Japanese News & Science/Tech 日本のニュースと科学技術

[ukiyo]

Japan Gives Putin a New Puppy

MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin has a new furry four-legged friend.
A 3-month old Akita Inu puppy named Yume, a gift from the Japanese prefecture of Akita, arrived in Moscow aboard an Aeroflot flight from Tokyo.

According to the Russian news agency Interfax, the Japanese embassy distributed a statement from the regional government saying they gave Putin the dog because he is “a great lover of dogs.” The statement said the gift was meant to show gratitude for Russia’s assistance after last year’s earthquake and tsunami and to congratulate Putin on his return to the presidency.

The pup arrived a day before Putin is to meet with Japan’s Foreign Minister in the Black Sea resort town of Sochi.

Their talks were expected to include a discussion about a disputed chain of islands that each country lays claim to. The Russians call them the Kuril Islands. The Japanese call them the Chishima Islands.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headline...n-a-new-puppy/

Stronger law passed to crack down on yakuza gangs

Legislation passed the Lower House on July 26 to put more muscle in the anti-organized crime law and allow police to collar yakuza gangs that attack their foes.

The revised law will go into effect from this autumn and will allow police to immediately arrest members of gangs that have been designated by prefectural public safety commissions as being especially dangerous or as being involved in a turf war with rival gangs.

Until now, police had to first issue orders to stop the collection of protection money or other illegal acts or issue orders to prevent a recurrence of such acts before any arrests could be made of offending gang members.

More: http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_...AJ201207280011

[japanese001]

[japanese001]

[Ryuhei]

japanese 001, you don´t want the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo? I remember you had a Tokyo 2016 avatar.
A well planned Olympics leaves big rewards and profits to the host city, so it´s strange that you don´t want them in your country, to the extreme that you actively promote a rival city.
(or I could be confused and you are turkish XD)

[everywhere]

Japan and North Korea set to resume repatriation talks
(Press TV, Aug. 13)

A report says Japan and North Korea will hold talks this month over the repatriation of the remains of Japanese nationals died in the North in the first half of the 20th century. Japan’s Kyodo news agency said in a report on Monday that the two countries were at final stage of dialogue about holding formal talks in late August.

The Korean Peninsula was occupied and declared an Imperial Japanese protectorate in the 1905 Eulsa Treaty, and Japan officially annexed the peninsula in 1910. At the end of World War II in 1945, Soviet troops entered the peninsula and about 34,600 Japanese citizens died in what is now North Korea.

The talks would be the first dialogue between Japan and North Korea, which have no diplomatic ties and frosty relations, on the sensitive topic in four years. So far the remains of some 13,000 Japanese have been repatriated but more than 21,000 others are still believed to be buried in North Korea.

more: http://presstv.com/detail/2012/08/13...-resume-talks/


ROK-Japan dispute worries US
(China Daily, Aug. 14)

Tensions between Seoul and Tokyo over the disputed islands continued on Monday, and the rift is prompting Washington to worry about the already shaky US-Japan-ROK trilateral collaboration, analysts said. ROK President Lee Myung-bak on Monday called Japan's reaction "expected" when discussing his Aug 10 visit to the disputed islands, which Seoul calls Dokdo and Tokyo calls Takeshima.

Lee said he had planned the visit "for three years", and he said the "Japanese government chose to express 'negative attitudes' on the islands issue due to its domestic political issues", the ROK's Yonhap News Agency said.

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda recalled Japan's ambassador to the ROK to discuss countermeasures, and Japanese media on Monday focused on Tokyo's plan to lodge the islands case with the International Court of Justice. Seoul on Sunday dismissed Tokyo's plan to go to the international court and said it will not respond to the request.

more: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2...t_15672863.htm

[japanese001]

[japanese001]

Originally Posted by Ryuhei

japanese 001, you don´t want the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo? I remember you had a Tokyo 2016 avatar.
A well planned Olympics leaves big rewards and profits to the host city, so it´s strange that you don´t want them in your country, to the extreme that you actively promote a rival city.
(or I could be confused and you are turkish XD)

I hand over the Olympics to Spain or Turkey.
The present Japanese is not interested in a building, a thing, an entertainment.
I want to do the Olympics on the surface of the moon.

[ukiyo]

Japan’s population marks sharpest year-on-year decline

Japan’s population fell by 263,727 in the year to April, almost double the rate of a year earlier, according to figures released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications on Aug. 7.

Japan’s basic resident register, which records Japanese citizens living in Japan, put the nation’s population at 126,659,683 as of March 31.

But seven prefectures recorded growth, including major urban areas Tokyo, Saitama and Fukuoka prefectures. Okinawa Prefecture recorded growth of 0.66 percent.



More: http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_...AJ201208080042

[ukiyo]

Chinese Activists Deported From Japan Arrive Back In Hong Kong

HONG KONG (Kyodo)--Chinese activists deported from Japan for sailing to Japanese-controlled isles in the East China Sea returned to Hong Kong Friday, with supporters giving them a hero's welcome at the airport.
http://e.nikkei.com/e/fr/tnks/Nni20120817D17JF487.htm

[ukiyo]

Okinawans angry at handling of activists

People in Ishigaki, Okinawa Prefecture, have expressed discontent over Japanese authorities' decision to deport back to China activists arrested for landing on one of the Senkaku Islands.

Tsuyoshi Maedomari, 44, an Ishigaki official of the fishery union of Okinawa Prefecture, said the decision to deport the activists without punishment could encourage illegal landings on the islands by foreigners. "If there are no penalties, they'll try to do it again," he said.

Maedomari added that good fishing grounds are limited and that local fishermen cannot avoid operating around the islands. "We can't just say, 'Let's just go to safer areas,'" he said.

According to Maedomari, Japanese fishing boats are sometimes threatened by Chinese ships when operating near the islands. Maedomari said he wants the government to ensure the safety of the Japanese public.

Shizuko Nakamura, a 72-year-old homemaker in Ishigaki, said the government must bring the intruders to justice.

The trespassing occurred because Japan failed to properly deal with an incident in September 2010 in which a Chinese fishing boat hit Japan Coast Guard ships, she said.

"Fishermen don't feel safe," she said, pointing out that many of her neighbors depend on fishing for their livelihood. "I want the government to take decisive action," Nakamura said.

More: http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T120817003863.htm

Poll: 60% think Japan is a safe place to live

More Japanese feel their country is a safe place to live, according a recent government poll.

Those who felt Japan was safe accounted for 59.7 percent of total respondents, up 13.6 percentage points from the previous survey in 2006, the Cabinet Office said Thursday.

The latest survey found that 39.4 percent of respondents did not think Japan is a safe place, down 13.1 points.

"The number of crimes has fallen since 2003," an official at the National Police Agency's crime prevention office said. "The public seems to realize the improvement in public security."

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/T120817004172.htm

Guinness names 106-year-old oldest to circle globe

FUKUOKA — An academic who turned 106 Thursday was recognized by Guinness World Records as the oldest person to have completed a round-the-world trip using public transportation.

Saburo Shochi, an educator and professor emeritus at Fukuoka University of Education, arrived at Fukuoka airport the same day from a monthlong round-the-world lecture tour.

"I submitted an application to Guinness World Records in the hope of allowing many physically and mentally handicapped children the chance to receive an education and to give energy to people," Shochi said. "When I saw Mount Fuji from the airplane, I was crying (with joy)."

Shochi, who began making lecture tours when he was 100, traveled some 56,700 km this time. After departing from Fukuoka airport on July 16, he visited six countrie,s including Canada and Bulgaria as well as South Africa, where he spoke at the International Congress of Psychology in Cape Town.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120818a8.html

[everywhere]

Myanmar to launch small satellite with help of Japan
(China Daily/Xinhua, Aug. 22)

YANGON, August 22 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar will launch a small globe- observing satellite with the assistance of Japan, official media reported Wednesday.

The satellite will be launched with the help of Marubeni Aerospace of Japan for the use by Myanmar's Meteorology and Hydrology Department of the Ministry of Transport, said the New Light of Myanmar.

more: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/xinhua/...t_6792464.html

[ukiyo]

Japanese Tech To Become Global Next-Gen TV Standard

TOKYO (Nikkei)--Technology backed by Japan's public broadcaster and electronics manufacturers will likely be adopted as the worldwide standard for next-generation TV broadcasts.

http://e.nikkei.com/e/ac/tnks/Nni20120822D2208F02.htm

This about "super hi vision" or 8k 7,680 x 4,320.

[ukiyo]

Japan PM likely to call November poll, party set for drubbing

(Reuters) - Embattled Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda is likely to call a snap election for November, ruling and opposition party members said on Thursday, despite the likelihood that his party will suffer a drubbing.

Noda, who took office last September as Japan's sixth premier in five years, scored a rare policy win this month when parliament enacted a law to double the sales tax to curb public debt. But he had to pledge to call an election "soon" to gain opposition backing to pass the bill in a divided parliament.

Members of Noda's Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) want to put off an election given their sagging support but opposition parties, which control parliament's upper house, can force his hand by blocking a bill to allow fresh bond issues to fund the budget this fiscal year.

"I expect the lower house will be dissolved in October and elections will be called in November," Keiichi Ishii, policy chief of the New Komeito opposition party, told Reuters in an interview.

More: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...87M02Z20120823

[Kimiwind1184]

Work to dismantle major Kumamoto dam under way:

Work to dismantle the Arase Dam in the Kuma River, the first to be decommissioned among all dams in Japan built under the River Act, got under way on Sept. 1.
The Kumamoto Prefectural Government will remove the dam by March 2018 to revive the Kuma River. The work will cost approximately 8.8 billion yen, 1.9 billion yen of which is expected to be covered by the national government.

More: http://mainichi.jp/english/english/n...na006000c.html

[ukiyo]

Japan To Bring Senkaku Islands Under State Control

TOKYO (Kyodo)--Japan has agreed with the family that owns the Senkaku Islands on its plan to bring them under state control, government sources said Wednesday, a move likely to further strain already tense relations with China.

http://e.nikkei.com/e/fr/tnks/Nni20120905D05JF178.htm

[castermaild55]

Why Japan and South Korea Are Feuding Over a Cluster of Rocks

The frenemies are at it again. Despite all their longstanding shared interests, Japan and South Korea just can’t find a way past their long and bitter history. At present they’re focusing their love-hate conflict on a desolate little cluster of volcanic outcrops jutting up from the Sea of Japan, roughly 210 kilometers across the water from either of the two countries’ mainlands. Collectively known in Japan as Takeshima (“bamboo island”), in Korea as Dokdo (“rock island”), and in the West as the Liancourt Rocks (named after a French whaling vessel that narrowly avoided being wrecked there in 1849), the islets total less than 19 hectares in area. But in the minds of Japan and South Korea, they’ve grown large enough to encompass decades of unresolved grievances...................................

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newswee...-of-rocks.html

[ukiyo]

Quakes added to eruption risk on Mount Fuji

Mount Fuji's magma chamber came under so much pressure from the Great East Japan Earthquake and one of its aftershocks last year that it could very well erupt, researchers said Thursday.

However, the jump in pressure is not the only factor that could cause the volcano to blow, and no signs of a pending eruption have been detected, the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Prevention said.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nn20120907a3.html

Japan sets new ocean drilling record

Tokyo: Chikyu, a scientific drilling vessel, established a world new record by boring deeper than 2,111 metres below the seafloor off Shimokita Peninsula of Japan in the northwest Pacific Ocean to obtain rock samples for analysis.

Chikyu is the state-of-the-art scientific research vessel, capable of drilling as much as 10,000 metres below sea level. It is designed to reach the deeper part of the Earth such as the mantle, the plate boundary seisomogenic zones and the deep biosphere.

The Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), the implementing organisation for scientific expedition aboard the Chikyu, announced this achievement on Thursday.

http://zeenews.india.com/news/eco-ne...rd_798285.html

[ukiyo]

Japan, South Korea Hold 1st Ministerial Talks In A Month Since Flare-Up Of Dispute

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia -- Japan and South Korea held their first ministerial talks in a month since South Korean President Lee Myung-bak caused a furor with his visit to an island long disputed by the two countries.

The talks were held during a dinner session of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit being held in this Far East city of Russia. The development came amid concerns that the prolonged dispute could undermine the stability of Northeast Asia.
http://e.nikkei.com/e/fr/tnks/Nni20120908D08JF592.htm

Japan, Russia Agree To Kick-Start Territorial Talks

Vladivostok, Russia -- After years of diplomatic stalemate and despite lingering mistrust among the public, Japan and Russia agreed Saturday to give one more chance to decades-long negotiations aimed at signing a peace treaty to formally end World War II hostilities.

President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda held their second meeting this year in this Far East city of Russia, agreeing to start vice ministerial talks in autumn on disputes over what Japan considers Russian-occupied islands off northern Japan.

http://e.nikkei.com/e/fr/tnks/Nni20120908D08JF593.htm

[ukiyo]

Dying ‘miracle’ pine tree receives visitors before preservation

Visitors are flocking to a dying lone pine tree that survived last year’s tsunami in Rikuzentakata, Iwate Prefecture, before it is felled for preservation on Sept. 12.

“I thought I should come once,” a 34-year-old homemaker from Tokyo said on Sept. 8. She was in Kobe when the port city was hit by the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake.

“I am shocked to see not only the tree but also the surrounding area, still in terrible condition a year and a half after the earthquake and tsunami,” said the woman, who was moved to tears.



http://ajw.asahi.com/article/behind_...AJ201209090047

Over 100,000 Gather To Protest Against Osprey Deployment In Okinawa

NAHA (Kyodo)--Over 100,000 people gathered for a rally in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, on Sunday to protest against the planned deployment of the U.S. Osprey military aircraft at the Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station there in the face of a series of problems involving the tilt-rotor aircraft.

http://e.nikkei.com/e/fr/tnks/Nni20120909D09JF599.htm

Noda, China's Hu Hold Talks Amid Tensions

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia--Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and Chinese President Hu Jintao held a 15-minute conversation Sunday, amid simmering tensions between the two countries over a long-running territorial dispute in the East China Sea, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said.

This is the first contact between the two leaders since a group of Hong Kong activists landed on one of the disputed islets on Aug. 15, prompting their arrest by Japanese authorities, protests from the Chinese government, and a wave of anti-Japanese rallies across the Chinese mainland.

The islands, called Senkaku in Japan and Diaoyu in China, are under Japanese control.

A Japanese official said that the two countries have agreed not to disclose details of the conversation between Mr. Noda and Mr. Hu, which took place on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. It is not clear whether the leaders discussed the territorial row or a plan to hold a more formal meeting at a later date.

http://e.nikkei.com/e/fr/tnks/Nni20120909D09JF603.htm

[Cytokine]

Originally Posted by ukiyo

Dying ‘miracle’ pine tree receives visitors before preservation

Beautiful. I love pine trees.