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Japan finds fresh suspected foot-and-mouth case

Japan discovered a suspected case of foot-and-mouth disease in a cow in its southern prefecture of Miyazaki, just days after it lifted a state of emergency, an official said. "We cancelled two auctions of cows in the prefecture after a suspected case of foot and mouth was discovered on a farm," a prefecture official told AFP. The region reported the case to the farm ministry and was awaiting the test result to determine if it is a fresh foot-and-mouth case. (AFP)

No. of Internet crime cases hits record high in 1st half

Police responded to a record 2,444 Internet crime cases nationwide in the first half of this year, a National Police Agency survey showed Thursday. The number, up 586 or 31.5 percent from a year earlier, represented a new high since the NPA started gathering statistics for Internet crimes, defined as crimes which use a computer network, on a half-year basis in 2004. Of the total, the number of fraud cases, such as swindling money from a successful bidder by posting false information in an online auction, climbed 22.8 percent to 867 cases. (AP)

Threats keep dolphin protest out of Japan village

The star of "The Cove," an Oscar-winning documentary about a Japanese dolphin hunt, is back in Japan to protest the slaughter but had to cancel his trip to the village at the center of the controversy because of threats from an ultranationalist group. Instead, Ric O'Barry, the former dolphin-trainer for the 1960s "Flipper" TV show, is playing host to a reception Wednesday for some 100 animal-lovers at a Tokyo hotel. On Thursday, he will take a petition signed by 1.7 million people from 155 nations demanding the end of the dolphin hunt to the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, escorted by police security. (AP)

Naked romp lands man, woman before prosecutors

Police turned over to prosecutors Wednesday their case against a 21-year-old man who walked naked on a street in Yokohama last month and a 22-year-old woman who ordered him to do so, alleging they committed acts of public indecency. The woman and the man had been living together since January. She was angry with him for not paying rent and was quoted as telling him to, "Take off your clothes" and "follow my bicycle." (Japan Times)

Violence, sexual harassment on trains linked by power of anonymity

An investigation by the Association of Japanese Private Railways has shown that in fiscal 2009, there were 869 cases of violence committed against train station employees and train crew members. This marked a rise of 117 cases from the 2008 fiscal year, and the most number of cases since the association began compiling such records in fiscal 2005. In response to the recent surge in cases of violence perpetrated against railway workers, the association decided to put up posters to raise awareness and call for a stop to such violence on trains and at train stations. Violence toward station attendants tended to occur late at night on weekends, and nearly 60 percent of perpetrators were reported to have been drinking alcohol before the incidents. Considering the fact that these cases increased in the month of December -- when end-of-the-year parties take place -- the majority was likely committed by those who had been drinking. (Mainichi)

Japanese-Argentine couple win world tango championships

A Japanese-Argentine couple won the stage dancing division of the Eighth World Tango Championships held Tuesday in Buenos Aires, reports from Argentina said. The achievement by Japanese dancer Chizuko Kuwamoto and Diego Ortega from Argentina follows the victory in last year's contest by Japanese married couple Hiroshi and Kyoko Yamao in the salon dancing category. In this year's competition, in which 405 pairs from 18 countries took part, another Japanese dancer, Naoko Tsutsumizaki, and her Argentine partner, Cristian Lopez, came in third in both stage and salon dancing. (AP)

Kobe eyes tattoo ban at Suma public beach after marijuana case

The Kobe municipal government is considering banning people with tattoos from a beach in Suma Ward following the recent arrests of college students for alleged marijuana possession during a music event at the beach, city officials said. The city office intends to come up with a concrete plan during this year, including establishing the rule by ordinance, but banning tattooed people from a public beach is a rare case in Japan as most tattoo bans are for commercial facilities such as saunas. The envisaged ban may prompt controversy over its possible violation of the freedom of expression as tattoos are becoming increasingly fashionable with young people, critics say. (AP)

Woman suspected of keeping father's body in closet for 5 yrs

A 58-year-old woman is suspected of keeping her father's body inside a closet in their house in Izumi, Osaka Prefecture, after he died there five years ago, police said Wednesday. After the body of a man believed to be Asakichi Miyata -- who would be 91 years old if alive -- was found in the house, the woman told the police that her father was dead when she came home one day five years ago and that she put his body inside the closet shortly afterward, they said. Miyata, a former banker, is believed to have been receiving a pension, and the daughter may have been living off it, according to city and police officials. (AP)

Japan holds annual disaster drill, assuming 3 big simultaneous quakes

The government conducted an emergency drill Wednesday on the assumption that three major earthquakes struck a wide area along the Pacific coast simultaneously, a phenomenon experts say has occurred and could recur. Japan conducts annual antidisaster drills across the nation on Sept. 1 in commemoration of the Great Kanto Earthquake on Sept. 1, 1923, but it is the first time that the government has assumed a scenario of three major simultaneous quakes with epicenters located in a line in ocean trenches. (AP)

Japan leadership battle kicks off

Japan's Prime Minister Naoto Kan and his rival, powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa, kicked off a leadership battle Wednesday that threatens to divide the ruling party only a year after it took power. Their contest to run the governing centre-left Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) comes as its economic recovery is slowing, Japan's debt mountain is growing and exports are threatened by the yen trading near a 15-year high. The rivals, who both formally declared their candidacy for the September 14 party election, represent the two different wings of the party which a year ago ousted the conservatives after more than half as century in power. (AFP)

Fuji climbers may have to pay to reach peak

Municipalities in Yamanashi Prefecture adjacent to Mt. Fuji are considering charging visitors who climb the mountain to help cover the costs of such things as first-aid facilities, mountain toilet maintenance and garbage disposal. More and more people are trekking up Mt. Fuji every year. According to the Yamanashi and Shizuoka prefectural governments, from 2000 to 2006 about 200,000 people climbed Mt. Fuji each year. However, in 2007 the total jumped to 350,000 and in 2008 a whopping 430,000 people trekked up the famous mountain. The central government gives subsidies to private mountain lodges and local governments to build and maintain toilets in national and quasi-national parks, but the Environment Ministry has decided to abolish the system for budgetary reasons. (Yomiuri)

Heatstroke kills 158 since late May

Heatstroke has killed 158 people since late May, while 46,728 others were treated in hospitals during the same period, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said. Between Aug. 23 and Sunday, 5,358 people were treated at hospitals for heatstroke, and 13 died, according to a survey taken by the agency. During the one-week period, those taken to hospitals for emergency treatment declined by about 4,000 from the preceding week. There were also three fewer deaths. (Yomiuri)

Language help pledged for foreigners

The government said Tuesday it will help foreign residents master the Japanese language to improve their quality of life. "Foreign residents in Japan have difficulties in finding jobs due to their insufficient language capabilities, and more people have faced hardships in their lives," a guideline compiled by a Cabinet Office panel says. As solutions, the panel proposed improving the quality of Japanese-language teachers and providing vocational training in line with residents' language capabilities. (Japan Times)

Typhoon hits Okinawa, over 190 flights canceled

A typhoon hit the northern part of the Okinawa Prefecture's main island around 5 p.m. on Tuesday and is moving northwest in the East China Sea, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. Typhoon Kompasu brought strong winds of up to 203 kilometers per hour in Izena village in the prefecture and has caused the cancellation of more than 190 flights to and from Okinawa and its vicinity, affecting about 25,000 people. The typhoon left four people injured in Okinawa and power blackouts have occurred at around 32,000 households in 15 municipalities in the northern part of the island. (AP)

Life expectancy statistics debated

After the recent revelation that the whereabouts of numerous citizens aged 100 or over are unknown, should statistics on the average life expectancy for Japanese be reassessed? The media abroad has reported on the missing centenarians with much interest, and some reports have cast doubt on the validity of statistics that famously show Japan's average life expectancy to be among the longest in the world. On July 26, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry announced that the average life expectancy for Japanese males born in 2009 was 79.59 years. For females born that year, it was 86.44 years. The figures set record highs for both genders for the fourth year in a row. (Yomiuri)

Over 250,000 climbers scale Mt. Fuji this year

More than 250,000 people--a record high--have climbed Mt. Fuji by the trail on the mountain's Yamanashi Prefecture side this season, according to the Mt. Fuji safety guidance center. Last year, 247,066 people--the previous record--climbed the nation's highest mountain from the Yamanashi Prefecture side. The figure is likely to reach 260,000 by Tuesday, the last day of the climbing season, which started July 1. According to the center at the 6th stage of Mt. Fuji, the season's 250,000th climber set out on the Yoshidaguchi trail at about 11:30 p.m. Saturday. (Yomiuri)

Does Japan's affair with tuna mean loving it to extinction?

Japan is known as the biggest consumer of tuna. Be it raw for sushi or sashimi or fried, broiled or canned, tuna is an important element of the food culture. But concerns are growing because tuna is disappearing, and this is putting Japan in a difficult diplomatic position. How much tuna does Japan consume annually, and how does the rest of the world feel? Japan also accounted for some 70 to 80 percent of all bluefin tuna traded internationally. (Japan Times)

Fingerprint all Japanese, for safety's sake

If you're a noncitizen and have entered or re-entered Japan in the last couple of years, you've undoubtedly been invited to participate in the wonderful, fun-filled world of biometrics. It's safe to say that many of you felt as though you were being treated like criminals - not to mention the humiliation of being discriminated against, knowing that your Japanese companions could quickly walk through immigration without having to endure the same indignities. Worse still is the fact that the foreign community of Japan worked so long and hard to finally get fingerprinting abolished - only to see it reinstated just a few years later due to pressure from the U.S. government. (Japan Times)

Japan resort a hot spot for men with virtual girlfriends

Long a favorite of lovers and honeymooners, a Japanese beach town with fading sparkle has found a new tourism niche in the wired age by drawing young men and their virtual girlfriends. One recent sweltering summer's day, a tour bus from Tokyo pulled up at a sun-kissed beach at Atami, a Pacific coast resort southwest of the metropolis, and disgorged more than a dozen excited, iPhone-clutching young men. The determined youngsters, paying scant attention to the bikini-clad girls frolicking on the sand, instead headed straight for a bronze statue that depicts Kanichi and Omiya, a couple from an old love story set in Atami. (inquirer.net)

Highly credible UFO video from Japan surfaces

Perhaps due to the fact that more people are carrying better quality camera phones or perhaps because visiting aliens are becoming more bold in terms of interacting with humanity as possible open alien contact draws nearer, the quality of new UFO footage over the last months has been better than ever. UFOs are commonly seen in Japan and interest in alien / extraterrestrial subjects widespread. No official disclosure of UFO files has, however, occurred in Japan as of yet. (allnewsweb.com)

Man in Nagano computes value of pi to 5 tril. digits

A company employee in Nagano Prefecture calculated the value of pi to five trillion digits this month using a self-made personal computer, beating the record set by a French engineer who calculated it to about 2.7 trillion digits late last year. To calculate the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, to an undetermined number of digits, Shigeru Kondo, a 55- year-old resident of Iida, assembled a computer with 32 terabytes of hard-drive capacity and used an application made by Alexander Yee, a 22-year-old student at a U.S. graduate school. (AP)

Heat wave lingers in Japan, with temperatures over 35 C in 114 spots

A heat wave continued in Japan on Sunday, with the temperature rising to 35 C or higher at 114 observation points across the archipelago, particularly in western Japan, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency. The mercury soared to 37.4 C in Osaka, setting a new record for the longest streak of temperatures rising to 35 C or above at 14 days. The weather agency forecast the heat would continue this week and called on people to take precautions against heat stroke. (AP)

Baseball: Japan takes Little League WS title

The Little League aces from Japan ended the United States' five-year reign as World Series champions. The team from Tokyo limited Waipahu, Hawaii, to four singles, and got a homer and three RBIs from Konan Tomori to take the Little League World Series title with a 4-1 victory Sunday. For the first time since 2003, a team from Japan is flying home with the championship banner. (Washington Post)

New dissent in Japan is loudly anti-foreign

The demonstrators appeared one day in December, just as children at an elementary school for ethnic Koreans were cleaning up for lunch. The group of about a dozen Japanese men gathered in front of the school gate, using bullhorns to call the students cockroaches and Korean spies. Inside, the panicked students and teachers huddled in their classrooms, singing loudly to drown out the insults, as parents and eventually police officers blocked the protesters' entry. The December episode was the first in a series of demonstrations at the Kyoto No. 1 Korean Elementary School that shocked conflict-averse Japan, where even political protesters on the radical fringes are expected to avoid embroiling regular citizens, much less children. (New York Times)

Mentally handicapped boy arrested on suspicion of killing brother

A 17-year-old mentally handicapped boy was arrested Saturday on suspicion of stabbing to death his 11-year-old brother with scissors and a knife at their home in Iwakura, Aichi Prefecture, local police said. The suspect initially admitted to the allegation to the police, saying he stabbed his younger brother after having a fight, but later said he does not remember, the police said. Their grandfather found the younger brother collapsed in a pool of blood in the living room of the house at around 9:30 a.m., with the 17-year-old boy sitting nearby wearing blood-stained clothes. (AP)

Things to see and do

Art Tower Mito; Kairaku-en Park near Mito for plum blossom in February-March; hiking on Mount Tsukuba; ancient Kashima Jingu Shinto shrine near the center of Kashima. Kashima Stadium - more stadium info - home of the Kashima Antlers. Train from Kashima Jingu Station to the stadium.

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