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US, Japan agree to partial Marine transfer from Okinawa
The United States and Japan have agreed to tweak a six-year-old agreement on Marines based on the southern island of Okinawa, allowing Washington to deploy forces to the Pacific island of Guam regardless of the debate over moving a disputed airbase.
The Guam deployment had been held hostage by a political stalemate in Japan over the shifting of the Futenma base to another site on Okinawa, an issue given added importance in recent years by China's growing military might in the region.
Japanese newspapers said the new plan would allow Washington to shrink the expensive Guam relocation plan at a time when it is under pressure to cut defense spending because of deficit woes even as it turns its attention to China. (Reuters)
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Sony: can a new CEO save the struggling tech giant?
Look around most living rooms and the chances are there's a Sony product somewhere: whether it's a television, a DVD player, an ageing video recorder or a hifi, the Japanese corporation has dominated consumer electronics for decades.
Recently, however, the company has struggled. Led until this week by Welshman Sir Howard Stringer, Sony has battled floods in Japan, a fire at its main warehouse in London, a rising Yen and a resolutely unprofitable TV business. While its profile remains high, the business has been under pressure. At this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the world's biggest trade fair, one major retailer's top buyer told me: "Panasonic are on the rise, Samsung are dominant - but I worry about Sony." This week, the company announced a 17 per cent drop in sales and a $2billion loss. (telegraph.co.uk)
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Kobayashi wins chicken wing crown
Multiple hot dog eating champion Takeru Kobayashi has won an annual chicken wing eating contest in Philadelphia, downing a record 337 wings in 30 minutes.
At Wing Bowl XX, the 33-year-old Kobayashi on Friday smashed the previous record of 255 wings set last year by local champ Jonathan Squibb to win a $20,000 cash prize, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported on its website.
The massive circuslike bash, hosted by a local radio station, was held in a sports arena and reportedly drew a crowd of about 20,000 eating enthusiasts who were entertained by local sports celebrities, scantily clad women and mud wrestling. (Japan Times)
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Our woods may be home to a 'new ' spider species
 An apparently new species of spider has been found in our woods, even though the creature has probably been around since long before humans came to Japan.
To be specific, our spider researcher, Koji Arai, has found an arachnid on our Afan Woodland Trust property in Nagano Prefecture that he believes has never been documented before.
It is a very small spider, about 4 mm long, and it is clearly of the genus Cybaeus - a free-hunter type of small spiders that live on the ground in forests. Both male (smaller abdomen) and female specimens have been found and are now undergoing peer assessment to confirm whether or not this is indeed a new species. (Japan Times)
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Students' retreat from English
A recent education ministry survey of third-year middle school students nationwide found most students have an ambivalent and contradictory attitude toward English. Of the 3,225 students surveyed, most felt English was important to study, but few wanted a job requiring English. The disjuncture between what they consider important and what they want for themselves is puzzling and disappointing.
In the survey, 85 percent agreed English was important and 70 percent - up from 47 percent in 2003 - agreed that knowing English would give them an edge in finding a job in the future.
Clearly, English is perceived as integral to internationalizing Japan and the world. However, despite students' increasing awareness of the importance of English, the percentage of students who said they did not want to get a job requiring English increased six percentage points to a whopping 43 percent. (Japan Times)
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Sales tax may be raised higher than 10% due to welfare reforms: Noda
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Saturday said the sales tax could be raised higher than the 10 percent rate currently proposed, due to the radical overhaul of the welfare system he is pushing.
"There is a possibility the consumption tax might be increased to more than 10 percent, as a result of implementing drastic reforms of the pension and social security systems," Noda said during a question and answer session after a speech in Tokyo.
He also reiterated his determination to pass legislation during the current ordinary Diet session that would double the 5 percent sales levy, as part of a broader package of reforms to ensure the country's welfare system remains sustainable. (Japan Times)
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Immigration cuts lengthy detention for foreigners
The number of foreign nationals detained by immigration officials for one year or more has dropped significantly since a more flexible approach was adopted in response to harsh criticism of long-term detentions, according to the Justice Ministry.
As of August, 167 foreigners at immigration facilities in Ibaraki, Osaka and Nagasaki prefectures had been held for at least six months, the ministry said Friday.
Many of them are believed to have overstayed their visas and were waiting to be deported or were seeking asylum in Japan. (Japan Times)
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American's death in Osaka probed
An American resident in Osaka died Saturday after a passer-by found him lying unconscious on a street in the busy Minami area in Chuo Ward earlier in the day, police said.
The Osaka Prefectural Police think the 23-year-old man may have fallen from a six-story building, and are investigating whether foul play was involved.
A passer-by called for an ambulance after he saw the man lying on a street in the Higashi-Shinsaibashi district of Chuo Ward at around 7:15 a.m., police said. The man was identified from an ID card he was carrying, though police have not released his name. (Japan Times)
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A taste of old Japan in a mountain ryokan
The Japanese clearly value tradition, yet for one reason or another - fire, natural disaster, the second world war, an enthusiasm for progress - there aren't many towns left that truly encapsulate the way things were. Kyoto has its temples, but in between them is a thoroughly modern city.
Takayama is different - an old castle town in the mountains of central Japan. You can still see the ruins of the 17th-century castle in the town's Shiroyama Park, but Takayama is much better known for its townscape of narrow lanes and low wooden buildings stained the colour of espresso. With its steep hills the town couldn't produce much rice, so it produced artisans instead. Many were carpenters, who would go on to work on the palaces and temples in Kyoto, then return to construct their signature lattice-front buildings for local merchants.
(guardian.co.uk)
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Japanese city takes on its gangsters
 Two years ago, the authorities in this gritty rust belt region declared war on the yakuza, Japan's entrenched organized crime syndicates. And that is exactly what they got.
Since this city and other local governments beefed up regulations to take on the yakuza - making it a criminal offense for companies and individuals to do business with them - there has been a death threat against Kitakyushu's mayor and his family, hand grenades tossed at the homes of corporate executives and a construction company chairman gunned down in front of his wife.
The police say the attacks, and many other lesser threats and intimidation tactics, are the doing of the Kudokai, a gang with more than 650 members that officials call one of the most dangerous of Japan's yakuza. The attacks have prompted the National Police Agency to propose giving law enforcement more powers to search and arrest gang members. (bendbulletin.com)
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Japan must be ready to expand stimulus: IMF official
The Bank of Japan (BOJ) should be ready to expand monetary stimulus and intervention is an option if the yen moves excessively, an IMF official said in Tokyo.
"Intervention could be an option," if yen moves are too large, Naoyuki Shinohara, a deputy managing director, said yesterday. "Japan's economy has many downside risks, so depending on the circumstances, the BOJ should always be ready to expand quantitative easing."
The central bank kept its asset-buying fund at ￥20 trillion (US$260 billion) and its credit-lending program at ￥35 trillion on Jan. 24 while cutting its forecast for the nation's growth. A yen near post World War II highs against the US dollar is eroding exporters' profits just as faltering global growth undermines demand, with Panasonic Corp yesterday forecasting a record loss for the 12 months ending March. (Taipei Times)
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Dolphins take up residence in Japan bay
Wildlife experts in Japan say Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins appear to have taken up permanent residence in Kagoshima Bay on the south coast of Kyushu.
Experts at Kagoshima City Aquarium said several years of field studies have confirmed two schools of some 50 dolphins are residing in the bay, Kyodo News reported.
There are young dolphins in both schools, meaning the animals are probably reproducing in the bay off Japan's southernmost island, they said.
(UPI)
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Panasonic joins ailing Japan giants
Japan's Panasonic Corp warned of a record annual $US10.2 billion net loss, joining beleaguered rivals Sony and Sharp in a sea of red ink as they struggle to fix their broken TV businesses and show they have not lost their way.
Panasonic's forecast loss of 780 billion yen ($US10.2 billion) for the year to March dwarfed expectations, and is almost all due to restructuring charges and writedowns for its Sanyo Electric unit.
Sony on Thursday pressed its reset button after warning of a bigger-than-expected annual loss, announcing that Kazuo Hirai will take over from Stringer as CEO in April, triggering an 8 per cent jump in its share price on Friday, its biggest one-day per centage gain in almost a year.
(Sydney Morning Herald)
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1.3 mil. will have nowhere to go in major Tokyo quake
At least 1.3 million people in the Tokyo metropolitan area will likely have no place to take temporary refuge if the area is directly hit by a strong earthquake, according to projections by local governments concerned.
There will only be space to accommodate 270,000 people, or more than 10 percent of the Tokyo residents whose houses are expected to be damaged in a major quake that has its epicenter in central Tokyo, the projections show.
Combined with those who will be unable to return home due to the suspension of public transportation, local governments concerned will have to secure additional shelters for more than 1.3 million people. (Yomiuri)
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Flu hits 'alarm level' for 1st time this winter
Influenza reached the "alarm level" for the first time this season after an estimated 1.73 million flu cases were reported last week, an increase of more than 50 percent from the previous week, the health ministry said Friday.
According to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, about 5,000 medical institutions throughout the country reported an average of 35.95 flu cases in the week starting Jan. 23, exceeding the alarm level of 30, ministry officials said.
The average has surged from 22.73 new flu cases per institution, which was the "alert level," the previous week. It also eclipsed last year's peak of 31.88. (Yomiuri)
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