Japanese lawmaker Shinzo Abe, widely expected to become the country’s next prime minister, said on Friday the military should have a greater role in global security and should increase cooperation with United States forces. Abe called for a permanent law allowing Japanese forces to take part in international cooperation missions overseas.
A typhoon churned toward Japan’s Pacific coast on Thursday with heavy rain and choppy waves, leaving three people, including a middle-aged surfer, dead or missing, officials said. Typhoon Wukong, which means Monkey King in Chinese, was moving slowly towards the southern main island of Kyushu, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.
A Japanese tanker spilled about 5,3-million litres of crude oil in the eastern Indian Ocean near the Nicobar islands following a collision with a cargo ship, the tanker’s operator announced on Tuesday. Japan’s Kyodo news service said the spill may have been the largest to date involving a Japanese tanker.
The Beijing Olympics will lead to a boom in sales of flat-screen televisions in China, with one in four televisions sold in 2008 either a liquid-crystal display (LCD) or plasma, a Japanese study said on Monday. Only 10% of the 42-million colour televisions sold in China last year was an LCD or plasma, said a study by the economic research firm Fuji Keizai.
South Africa is confident in its ability to host the 2010 World Cup, claiming on Wednesday it is better prepared than Germany was at this point before the 2006 tournament. ”We are absolutely on target with World Cup preparations. We are well within the time frame,” Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Marthinus van Schalkwyk told reporters in Tokyo.
Japan’s space agency has set a goal of constructing a manned lunar base in 2030, an official said on Wednesday. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency revealed its ambition to an international conference in Tokyo this week but has not yet been alotted the budget for the ambitious project.
Harry Potter’s magic has failed to work on Japanese tax authorities, who accuse the translator of the blockbuster books on the boy wizard of failing to declare millions of dollars in income. Yuko Matsuoka (62) who has translated the books into Japanese since 1999, declared her income in Switzerland, saying she was a Swiss resident.
Forget about Japanese technology. Japan’s latest contribution to the war on terrorism is tiny fish, which will be deployed to detect contamination of water supplies. Light-orange rice fish, which are about 4cm long and are commonly kept as pets in Japan, will alert authorities if their movement is irregular.
For those who relish looking back on the small, often inconsequential details of their lives, a Japanese company has come up with a "Big Brother" mobile network that makes up where human memory fails. Japan’s number two telecom operator KDDI said on Monday that it had developed a server that keeps a record of the smallest events in a person’s electronic life.
The Bank of Japan raised interest rates from zero for the first time in six years, in a move that reflected growing confidence in the country’s economic recovery. The nine members of the central bank’s board voted unanimously in favour of a modest rise of a quarter of a percentage point.
Japan and the United States announced a plan on Wednesday to deploy advanced Patriot interceptor missiles and boost troop numbers at US bases in Japan as a top government spokesperson called for more action on North Korea over its recent missile tests.
Russian sumo wrestler Roho is the latest foreign import to land himself in hot water after smashing a window and belting two photographers in a fit of pique. The 195cm giant faces a ban from Japan’s ancient roly-poly sport after throwing a temper tantrum in the wake of a defeat on Saturday.
The ending of Japan’s zero interest rates marks the end of an extraordinary policy prompted by a situation not seen in any other major economy in post-war times — deflation. Japan entered its deflationary spiral in the wake of the bursting of the asset bubble in the early 1990s.
Wataru Tsurumi sparked outrage more than a decade ago with his handbook on how to commit suicide. Now, he says, Japan is finally addressing an issue it long turned a blind eye to. The Complete Manual of Suicide, which was published in 1993 and has sold more than a million copies, has created the momentum for the start of public discussions on the issue, he said.
North Korea launched a seventh missile at about 5.20pm (8.20am GMT) on Wednesday, according to Japan’s Defence Agency. The missile landed six minutes later, but the location is not yet known. Pyongyang’s action has triggered a storm of international reaction, including immediate sanctions imposed by Japan and an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council in New York.
Toshiba said on Thursday it will start selling the world’s first recorders for the HD DVD high-definition video disc next month. The new recorder, the RD-A1, combines an HD DVD burner with a one-terabyte hard disk and can record and store up to 130 hours of high-definition broadcasts, Toshiba said in a statement.
Japanese researchers have developed a new type of pillow talk — a cushion that offers pointers on how to get a good night’s sleep. The pillow called Sleep Doctor analyses slumber patterns and subsequently provides 40 kinds of advice and encouragement on a miniature screen.
World Cup fever is kicking up already-strong demand for flat-panel televisions as consumers desiring a sharper picture of matches are finding lower prices and marketing pitches honed for soccer fans. At a Yamada electronics store in Tokyo, TVs are awash in blue — the Japanese national team’s jersey colour.
The United States could consider new sanctions against North Korea if it goes ahead with plans to launch a long-range missile, US ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer said on Monday. Schieffer said that a test by the communist state would be a ”very, very serious matter” that could be brought before the United Nations Security Council.
North Korea directed its people to hoist the national flag and await a state message on television on Sunday, a Japanese newspaper said, amid reports the North was planning a new missile test. South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said North Korea’s reported instruction might not be linked to the missile launch, saying it could be preparations for another national event.
Hiroyuki Iwaki, who conducted major orchestras across Europe and the United States, died of heart failure at a Tokyo hospital on Tuesday at age 73, his agency said. On New Year’s Eve 2004 in Tokyo, Iwaki conducted performances of all nine symphonies written by Ludwig van Beethoven.
Director Shohei Imamura, who portrayed modern Japan’s downtrodden in raw realism and eroticism and became the first Japanese to win the prestigious Palme d’Or at Cannes twice, died of cancer in Tokyo on Tuesday. He was 79. Imamura was often considered the top Japanese director since the late Akira Kurosawa.
Anyone for rattlesnake ice cream? Japan is no stranger to bizarre frozen deserts and this year is no exception with cow tongue, Indian curry, cheese and even cactus among the flavours on offer for courageous taste buds at an annual event at the Namjatown theme park.
The Tokyo High Court on Tuesday rejected a second appeal against the death sentence of a doomsday cult guru convicted over the deadly 1995 nerve-gas attack on the Tokyo subway. The decision brought Aum Supreme Truth founder Shoko Asahara closer to the gallows, more than 10 years after his sect stunned the nation.
Sending aid isn’t enough to help reduce poverty in Africa, World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz said on Monday. Rich countries need to do more by investing in basic services like electricity and transportation, he said. These services are necessary for businesses to function and engage in trade, as well as help people in their daily lives, communicate with one another and acquire knowledge.
A Japanese whaling expedition has caught 60 minke whales in the Pacific Ocean, the government said, the maximum number allowed under a research programme that critics say is disguised commercial whaling. The 43-day expedition off the coast of Sanriku, about 500km north-east of Tokyo, also found that the minkes feed on sand eels and sardines.
Former executives of Japan’s once-high-flying internet firm Livedoor admitted on Friday to fraud allegations as they went on trial for a scandal that rocked Japan’s financial and political circles. The four executives wore dark suits and looked humbly at the ground as prosecutors read charges of hiding financial losses.
Japan has finally emerged from the ”lost decade” of deflation and is set to continue on a path of robust growth, weathering an expected end to zero interest rates, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Wednesday. ”Japan has now exited from the period of deflation,” said the deputy director of the IMF’s Asia and Pacific department.
A major Japanese television network apologised on Monday after almost 160 people were struck with vomiting and diarrhoea after following a weight-loss plan it broadcast. A May 6 show on Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) introduced a diet of rice mixed with white kidney beans that had been roasted for about three minutes and ground into powder.
Japanese electronics giant Sony and telecoms operator KDDI will jointly develop cellphones with music player features as competition heats up in the sector. Sony and KDDI, Japan’s number-two telecoms operator, hope for a summer launch for the Walkman phones, which will include flash memory capable of storing about 500 songs.
North Korea appears to be preparing to fire a long-range ballistic missile, Japanese media reports said on Friday. Satellite photographs showed activity near a missile test site in north-eastern North Korea last week that indicated a launch of a Taepodong ballistic missile could be imminent, the reports said, citing unnamed sources.
Japanese police said on Tuesday they found the bodies of 100 cats, some badly decomposed, in the apartment of a woman who found it hard to part with her pets even after they died. The woman, who had adopted sick and stray cats for years, kept the bodies in containers.