Crown Prince Naruhito has canceled a plan to visit France this month for the World Water Forum to be held in Marseille, the Imperial Household Agency said Monday.
The Crown Prince will concentrate on covering Emperor Akihito's affairs of state, as the 78-year-old Emperor will rest until the end of this month after being discharged Sunday from University of Tokyo Hospital, where he underwent heart bypass surgery and rehabilitation. (Japan Times)
Crown Prince cancels France visit
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DPJ leaders propose slashing lawmaker salaries by 14%
The ruling Democratic Party of Japan's executive members decided Monday to slash legislators' salaries by about 14 percent - nearly double the 7.8 percent pay cut for civil servants approved by the Diet last week.
DPJ Secretary General Azuma Koshiishi proposed cutting ¥3 million from the average lawmaker's salary in an apparent attempt to ease simmering public frustration with its plan to double the sales tax.
On average, national lawmakers make about ¥21 million a year, including bonuses. (Japan Times)
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Myanmar refugees set for new life
Eighteen Myanmar refugees consisting of four families, who arrived in Japan from a camp in Thailand last year, completed a language and cultural acclimation program Friday and are looking forward to embarking on a new life here.
All the refugees are of the Karen ethnic minority and the second group that Japan accepted under its third-country resettlement program. All four husbands in the group will work at a shoe factory in Tokyo, while their wives will work at a cleaning company in Saitama Prefecture. (Japan Times)
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Buyers of new bonds to get special coin at term maturity
Japan began selling special government bonds Monday aimed at raising funds for reconstruction from the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, saying it will present buyers with commemorative gold coins imprinted with an image of the "miracle pine" that survived the killer tsunami when the bonds mature in three years.
The coins - worth ¥10,000 each, and silver coins worth ¥1,000 - are engraved with the design of the 30-meter-high pine in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, that was the only one of about 70,000 pines on a stretch of coast to survive the massive tsunami. (Japan Times)
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Berlitz court ruling unequivocal on basic right to strike
After hearing more than three years of testimony, the judge took only a minute to read the court's verdict rejecting Berlitz Japan's ¥110 million lawsuit against striking teachers and their union and reaffirming organized labor's right to take industrial action.
According to the Feb. 27 Tokyo District Court ruling, "There is no reason to deny the legitimacy of the strike in its entirety and the details of its parts - the objective, the procedures, and the form of the strike. Therefore there can be no compensation claim against the defendant, either the union or the individuals. And therefore it is the judgement of this court that all claims are rejected." (Japan Times)
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Japan's revolving-door immigration policy hard-wired to fail
Last December, the Japanese government announced that a new visa regime with a "points system" would be introduced this spring.
It is designed to attract 2,000 non-Japanese (NJ) with a "high degree of capability" (kōdo jinzai), meaning people with high salaries, impeccable educational and vocational pedigrees, specialized technical knowledge and excellent managerial/administrative skills.
Those lucky foreign millionaire Ph.Ds beating a path to this land of opportunity would get preferential visa treatment: five-year visas, fast-tracking to permanent residency, work status for spouses - even visas to bring their parents and "hired housekeepers" along. (Japan Times)
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Miyagi city to build huge solar plant
The Iwanuma city government plans to build a mega solar power plant on farmland rendered useless by salt damage and subsidence as a result of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
The plant, which would be one of the largest of its kind in Japan, would generate 15,000 kilowatts of electricity.
A contractor will be selected later this month and work on the plant is expected to begin in July. Construction is expected to cost more than 5 billion yen and the city hopes to start operating the plant next year. (Yomiuri)
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Police from 3 prefectures apologize for inability to stop stalker killing 2 women
Police officials from Nagasaki, Chiba and Mie prefectures on Monday apologized at a joint news conference for their inability to prevent a known stalker from killing two women last December.
Mitsuko Yamashita, 56, and her mother-in-law, Hisae Yamashita, 77, were found stabbed to death in the rear compartment of their minivan outside their home in Saikai, Nagasaki Prefecture, on Dec 16.
The man arrested for the murders, Gota Tsutsui, 27, from Kuwana in Mie Prefecture, was already under investigation by Chiba police for allegedly assaulting the daughter of one of his victims. According to NTV, he had been warned twice by police and was already under investigation for allegedly assaulting Yamashita's 23-year-old daughter. (Japan Today)
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Spider silk spun into violin strings
A Japanese researcher has used thousands of strands of spider silk to spin a set of violin strings.
The strings are said to have a "soft and profound timbre" relative to traditional gut or steel strings.
That may arise from the way the strings are twisted, resulting in a "packing structure" that leaves practically no space between any of the strands. For each string, Dr Osaki twisted between 3,000 and 5,000 individual strands of silk in one direction to form a bundle. The strings were then prepared from three of these bundles twisted together in the opposite direction. (BBC)
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Party for baby whose birth saved father from Japan tsunami
Searching through piles of bodies after Japan's March 11 tsunami, Kenji Sato was struck by the thought -- he could easily have been one of them, had it not been for his son born earlier that day.
In a fortunate twist of fate, Sato, a wiry descendant of fishermen in his coastal hometown of Minamisanriku, took time off from work to see his third child, Haruse, born at a hospital in a nearby port city.
Hours later, the only thing left of the nursing home where he would usually have been was a skeleton of steel pillars.
Nearly all 70 residents were swept away by the tsunami set off by the 9.0 magnitude offshore earthquake that devastated Minamisanriku, one of the worst-hit towns. Sato and his work mates set about the task of searching for them. (Reuters)
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Japan watchdog files criminal charge against Olympus
Japan's securities watchdog said on Tuesday that it was filing criminal complaints against medical equipment maker Olympus Corp and its former executives and outside advisers over the company's $1.7 billion accounting fraud.
Tokyo prosecutors and the metropolitan police last month arrested ex-President Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, former Executive Vice President Hisashi Mori, former auditor Hideo Yamada and former bankers advising Olympus on supicion of hiding huge investment losses through complex takeover deals. (Reuters)
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Nikkei slips for 2nd day; bridge makers soar
Japan's Nikkei share
average slipped for a second day on Tuesday as investors
bagged profits on blue chip stocks following February's 10.5
percent rally, although some attractive valuations and a softer
yen supported sentiment.
Honda Motor Co slid 1.9 percent, Sony Corp
eased 0.8 percent, Panasonic Corp shed 2.1 percent and
Nomura Holdings lost 1.3 percent.
Investors opted instead for defensive sectors such as
pharmaceuticals and utilities, up 0.9
percent and 1.2 percent, respectively.
(Reuters)
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Noda tells Putin Japan wants to start afresh in territorial talks
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Monday expressed hope to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin that the two countries will start afresh in talks over a long-standing territorial dispute concerning islands off Hokkaido, the Foreign Ministry said.
In a 5-minute telephone conversation, Noda told Putin, who won the Russian presidential election on Sunday, that he wants to "wisely" settle the territorial row, while referring to the judo term "hajime," meaning "begin," the Japanese ministry said. (Mainichi)
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Two men taken to hospital after smoking 'legal herbs'
Police said Tuesday that two men in Tokyo's Sumida Ward were taken to hospital on Monday after smoking herb-like substances.
According to police, a group of six men checked into a hotel room at around 11 p.m. on Sunday, TBS reported. The men reportedly smoked several kinds of dried herb-like substances in the hotel room, following which two of them complained of sickness. The men, both in their 30s, were taken to hospital. Police say the men were treated and later discharged. (Japan Today)
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Truck driver found stabbed to death in company parking lot in Mie
Police said Tuesday that a 39-year-old man was found dead in his truck in the parking lot of a transport company in Matsuzaka City in Mie Prefecture on Monday.
According to police, the victim, identified as Shinya Suzuki, was found in his truck at about 9 a.m. by the company president. He had stab wounds to his neck and stomach, NTV reported.
The company president was quoted by police as saying that Suzuki's shift had finished at 10 p.m. on Sunday. Suzuki's wallet and cell phone were on him, but there was no knife left at the scene, police said. (Japan Today)
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Real-time online tsunami feed starts
Weathernews Inc. has started a new service that provides tsunami information online using radars that can detect the waves within 30 km of the coast and capture images of them as fast as 15 minutes before they reach shore.
The radars are located at nine sites along the coastlines of Aomori, Iwate, Miyagi, Fukushima and Ibaraki prefectures, which were devastated by last March's monster waves, Weathernews spokesman Hitoki Ito said Tuesday.
The radars are able to detect tsumani that are at least 3 meters high and update their progress across the Pacific Ocean every two seconds, right up until the moment they smash into coastal areas, Ito said. (Japan Times)
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Japan investors count cost of falling double-decker returns
The double-decker thrill ride for Japanese retail investors may be over after a depreciation in emerging market high-yield currencies shattered profits and regulators stiffened rules. Asia Risk assesses the risks of these products and asks what investors will look to next
In Japan's multi-decade deflationary environment, the options for investors are limited: stick to Japanese government bonds (JGBs) and receive certainty over retaining your principal if little in the way of returns, or opt for something a little racier in the search for yield.
Japanese investors, particularly those in the 60-69 year age group, who are contemplating a long retirement on a low-yielding asset base, have opted for the latter - with volumes of so-called 'double-decker' products rising from virtually nil in 2009 to more than ¥9.2 trillion ($114 billion) in assets under management at their peak in July last year, according to figures provided by Morningstar.
(risk.net)
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Japanese tea master appointed as UNESCO ambassador
UNESCO appointed Japanese tea ceremony master Sen Genshitsu as its second goodwill ambassador from Japan.
"I feel a great responsibility as I did when I succeeded the grand master of the Ura Senke school," Genshitsu, 88, said yesterday at an event at UNESCO headquarters in Paris.
"Under my motto of 'Peacefulness from a Bowl of Tea,' I'll offer my utmost effort to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization," he said.
Genshitsu, who was the 15th grand master of the school from 1964 to 2002, also performed a tea ceremony during the event commemorating the victims of the earthquake and tsunami that hit northeastern Japan a year ago. (zeenews)
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Japan's declining economy
Japan shows no signs of emerging from its recession, according to Hiromichi Shirakawa, chief economist of Credit Suisse in Japan. However, the government is attempting to make substantial steps to reverse the trend. Experts list high government debt, aging population and ongoing deflation for Japan's problems.
"The government has been taking more serious steps trying to reverse the currency markets and try to weaken the yen," Shirakawa said. "The BOJ, the Central Bank, is printing money more aggressively."
However, it seems that the yen will continue to be strong, with the Americans and the Europeans also flooding their markets with new money. (majirox news)
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Tsuruga nuke plant sits atop major fault
An active fault running under reactors 1 and 2 at the Tsuruga nuclear plant in Fukui Prefecture is much longer than previously thought and could trigger a 7.4-magnitude earthquake, larger than earlier projections, according to a team of government-affiliated researchers.
"The worst-case scenario should be taken into consideration" as the Urasoko fault, now thought to extend at least 35 km, could activate faults on the south side of the Tsuruga plant, warned Yuichi Sugiyama, leader of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology's research team. (Japan Times)
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