Motor show opens with car firms facing triple whammy
News On Japan via Japan Times -- Nov 30
The Tokyo Motor Show kicks off Saturday amid a variety of challenges facing the automobile industry, including intensifying global competition, the yen's historic surge and supply disruptions caused by natural disasters.
For Japanese automakers, emerging rivals in South Korea and other Asian countries have joined the ranks of long-standing competitors such as General Motors of the U.S. and Volkswagen AG of Germany.
The yen's record rise has also cut into repatriated profits and eroded Japanese makers' competitiveness overseas.
Experts agree that Hyundai Motor Co.'s growth stands out among Asian rivals.
Japan's No. 1, Toyota Motor Corp., produced more than 8 million units in 2010, but yielded to GM, which marked a rapid recovery from a collapse in 2009, as the biggest global automaker for the first time in four years.
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May 19
| Japan's child kidnapping problem |
|  Dozens of American children are abducted to Japan every year-not by strangers, but by parents after messy divorces. (thedailybeast.com  ) |
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May 18
| China cracks down on over-the-top anti-Japan dramas |
|  China's television regulator has ordered a crackdown on dramas about the country's battles with Japan during and before World War Two and demanded they be more serious, state media said on Friday, following viewer complaints about ludicrous storylines. (Reuters ) |
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May 17
| Man kills 3 family members, then himself |
|  Police said Friday they have found four dead bodies in an apartment in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, in what is believed to have been a family murder-suicide. (Japan Today ) |
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May 17
| Chinese tourists a bane for Japanese hookers |
|  Shukan Post (May 24) conveys the difficulties experienced by other parts of the adult-entertainment biz in servicing customers from the communist nation.
A deri heru (“delivery health”) call-girl tells the tabloid that she is often requested to arrive at major hotels in the Shinjuku and Ikebukuro entertainment areas of Tokyo by Chinese visitors. (Tokyo Reporter) |
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May 17
| 6 dead in freighter fire at Wakkanai |
|  Six sailors were found dead after a fire on a foreign freighter docked at a port in Hokkaido, northern Japan.
The sailors are presumed to be Russians. (NHK ) |
A 5-year-old boy sustained an injury at a shopping mall in Nagoya on Friday after his hand became trapped in an escalator. (Japan Today 
A 24-year-old woman was in a serious condition Friday after being stabbed by a man whom she reported to police for stalking her in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture. (Japan Today 
A 70-year-old woman has been rescued from a toilet in which she had been waiting for help for three days, Hiroshima police said Friday. (Japan Today 
A traditional dance was performed on Friday at an ancient temple in Nikko City, northeast of Tokyo. (NHK 
A bear was shot dead after it wandered into a school in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Thursday. (Japan Today