Pregnant woman refused by 18 hospitals for treatment, later dies

A pregnant woman who had lost consciousness during delivery died after 18 hospitals refused to accept her as their beds were full, an official of a Nara Prefecture hospital said Tuesday.

Mika Takasaki, 32, fell into a coma early on Aug 8 while delivering at a town-run hospital in Oyodo, Nara. The hospital asked several other hospitals to accept her as it could not deal with the situation, but its request was rejected by 18 hospitals.

It took some six hours for the patient to be finally accepted by a state-run hospital in Osaka, where she underwent an emergency operation for bleeding in her brain and Caesarean section.

While successfully giving birth to a boy, Takasaki died Aug 16 without having recovered consciousness.

Her husband Shinsuke Takasaki, 24, held a press conference in Nara Prefecture on Tuesday to call for an improvement in the system of transferring pregnant women.

"I think pregnant women are worried about such insufficiencies of hospitals," he said as he wiped his tears. "I want hospitals to ensure safe delivery."

According to the Nara prefectural government, about 30% of pregnant women who need emergency or high-quality treatment are transferred to hospitals outside the prefecture.

The doctor in charge of Takasaki at the initial hospital diagnosed her condition as having convulsion during delivery, which cannot be treated there, and asked the prefectural-run Nara Medical University Hospital to accept her. But the hospital refused, saying all its beds were full.

The Nara Medical University Hospital looked for other hospitals and Takasaki was finally accepted by the National Cardiovascular Center in Suita, Osaka Prefecture, at around 6 a.m. on Aug 8.

The doctor at the Oyodo hospital did not conduct a computer tomography even though another doctor referred to the possibility of abnormality in Takasaki's brain while they were looking for another hospital to transfer her, according to the hospital official.

The official has admitted that the hospital "made a mistake in judging her condition as a result."

Chiba teacher kills himself after suspected harassment by headmaster

A 50-year-old teacher at a junior high school in Chiba committed suicide last month after suspected harassment from the headmaster, the education board said Tuesday. The 58-year-old headmaster was witnessed yelling at and castigating the male teacher, who was in a managerial position, the board has found out from inquiries with his colleagues.

The board will question teachers and other people related to the matter and determine whether the headmaster's actions resulted in the suicide. The teacher was found dead after diving off a bridge over an expressway in Chiba's Midori Ward on Sept. 6. No suicide note was found. The headmaster had taken sick leave since mid-September.

Bush says China worried about Japan, arms race over N Korea

U.S. President George W. Bush said Monday that China is worried about an arms race in the Far East, especially involving Japan, to deal with a nuclear North Korea. Bush made the comments in an interview with Fox News in expressing confidence in Beijing's commitment to implementing the U.N. sanctions resolutions on North Korea and pressing the reclusive country to abandon its nuclear arms and programs.

"I know they're concerned about the statement that came out of Japan...that said Japan is rethinking," Bush said, apparently referring to comments Sunday by Japan's top ruling party policymaker, who called for discussion on whether Japan should go nuclear in response to the North Korean nuclear test.

Gangster's wife, younger son sentenced to death for four murders

The Fukuoka District Court sentenced a woman and her younger son to death Tuesday for killing four people in a scheme to rob them in 2004 in Omuta, Fukuoka Prefecture, about 70 kilometers south of central Fukuoka. The court handed down the sentences against Mami Kitamura, 47, and her son Takahiro, 22, as demanded by prosecutors.

The two were found guilty of killing acquaintance Sayoko Takami, 58, her elder son Tatsuyuki, 18, and his friend Junichi Hara, 17, on Sept 18, 2004, and also of abandoning their bodies in a minivehicle in a river. The son was also found guilty of an additional charge of killing Takami's younger son Joji, 15, and of abandoning his body in a river.

Woman, who made 9-year-old stepdaughter eat rubbish off floor, arrested

A woman who forced her 9-year-old stepdaughter to eat rubbish was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of assaulting the girl in the city of Wakayama, police said.

Noriko Takemura, 36, allegedly beat the girl and her two other step daughters on daily basis while her husband, 31, who is a biological father of the three, was out.

She has admitted to abusing the three continually.

Police allege Takemura hit the girl's face several times at home on Sept 16, causing her to fall down and injure her forehead, after the girl bought something different at the store from what she was ordered to buy.

Police also alleged she sometimes ordered the 9-year-old girl to clean their house and eat rubbish off the floor.

The headmaster of the elementary school the girl attends noticed the injury on her forehead on Sept 22, and called a child consulting center.

The three girls told center officials that they were abused when their father was not around, and then the officials reported the case to the police.

The three also said their father had been aware of the abuse but told them not to say anything at school, police said.

Takemura's husband runs a newspaper distributing shop, and she helps the husband's business.

Shiozaki says Japan won't possess nuclear weapons

Japan does not plan to change its three-point principle of not possessing nuclear weapons, making them or allowing them on its territory, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki said Monday, commenting on a call by a senior ruling party lawmaker for discussions on possessing nuclear weapons.

"Our policy of maintaining the three nonnuclear principles, the principle of not possessing nuclear weapons, remains unchanged," Shiozaki said in reference to the comment Sunday by Shoichi Nakagawa, chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party's Policy Research Council. Japan "will possess no nuclear weapons in accordance with the atomic energy basic law and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty," Shiozaki said at a regular press conference.

Japan admits overfishing southern bluefin tuna; quota for 2007 halved

Japan's annual fishing quota for the southern bluefin tuna will be halved to 3,000 tons for five years beginning in 2007, from 6,065 tons in 2006, the Fisheries Agency said Monday.

Japan accepted the reduction after admitting overfishing during a four-day meeting of the Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna that ended Friday in Miyazaki, Miyazaki Prefecture, the agency said.

Australia on Monday praised Japan for admitting it has been over-catching southern bluefin tuna and for agreeing to halve its quota. "The new Japanese government has done the right thing and has agreed to take this cut," Fisheries Minister Eric Abetz told ABC Radio. "That is indicative of a country that is willing to acknowledge that things went wrong."

Most of the southern bluefin tuna caught around the world are sold to the Japanese markets. Japan annually imports roughly 10,000 tons of the fish, mostly for use in sushi or sashimi dishes.

The bluefin tuna and the southern bluefin tuna are highly popular in Japan for use in making expensive fatty tuna dishes known as "toro," but stocks of both fish have been rapidly shrinking due to heavy fishing.

Representatives from Australia, Japan, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan and the European Commission gathered for the meeting of the southern bluefin tuna commission and decided on the new quotas. Of them, Japan, Australia, South Korea and New Zealand are members of the body.

According to the agency, the participants agreed to cut combined catches of the southern bluefin tuna by nearly 20% to 11,530 tons for 2007 from 14,030 tons for 2006 because of concern about its depletion.

Australia will maintain its quota of 5,265 tons, while South Korea and Taiwan will see their quotas fall 12% to 1,000 tons, respectively.

The new quotas will be effective for five years for Japan but for three years for other countries.

It is the first time for the Canberra-headquartered commission to reach an accord on quota reduction since its inception in 1994.

The conservation group WWF welcomed Japan's acceptance of the sharp reduction in its catch, but called the agreement insufficient to help rebuild the southern bluefin tuna stock because Australia's quota was left unchanged.

"Considering the fact that almost all of Australia's catch will be exported to Japan, Japanese consumers need to seriously think about the issue of how to manage the tuna stock," said WWF member Arata Izawa.

At present, Japan's and Australia's quotas account for 80% of the total catch and the two countries have criticized each other for overstepping the limits.

Only Japan was slapped with a substantial quota reduction for longer years as the measure was partly intended as a punishment for overfishing the type of tuna, which came to light earlier this year and drew flak from many countries, some meeting participants said.

During the meeting, the Japanese delegation admitted that the country caught the southern bluefin tuna by some 1,800 tons more than its 6,065-ton quota in 2005.

According to fishing industry officials, the annual catch of the southern bluefin tuna started to soar around 1950 in line with growing demand in Japan and reached some 80,000 tons in the early 1960s.

The southern bluefin tuna accounts for 3% of some 580,000 tons of tuna supplied to the Japanese markets every year.

There are five international bodies in charge of tuna stock management.

The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas is slated to discuss reducing fishing quotas for the bluefin tuna during its annual meeting in November.

The moves by the conservation bodies are expected to send tuna prices higher at a time when the fish is becoming more popular in some countries other than Japan and its prices are being boosted by rising fuel costs to run fishing boats due to growing oil prices, the industry officials said.

Japan welcomes Security Council resolution against North Korea

Japan on Saturday welcomed the U.N. Security Council's unaninous adoption of a resolution against North Korea over its claimed nuclear test, expressing "the gravest concern" and calling for all U.N. members to take wide-ranging economic and diplomatic sanctions.

Japanese U.N. ambassador Kenzo Oshima, who serves as president of the council for the month of October, told the council, "The resolution is one of the most important decisions this council has taken in recent times on an issue of the gravest concern to the international community."

Woman in her 50s gives birth to own grandchild in Nagano

A woman in her 50s gave birth to her own grandchild last year in a host surrogacy on behalf of her daughter in her 30s, who had had her uterus removed for cancer and is unable to bear a child, the head of a maternity clinic in Nagano Prefecture announced Sunday.

Yahiro Netsu, director of the Suwa Maternity Clinic in Shimosuwa, Nagano Prefecture, told a news conference in Tokyo the woman gave birth in spring 2005 using an egg from her daughter and sperm from the daughter's husband, also in his 30s.

It is the first case in Japan that a woman has acted as a surrogate mother to give birth to her own grandchild. The baby was registered as a child of the surrogate mother and later adopted by the daughter and her husband, Netsu said.

The Suwa Maternity Clinic performed in vitro fertilization and implanted a fertilized egg into the woman's womb in 2004 and delivered the child in spring last year.

Netsu said the woman was given hormone injections before the implantation of the fertilized egg as she had reached menopause and had uterine atrophy.

The surrogate mother and the child, whose gender has not been released, are doing well, he said.

The woman visited the clinic about four years ago and made an offer to be a surrogate mother for her daughter, Netsu said, adding, his clinic conducted the surrogate birth after confirming that the woman had no health problems and obtaining approval from the in-house ethical committee.

Netsu said in the news conference that he also handled by the end of last year two other surrogate births, in which sisters became surrogate mothers.

He said he revealed the three cases at this time "to express anger and concerns" over the situation surrounding surrogate births in Japan after a local government in Tokyo appealed a Tokyo High Court ruling that allowed a Japanese couple to register twins born through an American surrogate mother to register as their own children.

About the benefit of grandmother acting as surrogate mother, Netsu said, "This is the most trouble-free way, I think, as we can avoid such a trouble that a surrogate mother refuses to hand over the child she delivered."

The three cases follow two other surrogate births announced by Netsu in the past, which included the nation's first such case announced in May 2001 involving a woman who gave birth to a child using the egg of her elder sister, who had had a uterus operation.

After the 2001 announcement, a council of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare compiled a report in April 2003 suggesting a ban on surrogate births and punitive measures against violators, out of concerns that such births impose physical and mental strain on surrogate mothers and cause complications in family relationships.

The Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology also stipulated in April 2003 guidelines banning surrogate births.

Japan needs to debate whether or not to go nuclear, says LDP policy chief

Japan needs to discuss whether it should go nuclear in response to North Korea's declared nuclear test, Shoichi Nakagawa, chairman of the Liberal Democratic Party's Policy Research Council, said Sunday. He said the Constitution does not rule out the option of Japan possessing nuclear arms.

While stressing that Japan should maintain its three-point nonnuclear principles of not possessing, not producing and not allowing the entry of nuclear weapons into the country, Nakagawa said, "There could be an argument that possession of nuclear weapons diminishes the likelihood of being attacked as we could fight back in such an event. We need to have thorough discussions on whether there is a need to review the nonnuclear principles."

School says teacher provoked bullying of student who hanged himself

A junior high school in Chikuzen, Fukuoka Prefecture, said Sunday its teacher provoked bullying against a second-year student, who hanged himself last week, and apologized to his parents.

According to the father of the student, 13, his homeroom teacher in his first year revealed to his classmates what his parents had consulted the teacher about. Afterwards, the teacher called the boy a "hypocrite" or "liar" in front of his classmates, eventually making the relationship between him and the classmates awkward. The student left four notes, in which he said, "I cannot live anymore because of bullying."

Abe says Japan will stick to non-nuke principles; Rice says Japan doesn't need to go nuclear

Japan does not plan to possess nuclear capability despite North Korea's reported nuclear test and its earlier missile test-fires, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Tuesday. Asked if Japan will uphold its "Three Non-Nuclear Principles" even if North Korea deploys nuclear missiles, Abe said, "I am not thinking of changing the principles at all."

Meanwhile, in Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ruled out Tuesday the possibility of Japan moving to develop nuclear weapons, saying she trusts Tokyo as a security partner. "Also, I don't think there's anybody that really thinks changing the nuclear balance in northeast Asia by having Japan go nuclear would improve the security situation," Rice said.

Japan on alert over unconfirmed report of 2nd N Korean nuclear test

Japan remained on high alert Wednesday as government officials scrambled to verify "unconfirmed information" that North Korea may conduct another nuclear test on the day, following the one it claimed to have carried out Monday. "At the moment, we have no concrete signs, such as abnormality in seismic waves, and are continuing to try to confirm it," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki said concerning the reports of a second test.

Foreign Minister Taro Aso told a House of Councillors Budget Committee session, "We are aware of information that it may be conducted during today, but no confirmation has been obtained." The Japan Meteorological Agency said it detected no seismic waves coming from the direction of northern North Korea in the period from 5 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Nara girl's killer withdraws appeal against death sentence

A former newspaper sales agent withdrew his appeal Tuesday against his death sentence for kidnapping, sexually abusing and murdering a 7-year-old girlin Nara Prefecture in 2004, his defense counsel said. Kaoru Kobayashi, 37, took back the appeal filed with the Osaka High Court by his lawyers on his behalf immediately after the Nara District Court sentenced him to death Sept 26.

The defense counsel said they have no intention of filing an objection to Kobayashi's action, implying his death sentence will be final without trial at an appeals court. The lawyer tried to persuade Kobayashi not to withdraw his appeal, telling him he is required to explain why he committed such a crime. But he did not alter the decision.

Osaka Toyota employees arrested for falsifying sales records

Police arrested a former senior official and three current employees of Osaka Toyota Motor Corp, on Tuesday on suspicion of falsifying sales records of used passenger cars in an attempt to pad sales performances. All of them have admitted to the charges, saying it was to boost sales performances.

According to investigators, the four filed fake sales dossiers of four used passenger cars with the transport ministry's local bureau between February 2002 and April 2005. The vehicles were actually owned by Osaka Toyota but the four submitted the dossiers to make it appear that the vehicles were sold to their relatives, and to have the bureau record the false ownership data in its computer systems. Such procedures were necessary to have the false sales recognized as part of their real sales performances, police said.

Governmentt sets up education reform panel

The government established an expert panel Tuesday on education reform, a key policy of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, vowing to rebuild Japanese education to bring patriotism into the classroom. "To realize 'a beautiful country Japan,' it is indispensable to educate children and youth on whom the future of Japan's next generation will rest," Abe said.

The Education Rebuilding Council, consisting of people from the governmental, business and academic sectors, is expected to come up with specific measures in an interim report in March and a final report at the end of next year for the government to institutionalize under Abe's leadership, government officials said.

Hiroshima, Nagasaki mayors, A-bomb sufferers blast N Korea

The mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on Monday attacked North Korea over its announcement that it had conducted a nuclear test. "I feel great anger over North Korea's conducting of a nuclear test, despite the fact that many cities and groups had sought its suspension," Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba said, urging Pyongyang to fulfill its responsibility on nuclear arms reduction.

Nagasaki Mayor Itcho Ito called the announced test an "act of violence" conducted in defiance of international calls not to carry it out. "The North Korean people are not aware of the true terror of nuclear weapons," Ito said. Antinuclear groups in Japan also expressed outrage, with Terumi Tanaka, head of the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, known as Hidankyo, saying, "It is deplorable. We didn't think North Korea would do it, and we didn't want it to do it."

Abe, Roh discuss N Korea's nuclear test; Japan, U.S. to take it to U.N.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe started talks with South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun at the presidential Blue House on Monday just hours after North Korea said it had conducted a nuclear test in defiance of international calls against such action.

Abe, on his first official overseas trip, arrived in Seoul from Beijing in the morning after meeting Chinese leaders Sunday.

"I am aware of the declaration by North Korea that it has conducted a nuclear test," Abe told reporters traveling with him in Seoul. "Japan is in contact with the United States and China for intelligence analysis...and I will discuss with the South Korean side how to respond. I have instructed the chief Cabinet secretary to gather and analyze information regarding whether a nuclear test was actually conducted," Abe said.

In Tokyo, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer told reporters after meeting with Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki and Foreign Minister Taro Aso, "We agreed to monitor this situation and to work together to take it to the United Nations for further action."

"The United States is prepared to honor its commitment to its allies in Japan as well as Korea," he added.

While suggesting Washington has yet to confirm that North Korea conducted a nuclear test, Schieffer said, "This is a very grave situation and we all are following it with great intensity."

"Speaking on the assumption that a nuclear test is confirmed, the nuclear test will bring a serious crisis to the peace and stability not only of Northeast Asia but the world," Aso said, after earlier talking to South Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Ban Ki Moon and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on the phone.

Asked if it is possible to issue a U.N. resolution other than the one adopted over North Korea's ballistic missiles July 5, Aso said, "There is a high possibility it will come out. Japan, for its part, wants to have one."

He suggested a Chapter 7 resolution, which would pave the way for the use of force or economic sanctions, may be in order. He was referring to Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter.

Japan had already imposed sanctions such as blocking fund transfers to entities linked to Pyongyang's missile and weapons programs, including 12 already listed under U.S. sanctions.

Following the reported nuclear test, the Foreign Ministry said it launched an emergency task force headed by Aso at 11:30 a.m. to gather more information.

North Korea is believed to have conducted the test in the eastern part of the country, Yonhap News Agency quoted a senior Defense Ministry official as saying. A magnitude 3.58 tremor was detected in Hwadae county in the North's remote North Hamkyong Province at around 10:35 a.m.

Meanwhile, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said: "The field of scientific research in the DPRK successfully conducted an underground nuclear test under secure conditions on Oct 9, Juche 95 (2006). It has been confirmed that there was no such dangerous radioactive emission in the course of the nuclear test as it was carried out under a scientific consideration and careful calculation.

"The nuclear test is a historic event that brought happiness to the our military and people," KCNA added. "The nuclear test will contribute to maintaining peace and stability in the Korean peninsula and surrounding region."

In South Korea, Roh convened an emergency meeting of top officials responsible for national security to discuss the situation. Presidential spokesman Yoon Tae Young said, "North Korea's possession of nuclear weapons cannot be tolerated."

South Korea will take "stern responses" to the nuclear test in accordance with its principles," Yoon said.

Yonhap News Agency quoted a Unification Ministry official as saying the government has initially decided to suspend a scheduled shipment of 4,000 tons of concrete to the North, which was to be part of a one-time package of humanitarian aid worth some $250 million.

South Korea wants the U.N. Security Council to immediately take up the North's nuclear test and discuss how to respond, the spokesman said.

Princess Aiko takes part in kindergarten athletic meet - undoukai

Princess Aiko, the 4-year-old daughter of Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako, took part in an athletic meet at Gakushuin Kindergarten for the first time Sunday.
Princess Aiko took part in the "Otama Korogashi," rolling a one-meter-high white plastic ball toward the goal line. Princess Masako, wearing a headband, also took part in another ball-rolling game, while Crown Prince Naruhito recorded the athletic meet with his camcorder.

LDP lawmaker wants tougher sanctions against N Korea

Japan should impose tougher sanctions against North Korea, including maritime inspection, if Pyongyang conducts a nuclear test as earlier announced, a senior ruling Liberal Democratic Party member said Sunday.

"From now on, we need to step up the level of pressure such as conducting inspections at sea or stopping exports and imports," Shoichi Nakagawa, chairman of the LDP's Policy Research Council, said on a television program. Nakagawa also noted the possibility that Japan will solely impose sanctions on North Korea before the international society does so. He said he will call for the Diet to pass a resolution on North Korean issues.

Shinzo Abe and Hu make 'new start' in Sino-Japan relations

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met top Chinese leaders Sunday in talks that Chinese President Hu Jintao described as a "new start" and "turning point" for chilled bilateral relations as the Japanese leader arrived in Beijing on his first overseas trip as premier that will also take him to South Korea.

Abe told Hu at the outset of their 80-minute summit that he chose China as his first overseas summit to show he attaches "extreme importance to good Japan-China relations" and thanked China for welcoming him.

Ahead of the talks with Hu, the first bilateral summit in 18 months, Abe also met with Premier Wen Jiabao at the Great Hall of the People for about 90 minutes.

"An agreement was reached recently to promote friendly relations by overcoming political difficulties through mutual efforts," Wen said at the outset in explaining a reason for hosting the summit.

"Developing friendly ties conforms to the interests of the people of both countries," Wen said.

Wen, with a full smile, greeted Abe in a welcoming ceremony upon his arrival with 19 canon shots, the protocol for welcoming a visiting prime minister and last performed for a Japanese premier in 1999 during an official visit by Keizo Obuchi.

Details of the summits have not been released, but Abe was expected to propose to Chinese leaders that Japan and China build a "strategic relationship of mutual interest," a senior Japanese official said earlier. It will be the first time for the two countries to seek a "strategic" partnership.

Abe, who will visit Seoul on Monday to meet with South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun, said before leaving Tokyo he is eyeing frank discussions with his counterparts on North Korea's nuclear test plan and to "send a message that North Korea will be isolated in the international community unless it gives up (its plan of) conducting nuclear tests."

The summits came amid rising international tensions after North Korea announced last Tuesday it will conduct a nuclear test "in the future" and on Friday the U.N. Security Council warned action will be taken if Pyongyang conducts such a test.

Visiting the two nearby countries in less than two weeks after assuming office Sept 26 shows Abe's eagerness to court the countries and mend relations with them which deteriorated under his predecessor Junichiro Koizumi.

Abe hopes that under the new relationship, Japan and China can join hands in resolving international issues of common interest and to achieve benefits for both sides, the Japanese official said in briefing reporters aboard the government plane on its way to the Chinese capital.

In addition to dealing with North Korea, other common interests and benefits include resolving bilateral disputes over national resources in the East China Sea, cooperating in United Nations reforms, joint efforts in the fields of energy and the environment, and strengthening the business environment for mutual investments.

The 52-year-old premier will also urge the development of strong ties both politically and economically, and wishes to build personal trust with the Chinese leaders.

On Sunday morning, Abe touched on the issue of history perception, a factor that has stalled relations with the neighboring countries, saying, "We will act after humbly considering the past. On that basis, I would like to hold talks with leaders of both countries about the future."

Regarding prime ministerial visits to the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, Abe said, "I would like to explain that many prime ministers in the past have paid homage there to mourn those people who lost their lives for the country and to pray for peace."

While Beijing has said the two sides have agreed to "overcome the political obstacle" in the bilateral relationship, Abe has denied he made any compromises and insisted he will not say whether he will go to Yasukuni as premier.

In addition to the talks with Hu and Wen, Abe is also scheduled to hold a half-hour meeting with Wu Bangguo, chairman of the National People's Congress Standing Committee.

The three Chinese leaders have arranged to meet with Abe despite their engagements on the opening day of a key domestic political event — a meeting of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee — in an apparent sign of Beijing wanting to improve relations with Japan under a new administration.

Abe has repeatedly said he would like to build "forward-looking" relations with Beijing and Seoul. He was also expected to propose joint history research with China.

Abe, Japan's first premier to be born after World War II, is the first postwar Japanese prime minister to choose China as the destination of his first official overseas trip and the first since 2001 to hold a full summit in China.

Relations have soured chiefly due to Koizumi's repeated visits to Yasukuni in defiance of protests from China and South Korea, which see the shrine as a symbol of Japan's past militarism because it enshrines World War II Class-A war criminals along with the war dead.

The two countries have since 2001 had occasional top-level meetings in third countries but only on the sidelines of other events. The last bilateral summit was held in April last year in Jakarta.

Abe's wife Akie, who is traveling with the prime minister and making her overseas debut as Japan's new first lady, is also in the spotlight. She visited a junior high school and a welfare facility for the handicapped in Beijing on Sunday.

Expectations are high both in and outside Japan that Akie, a fan of South Korean heartthrob Bae Yong Joon, can play a role in softening her husband's hawkish image in the two neighboring countries. Japan has not had a first lady for five and a half years as Abe's predecessor Koizumi is a divorced single.

Postal worker confesses to stabbing Osaka taxi driver; police find body

OSAKA — A postal worker, who is in police custody in a robbery case, has confessed to stabbing an Osaka taxi driver last month and police said Sunday they found a dead body based on the man's confessions. Police identified the suspect as Takeshi Hiratani, 35, who works at the Suita Senri Post Office in Osaka Prefecture. Hiratani told police that he stabbed Kaname Maekubo, a 59-year-old taxi driver in Takatsuki.
Police said they are trying to identify the body which was found in a vacant lot in Takatsuki after the suspect confessed to stabbing the taxi driver. Maekubo went missing Sept 17 after witnesses saw him quarreling with another man in front of a company condominium in Takatsuki, according to investigators.

Abe says World War II leaders tried by allies cannot be considered war criminals

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in the Diet on Friday that Japanese World War II leaders tried and convicted by the U.S. and its allies cannot be considered war criminals.

Referring to the 14 Japanese convicted as Class-A war criminals by the tribunal's justices from 11 nations and who are now enshrined at Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, Abe said they had stood trial for crimes against peace and humanity "but it was a concept established at that time, and based on the principle that crimes and penalties must be defined by law it is ridiculous to call them criminals. That also was the case for my relative."

Abe, 52, is the grandson of Nobusuke Kishi, who served in the wartime cabinet and helped supervise the industrialization of Manchukuo, the puppet state Japan set up in northeastern China.

Kishi was jailed by U.S. forces as a top war criminal after the war, although he was not tried by the Tokyo tribunal. He later served as prime minister from 1957 to 1960.

Abe said that war criminals should have been freed when Japan signed the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty, which ended the U.S. occupation of Japan.

"Japan was not in a position to lodge objections over its relations with other countries when signing the treaty," he noted. "These people were not tried under Japanese laws, and I, as prime minister, must not decide whether they are war criminals or not."

All 47 prefectural labor offices found to have engaged in dubious accounting

TOKYO — All 47 prefectural labor bureaus under the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare are found to have engaged in some form of irregular accounting practices such as logging expenses for staff travel never made, investigations by the government's Board of Audit showed Saturday.

The bureaus misappropriated a total of more than 7 billion yen in the six years through fiscal 2004, they showed. Of the total amount of misappropriated funds, about 300 million yen was determined to be the result of falsifying accounts by way of appropriating overtime work benefits when no such work was done or pretending to hire part-time workers, the board said.

Yasukuni Shrine to review war museum's claims about U.S.

TOKYO — Yasukuni Shrine plans to change or delete claims in its war museum that the United States forced Japan to fight World War II, following U.S. government complaints, sources close to the shrine said Friday.
The descriptions at the Yushukan museum claims the U.S. government under the administration of President Franklin D Roosevelt forced Japan to open fire by imposing economic embargos, and that the United States recovered from depression as a result. U.S. government officials and Japanese historians have requested that the shrine reconsider the claims and representatives of the shrine's membership also questioned their accuracy, the sources said.

Abe acknowledges responsibility of grandfather Kishi, other wartime leaders

TOKYO — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Thursday acknowledged the war responsibility of his grandfather, the late former Prime Minister Nobusuke Kishi, and Japan's other wartime leaders ahead of his fence-mending talks with the leaders of China and South Korea.

Abe, known for his conservative views on history, also committed himself to accept two official statements in the 1990s in which Tokyo apologized for Japanese colonial rule and aggression and the use of Asian women as sex slaves for Japanese soldiers before and during World War II.

Abe, who took office on Sept 26 as Japan's youngest postwar premier, clarified his official stand on the country's past militarism during a House of Representatives Budget Committee session Thursday.

"As a result of starting war, many Japanese lost their lives and families, and we left many scars on the people of Asia," the 52-year-old Abe said.

"Particularly, those people in the position of leader at the time, including my grandfather, had great responsibility. Since politicians have to take responsibility for any outcomes, that decision certainly must have been wrong," he said.

Abe made the comment in response to a question by opposition Democratic Party of Japan heavyweight Naoto Kan about his view on Kishi's signing of the rescript for starting the war in the Pacific in 1941 as a member of the Cabinet of Prime Minister Hideki Tojo.

Kishi, Abe's maternal grandfather who was then the commerce and industry minister, was detained as a Class-A war criminal suspect after the end of World War II but was released soon after Tojo and six others were hung in 1948. He served as Japan's prime minister from 1957 to 1960.

As for a landmark 1995 statement, in which then Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama apologized and expressed remorse for Japan's colonial rule and atrocities before and during World War II, Abe said, "It is valid for my cabinet."

When asked his personal view, Abe said it is "natural" for him to accept the statement as prime minister, including its descriptions of the country's colonial rule and aggression as "has been presented...in a statement adopted by the cabinet."

On a 1993 statement by then Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono, in which the government officially acknowledged that the Imperial Japanese Army forcibly held Asian women in sexual servitude for its soldiers, Abe said, "Including myself, the current government has taken it over."

When asked his view in Monday's lower house plenary session, Abe refrained from admitting the responsibility of the wartime leaders charged as Class-A war criminals at the 1946-1948 International Military Tribunal for the Far East, also known as the Tokyo Tribunal.

Abe in 1995 abstained from approving a parliamentary resolution carrying a similar message to the Murayama statement. In 1997, he formed a group with fellow lawmakers with revisionist views on history, including the issue of sex slaves, and criticized Kono's statement.

But since taking office, Abe has vowed to strive to mend the strained ties with China and South Korea angered at former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni Shrine, which some regard as symbolic of Japan's militarist past.

He is slated to hold summit talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao on Sunday and with South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun on Monday.

Three found dead with nails stuck in their heads in Nagano home

NAGANO — Three members of a family were found dead early Friday morning with 20-cm-long nails hammered into their heads, police said. The bodies were discovered around two hours after a car was found abandoned on a bridge in Karuizawa. A note on the steering wheel said: "I am sorry for not turning myself in."

Police traced the car to Hideshi Kojima, 48, a company employee living in Miyota, Nagano Prefecture. When they visited his house, they discovered the bodies, believed to be Kojima, his 78-year-old mother-in-law, and his 18-year-old daughter. Kojima's 45-year-old wife is missing, police said, adding they found another note in the wife's handwriting.

Police said an autopsy is planned to determine the cause of death, since they suspect the trio may already have been dead when the nails were hammered in.

Police officer steals a shoe for stress relief

OSAKA — An Osaka police officer was arrested Wednesday for stealing a shoe from an elementary school. The 24-year-old police officer, identified as Norifusa Nakanishi, was arrested for trespassing into an elementary school in Shijounawate, and stealing a shoe belonging to a 10-year-old boy around 1:10 p.m. on Sept 30.

"I was stressed out, and smelling a shoe is my way to release stress," Nakanishi was quoted by police as saying.

Top court turns down appeal against keeping news source secret

The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an appeal filed by a U.S. health food maker against a lower court decision allowing a reporter to keep a news source secret over a 1997 report that the firm's Japan unit underreported income to save tax payments.

The appeal was filed after the Tokyo High Court in March accepted refusal of the reporter for Japan Broadcasting Corp (NHK) to reveal the news source, saying news-gathering activities serve as a foundation for the freedom of the press that satisfies the public's right to know. NHK, along with other Japanese media, reported in October 1997 that Japanese and U.S. tax authorities found that the U.S. firm's Japanese subsidiary had underreported about 7.7 billion yen in taxable income.

Driver who killed 4 children in Saitama caused accident in May due to same reason

A 38-year-old man arrested for ramming his car into a group of children, killing four of them, in Kawaguchi, Saitama, last week, caused an accident in May due to careless driving for the same reason, police said Wednesday.

The driver, identified as Hideyuki Izawa, has told police that he lost control of his car while he was switching the cassette tapes in a boom box placed on the passenger seat. In the May accident, Izawa rear-ended a mini-vehicle stopped at a red light in Sugito-machi, Saitama. There were no injuriese. Izawa said that he was distracted while changing tapes at the time of that accident, as well.

Japan warns N Korea of stern int'l response if it conducts nuclear test

Japan again urged North Korea on Wednesday to abolish its nuclear programs and warned Pyongyang of a stern international response should the North go ahead with a nuclear test it declared Tuesday.

"A nuclear test will be unacceptable and Japan strongly demands that North Korea observe the U.N. Security Council resolution" reached in July, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said in a parliamentary session. Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Hakubun Shimomura described North Korea's actions as "deplorable." He added that if a nuclear test is carried out, it would be an "unacceptable" and "serious threat" to the peace and safety of Japan and the rest of the world.

'Peeping' economist indicted for groping student on train

TOKYO — Prosecutors on Wednesday indicted economist Kazuhide Uekusa, once a well-known TV commentator, for allegedly molesting a female high school student on a train in Tokyo in September.Uekusa, 45, was convicted in March last year of public indecency by trying to look up a 17-year-old girl's skirt at a Tokyo railway station in 2004, using a mirror, and did not appeal. He was a professor at Waseda University at that time.

In the latest case, Uekusa allegedly put his hand up the student's skirt and touched her body at around 10:10 p.m. on Sept 13 on an express commuter train between Shinagawa and Keikyu Kamata stations on the Keihin Kyuko Line.

On the train, the girl, a second-year high school student from Kanagawa Prefecture, said, "Stop it," and she and other passengers seized Uekusa and handed him over to policemen.

After he was arrested, he was discharged from the Nagoya University of Commerce & Business where he was serving as visiting professor at its graduate school.

In the 2004 case, he pleaded not guilty during the trial, but the court convicted him and fined him 500,000 yen. His mirror was confiscated as part of the punishment.

Aso indicates support for Ban as next U.N. chief

TOKYO — Japan on Tuesday welcomed South Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Ban Ki Moon's good showing in a straw poll at the U.N. Security Council on Monday which virtually assures Ban of succeeding Kofi Annan as secretary general of the United Nations."We have been saying that we want someone from Asia, so the fact that it is South Korean Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Ban is good," Foreign Minister Taro Aso said in a news conference, hinting that Japan will support Ban in his bid to be the next U.N. chief.

Russia releases fishing boat skipper

NEMURO — A Japanese skipper taken into Russian custody for intruding into and poaching in Russian-administered territorial waters off Nemuro, Hokkaido, left for home Tuesday morning for the first time in almost seven weeks, the Foreign Ministry said.
Noboru Sakashita, 59, was handed over to the Japanese side after accepting a South Kuril District Court ruling Sept 21 in Yuzhno-Kurilsk on Russian-administered Kunashiri Island that he pay a 500,000-ruble (about $12,700 or 2.2 million yen) fine.

Rightist arrested for intimidating Korean residents' group

A Japanese ultranationalist was arrested Monday on suspicion of trying to intimidate members of a North Korea-affiliated association of Korean residents in Japan by sending through the mail a package containing a severed finger and a threatening letter, the police said.

Yoshitaka Fukumoto, 27, an executive member of the right-wing group, sent the package with a postmark in Kagaoshima Prefecture to So Man Sul, chairman of Chongryun, the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, on Sept 16, according to investigations. The Metropolitan Police Department determined the sender was Fukumoto from fingerprints on the envelope, the police said.

Chinese man sentenced to death for killing landlord, wife in Tokyo

TOKYO — The Tokyo District Court sentenced a 29-year-old Chinese man to death Monday for killing and robbing his landlord and the landlord's wife in Tokyo in 2002. Xie Yidi, a Chinese national, had told the court he accidentally stabbed the couple — Isamu Hayakawa, 64, and Yoko Hayakawa, 57 — and denied he intended to kill them.

According to the prosecution's closing argument, Xie broke into the Hayakawas' Shinagawa Ward home sometime between midnight Aug 30, 2002, and 2 a.m. the next day, stabbed them to death and robbed them of jewelry and around 47,000 yen in cash. Hayakawa, Xie's landlord, owned a noodle-making shop.

Shinzo Abe square off in Diet over Yasukuni, nationalism

TOKYO — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe squared off with opposition lawmakers Monday in the Diet's first lower house session since his policy address last Friday, with opposition Democratic Party of Japan's Yukio Hatoyama criticizing Abe's "beautiful country, Japan" concept as having a nationalistic and authoritarian undertone.

Hatoyama, the DPJ's secretary general, also touched on history issues and asked Abe to clarify his views on the responsibility of Class-A war criminals as leaders of the nation during World War II. Hatoyama demanded that Abe pledge not to visit the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine.

Abe, who took office last Tuesday and is known for his conservative view on history, said he will in principle follow the government's view of Japan's wartime history expressed in a landmark 1995 statement, in which then Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama apologized and expressed remorse for Japan's colonial rule and atrocities before and during World War II.

But Abe stressed that he believes there are various opinions in the debate as to the responsibilities of wartime leaders and that it is "inappropriate for the government to make a specific judgment regarding the responsibilities of Class-A war criminals as leaders."

Abe, who supported his predecessor Junichiro Koizumi's visits to Yasukuni and is a regular worshipper himself, reiterated that he will not make public whether or not he will go to the shrine and whether or not he had gone there as premier.

"It's a country where nationalism and authoritarianism hold sway and politics is pushed away from life," Hatoyama told the plenary session of the House of Representatives.

Hatoyama said social and economic gaps have been widening among citizens under Koizumi's administration and Abe should be held responsible collectively because he held key posts in the governing Liberal Democratic Party and also in the cabinet when Koizumi was in power.

Standing in for DPJ President Ichiro Ozawa, hospitalized for a medical checkup, Hatoyama proposed that Abe, who is the LDP president, hold weekly debates with the DPJ leader.

Hatoyama also criticized Koizumi's administration for "having completely failed" in diplomacy with North Korea, given Pyongyang's missile firings in July.

The DPJ executive challenged Abe to reconfirm his basic policy for not normalizing relations with North Korea unless all Japanese abductees return home.

On the economic front, Hatoyama questioned if Abe is intent on hiking the consumption tax after an upper house election next July.

Abe dodged the question by only saying, "Detailed deliberations will be held from autumn next year."

Abe launches gov't task force on abductions

TOKYO — Prime Minister Shinzo Abe set up on Friday a full governmental task force to deal with the issue of North Korean abductions of Japanese and pledged "utmost" efforts for an early settlement to abductees' kin.


"I'll do my utmost" to deal with the long-pending issue, Abe said at a meeting with the abductees' relatives and their supporters, also joined by government officials including Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki who also serves as minister in charge of the issue.

6 teens arrested over extortion of Y14 mil from 87-year-old man

TOKYO — Police said Friday they have arrested six teenagers on suspicion of getting a total of 14.3 million yen from an 87-year-old man in Tokyo by extortion on 97 occasions over a period of one year beginning in April last year, police said Friday.

Of the six aged 15 to 17 and arrested between June 30 and Sept 18, a 16-year-old unemployed girl from Machida was the mastermind of the group, police said. According to investigators, on one occasion on March 16, the six teenagers brandished a kitchen knife near the man at his home and said they would stab him unless he immediately handed over money, and they had him withdraw 1.4 million yen from a bank.

Japanese Coke machines to accept cellphone payment

U.S. soft-drink giant Coca-Cola said it will equip all its vending machines in Japan to accept payment through mobile telephones, an increasingly popular money option in the country.

Coca-Cola Japan said that all of its 200,000 machines by the end of 2008 will accept Felicia, contactless credit cards on mobile phones developed by cellular industry leader NTT DoCoMo and electronics giant Sony. "

19-year-old Imperial Guard officer commits suicide in compound

TOKYO — An Imperial Guard officer was found with a gunshot wound to his head Thursday in the imperial compound in Akasaka. He was later confirmed dead at a hospital in an apparent suicide, Imperial Guard officials said.

The 19-year-old officer, who was assigned duty at the imperial guard station on the Akasaka Estate, where Emperor Akihito's eldest son Crown Prince Naruhito and other imperial family members live, was found inside a restroom at a standby area for on-duty officers around noon Thursday, the officials said. No suicide note has been found. The officer was assigned to the station after completing his training program at the Imperial Guard academy in February, according to the officials"

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8 boys arrested for threatening to beat up Akihabara 'otaku' in extortion plot

Eight boys have been arrested for allegedly extorting and attempting to extort money from people on the streets of Tokyo's Akihabara electric store district, police said Thursday. The boys, ranging from age 14 to 18, have told police they targeted 'otaku' — people with a devotion to animation, comics and video games who often come to the area for shopping — because the boys thought those people have money and are powerless.

The eight are suspected of surrounding a 22-year-old man, a part-time worker at a toy store, on a street in the district on the evening of Aug 30 and demanding money after threatening to assault him. They are also believed to have worked in three separate groups to take 500 yen to 3,000 yen from junior high school students who came to Akihabara to see animation character figures during their summer vacations, according to the police."

14-year-old girl stabbed at school in Kumamoto

KUMAMOTO — A 14-year-old girl was stabbed by a male pupil at a junior high school in Yamato, Kumamoto Prefecture, on Tuesday. Education board officials said she was stabbed in the head, shoulder and other parts of her body but is not in critical condition. The boy suspected of stabbing her was in the same grade as the girl, the prefectural school board said.

Police said the two students were talking to each other on the third floor of the school building and appeared to have some dispute. The girl was wearing a gym uniform soaked with blood when she arrived at the staffroom for help, they said. A teacher rushed to the third floor and found the male student about to attempt to jump from the veranda but saved him, they said. The boy was in a state of shock and was also taken to hospital, though he had no external injuries, they said."

Kyoto University student gets 5 1/2 years for raping 2 women

A former student at Kyoto University was sentenced to 5 1/2 years in prison Tuesday for raping two women, and two schoolmates got suspended prison terms for gang raping one of the two women in Kyoto last December. Ryo Ikeguchi, 24, was charged with raping the two female students. Jumpei Shirai, 23, was sentenced to three years in prison, suspended for five years, and Masahiro Kido, 22, was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison, suspended for five years.

According to the ruling, the three defendants, members of the American football team, invited three women to a party at Kido's apartment in Kyoto's Sakyo Ward on Dec 22 and forced them to drink liquor until they became drunk. The three then raped one woman and Ikeguchi raped another after the third had left the apartment, it said."

Man sentenced to death for killing 7-year-old girl in Nara

The Nara District Court on Tuesday sentenced a man to death for kidnapping a 7-year-old girl for the purpose of molestation and killing her in Nara Prefecture in 2004. Kaoru Kobayashi 'molested the girl in order to fulfill his abnormal sexual desire and killed her when she resisted, fearing the assault would be exposed,' Judge Tetsuya Okuda said.

According to the ruling, Kobayashi, 37, kidnapped Kaede Ariyama on Nov 17, 2004, and took her to his apartment in Sango, Nara Prefecture. After molestating her, he killed her and dumped her body in a gutter on a farm road in Heguri in the prefecture. He also took a photo of her body and sent it to her mother via mobile phone, and blackmailed the mother about a month later, saying he would target the girl's younger sister as well."

Shinzo Abe becomes prime minister; Shiozaki appointed chief cabinet secretary, Foreign Minister Aso remains

Shinzo Abe was elected Japan's youngest postwar prime minister in a parliamentary vote Tuesday. Abe, a 52-year-old conservative hawk who won an overwhelming victory in the Liberal Democratic Party presidential election last week, was voted prime minister in both houses of the Diet. He garnered 339 of the 476 votes cast in the House of Representatives vote, while main opposition Democratic Party of Japan President Ichiro Ozawa took 115 votes.

Later in the afternoon, Abe released the lineup of his 17-member cabinet, appointing economy-savvy Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Yasuhisa Shiozaki as chief cabinet secretary and keeping Foreign Minister Taro Aso.

Shiozaki concurrently serves as minister in charge of the issue of North Korea's abductions of Japanese nationals.

Bunmei Ibuki, who heads a 32-member faction of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, was named education minister, and Jinen Nagase became the new justice minister. Abe also named LDP veteran Koji Omi as finance minister and former LDP General Council chief Fumio Kyuma, as chief of the Defense Agency.

Yuji Yamamoto, Abe's ardent follower in the LDP, took the post of financial services minister, the country's top bank regulator, while LDP veteran Akira Amari became minister of economy, trade and industry.

Tetsuzo Fuyushiba, a heavyweight of the New Komeito party, became minister of land, infrastructure and transport to take the only post given to the LDP's junior partner in the ruling coalition.

Former Cabinet Office bureaucrat Hiroko Ota, one of two women in the new cabinet, was appointed as minister in charge of economic and fiscal policy. The other female cabinet member is Sanae Takaichi, minister in charge of Okinawa and Northern Territories issues.

LDP lawmaker Masatoshi Wakabayashi was appointed environment minister and Toshikatsu Matsuoka was given agriculture, forestry and fisheries, while Hakuo Yanagisawa was appointed health, welfare and labor minister.

Genichiro Sata, a six-term member of the House of Representatives from the Liberal Democratic Party, gained his first cabinet post as state minister in charge of deregulation. Yoshihide Suga was appointed minister of internal affairs and communications.

2-year-old boy dies in apparent fall from 11th floor of Tokyo condo

A 2-year-old boy died after apparently falling from the 11th floor of a condominium in Tokyo on Monday, police said Tuesday. Yuto Masaki was found lying and bleeding from the head on the ground near an entrance of the condominium in Nerima Ward at around 11:30 p.m.

Yuto was taken to hospital but died on arrival. Police believe the boy fell from the building accidentally."

Abe hands Nakagawa No. 2 LDP post despite scandals

Former Chief Cabinet Secretary Hidenao Nakagawa was appointed Monday as secretary general of the governing Liberal Democratic Party, the No. 2 party post in the leadership of newly-elected LDP President Shinzo Abe, despite scandals still haunting him years after his cabinet expulsion.

Nakagawa, who assumed the post of chief cabinet secretary in July 2000 under then Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, resigned that October after coming under criticism over scandals involving the extramarital affair and having links with a senior member of a right-wing group, an issue also mentioned by the magazine, Focus. Abe also named former health and welfare minister Yuya Niwa as chairman of the party's decision-making General Council and farm minister Shoichi Nakagawa as chairman of the Policy Research Council."

Asahara's lawyers face punishment for delaying court procedures

The Tokyo High Court on Monday urged the Japan Federation of Bar Associations to penalize two lawyers for Aum Shinrikyo cult founder Shoko Asahara for delaying court procedures by missing the deadline for submitting an appeal document, court officials said.

Takeshi Matsui and Akio Matsushita were appointed as defense lawyers of Asahara, 51, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, for the trial at the Tokyo High Court, after he was sentenced to death by the Tokyo District Court in February 2004. The lawyers demanded trials be suspended and did not submit a statement of reasons for an appeal by the August 2005 deadline, arguing that Asahara lacked the ability to undergo a trial as he could not communicate with them."

2 children killed as car rams into group of nursery school children in Saitama

SAITAMA — Two girls aged 3 and 4 were killed Monday when a car rammed into a group of kindergartners on their way to a park in Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture, police said. Thirty-three children and five members of staff of the Kobato nursery school were walking in a line along the side of the street when the car crashed into them at around 10 a.m.

More than a dozen of them were injured, and two are in critical condition, police said. Hideyuki Izawa, the 37-year-old driver, was arrested for professional negligence. According to a witness, Izawa was driving at high speed and one of the children was knocked several meters by the vehicle."

SDF officer arrested for drunk driving after fleeing police

SAITAMA — A Maritime Self-Defense Force officer was arrested Sunday in Saitama Prefecture for drunk driving after his car hit a roadside electricity pole as he attempted to flee from police.

A patrol car came across Jun Egawa, a 23-year-old seaman from the Yokosuka Base in Kanagawa Prefecture, driving in zigzag fashion along a road in Kuki in the prefecture around 1:10 a.m.

When the patrol car attempted to stop the vehicle, Egawa drove off and crashed into an electricity pole 10 minutes later at a point 5 kilometers from where the patrol car first made contact, the police said.

A 23-year-old company employee was a passenger in the car, the police said.

According to police investigations, Egawa was driving the man to his home in Kuki after the pair had been drinking together at a bar in the city.

'I had a medium-sized mug of beer and five to six glasses of 'chuhai,'' Egawa was quoted as telling the police. Chuhai is a distilled liquor mixed with soda water.

Police plan to investigate the passenger for allegedly encouraging Egawa to drink in the knowledge that he would drive home later."

Court rules that teachers don't have to sing national anthem

The Tokyo District Court ruled Thursday that teachers and librarians are not obliged to sing the Kimigayo national anthem at school events despite Tokyo authorities' instruction to do so. Judge Koichi Namba said the Tokyo metropolitan government and its education board's notice to force teachers to sing Kimigayo in front of the Japanese flag infringes on freedom of thought and is against the basic education law.

'I can't believe we got such a great ruling from the court. I am really glad that I fought through the adversity,' said Ayako Kawaguchi, 48, a teacher who says her colleagues were reprimanded for refusing to sing Kimigayo at their school. The suit was filed by 401 incumbent and former teachers and librarians against the metropolitan government and its education board after they issued a notice in October 2003 demanding that public school employees stand and sing the national anthem in front of the Japanese flag during entrance and graduation ceremonies at schools."

New LDP chief Abe vows patriotic education, bigger international role

New LDP chief Abe vows patriotic education, bigger international role Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe, who eyes a larger role for Japan on the world stage, won a landslide victory in the ruling party's leadership election Wednesday, paving the way for him to be picked as Japan's youngest postwar premier next week in parliament.

Abe vowed in his first news conference as Liberal Democratic Party president to place priority in the upcoming parliament session to extend a special law enabling Japanese troops to support U.S.-led antiterrorism operations in the Indian Ocean and pass a bill to drastically reform education to instill patriotism in Japanese classrooms.

'I declare that I will, as the first party president to be born after World War II, take over the flame of reform,' Abe told a gathering of LDP lawmakers after the results were announced. 'I vow to devote myself in working with you all toward creating a new and beautiful nation.'

Abe said he will decide on the party leadership lineup Monday and his new cabinet on Tuesday, when the Diet will pick him as Japan's new premier to succeed Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi. A focus of attention is whether Abe will bow to party politics and distribute posts among factions, a traditional practice that Koizumi broke.

Winning 464 of 703 votes from party lawmakers and members, the 51-year-old Abe defeated Finance Minister Sadakazu Tanigaki and Foreign Minister Taro Aso to become the LDP president. Aso scored 136 votes and Tanigaki got 102. One of the 403 lawmaker ballots was invalid.

But while he won with an overwhelming victory with two-thirds of all votes, it was short of his camp's target of getting more than 500 ballots.

With a three-year term to September 2009, Abe will be faced with the daunting tasks of repairing Japan's soured relations with China and South Korea, and raising taxes to rebuild debt-ridden state finances and fund social welfare. The LDP is also expected to face a"

The succession of Japan'simperial throne

Princess Kiko, the wife of the emperor's younger son, gave birth
to a boy on Wednesday morning, securing the succession of Japan's
imperial throne for another generation.

In an event that had been anticipated for months, the princess gave
birth by Caesarean section to a boy weighing 2.5 kilograms - or 5
pounds, 10 ounces - and measuring 49 centimeters, or 19.2 inches, at
8:27 a.m., the Imperial Household Agency reported. Newspapers here
scrambled to print extra editions to mark the birth of the
still-unnamed child, the first male born in the royal family in 41
years.

The birth of a male heir will shelve for the foreseeable future a
politically explosive debate over whether women should be allowed to
ascend to the throne. It has solved for now a succession crisis that
had taken its most direct human toll on Crown Princess Masako, 42, the
Harvard-educated former diplomat whose inability to bear a boy
contributed to her depression and withdrawal from the public.

Under the current succession system, only men in a direct line to the
emperor can inherit the throne. So Kiko's child will become third in
line to the throne, after Crown Prince Naruhito, 46, and the child's
own father, Prince Akishino.

The crown prince and crown princess have a daughter, Aiko, 4; Prince
Akishino, 40, and Kiko, 39, have two daughters, Mako, 14, and Kako,
11. But none are eligible to ascend the throne.

Last year, with seemingly no resolution to the succession crisis,
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi convened a panel of experts that
recommended that a woman and her offspring be allowed to ascend to the
throne. The change would have allowed Aiko, as well as her first-born,
regardless of sex, to inherit the throne.

Before the bill could be introduced in Parliament, however, news of
Kiko's pregnancy in February led Koizumi to put the proposal on the
back burner.

Shinzo Abe, the nationalist chief cabinet secretary who is almost
certain to succeed Koizumi later this month as prime minister and is
known to have opposed the proposed bill.

It stirred unexpectedly fierce opposition from Japan's conservatives,
who argued that the male-only succession is the Chrysanthemum Throne's
defining characteristic. Japan has had eight empresses in the past,
but they did not have offspring who succeeded them.

Instead, the throne always reverted to a male relative who was related
on his father's side to a previous emperor. That, conservatives
argued, had always guaranteed the purity of the male bloodline - or,
in more modern terms, the male Y chromosome.

According to this logic, conservatives did not oppose changing the law
to allow Aiko to ascend to the throne but refused to countenance a
revision that would allow her offspring to do so. (The Japanese public
overwhelmingly supported Aiko's ascension, according to polls, but
grew more ambivalent about a matrilineal line.)

Japanese emperors have not had political authority since Emperor
Hirohito renounced his divinity after World War II.

Among possible solutions to the succession crisis, conservatives
proposed that other branches of the imperial family, abolished during
the post-World War II American occupation, be resurrected to find a
relative of the emperor with the right Y chromosome. Prince Tomohito
of Mikasa, 60, a cousin of the current emperor, argued for the revival
of the concubine system, which in the past had made plenty of
child-bearing women available to the emperor.

The birth may also end the psychological drama surrounding the royal
family, especially Masako. When she gave up a career in diplomacy to
marry the crown prince in 1993, she was heralded as a modern Japanese
woman who could perhaps even modernize the imperial institution. But
the princess was soon confronted with the reality that she was now
expected to do only one thing: bear a male heir.

When the couple finally had a child, it was a girl, Aiko. The Imperial
Household Agency, the powerful bureaucracy that oversees the royal
family, kept up the pressure to have another child, and Masako
eventually slipped into a depression.

Her plight led the crown prince to hold an extraordinary news
conference two years ago, in which he stated that he would not let his
wife be sacrificed for the greater good of the monarchy. "There has
been a move," the prince said, "to deny Masako's career and
personality."

Akishino, who had always lived in his older brother's shadow,
criticized his brother and sister-in-law by saying that they must put
their public duties above all. Around the same time, the Imperial
Household Agency publicly exhorted Akishino and Kiko - who had last
had a child a dozen years ago - to try for another baby.

Kiko, the daughter of a university professor who never had a career
before getting married, has become the darling of the Japanese media.

By contrast, Masako has increasingly become a target, routinely
criticized by the conservative media for her supposed selfishness and
lack of common sense.

Ordinary Japanese welcomed the rare piece of good news about the royal
family, though they were split as to whether the birth should affect
the debate over female succession.

"I'm glad it's a boy," said Ryoji Inoue, 33, a salaryman interviewed
at a subway station here. "I want the male succession to be
maintained. That's because Japanese society is still led by men. I
hope a couple of more boys will be born. The imperial law can be
changed when we don't have any choice in the future."

But Nanase Fujiwara, a 23-year-old housewife pushing her 6-month-old
daughter in a stroller, supported the idea of matrilineal succession.
"There's no problem with a female throne," she said. "But I think
people around the imperial family tend to have old ideas and are stuck
on male succession."

Japan imposes additional sanctions on N Korea over missile launches

Japan imposed financial sanctions Tuesday on North Korea by prohibiting remittances to 15 entities and one individual linked to the North's missile and weapons programs, in line with a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning missile launches by Pyongyang in early July.

'By implementing these measures, we will demonstrate the resolve of the international community, as well as Japan, in line with the U.N. Security Council resolution,' Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said. 'Japan takes this occasion to once again urge North Korea to accept the resolution, halt its missile-related activities and observe the missile launch moratorium, as well as immediately return to six-way nuclear talks without preconditions.'"

Man slashes 13-year-old girl with knife in Aichi

KASUGAI — A knife-wielding man attacked a 13-year-old girl in the parking lot of an apartment block in Kasugai, Aichi Prefecture, on Tuesday morning. Police said the girl was slashed three times on her left arm around 7:10 a.m., but described her injuries as minor.

The assailant, who fled the scene, was described as being in his 50s and with silver-gray hair. He wore a face mask. Police said there is a distinct possibility that the perpetrator is the same man who slashed another high school student in May in the same town. In that incident, the attacker used a pair of scissors."

Honda Opens New China Factory

Honda Opens New China Factory to Keep Ahead of Toyota

By Kelvin Wong and Tian Ying

Honda Motor Co., Japan's third- largest automaker, opened a new factory in China, as it seeks to maintain its lead over Toyota Motor Corp. and Nissan Motor Co. in the world's fastest growing major vehicle market.

The new factory, located in the southeastern city of Guangzhou, will have a capacity of 120,000 vehicles a year, the company said in a statement. Guangzhou Honda Automobile Co., Honda's venture with Guangzhou Automobile Group Co., invested 2.2 billion yuan ($277 million) in the factory, which will make Accord models.

Honda, the first Japanese carmaker to set up a venture in China, is opening the plant after capacity shortages stunted its sales growth in the first half. The factory may enable Honda to maintain its lead over Toyota and Nissan, which are also investing in the world's third-largest vehicle market.

Honda set up its first venture in China in 1998, five years ahead of Toyota and Nissan. The company had about 5.7 percent of China's passenger car sales in the first half, compared with Toyota's 4.5 percent and Nissan's 4.1 percent, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. Market leader Volkswagen AG had a share of 17.1 percent, the carmaker said.

Honda sold 143,519 vehicles in the first six months of the year, less than half its full-year target of 350,000 units, because of capacity shortages, it said in July. The company's sales were 22 percent higher than a year earlier.

The new factory will give Guangzhou Honda a total capacity of 360,000 units a year.

Toyota's Growth

Toyota expects its sales in China to rise 52 percent this year from last year to 278,000 units, Executive Vice President Yoshimi Inaba said in July. The world's biggest automaker by market value has invested 215 billion yen ($1.8 billion) in China and it is aiming to boost i"

Gov't to impose stricter regulations on cash bank deposits in crackdown on laundering - MSN-Mainichi Daily News

Gov't to impose stricter regulations on cash bank deposits in crackdown on laundering - MSN-Mainichi Daily News: "Gov't to impose stricter regulations on cash bank deposits in crackdown on laundering

People who try to make deposits in person of more than 100,000 yen in cash at financial institutions will be required under a law to show identity that proves they are the holders of the accounts, according to revised regulations.

The Cabinet on Tuesday adopted revised regulations designed to lower the limit of accepting cash payments at institutions without identification in a bid to block money laundering and fund transfers to terrorist organizations.

Currently, those who deposit more than 2 million yen in person at counters have to prove their identity.

After the revised regulations take effect on Jan. 4 next year, people who try to deposit more than 100,000 yen in cash will not be able to do so at automatic teller machines (ATMs). Instead they have to prove their identity by showing identity cards such as driver's licenses over the counter at financial institutions.

Account holders won't need to show identification to transfer money from account to account as they would have already proved their identity when setting up the accounts. (Mainichi)"

Yoshinoya serves up 1 million U.S. beef bowls; one man lines up from Sunday night

Yoshinoya serves up 1 million U.S. beef bowls; one man lines up from Sunday night

Monday, September 18, 2006 at 13:56 EDT
Customers eat U.S. beef at a Yoshinoya restaurant in Yurakucho on

TOKYO — Fast-food restaurant chain Yoshinoya D&C Co resumed sales of 'gyudon' beef-on-rice dishes Monday, about two years and seven months after removing the mainstay dish from its menu due to Japan's ban on U.S. beef imports over fear of mad cow disease. Yoshinoya prepared some 1 million gyudon bowls at about 1,000 shops across Japan for Monday's sales resumption. It will continue to sell gyudon bowls Tuesday and after on a limited basis for the time being as U.S. beef imports remain slack since Japan lifted its ban on the imports in late July.

'I was waiting for this moment,' said Takanori Umeki, 24, a University of Tokyo graduate student who was first in line at Yoshinoya's Yurakucho shop in central Tokyo. He said he had been waiting outside the restaurant since 11 p.m. Sunday night.

The Yurakucho shop prepared 1,000 gyudon dishes, with the regular bowl priced at 380 yen, up 100 yen from February 2004, when Yoshinoya was forced to remove gyudon from its menu due to the U.S. beef import ban. Despite light rain, about 50 people formed a line before the shop began gyudon sales from 11 a.m.

As shop staff announced the start of the sales, people eagerly rushed into the shop with smiles on their faces.

'I have almost forgotten the taste of gyudon. I want to remember its taste today. I'm not absolutely sure about the safety of U.S. beef but I am not too worried,' said Umeki, adding the price hike of about 100 yen is unavoidable.

Tadao Kato, the 33-year-old chief of the Yurakucho shop, said, 'We are confident that the beef is safe because it has been fully checked. Now, we have to win customer trus"

Defense Agency to open Washington office

TOKYO — The Defense Agency has decided to open a liaison office in charge of military data in Washington to strengthen ties with U.S. intelligence agencies, a Japanese daily reported Sunday. The Mainichi Shimbun said the agency will send a senior defense policy bureau official to Washington later this year to open the office early next year.

The office will operate independently from the Japanese Embassy in Washington to better coordinate with the U.S. intelligence community, particularly with the Defense Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency, the report said."

Japan mulls dispatch of GSDF to Lebanon

Japan mulls dispatch of GSDF to Lebanon:
U.N. mission hinges on fragile ceasefire

The government is thinking of dispatching Ground Self-Defense Force troops to Lebanon to offer logistics support to the U.N. Interim Force there monitoring a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah militants, government sources have said.

A ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israeli troops in southern Lebanon went into effect Aug. 14 following the passage of an earlier U.N. resolution urging an end to the hostilities.

It remains uncertain, though, whether Japan will give the go-ahead for the deployment, given strong concerns in the government that fighting may erupt again in southern Lebanon.

The final say is expected to be left to the new Japanese government that will be formed later this month after Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi steps down, the sources said.

The fighting erupted July 12 when Hezbollah militants abducted two Israeli soldiers and killed three others in a cross-border raid.

The U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution Aug. 11 that calls for a 'full cessation of hostilities' between Hezbollah and Israel -- specifically demanding that Hezbollah end its attacks. It also says Israel should cease its 'offensive military operations.'

The ceasefire came into effect a few days later, and both parties basically accepted the resolution.

With the establishment of a ceasefire and other conditions under the five-point principle Japan stipulates for engaging in peacekeeping missions, the government has begun considering a GSDF deployment in view of the 1992 Japanese law governing participation in U.N.-led peacekeeping operations.

Japan has sent missions under the U.N. peacekeeping framework to areas including Cambodia, Mozambique and East Timor, and Japanese troops are currently providing logistic support in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights in southern Syria.

The Foreign Ministry,"

3 Japan banks to refrain from deals with Iran in line with U.S. sanctions

TOKYO — The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ, Mizuho Corporate Bank and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp will refrain from doing business with Iran's state-run Bank Saderat Iran in line with U.S. financial sanctions, officials at the three Japanese banks said Saturday.

The United States has imposed a ban on U.S. bank transactions with Bank Saderat Iran, insisting that Iran is channeling funds to Hezbollah in Lebanon through the export bank."

Economist magazine praises Koizumi

LONDON — The forthcoming leadership election of Japan's Liberal Democratic Party on Sept 20 has sparked interest on an international level, not least because it will mark the beginning of the end of Junichiro Koizumi's reign as a 'remarkable' prime minister, according to the British weekly magazine the Economist.

The magazine, in its latest issue published Friday, says that while the premier may be stepping down from his office, his legacy as a reformer of policy and his country will reverberate around both Japan and the world long after his successor has filled his considerable shoes. 'During his tenure Japan's governing apparatus has been transformed, its economy has emerged from long years of degenerative decline, and its dealings with the world have been energized and emboldened. For all that, Junichiro Koizumi remains an enigma,' the magazine says."

U.S. honors SDF's Adm Saito for helping beef up alliance

— The United States awarded the Legion of Merit with a degree of commander Friday to Adm Takashi Saito, chief of staff of Japan's Self-Defense Forces, for his contributions to strengthening the bilateral security alliance and defense cooperation.

U.S. Naval Operations Chief Adm Michael Mullen handed the award to Saito at a ceremony at the U.S. Defense Department. 'Admiral Saito displayed strong leadership and exceptional vision in guiding the MSDF's policies of strong cooperation, close operational coordination, robust interoperability with the U.S. Navy in support of the U.S.-Japan alliance,' the citation said."

Supreme Court rejects appeal by Aum founder Asahara, finalizing death sentence

Supreme Court rejects appeal by Aum founder Asahara, finalizing death sentence

Friday, September 15, 2006

The Supreme Court rejected a special appeal filed by the defense counsel for Aum Shinrikyo cult founder Shoko Asahara on Friday, finalizing the death sentence against him over his involvement in the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway system and other charges.

The move came after the defense lawyers had missed the Aug 31, 2005, deadline for submitting a statement to the Tokyo High Court to give the reason for their appeal against the capital punishment handed down to Asahara, 51, at a lower court in February 2004."

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Tochigi teacher faces charges for fondling schoolgirls

Tochigi teacher faces charges for fondling schoolgirls: "Tochigi teacher faces charges for fondling schoolgirls

Wednesday, September 13, 2006 at 19:02 EDT

SANO — A 33-year-old male elementary school teacher in Sano, Tochigi, is facing criminal charges after being accused of fondling all the girls in his class. According to the Tochigi Board of Education, the teacher has made all the girls sit on his lap during recess since April.

The case surfaced when the parents of some girls filed a complaint with the school, saying that their daughters didn't like being touched by the teacher. The teacher admits to the complaint. 'I did it because the girls are adorable. I wanted to build a close relationship with them, in which they would not hesitate to tell me everything,' he was quoted by investigators as saying."

baraki man pinched for stealing women's underwear

Ibaraki man pinched for stealing women's underwear: "Ibaraki man pinched for stealing women's underwear

Wednesday, September 13, 2006 at 18:49 EDT
[Some of the 405 items of underwear confiscated from a man in Ibaraki.]
Some of the 405 items of underwear confiscated from a man in Ibar

HITACHI — Police on Wednesday arrested a 25-year-old man for stealing women's underwear in Hitachi, Ibaraki. The man, identified as Yuichi Honda, was caught in the act after trespassing onto the balcony of an apartment and attempting to steal women's underwear.

Police later confiscated a total of 405 items of women's underwear from his apartment and car. Honda told police he had stolen underwear on 60 occasions since June and said he had been doing it as a 'hobby.'"

Chiba cop arrested for molesting schoolgirl in public toilet

Chiba cop arrested for molesting schoolgirl in public toilet: "NARITA — An off duty police officer was arrested Wednesday for molesting a 17-year-old schoolgirl in the women's toilet at Narita station in Chiba. The police sergeant, identified as Takeshi Notoya, 35, was arrested after attacking the girl around 9 p.m. on Tuesday night.

According to investigators, Notoya said he had been drinking with colleagues. He told police he climbed over the cubicle wall and approached the girl. Police said he put his hand over the girl's mouth to stop her from screaming. But she broke free and yelled out for help. Some passersby grabbed Notoya when he came out of the toilet, while others called for police. Notoya has admited to the allegations."

Gov't reprimands TBS for showing Abe photo during program on germ warfare unit

Gov't reprimands TBS for showing Abe photo during program on germ warfare unit: "TOKYO — The government reprimanded Tokyo Broadcasting System Inc. on Friday for airing a photo panel of Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe during a TV program on Unit 731, the wartime Japanese germ warfare unit, to which Abe has no link.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, which had been investigating the incident during the TV program aired July 21, concluded that TBS violated the Broadcast Law for airing an image that could cause misunderstanding by the audience.

Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Heizo Takenaka summoned TBS President Hiroshi Inoue to the ministry and told him that the program was not properly edited.

Takenaka also asked Inoue to submit to the ministry within a month a written document on TBS's measures to prevent a recurrence, and to report on how the measures are being implemented within three months.

'Although it was not intentional, we regret it was an image that could have misled viewers. We accept the reprimand gravely and will make efforts to prevent a recurrence,' TBS said in a statement.

The broadcaster earlier said that when a cameraman took a shot of a TBS reporter doing a phone interview in the newsroom, the camera happened to capture the Abe photo panel, which was in a nearby prop storeroom.

Abe is regarde as the most likely candidate to succeed Junichiro Koizumi as president of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and prime minister next month.

Toyota's North America president to resign after $190 mil sexual harassment suit

Crisscross - News - Toyota's North America president to resign after $190 mil sexual harassment suit: "Toyota Motor Co said Tuesday that the president and CEO of its North America operations has resigned, following a $190 million sexual harassment suit filed a week ago by a female employee.

The company said in a press release that Hideaki Otaka, 65, was resigning effective Monday. It said Yukitoshi Funo, chairman and chief executive officer of Toyota Motor Sales, USA Inc, has been named chairman and CEO of Toyota Motor North America and Jim Press, president and chief operating officer of Toyota Motor Sales, as Toyota Motor North America's president, effectively immediately.

Press is the first American to serve as president of the North American subsidiary of Japan's Toyota Motor Corp.

Otaka, 65, who had been scheduled to leave his post in June, has voluntarily left earlier, saying his continued tenure was not in the company's interests.

'While I expect to be fully vindicated in the recently filed litigation against Toyota and me, I have regretfully come to the conclusion that my continued service as president would serve as a distraction and ultimately not be in the best interests of the company,' Otaka said in a statement.

On May 1, Sayaka Kobayashi, 42, who is Japanese, filed a $190 million lawsuit in New York, accusing Otaka of harassing her when she worked as his personal assistant, making repeated unwanted sexual advances after she began working for him last summer. She said the conduct continued until winter, when she was involuntarily transferred out of the job.

In the suit, Kobayashi contended that Otaka manipulated her work schedule so that she could be with him, and that she was sexually assaulted by him in Washington DC and in Central Park during the fall of 2005.

She also maintains that she ultimately chose to file the suit because she could no longer remain silent regarding his conduct, but also because of Toyota's obvious disinterest in treat"

Man admits throwing boy from 15th floor

Man admits throwing boy from 15th floor of condo; says he was depressed.

A man arrested Saturday for alleged assault has admitted to throwing a boy to his death from the 15th floor of a Kanagawa Prefecture condominium building last month, police said.
Kenji Imai, 41, presented himself to a police station in the morning after police disclosed a security camera video to the media Friday that showed a man suspected of attempting to kill a female janitor in the same condominium building in Kawasaki City on Wednesday morning, the police said.

Imai, who lost his job last year and remains unemployed, told police he committed both acts 'because he wanted to kill' them. Imai had managed a retail curtain shop near the condominium building.

He said he 'has been depressed' since he developed a suicide wish last year, the police said.

The Kanagawa prefectural police arrested him on suspicion of assaulting the woman but plan to serve another arrest warrant on him over killing the boy, Yuki Yamakawa, 9, a resident of the building.

The police said the janitor told them Imai is the man who assaulted her.

According to investigations, on the morning of March 29, Imai jumped on the janitor in the corridor of the 15th floor of the condominium in Tama Ward, Kawasaki City, and then attempted to shove her over the railing and off the floor. The woman resisted, screaming, and he ran away.

The boy was thrown from the 15th floor early on the afternoon of March 20 and died of a ruptured heart, the investigations showed. Police have determined the boy was thrown as his fingerprints were not found on the handrail along the corridor.

The suspect was quoted as telling police, 'The 15th floor is the highest and I thought anyone who falls from here would die.'

He told police he knew neither the woman nor the boy and said, 'I have done something unpardonable. I feel so"

Yokohama security guard suspected of impersonating policeman

YOKOHAMA — Police sent papers Friday to prosecutors on a 27-year-old security guard in Yokohama for allegedly forging a police ID and creating a fake patrol car in order to pretend to be a policeman, police officials said. The man is suspected of stopping a car on a state road in Yokohama's Asahi Ward and asking the person inside to show him his driver's license last September.

At the time, the man wore a uniform and drove a car to which he added a red flashing light and a siren to make it seem to be a police car, the officials said. The man is also suspected of questioning people living in Yokohama's Midori Ward. He was charged with forgery of an official document for allegedly buying a fake police ID apparently via Internet auction in 2002 and customizing it to make it his own using a computer."

JAL apologizes for serving U.S. beef in in-flight meals

Japan Airlines apologized Friday for serving kids' meals containing U.S. beef from April last year to January this year on flights from Guam to Japanese airports operated by group company JALways despite Japan's import ban on U.S. beef due to risks of mad cow disease.

The Japanese carrier, however, said its inspection of a U.S. meat processor that provided the beef and scrutiny by outside experts have found no health hazards in connection with the meat served.

After Japan suspended U.S. beef imports in December 2003, JAL instructed about 80 companies providing in-flight meals to it to stop using U.S. beef.

But a Guam flight meal company mistakenly used U.S. beef in meat sauce for spaghetti for children aged 9 months old to 2 years old, JAL said.

About 5,200 meals containing the beef in question were served during the period."

New York Times criticizes Aso's recent remarks on history

NEW YORK — The New York Times in its editorial published Monday criticized Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso for his recent remarks on Japan's prewar and wartime activities, saying 'Mr Aso's sense of diplomacy is as odd as his sense of history.'

In the editorial titled 'Japan's Offensive Foreign Minister,' the Times said, 'People everywhere wish they could be proud of every bit of their countries' histories. But honest people understand that's impossible, and wise people appreciate the positive value of acknowledging and learning from painful truths about past misdeeds. Then there is Japan's new foreign minister, Taro Aso, who has been neither honest nor wise in the inflammatory statements he has been making about Japan's disastrous era of militarism, colonialism and war crimes that culminated in the Second World War,' the paper said."

Security guard crushed to death by falling ticket vending machine at Nagatacho subway station

A 70-year-old subway security guard was crushed to death at Nagatacho station on Tuesday morning when a ticket vending machine that he and four other station staff were carrying tipped over and fell down the stairs near the exit.

The 400-kg vending machine pinned the security guard, killing him. Two other men sustained injuries. The five workers were in the process of replacing the old machine with a new one when the accident occurred."

Man buried dad in yard to avoid cost of a funeral

Man buried dad in yard to avoid cost of a funeral

TAKAMATSU, Kagawa Pref. (Kyodo) A 59-year-old man and his 85-year-old mother were arrested Sunday on suspicion of abandoning the body of his father by burying it in the yard of his home in Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture.

A skeletonized body was dug up from the yard Saturday. The suspects were identified as Fumio Makizuka, a part-time shop attendant, and his mother, Fumiko. Investigators suspect the body is that of Buntaro Makizuka, 93.

The son was quoted by police as saying he hid the body because he could not afford a funeral and did not want his father's pension benefits to stop coming.

Investigators found the body after a relative reported to police that the elder Makizuka had gone missing.

According to investigators, the pair did not notify authorities of the man's death when he passed away in the house in September.

The son told police his father died of old age."

Annual snow festival begins in Sapporo

Annual snow festival begins in Sapporo: "Annual snow festival begins in Sapporo

Monday, February 6, 2006 at 13:10 EST
[A snow sculpture of the Golden Pavilion of Horyuji temple stands at Odori Park.]
A snow sculpture of the Golden Pavilion of Horyuji temple stands

SAPPORO — A seven-day snow festival began Monday in the Hokkaido capital of Sapporo featuring some 300 snow and ice sculptures in three locations, including one that replaces a previous Ground Self-Defense Force site.

For the 57th Sapporo Snow Festival, the new Satoland site replaces the previous festival site in the GSDF's Makomanai garrison, with troops offering technical support for the building of statues and a giant snow slope, which had been a popular attraction for children at the previous site. The other two sites are the festival's main Odori Park site and a site in Susukino."

Toyoko Inn found to have violated building codes at 60 renovated hotels

Toyoko Inn found to have violated building codes at 60 renovated hotels

Monday, February 6, 2006 at 19:12 EST
TOKYO — Budget hotel chain operator Toyoko Inn Co made modifications to 77 of its 122 hotels across Japan after they had passed government inspections confirming they complied with building regulations, with violations detected in 60 of them, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said Monday.

The ministry said it has agreed with local authorities to consider filing a criminal complaint against the Tokyo-based company if the operator fails to obey orders to rectify violations — totaling 79 cases — at the 60 establishments. (Kyodo News)"

3 Kyoto Univ students admit to gang rape

3 Kyoto Univ students admit to gang rape: "3 Kyoto Univ students admit to gang rape

Monday, February 6, 2006 at 16:07 EST

KYOTO — Three Kyoto University students have admitted to allegations that they gang raped two female university students in December, reversing their earlier denial, police sources said Monday.

Jumpei Shirai, 22, Ryo Ikeguchi, 23, and Masahiro Kido, 22 — all seniors and former members of the university's American Gangsters football club — told the police that they 'did something that may be billed as rape,' according to the sources.

The three had denied the gang rape allegations earlier. Shirai and Ikeguchi asserted the sex was consensual as the women were conscious and able to talk, while Kido said he did not have sex.

But the suspects called their deeds 'inexcusable' and showed intention of apologizing to the victims after the police told them that the women were so drunk they only had vague memories, the sources said.

Police suspect the three made the victims drink 'shochu,' a distilled liquor, and straight vodka as they played drinking games at Kido's apartment in Kyoto on the night of Dec 22 before the crime allegedly took place early in the morning the following day."