Tokyo police said Monday they have turned over to prosecutors their case against actor/model Dante Carver, 34, a frequent character on Softbank Corp.'s mobile phone commercials, for allegedly driving with an invalid international driver's license.
Carver is known as "oni-chan" (elder brother) on the popular family TV commercials.
The police confirmed a Kyodo News report that officers from Meguro Police Station pulled the New Yorker over after he executed an illegal U-turn in Shibuya Ward on July 2, and then presented an international driver's license that they determined to be invalid under the Road Traffic Law. (Japan Times)
Softbank star in driver's license flap
↧
↧
Tight schedules halt Noda-Obama summit
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda will forgo his trip to Washington in January to meet U.S. President Barack Obama because schedules are tight for both sides, Japanese government sources said Monday.
Noda, who became prime minister in September, had hoped to visit the U.S. capital before the Diet opens for the new year. The two allies have not held a formal leadership summit since the Democratic Party of Japan, now headed by Noda, swept to power in September 2009.
The meeting was canceled because of scheduling problems with both leaders' agendas in early 2012, the sources said, adding that it will likely be delayed until next spring or even later. (Japan Times)
↧
Culprit in Kyushu slayings to hang
The Supreme Court on Monday turned down the death sentence appeal of a 50-year-old man convicted in the slayings of seven people in Kitakyushu, clearing the verdict for finalization.
Lower court decisions said Futoshi Matsunaga and his common-law wife Junko Ogata conspired to murder six people, including five of Ogata's relatives, between February 1996 and June 1998, when the couple shared a condominium unit with them. The couple were also held responsible for torturing Ogata's father to death. (Japan Times)
↧
Proactive survivors lead grave rebuilding efforts
Many survivors of the March 11 disaster wish to have their ancestral graves rebuilt, as the graves and temple grounds that held them were severely damaged by the tsunami.
Some survivors have already removed graves from temple grounds, and in one case, private land was offered to a local government to build a new temple to accommodate displaced graves.
However, there are likely to be problems in the months ahead with local governments failing to make decisions on securing funds for grave rebuilding and drawing up recovery plans. Local governments are still struggling to get an overall picture of the extent of the damage to graveyards wrought by the tsunami. (Yomiuri)
↧
No Monju test runs in FY12, govt says
The government has announced it will not resume test operations for a Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, during fiscal 2012 in light of the current domestic situation following the crisis at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
Additionally, the government plans not to include 2.2 billion yen earmarked for test operation preparations in the fiscal 2012 budget.
Following recommendations from the Government Revitalization Unit, the government has reviewed the budgets for Monju and other nuclear energy-related projects, and will cut 4 billion yen from Monju's 21.5 billion yen budget request in the coming fiscal year. (Yomiuri)
↧
↧
Top genome researcher to quit / Frustrated expert wants to develop anticancer drugs in U.S.
Tokyo University Prof. Yusuke Nakamura will step down as head of the office promoting medical innovation in the Cabinet Secretariat and move to the University of Chicago, it was learned Monday.
Nakamura, 59, will make the move in April next year.
Nakamura, a leading authority on genomic research, hopes to put new anticancer drugs to practical use in the United States.
His decision likely will cause controversy, as it means a leader of medical innovation in Japan has given up on research and development of medicine here. (Yomiuri)
↧
Man nabbed for trying to sell stuffed panda
A 40-year-old Chinese man has been arrested for trying to sell a stuffed panda to Chinese tourists at his house in Ota Ward, Tokyo, in early September, the Metropolitan Police Department said Monday.
Shang Erjiang was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of violating the law for the conservation of endangered species by displaying the 1.5-meter-long stuffed panda for sales purposes, police said. "An acquaintance of mine just left [the panda] with me. I didn't intend to sell it," the man was quoted as telling the police.
The mounted panda--which had real fur on its body except for its face, which had rabbit fur on it--was believed to have been originally owned by a Chinese national who lived in Miyagi Prefecture before returning to China following the Great East Japan Earthquake. (Yomiuri)
↧
Grim job situation continues in Tohoku
The number of people receiving unemployment allowances in three Tohoku prefectures increased 60 percent in October from a year earlier, reflecting the grim job market caused by the March 11 disaster.
Job creation is likely to become an even more pressing issue from January, when government unemployment benefits begin to expire, observers said.
Figures from the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry show there were 49,848 people in Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures receiving unemployment benefits in October, a 59.7 percent increase compared to the same month of last year. (Yomiuri)
↧
Analysis -Little appetite in Japan for major post-Olympus reform
Japan is unlikely to make sweeping reforms to rules on corporate governance in the wake of the Olympus Corp accounting scandal because of a largely hostile business lobby and a lack of political will to clip the wings of top executives.
The $1.7 billion (1.1 billion pound) scheme to hide two decades of investment losses at Olympus (7733.T) is one of Japan's worst accounting frauds and highlights long-standing criticism of lax corporate governance, yet analysts say only minor reform is likely.
They cite the opposition of business, a government weighed down by a mountain of voter-sensitive issues and a divided parliament, as well as an insular corporate culture that makes some wonder if tough new rules would prevent another Olympus anyway. (Reuters)
↧
↧
Radioactivity in Japanese waters thousands of times higher than normal
With recent reports that there have been further radioactive leaks from the Fukushima nuclear power plants, a new study has assessed the level of radioactivity in the ocean in the first months after the disaster.
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution chemist Ken Buesseler and two Japanese colleagues report that discharges from the power plants peaked a month after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, and continued through at least July.
The disaster was the largest accidental release of radiation to the ocean in history. Concentrations of cesium-137 at the plants' discharge points to the ocean peaked at more than 50 million times normal levels. (tgdaily.com)
↧
Soccer: Japan striker suspended for injuring teammate
Japan international striker Genki Haraguchi has been suspended from activities at his J-League club Urawa Reds for a week after injuring a teammate in a scuffle on a training ground.
The 20-year-old kicked defender Takuya Okamoto when they were separated by a coach after getting into a shoving match after training at a facility in Urawa, the club said on its website.
Okamoto, 19, dislocated his left shoulder.
The fight broke out when Okamoto, apparently jokingly, kicked a ball point-blank at Haraguchi as about 100 Urawa supporters looked on. (AFP)
↧
Homeless man viciously beaten by five Tokyo teens
A group of teens brutally beat and robbed a homeless man on Sunday at 2:15 a.m. in a public park restroom in Tokyo. It appears the five teens attacked this man simply for thrills.
The 60-year-old unidentified homeless man suffered three broken ribs, cuts and bruises, according to police. Despite his injuries, the bleeding man was able to walk to a police box to seek help.
He told police that he was sleeping in the public restroom at Oshima Komatsugawa Park when a group of teens suddenly splashed water on him from over the top of the door. When he walked outside, the teens began pushing and beating him with a construction-type bar used from traffic control and then tied him behind a bicycle and dragged his body. (majirox news)
↧
Japan likely to buy Lockheed Martin's F-35 fighters: media
Japan's government has selected the Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighter to bolster its aging air force and is likely to announce the multibillion-dollar deal by the end of the week, news reports said Tuesday.
The announcement is expected after a committee meeting Friday, according to Kyodo News agency and the Yomiuri newspaper. A spokesman for Lockheed Martin said it had not been informed of any decision, and Defense Ministry officials refused to comment.
Japan is expected to buy as many as 40 jets for as much as $8 billion. The Yomiuri report said it will budget for the first four aircraft in 2012. (Japan Today)
↧
↧
Truck carrying 100 pigs collides with car in Tochigi
A car crashed into a truck carrying 100 pigs at Nasukarasuyama in Tochigi Prefecture on Monday, police said Tuesday.
The accident occurred at about 9:30 a.m., according to Sankei Shimbun. The truck, driven by a 52-year-old man, was hit by the car driven by an 83-year-old man, and turned over onto its side. About 40 pigs escaped, police said.
The pigs were rounded up in a nearby rice paddy about 90 minutes later. Seven pigs died in the truck.
Sankei reported that the accident took place at an intersection where there were no traffic lights. (Japan Today)
↧
Japan's working-woman problem
Japan has taken some steps forward since the one-two punch of the earthquake and tsunami that hit the country in March. But the long-term health of the economy, which has continued to decline over the past several years, is facing a new threat that looms larger every day: Japan needs more workers. Birthrates have been plummeting - faster, in fact, than in other developed country - even as the number of older citizens is soaring. As recently as 1990, working-age Japanese outnumbered children and the elderly by 7 to 3. By 2050 the ratio will be 1 to 1. As the population grows old and feeble, the country needs to look to the growing number of educated Japanese women.
Japanese women constitute nearly half (48%) of university graduates. Yet this tranche of talent is woefully underutilized: Only 67% of college-educated women are currently employed, and many of them either languish in low-paid, part-time jobs or are shunted into dead-end "office-lady" roles serving tea for male managers and dusting their desks at the end of the day. (Time)
↧
Marathon: Blind 11-year-old girl from Japan finishes Honolulu marathon with tears and cheers
Wakana Ueda followed the sounds of applause, of chanting and of her mother's voice as she crossed the finish line of the Honolulu Marathon on December 11.
The blind, 11-year-old girl from Toyota City, Japan, had tears in her eyes as she reunited with her family after 14 hours, 3 minutes and 12 seconds since the start of the race, Hawaii News Now reports.
The girl's first marathon was not without its difficulties: the physical strains of the course almost derailed her at several points - but determination and encouragement from her team carried her through the finish line strung with flower petals. (nydailynews.com)
↧
Sony shopping is 'wrong direction' in Apple war
Sony Corp. Chief Executive Officer Howard Stringer has announced acquisitions worth $8.4 billion this year to bolster phones and content. That may not be enough to turn around a company heading for a fourth consecutive loss.
Japan's largest consumer-electronics exporter will pay cash to control its mobile-phone venture with Ericsson AB, partner with Michael Jackson's estate for music assets from EMI Group, and team up with Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) for patent rights. The Ericsson buyout gives Sony full access to the unit's 6.29 billion euros ($8.3 billion) in revenue, adding to Sony's $84 billion in sales for the year ended March 31. (Bloomberg)
↧
↧
Tokyo stocks close 1.37% higher on EU move to back tighter budget policing Close
Tokyo stocks rose 1.37 percent on Monday following a move by European Union leaders to back tighter budget policing in a desperate bid to save the debt-riddled eurozone.
The Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange gained 117.36 points to close at 8,653.82. The Topix index of all first-section issues added 1.16 percent, or 8.57 points, to 746.69.
Markets reacted positively as European leaders took a first step towards fiscal integration at their talks last week, said Yumi Nishimura, senior market analyst at Daiwa Securities.
A total of 26 of the 27 EU states signalled their willingness to join a "new fiscal compact" to resolve the crisis threatening to break apart the monetary union. (Economic Times)
↧
Last death sentence upheld in 1995 Tokyo subway gas attack
Japan's Supreme Court upheld a death sentence handed down on a member of the doomsday cult that staged gas attacks on the Tokyo subway in 1995, a court spokesman said on Tuesday, ending the trials of cult followers charged in a series of assaults.
Seiichi Endo, 51, was the 13th member of the Aum Shinri Kyo cult to have his death sentence confirmed in a ruling issued on Monday. First sentenced in 2002, Endo had joined the cult in 1987, when he was studying virology at the University of Kyoto.
Local media said none of those found guilty had been executed. Justice Minister Hideo Hiraoka last month said he would make no comment on the cases but would "cautiously decide" on whether to apply the death penalty. (Reuters)
↧
Japan's post-tsunami revival plan reaches tipping point
Nine months after a historic magnitude 9.0 earthquake unleashed a deadly tsunami that wreaked havoc across Japan's northeast, the nation, armed with $155 billion in funding, is entering a critical stage of the rebuilding effort.
Damaged railways and major roads are mostly fixed with at least temporary repairs, two-thirds of ruined ports have been restored and 47,000 households moved from emergency shelters to temporary housing.
Of 22 million tonnes of rubble, two-thirds have been cleaned up, but final disposal remains a dangerous challenge because of concerns about radiation that spewed from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. (Reuters)
↧
More Pages to Explore .....
