North Korea should accept U.N. resolution

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki said Tuesday that North Korea should accept a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning its reported nuclear test.

Shiozaki made the comment after the North Korean Foreign Ministry released a statement the same day rejecting the resolution as "a declaration of war."

The resolution, which calls for sanctions to be imposed on North Korea for its alleged nuclear test, was adopted unanimously Saturday. It demands that North Korea abandon all nuclear programs.

As to reports that Pyongyang is preparing for a second nuclear test, Shiozaki urged the communist country to show restraint, saying that it should avoid isolating itself further.

Commenting on inspections made by China, a North Korean ally, of trucks crossing its border with the reclusive nation, Shiozaki said the move comes as no surprise, as China, like all U.N. member countries, is expected to implement the terms of the Security Council resolution. (Jiji Press)

Former Livedoor exec says founder Horie knew accounts were window-dressed

Former Livedoor Co. board member Fumito Kumagai told a court Tuesday that the company's founder, Takafumi Horie, knew that the firm's accounts had been window-dressed.

"I told him it's been pointed out that the accounts have been falsified. He then simply replied, 'Try hard,'" Kumagai told the Tokyo District Court as a witness.

"'Try hard' meant that I should overcome the problem. Mr. Horie knew they were fictitious," Kumagai told Horie's hearing.

Horie has categorically denied he was aware that Livedoor's consolidated mid-term accounts, that were closed in September 2004, had been window-dressed, while the four others standing trial have testified that Horie knew that they were falsified.

A certified public accountant warned that it is inappropriate that the sales figures of two of Livedoor's affiliates had been padded by over 1.5 billion yen when Livedoor settled its consolidated accounts in September 2004.

The five former executives of Livedoor Co. including Horie and Kumagai are under indictment on charges of violating the Securities and Exchange Law.

China urges Japan not to develop nuclear weapons

China hopes Japan takes a responsible attitude over the issue of developing nuclear weapons following North Korea's own nuclear test, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Tuesday.

Spokesman Liu Jianchao said, "We hope Japan is able to strictly carry out its treaty obligations and appropriately defend the three-point nuclear principle." To safeguard regional peace and stability Japan should "adopt a responsible attitude," he added.

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."