Japan nominates candidates to lead new nuclear regulator
News On Japan via foxbusiness.com -- Jul 26
The Japanese government on Thursday nominated five candidates to head a new nuclear power regulatory agency as it looks to rebuild public confidence in the industry after the Fukushima Daiichi accident last year.
The agency, set to be established in September, will form the core of Japan's efforts to revamp an oversight regime that has been criticized for being too close to the companies it was supposed to be regulating and failing to prevent the accident at the Fukushima plant.
The new regulator will be shielded from political interference by law and will have the authority to determine whether reactors can be restarted, shut down or scrapped. While relying on the same civil servants that currently staff the existing regulatory bodies, the new agency will be led by parliamentary-approved experts and backed by tougher nuclear safety regulations.
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 )
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 )
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 )
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)
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 )