Friday, September 3, 6:27 (JST)
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)
Men treat virtual girlfriends to beach vacations
If you visited the Japanese hot springs resort of Atami recently and spotted a disproportionate number of men gazing longingly at their smartphones, it probably wasn't because they were playing Angry Birds. This summer, the beach town became a vacation hub for guys who like to treat their girlfriends to sun-and-fun holidays. Girlfriends, that is, who only exist on-screen.
And yes, there are such men, particularly those enthralled with Konami's Love Plus, a popular dating sim for Nintendo DS that also comes as an augmented-reality application for iPhones. Players of the game know that to keep their virtual gals happy, they'd best spend quality time with them, throw them birthday parties, take them on dates, and yes, shell out yen for beach getaways. After all, at $84, a return fare from Tokyo to Atami on the Shinkansen bullet train ain't cheap (fortunately virtual girlfriends travel free). (CNET)
If you visited the Japanese hot springs resort of Atami recently and spotted a disproportionate number of men gazing longingly at their smartphones, it probably wasn't because they were playing Angry Birds. This summer, the beach town became a vacation hub for guys who like to treat their girlfriends to sun-and-fun holidays. Girlfriends, that is, who only exist on-screen.
And yes, there are such men, particularly those enthralled with Konami's Love Plus, a popular dating sim for Nintendo DS that also comes as an augmented-reality application for iPhones. Players of the game know that to keep their virtual gals happy, they'd best spend quality time with them, throw them birthday parties, take them on dates, and yes, shell out yen for beach getaways. After all, at $84, a return fare from Tokyo to Atami on the Shinkansen bullet train ain't cheap (fortunately virtual girlfriends travel free). (CNET) 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)
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)
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) 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)
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)
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) 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)
| Sep 02 | Twitter Japan ad sales are over $3 million for the year (sfgate.com) |
 How well is Twitter's monetization going? Other than to say it's going "better than expected" COO Dick Costolo and company are fairly tight-lipped.
Luckily, Twitter Japan - run by Tokyo-based Digital Garage Inc.- is not so discrete.
Digital Garage predicts ad sales will generate around $20 million in 2011.
The Wall Street Journal reports that this year, 82 different companies have run ads on Twitter Japan, generating approximately $2.4 million sales.
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| Sep 02 | Lehman Japan gets court nod for liquidating (Reuters) |
| Lehman Brothers Holdings' Japanese subsidiary is one of the first major units to get going with its liquidation process, after it got court approval for its debt repayment plans, the Nikkei business daily reported. Lehman Brothers Japan Inc got approval for liquidation from the Tokyo district court and secured support for the plans from a majority of its creditors on Wednesday, and is expected to start repaying its debt by late November, the paper reported. |
| Sep 02 | Tesla gets sportscar subsidy in Japan (bizjournals.com) |
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| Sep 02 | A shift in strategy needed to revive Japanese industry (Japan Times) |
| Against the backdrop of intensifying Japan-U.S. trade frictions in the 1980s, it was considered for some time that Japan's economic power was a threat to the United States. This country's high rating has since declined, however, giving way to comments like "Japan has disappeared from the world's radar screen." Over time Japan had boasted of its excellent manufacturing skills. But in recent years, China has replaced Japan as the leader in the production of traditional industrial goods while South Korean and Taiwanese makers have overtaken Japanese counterparts in the output of LEDs, 3-D products and other high-tech items. In addition, Japan now lags behind the U.S. in the development of trendy products, such as the iPhone, iPod and iPad. |
| Sep 02 | Japanese cut BHP Billiton coal prices due to reduced steel Chinese demand (The Australian) |
| Several Japanese steelmakers have agreed a lower coking coal price with supplier BHP Billiton amid a slowdown in Chinese steel demand. The move could also flow over to iron ore prices. UBS analysts and Japan's Nikkei financial newspaper reported that the mining giant had reduced its coking coal price by 7 per cent for Japanese steel mills for the three months to the end of December. BHP, the Japan Iron and Steel Federation and Japanese steel mill Nippon Steel declined to comment on the reports. |
USD to JPY:
84.285
| Sep 02 | Zen and the art of economy repair (csmonitor.com) |
 According to an article that appeared in The New York Times, the Japanese have gotten good at sloughing off their worldly cares. Japan is no longer the world's number two economy; it was eclipsed this summer by China. But the Japanese are used to slippage. We all know the story of their 20-year economic decline; Japan's GDP actually peaked out about 15 years ago. It has been sliding ever since. That is only a part of the story. In terms of rice production, the Japanese have been downsizing for more than 40 years. Japan's population, too, grew by 1% per year from 1917 to 1977. It peaked out in 2005. There are fewer Japanese now than there were 5 years ago. If the trend continues, eventually there will be none.
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| Sep 01 | Japan's household income gap comes to widest-ever in 2008 (AP) |
| An indicator of household income gap reached a record high in Japan in 2008, welfare ministry data showed Wednesday, apparently reflecting an increase in the number of aged households that tend to depend on pension benefits. The so-called Gini coefficient hit 0.5318 in the reporting year, up 0.0055 point from the level in the previous 2005 survey. The data exclude tax payments, and pension and welfare benefits. |
| Sep 01 | FY 2011 budget requests hit all-time high of 96.75 tril. yen (AP) |
| Japan's general-account budget for fiscal 2011 on a request basis reached a record-high 96.75 trillion yen due to swelling debt- servicing and social security costs, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday. The amount eclipsed the previous high of 95.04 trillion yen sought for fiscal 2010 through next March 31, leaving the government with the daunting task of trimming the bloated requests in the course of drafting the budget under severe fiscal constraints. |
| Sep 01 | If Only China Were More Like Japan (BusinessWeek) |
| Now that China has officially overtaken Japan as the world's second-largest economy, there is growing speculation by influential Chinese and U.S. economists, such as Wu Jinglian and John Makin, that China will soon endure its own "lost decade" as it suffers a Japanese-style malaise. The idea that contemporary Japan offers a glimpse of China's economic future is credible, given similarities in the two growth models. But Japan's economic decline has at least been a gradual and comfortable one for the Japanese people and government. For the Chinese Communist Party and the nation's people, following in Japan's footsteps would likely be much more traumatic. |
| Sep 01 | Surviving with a strong yen (Japan Times) |
| As the Japanese economy is battered by a recent rise of the yen against the U.S. dollar to a 15-year high, the Bank of Japan decided Monday to inject more liquidity - an additional ¥10 trillion at a low interest rate on top of the ¥20 trillion under the existing lending scheme - into the economy, while keeping the key interest rate at the current 0.1 percent. The government also decided on a framework of additional measures for spurring the economy. |
NIKKEI 225:
9062.84
| Sep 02 | Japan is 'growing ripe' for bout of M&A activity: Goldman Sachs (Japan Times) |
| Japan "is ripe" for more mergers and acquisitions as companies have ample cash and the level of takeover activity is lower than it should be, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Japanese companies should consolidate in industries where there is excessive competition, and be more aggressive in making acquisitions in Asia, where the long-term growth potential is high, Kathy Matsui, chief strategist for Goldman in Japan, said Wednesday. |
| Sep 01 | Stocks rebound after Nikkei hits 16-month low, politics weigh (AP) |
| Tokyo stocks rebounded Wednesday, with the Nikkei index recovering from a 16-month low hit earlier in the day, as the market got some relief from stronger-than-expected economic data overseas and fears receded about further appreciation of the yen. The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average rose 102.96 points, or 1.17 percent, from Tuesday to 8,927.02. It fell to as low as 8,796.45 at one point, the lowest intraday level since April 30 last year. |
| Aug 31 | JGBs rally as Nikkei dives after easing disappoints (Reuters) |
| Japanese government bonds surged on on Tuesday, with futures erasing the steep losses of the previous two days, as a cycle of stocks slumping amid a strong yen and fuelling a drop in debt yields resumed after easing by the Bank of Japan the day before disappointed. The JGB yield curve flattened as index-following investors, such as passively managed pension funds looking to extend durations for the month's end, scooped up bargains in superlongs after a sharp steepening of the curve over the past few days, which some say had a spillover effect on other G3 government bond markets last week. |
| Aug 30 | Nikkei climbs 1.76% on central banks monetary easing moves (Xinhua) |
| Tokyo stocks rose sharply on Monday, with the key Nikkei stock index climbing back above the psychologically important 9,000 line as Japan's central bank decided to take additional monetary easing steps to combat the yen 's rise and comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke pledging to safeguard the U.S. recovery also lifted investor sentiment. |
| Aug 27 | Tokyo stocks erase losses to end higher on hope for forex steps (AP) |
| Tokyo stocks rose Friday after erasing earlier losses, as expectations grew for Japanese authorities to take steps to counter the export-sapping surge in the yen, but caution about the U.S. economic outlook kept gains in check. After news broke during the lunch break that Prime Minister Naoto Kan will speak about the government's plan to deal with the strength of the yen, stocks entered positive territory, with the Nikkei index briefly rising above the 9,000 mark for the first time since Tuesday. |
| Sep 02 | Japan, Caribbean nations agree to cooperate on climate, Haiti (AP) |
| Japan and 13 Caribbean nations agreed in Tokyo on Thursday to cooperate with each other in curbing global warming and offering support to quake-hit Haiti among other issues at their first meeting in a decade, a Japanese official said. The ministerial meeting of Japan and member countries of the Caribbean Community, or CARICOM, also underlined Tokyo's renewed pledge to help those nations recover from the global economic crisis and deepen cooperation on global issues such as nuclear disarmament and the reform of the United Nations Security Council. |
| Sep 02 | Japan set to toughen sanctions on Iran (Reuters) |
| Japan is set to toughen sanctions against Iran as early as this week over its disputed nuclear programme, the Nikkei business daily said, following the United States and European Union's leads in pressuring Tehran. The unilateral measures, which go beyond sanctions imposed by the United Nations, include banning new investments in energy-related industries and imposing a limit on trade insurance, the Nikkei reported on Wednesday. Japan's additional sanctions are as tough as the European Union's sanctions against Iran that were announced in July and are likely to hit Japanese firms that have transactions with Iran, the Nikkei reported. |
| Sep 01 | Ozawa says new plan needed to resolve Futenma relocation issue (AP) |
| Democratic Party of Japan heavyweight Ichiro Ozawa said Wednesday that a new plan is required to address the issue of relocating a U.S. military base within Okinawa Prefecture. Ozawa told reporters it is impossible for Japan and the United States to go ahead with their current plan, agreed on in May, given strong opposition from people in Okinawa, who are calling for the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station to be moved outside the southwestern Japanese prefecture. |
| Sep 01 | Japan leadership battle kicks off (AFP) |
 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.
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| Sep 01 | Futenma report presents 2 runway options (Yomiuri) |
| The government on Tuesday released the report of a Japan-U.S. expert panel on a planned alternative facility for the U.S. Marine Corps' Futenma Air Station in Okinawa Prefecture. The report features two conflicting plans for runway layouts. One layout option is a plan agreed upon between Japan and the United States in 2006 to build two runways in a V-shaped formation, a plan that Washington still favors. The other option is a plan more recently advanced by Japan to build a single I-shaped runway. |
| Sep 02 | No. of Internet crime cases hits record high in 1st half (AP) |
| 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. |
| Sep 02 | Mo better boobs: Japanese gals acquire taste for men's mammaries (Tokyo Reporter) |
| It's kind of hard to ignore a 36-point headline emblazoned with the words "Men's Nipples." Why has Sunday Mainichi (Sept. 12) chosen to raise this heretofore largely ignored topic? "Many women," it writes, "take an interest in men's nipples that protrude through their linen shirts or polo shirts. Rather than men's backs, we're in an era when men's nipples are discussed." "I was in a beer garden the other day. The nipples of the man at my table were poking through his polo shirt, and I couldn't get my mind off them!" pants Mika Naito, a 39-year-old author of erotic fiction. Naito says she is particularly turned on by the "fresh" nipples of young acting hunk Haruma Miura, age 20. |
| Sep 02 | Naked romp lands man, woman before prosecutors (Japan Times) |
| 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." |
| Sep 02 | O'Barry takes peaceful tack; Taiji on hunt (Japan Times) |
 Animal rights activist Ric O'Barry, who starred in the Oscar-winning documentary "The Cove," stressed Wednesday in Tokyo he will use peaceful methods to press Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, to stop its annual dolphin slaughter. The port's annual hunt started the same day.
In an event organized by Earth Island Institute, a nonprofit organization, O'Barry said he has heard of calls for a boycott, but he wants to "antiboycott Japan."
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| Sep 01 | Japanese-Argentine couple win world tango championships (AP) |
 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.
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| Sep 02 | Sumo: 'Devil of the Dohyo' Wakanohana dies (Japan Times) |
 The original former yokozuna Wakanohana, whose nickname in the ring was the "Devil of the Dohyo," died Wednesday evening of kidney cancer at a Tokyo hospital, the Japan Sumo Association said. He was 82. Wakanohana, a former JSA chairman whose real name was Katsuji Hanada, lived the second longest of all yokozuna after the first Umegatani, who passed away at the age of 83.
Hanada was the elder brother of former stablemaster Futagoyama (former ozeki Takanohana) who died in May 2005, and uncle to former yokozuna brothers Wakanohana and Takanohana.
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| Aug 31 | Baseball: Google Japan begins offering free MLB games through YouTube (Mainichi) |
| Internet search giant Google Inc.'s Japan branch is now offering free unedited videos of all Major League Baseball games recorded since 2009 through YouTube. YouTube, a Google subsidiary, signed an agreement with MLB Advanced Media L.P., which oversees all Internet broadcasts of Major League games, to make all games available for viewing within 36 hours of the last out. |
| Aug 31 | Sumo chief pledges no mobsters (Japan Times) |
| Japan Sumo Association Chairman Hanaregoma pledged in an official declaration Monday to permanently keep mobsters out of sumo. "We will not allow gangsters at any sumo-related events, from tournaments to training tours to booster club functions to the stables," Hanaregoma said as he read out the declaration at the Ryogoku Kokugikan sumo arena in Tokyo. "We will not let them be involved in any business dealings with sumo." |
| Aug 30 | Sumo: Europe in favor of Japanese traditional sport sumo (Xinhua) |
| "At the sumo world championships, eighty percent of the gold medals go to Europe," said Stephen Gadd, the General Secretary of European sumo union, at the first SportAccord Combat Games here on Sunday. At the SportAccord Games European players excelled their Asian opponents to collect seven of all the eight gold medals. Sumo, which is traditionally a Japanese-only sport, has found its root in Europe. There are currently 27 members in the European Sumo Union, more than any other continental sumo union on the world. "We are the most active union, holding 20-25 international tournaments every year," said Gadd. |
| Aug 30 | Baseball: Japan takes Little League WS title (Washington Post) |
 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.
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| Sep 02 | Paternalistic view of universities (Japan Times) |
| The more I think about Gregory Clark's Aug. 17 article, "Saving Japan's universities," the more I am troubled by the author's offhand judgments and broad-brush pronouncements. The tone throughout is paternalistic and pejorative, and very little of value is suggested. The main problem Clark identifies is that Japan's universities do not provide students with a "feeling of achievement." The root of this problem, he says, lies in the fact that "Japan by nature is not a very intellectual society." |
| Aug 31 | Police to report principal for filming up woman's skirt in Sapporo (Mainichi) |
| Police are poised to report an elementary school principal accused of using a mobile phone to film inside a woman's skirt to public prosecutors, it has been learned. Police plan to send public prosecutors documents on the 50-year-old principal of an elementary school in Setana, Hokkaido, on suspicion of violating a prefectural ordinance banning people from creating a public nuisance. |
| Aug 31 | University ordered to rehire professor fired after trial period ended (Mainichi) |
| A private university here has been ordered by a court to rehire a former assistant professor who was fired after the completion of her trial period, it has been learned. During the labor tribunal on May 13, the Mito District Court ruled in favor of the former assistant professor in her 50s and ordered Tokiwa University to withdraw its decision to dismiss her, and pay the outstanding balance of her salary dating back to October 2009. However, the university protested the legal judgment at the tribunal and brought the case to the court, with the trial set to start on Aug. 30. |
| Aug 31 | Discipline in schools is not a bad thing (Japan Times) |
| Dear minister of education Tatsuo Kawabata, I have been working as an assistant language teacher (ALT) in your public school system for five months now. Although it might be considered a bit premature to pen a word to you after such a short time, I would like to draw your attention to some fairly standard behavior across the six schools I work at. I think it is also time to let you in on a little secret: Disciplining students is not a bad thing. It just depends on how it is done. |
| Aug 29 | Best Apps for Total Japanese Beginners (appolicious.com) |
| After many false starts, I have made up my mind to really learn Japanese. This means learning both the spoken and written language, a huge challenge. I've been buying Japanese apps right and left, trying them, and keeping the winners. This list is about those that made the grade, the keepers. It's for those who know NOTHING about Japanese and are starting from scratch. |
| Sep 01 | Govt maps response to triple quake (Yomiuri) |
| The government has decided to map out a response plan for the possible occurrence of three massive, simultaneous earthquakes in the nation. It plans to compile detailed estimates of possible damage from such an event and an outline of countermeasures from fiscal 2011. Of all the foreseeable earthquake scenarios that could take place in and around Japan, the most destructive would be the simultaneous occurrence of the so-called Tokai, Tonankai and Nankai earthquakes. |
| Aug 31 | Japan's medical authorities slam 'absurd' homeopathy (AFP) |
| The physician to Japanese Emperor Akihito and top scientists have slammed homeopathy as an "absurd" medicine, urging health workers to stay clear of the alternative treatment as it grows in popularity. The controversy has been fuelled by reports that a two-month-old baby girl died last year of a cerebral haemorrhage in Japan after she was given a homeopathic remedy instead of the normal treatment of vitamin K. Homeopathic medicines use materials derived from flora, fauna and minerals, and their preparation includes the heavy dilution of the raw materials, according to the World Health Organization. |
| Aug 31 | Sunshine aquarium to shut for yearlong revamp (Japan Times) |
Sunshine International Aquarium, located atop the Sunshine City building in Tokyo's Ikebukuro district, will close for a year beginning Wednesday for large-scale renovations to compete better with other aquariums in the Kanto region.
When it opened in 1978, the aquarium was touted as the first in Japan to be build on top of a high-rise. In recent years, the aquarium has suffered a decline in visitors as rival venues opened.
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| Aug 30 | Highly credible UFO video from Japan surfaces (allnewsweb.com) |
 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.
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| Aug 30 | Man in Nagano computes value of pi to 5 tril. digits (AP) |
| 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. |
| Sep 01 | 'Gran Turismo 5' gets Japan release date; Tokyo gears up for games show (Japan Times) |
 Gentlemen (and ladies, too), start your engines. Racing simulator "Gran Turismo 5," has been given a release date. It will be roaring into Japanese retailers come Nov. 3 - a day behind its North American release date of Nov. 2.
The game was first shown in 2006 and apparently has cost $60 million to develop. And perhaps, just perhaps, it has more PlayStation 3 owners waiting for it with bated breath than did the console's already-released exclusives "Metal Gear Solid IV" and "Final Fantasy XIII."
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| Sep 01 | Gree, Mixi innovators say Japan Web firms need global strategy (Japan Times) |
| Web services such as Twitter and YouTube have entered Japan and become familiar tools in the arsenals of Japanese Web surfers. But Netizens in other countries might be hard-pressed to identify the Japanese equivalents to these services, even though they are popular at home. At the Web Innovation Share (WISH) 2010 event held in Tokyo's Roppongi district on Aug. 28, some of Japan's leading Internet service providers discussed how local Web firms can penetrate the global market. They said that while having a vision for the global market is essential, especially within Asian countries, it is difficult to compete globally without having some level of success in the domestic market. |
| Aug 25 | iPad Self-Ordering System for Japanese Izakaya (Japan Probe) |
 Sharp System Products has created a self-ordering system for restaurants that can be run on Apple's iPad. With this system, the pictures shown on the iPad can be exactly the same as those on the conventional menu. The system makes intuitive use of the iPad's user interface; for example, pictures can also be enlarged by pinching.
By using a general-purpose device like the iPad as the ordering tablet, the system's entry barrier will be lowered. This will also make it easier for customers to place additional orders, so restaurants can increase their revenue as well.
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| Aug 25 | iPhone Translator App Travels to Japan: My Field Test (Computerworld) |
| The makers of the Jibbigo app, Mobile Technologies, have delivered arguably the smartest apps in the App Store: voice-to-voice translation apps for Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, and an Iraqi dialect of Arabic, with more languages on the way. Just speak into the iPhone in either English or another language, and in a few seconds the app translates your words into voice and text. The apps aren't cheap, ranging around $30 each. |
| Aug 25 | Big-fingered sumos given iPads (CNN) |
| Can a person's hands be too big for a cell phone? If you're a sumo wrestler, maybe so. The Japan Sumo Association reportedly has purchased 60 iPads for some sumo wrestlers whose fingers are too beefy to use mobile phones. According to a report from Jiji News, a Japanese news service, the sumo association hopes the iPad will improve its communication with wrestlers who don't use computers or who struggle with tiny gadgets. The iPad, a touch-screen "slate" computer from Apple Inc., features a 9.7-inch screen, considerably larger than those of most phones. Smartphone screens tend to range from about 3 to 5 inches, measured diagonally. |