-
Does Japan still need 23-yr-old exchange program?
 Every year for the past two decades, legions of young Americans have descended upon Japan to teach English. This government-sponsored charm offensive was launched to counter anti-Japan sentiment in the United States and has since grown into one of the country's most successful displays of soft power.
But faced with stagnant growth and a massive public debt, lawmakers are aggressively looking for ways to rein in spending. One of their targets is the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program, or JET.
Versions of the JET program can be found in other countries. French Embassies around the world help to recruit young people to teach their languages in France for a year. (AP)
-
Mitsui maintains oil tanker was likely attacked
 A Japanese shipping company maintained Thursday that its oil tanker was likely attacked in the Strait of Hormuz a day earlier, dismissing reports it may have been hit by a freak wave.
Mitsui OSK Lines officials reiterated at a Tokyo press conference that crew members saw a flash and heard an explosion in the incident shortly after midnight local time on Wednesday in the waterway between Iran and Oman. The Japan-bound vessel -- crewed by 16 Filipinos and 15 Indians -- was carrying 270,000 tonnes of crude oil but did not suffer a spill.
One of the crew saw a flash on the horizon at the time, while several other sailors heard an explosion, Hibino said, adding that the weather was fine and there were no reports of high waves in the region. (AFP)
-
Spain likely to extradite 2007 Ginza robbery suspect: sources
The Spanish government will likely agree to transfer the custody of a Montenegrin member of the "Pink Panther" ring of thieves to Japan over a 2007 robbery case at a jewelry shop in Tokyo's Ginza district, government sources said Wednesday.
Rifat Hadziahmetovic, 42, had been put on Interpol's wanted list by the Tokyo police for allegedly stealing jewels, including a diamond tiara worth 200 million yen, from the upscale Ginza shop in 2007. Spain has held his custody for an alleged involvement in a separate robbery case, according to the Metropolitan Police Department. (AP)
-
Record 44,210 child abuse cases logged in '09
Child abuse cases handled by consultation offices hit a record 44,210 in fiscal 2009, rising for 19 straight years since statistics were first compiled in fiscal 1990, a government survey showed Wednesday.
The figure reflects an increase of 1,546 cases from fiscal 2008, when the previous record was set, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said in a preliminary report.
During the reporting year, which ended in March, there was only one case requiring counselors to visit a household where child abuse was suspected, after the family had rejected the investigation, down from two cases in fiscal 2008 when such measures became possible under the revised child abuse prevention law. (Japan Times)
-
Japan to review death penalty
Japan's justice minister, a foe of capital punishment, has announced a review of the death penalty after witnessing the first executions since her centre-left government took power in 2009.
The two male convicts hanged on Wednesday were Kazuo Shinozawa, 59, who killed six people by setting fire to a jewellery store, and Hidenori Ogata, 33, convicted of killing a man and a woman and seriously injuring two others.
Keiko Chiba, the first justice minister to personally watch a government execution, carried out at the Tokyo Detention House, afterwards told media she wanted a ministry study group to review the practice. (Sydney Morning Herald)
-
Japan hangs 2 death row inmates, 1st execution in 1 year
 Japan hanged two death row inmates in the first execution under the Democratic Party of Japan government launched last September, Justice Minister Keiko Chiba told a press conference Wednesday.
The two are Kazuo Shinozawa, who was accused of murder in 2000 involving six female clerks at a jewelry store in Utsunomiya, Tochigi Prefecture, and Hidenori Ogata, who was involved in a double murder case in 2003, according to the Justice Ministry.
Chiba said she herself attended the execution. (AP)
-
Japan's rice field of dreams
 Rice farming has sustained the people of northern Japan's Inakadate village for two thousand years. Today, the ancient rice fields are the source of food and art.
Up close, the stalks of rice look like any other found in a rice paddy. CBS News correspondent Celia Hatton reports there are several varieties planted here, each with different colored leaves. Combine them together and an enormous 15,000 square foot image is revealed.
Every year, a local art teacher produces a computerized sketch. It's transferred onto a grid, and mapped with thousands of dots. It's then painstakingly recreated - point by point onto the rice field.
Then, it's a family affair as villagers of all generations join in to hand-plant each rice shoot. Three months later, the rice field of dreams comes alive in sweeping images.
(CBS)
-
Crown Prince visits war cemetery
 Crown Prince Naruhito offered flowers Tuesday at the national cemetery for people who died in the Battle of Okinawa in the city of Itoman.
On the first day of a three-day visit to Okinawa, the Crown Prince also visited the Okinawa Prefectural Peace Memorial Museum, where he viewed an exhibition on the war and the prefecture's reversion campaign afterward. (Japan Times)
-
Japan to take 32 Myanmar refugees
Japan will allow the settlement of 32 ethnic minority Myanmar refugees now living in Thailand, sources said.
The 32 people, consisting of six ethnic Karen families, will be the first refugees allowed in under the "third country" refugee resettlement program.
The sources said the refugees are due to travel to Japan after taking a monthlong Japanese-language and culture-acclimatization program at the Mera refugee camp in northeastern Thailand near the Myanmar border. (Japan Times)
-
'Hikikomori' bedroom hermits should be regarded as national crisis
There are approximately 230,000 people who almost constantly shut themselves in their rooms except to go to nearby convenience stores, according to a survey conducted by the Cabinet Office. The number increases to about 700,000 if those who only go out to do something hobby-related are included.
Moreover, there are an estimated 1.55 million potential so-called 'hikikomori' who have felt like shutting themselves in their own rooms. Most of them are young people.
As the population of young people declines due to falling birthrates, the statistics have raised questions about the future of Japan.
Hikikomori are defined as those who shut themselves in their homes for at least six months but are not involved in child care or housework even though they are not sick. (Mainichi)
-
Baseball: Knuckle Princess
 Some have looked at Eri Yoshida in cleats and cap and held their nose in contempt.
What in the world is she doing out there on the mound? She stands 5 foot 1 and weighs less than Barry Bonds's head. She's 18, can't speak more than a few words of English, can't throw over the top and her best pitch comes in at the speed of slow-motion.
Little wonder baseball purists, even some in the independent Golden League, have dismissed the Japanese side-armed Knuckle Princess as nothing more than a novelty act, a gimmick to invite people into the park so they can gawk at the first woman to pitch professionally in three countries (Japan, the United States, and now Canada). (Globe & Mail)
-
Japan lifts foot-and-mouth state of emergency
 Japan lifted a state of emergency Tuesday in a southern region known for its prized and pampered cattle, after a three-month foot-and-mouth outbreak forced the slaughter of almost 300,000 farm animals.
The highly contagious virus, which rarely affects humans but sickens cloven-hoofed animals, had forced the suspension of meat sales from Miyazaki prefecture.
"Wagyu" cattle -- from both Miyazaki on Kyushu island and Kobe on Honshu island -- are famed for being pampered, fed beer and massaged daily, sometimes with sake, and some are even played classical music for relaxation. (AFP)
-
Yahoo Japan picks Google as partner for search, ad delivery
Yahoo Japan said Tuesday morning that it will use Google's search engine and ad delivery system and provide Google with its data, according to a Reuters report out of Tokyo. Yahoo Japan, the country's biggest Internet portal, is owned in part by Yahoo Inc. in the U.S.
The news is especially noteworthy because U.S.-based Yahoo Inc. has partnered with Microsoft for search.
Yahoo Japan said its deal with Google will not impact the partnership it has with its U.S. counterpart or the investment that Yahoo U.S. has in Yahoo Japan. If you read Japanese, check the blog post on Google's Japan blog. (ZDNet)
-
Gun parts smugglers may have sold parts for several hundred guns
Three people arrested early this week on suspicion of smuggling a machine gun part into Japan from the United States may have sold parts for several hundred guns to gun enthusiasts across the country, police officials said Tuesday.
The police said they are investigating the sales channels for the gun parts as they suspect that purchasers likely assembled the parts to make guns, and are meanwhile checking the internal mechanism of a rifle they have confiscated in relation to the case to see if it is lethal. (AP)
-
Gov't team OKs plan to get ISPs to block access to child porn images
A Japanese government working group approved a plan Monday to get Internet service providers to block access to child pornography images as soon as they are found, without waiting for website operators to grant requests to delete them, government officials said.
The approval came at a meeting of bureaucrats from the National Police Agency, the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry and seven other government offices, the officials said. (AP)
|
