

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When two University of Tokyo seismologists recently released a study forecasting that a major earthquake would strike the capital and its 13 million inhabitants sometime in the next four years, they made front-page headlines. But their forecast also came with a backlash, as other researchers studying earthquakes bristled at the forecast, saying such predictions shouldn't be attempted in the first place because they're more likely wrong than right, at least based on Japan's history. Within days of the attention-grabbing headlines, the University of Tokyo's Earthquake Research Institute - where they both work - placed a lengthy disclaimer on its website. (Japan Times)

Japan wants to replace TEPCO board

February 26, 2012, 5:49 am

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Japan's government wants to replace the entire board of the operator of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in exchange for $12 billion of tax money to resuscitate the firm, a report said Saturday. Authorities are planning to remove all 17 board members of giant private utility Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) at a shareholder meeting in June and name an outsider as the new chairman, the Mainichi Shimbun said. TEPCO is trying to remain private while Industry Minister Yukio Edano has demanded management control in exchange for one trillion yen ($12 billion) in help. (AFP)

Japan fears permanent ban on habitation near nuclear plant

February 26, 2012, 5:49 am

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Japan on Friday said some areas surrounding the Fukushima nuclear power plant that was wrecked last year by a massive tsunami will likely remain permanently off-limits. Measurements taken between November and January confirm earlier results which show a level of radioactivity of 470 millisierverts per year when the average, under normal conditions, is less than one per year, according to a government report released on Friday. Some of the highest readings were taken in the town of Futaba, to the north-west of the plant wrecked on March 11. (Straits Times)

Japanese Americans urged to share internment story

February 26, 2012, 5:49 am

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Bill Shishima shares how he joined the Boy Scouts as a 12-year-old behind the barbed wire of a Japanese American internment camp, or how he had to work on a rabbit farm to earn his keep when his parents couldn't afford to move the family back to California after World War II. The 81-year-old retired teacher answers the questions of those who ask -- school groups, news reporters and sometimes his children and 14-year-old granddaughter -- but he's never sat down and recorded his life story or that of his now-deceased parents, who lost the family's grocery and hotel business when they were sent to Wyoming's Heart Mountain camp. "They just endured," he said. "My parents never talked about it." Like many survivors, Shishima is now being asked to write down his memories with thousands of others before they're lost to time. (boston.com)

Uniqlo opens in Philippines in June

February 26, 2012, 5:49 am

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When Uniqlo announced its entry into the Philippines recently at Hotel InterContinental in Makati, Japanese Embassy officials were in full force-and understandably so. The clothing chain is one of Japan's biggest exports today and is owned by Japan's richest (or second richest, depending on who you ask) man. It claims to be the world's fastest-growing apparel retailer. Uniqlo's parent company, Fast Retailing Inc., has partnered with the Sy family's SM Retail Inc. to form Fast Retailing Phils. Inc. Uniqlo's first Philippine store opens in June at SM Mall of Asia. The shop, to cover 1,500 sq m, will carry the men's, women's and children's lines. (inquirer.net)

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Cram-free education lowers math abilities

February 26, 2012, 10:31 am

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The recent study by the Mathematical Society of Japan has revealed that Japanese university students can calculate according to standard formulas within a limited time but they cannot explain why they use particular calculation methods because they do not understand the basic theories behind them. Only 1.2 percent of the university students surveyed answered all five questions correctly, even though the questions were primary and middle school level. Lack of mathematical skill is a serious problem even among students in science and engineering majors and those who took a math exam at the preliminary university entrance examinations administered by the government. (Yomiuri)

Refugee requests soar, approvals dip

February 26, 2012, 10:31 am

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A record-high 1,867 foreign nationals applied for refugee status last year but only 21 applicants were approved, down from 39 in 2010, the Justice Ministry said. The number of applications filed was the highest since the refugee recognition system was created in 1982, and about 1.6 times the number received the previous year, the ministry's Immigration Bureau said Friday. (Japan Times)

AV stars out to play despite hard times

February 26, 2012, 10:33 am

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Since her steamy debut in late 2008, adult-video (AV) actress Kokomi Naruse has starred in hundreds of features, many of which find her playing a young girl desired by older men. But after taking the Best Actress title at this year's Sky PerfecTV! Adult Broadcasting Awards, this girl's all grown up. At the ceremony, held inside a hotel ballroom near Tokyo's Shinagawa JR station on Valentine's Day, the 22-year-old, representing channel Perfect Choice, said the achievement would not have been possible without fellow porn actress Rio, who won the same award in 2008. The annual event, in its eighth year, is a mishmash of awards and short performances to showcase the top stars appearing on the approximately 10,000 programs broadcast last year on the more than 20 adult channels on the Sky PerfecTV! satellite network. (Japan Times)

Worker at No. 1 nuke plant died from overwork

February 26, 2012, 10:44 am

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The death last May of a man who had worked at the Fukushima No. 1 plant after the nuclear crisis erupted in March has been officially attributed to overwork, according to a lawyer representing the man's family. A labor standards inspection office in Yokohama determined Friday that Nobukatsu Osumi's fatal heart attack at age 60 was caused by the excessive physical and mental burdens of having to work all night in protective gear, including a mask, lawyer Akio Ohashi said. It is the first time the death of a worker involved in the nuclear crisis has been officially recognized as resulting from overwork, according to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry. (Japan Times)

5 youths ordered to apologize to monkeys, clean pen for throwing fireworks

February 26, 2012, 10:51 am

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Five youths have apologized to the director of Kyoto Zoo after admitting to breaking into the premises early one morning in January and throwing fireworks at the zoo's monkeys. As part of their punishment, the five were ordered to apologize to the monkeys and clean their enclosure, according to a Fuji TV report.

Police say the group, all 18 years of age, consisted of high school students, construction workers and beauticians. According to police, the group had been drinking alcohol before they illegally entered the zoo on Jan 3 and threw lit fireworks into the monkey enclosure, Fuji reported. (Japan Today)