News On Japan

Japan baby-robot teaches parenting skills

AFP — 2010-03-11 22:11:50

It giggles and wiggles its feet when you shake its rattle, but will get cranky and cry from too much tickling: Meet Yotaro, a Japanese robot programmed to be as fickle as a real baby. The cuddly baby-bot looks unearthly with a pair of luminous blue eyes and oversized cheeks, but engineering students are hoping it will teach young people the pleasures of parenting as Japan faces a demographic crisis. "Yotaro is a robot with which you can experience physical contact just like with a real baby and reproduce the same feelings," said Hiroki Kunimura of Tsukuba University's robotics and behavioral sciences lab north of Tokyo. (AFP)

Japan's spouse hunters hone skills at marriage school

Reuters — 2010-03-11 10:51:51

In search of Mr. or Mrs. Right, dozens of Japanese are attending a newly launched school in Tokyo that aims turn them into marriage material. The Infini school offers various classes for wannabe brides and grooms at a time when many people in Japan are either shunning the institution of marriage or are finding it very difficult to hook up with a partner. The school, which is open to men and women, teaches students how to talk, walk and present themselves elegantly in a bid to capture the hearts and minds of prospective partners and their parents, who are often a major obstacle to successful unions. (Reuters)

2 in 3 university students see no bright future: Net survey

AP — 2010-03-11 11:02:30

With a sense of apprehension growing stronger among young Japanese amid the prolonged recession, roughly two in three university students in an Internet survey said they have no hope for Japan's future, U.S. asset management company Fidelity Investments said Thursday. The survey, conducted in January, covered some 2,200 students excluding freshmen. Of them, 65 percent gave the pessimistic response. (AP)

Hatoyama says it may take time before decision on Korean schools

AP — 2010-03-11 11:02:30

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said Thursday his government will make a decision on whether to include pro-Pyongyang senior high schools for Korean residents in Japan in a proposed tuition waiver program after a related bill clears parliament. Hatoyama said that the government will lay out a ministerial ordinance to determine which schools will be eligible for the program after the bill, which is currently in deliberation in an ordinary parliamentary session through June 16, passes the Diet. (AP)

Kids at pro-North high schools fret tuition waiver snub

Japan Times — 2010-03-09 22:30:00

Although the Constitution stipulates that all people are equal under the law and entitled to an education, public opinion is divided on whether the ruling coalition's bill to make education free through high school should be extended to pro-Pyongyang schools. But critics say excluding students at those schools from the program would be a grave mistake and could foster ethnic discrimination. Under the bill being deliberated in the Diet, the government will scrap tuition for students attending public high schools and provide ¥120,000 per year to those attending private schools or certified educational institutions. (Japan Times)

Non-English schools hope for aid

Japan Times — 2010-03-09 22:30:00

Private international high schools where English is not the language of instruction are hoping they will be eligible for planned annual subsidies of ¥120,000 per student, according to school officials. Unlike at more expensive English-based international schools, the subsidies, which would be disbursed at the discretion of the education ministry, would go a long way to covering tuition. (Japan Times)

Japan's first film university to be launched next year

AP — 2010-03-10 08:08:09

A vocational film school in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, is set to become Japan's first accredited university specializing in filmmaking from April next year, with the goal of becoming an academy of motion picture arts drawing students not only from Japan but other Asian countries, the school said. "We hope to make the university a major movie hub, gathering young Asians," said Tadao Sato, head of the Japan Academy of Moving Images. (AP)

Japanese Students Petition to Abolish Worldwide Nuclear Arms

Xinhua — 2010-03-10 08:22:25

A group of high school students in Tokyo are collecting signatures from people to support a world without nuclear arms to submit to the review conference of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty in May in New York, the Kyodo News agency reported on Wednesday. So far the group, consisting of more than 10 students, have collected some 3,500 signatures since last summer in their free time on weekends and mainly in the busy, youthful districts like Harajuku in central Tokyo. The students ultimately aim to collect 10,000 signatures to support their non-nuclear cause. (Xinhua)

Prof forced to resign over sexual harassment

Yomiuri — 2010-03-08 03:08:19

A 52-year-old professor with U.S. citizenship has been forced to resign from Yasuda Women's University after he allegedly sexually harassed a student during a study tour of the United States last year, it has been learned. The decision was effective Feb. 15. According to the Hiroshima-based university, the professor took about 50 sophomore students on a six-month training program to the United States from September. He allegedly sexually harassed the student at a hotel in San Francisco in December. (Yomiuri)

Princess Aiko attends school after being mostly absent last week

AP — 2010-03-08 10:02:45

Princess Aiko, the only child of Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako, attended school Monday for the first time in six days after expressing anxiety since being "treated harshly" by boys at her elementary school. The 8-year-old princess was accompanied by the crown princess in going into the school and attending the fourth period of morning classes. They then left the school together, the Imperial Household Agency said. (AP)

Tokyo University researcher stripped of doctorate for plagiarism

Mainichi — 2010-03-06 23:33:49

An assistant professor at the University of Tokyo has been stripped of his Ph. D. after he was found to have plagiarized his doctoral thesis, the university has announced. Anilir Serkan, 36, an assistant professor at the University of Tokyo's Faculty of Engineering, was found to have copied about 40 percent of his 376-page doctoral thesis from other sources. It is the first time for the university to take back a doctor's degree due to the plagiarism. He has reportedly admitted to allegations. (Mainichi)

Suicide of new teacher ruled eligible for employees' compensation

Mainichi — 2010-03-06 23:33:49

The death of an elementary school teacher who committed suicide two months after she started work has been accepted as a workplace casualty eligible for compensation. A Tokyo review board of the Fund for Local Government Employees' Accident Compensation accepted the suicide as being eligible for compensation following a request from the teacher's parents. It judged that heavy stress resulting from a lack of support from the school played a part in the suicide. (Mainichi)

Nonurban students face hard job search

Yomiuri — 2010-03-06 00:18:09

Two young men in business suits, toting large duffel bags packed with changes of clothes and job information materials, were greeted by two other men at a short-term apartment close to central Osaka early last month. All four are juniors at Yamaguchi University's economics department. They belong to the same seminars or clubs and rent the one-room apartment that is about 10 tatami mats in floor space. At the end of last year, they decided to rent the apartment as their base while they searched for jobs that would start in the spring of 2011. They split the rent, which is about 250,000 yen for three months. (Yomiuri)

Professor asks unions to help job-hunting students

Yomiuri — 2010-03-06 00:18:09

Dismayed by the many newly hired university graduates who are leaving their jobs within a year--one in 10, despite the current recession--a college professor is working to help young people make more informed choices when deciding on a company. "Students don't know enough about what it's really like to work at certain companies, because they haven't been prepared for the specifics of the jobs," said Hosei University Prof. Hiroyuki Fujimura, 53. Fujimura believes students tend to rely too much on self-laudatory information provided by companies' personnel divisions. (Yomiuri)

73% of schools to take part in national achievement tests

Japan Times — 2010-03-04 21:57:58

About 73 percent of all elementary and junior high schools nationwide will undertake national achievement tests in April, many voluntarily, as the universal scope of the annual exam is scaled back, the education ministry said Thursday. The total number of schools participating in the April 20 tests stood at 23,891 as of the end of February. The tally was boosted as 13,891 schools - 42.5 percent of all schools or 61 percent of unselected schools - opted to take part voluntarily, on top of 10,000 selected schools, the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry said. (Japan Times)

High school girl becomes youngest winner of Nakahara Chuya Prize for poetry

Mainichi — 2010-03-05 01:26:53

"I never thought my dream would come true," said Yumi Fuzuki, 18, who became the youngest winner of the Nakahara Chuya Prize for her poetry anthology. A third-year student at a high school in Sapporo, Fuzuki published the award-winning book "Tekisetsu na sekai no tekisetsu narazaru watashi" (The inappropriate I in an appropriate world), selecting 24 pieces of poetry from her collection written during her junior and senior high school days. (Mainichi)

Ikeda Elementary School designated 'international safe school'

AP — 2010-03-05 04:23:10

Ikeda Elementary School in Osaka has been designated an "international safe school" by the World Health Organization for its strenuous efforts to build safety following a violent incident in 2001 that left eight pupils dead. Ikeda Elementary School has become the first Japanese school to receive the title, given to schools which have demonstrated outstanding efforts to make their premises accident- and crime-free in collaboration with communities. (AP)

Princess Aiko unable to go to school after boys treated her harshly

AP — 2010-03-05 11:38:21

Princess Aiko, the only child of Crown Prince Naruhito and Crown Princess Masako, has been reluctant to attend school since Monday after being "treated harshly" by boys in her grade, an official of the Imperial Household Agency said Friday. The 8-year-old princess has been complaining of strong anxiety and stomachache, said Issei Nomura, the top aide to the crown prince and princess. Nomura, grand master of the crown prince's household, told a regular news conference that the princess attended school Tuesday but left school early. She has since been absent from school. (AP)

Noguchi, up in ISS, reads to Tokyo elementary school children

Japan Times — 2010-03-03 21:45:17

Transmitting from the International Space Station, astronaut Soichi Noguchi read from a book to children at a Tokyo elementary school Wednesday. Through prerecorded video clips, Noguchi read from the picture book "Mottainai Ba-san" ("An old woman who hates waste") for about five minutes via a big screen inside the library at Aijitsu Elementary School in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward. (Japan Times)

Suicide of girl, 14, laid to bullying

Japan Times — 2010-03-03 21:45:17

A 14-year-old girl jumped off an apartment building and killed herself last month in a possible attempt to escape bullying at school, the board of education in Kiyose, Tokyo, said Wednesday. "I don't want to go to school anymore. Everybody else looks like my enemies," the second-year student at a city-run junior high school said in a note, according to the board of education. (Japan Times)

Colleges teach good manners / Students get pointers on how to behave, separate garbage, obey law

Yomiuri — 2010-03-03 21:54:37

An growing number of universities and colleges have started providing information on good manners to their students, especially freshmen, including how to behave as they travel to and from university, how to separate garbage for disposal and recycling, and why they should not break the law. Most of the advice might seem like common sense, but many university officials say they have had to train their students in good manners because many do not seem to have much awareness of what behavior is considered socially acceptable. Students at Tokyo Women's College and Junior College of Physical Education in Kunitachi, western Tokyo, are to be posted at 10 spots along the 800-meter-long route from JR Nishi-Kunitachi Station to their campus for a week in April to watch whether fellow students, especially freshmen, behave appropriately. (Yomiuri)

Hatoyama says arrests of teachers' union members 'regrettable'

AP — 2010-03-01 20:52:01

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama said Monday that the arrest earlier in the day of three members of a teaching union over alleged illegal donations to a Democratic Party of Japan lawmaker was "regrettable," underlining the need to review relations between politicians and organizations. Hatoyama, who heads the DPJ, made the comments after prosecutors arrested four people, including the three members of the Hokkaido Teachers Union, which is part of the Japan Teachers Union, on suspicion of illegally providing 16 million yen to Chiyomi Kobayashi, a DPJ House of Representatives member, before last year's general election. (AP)

Parents and kids torn by Japan's single-custody laws

MSNBC — 2010-03-02 05:22:58

On a recent Saturday afternoon, about a dozen men and women, all divorcees, gathered at a small classroom in Tokyo's central Bunkyo district. They were there to participate in a study group on the psychological effects of custody cases. Because Japanese law does not legally recognize joint custody of minors and the court must select a sole guardian, it is an especially fraught topic. One of the participants, Natsumi Kobayashi (she requested that her real name not be used), said she had not seen her daughter for five years. Making things worse was the fact that her ex-husband had disappeared with their child - and that the courts then ruled that her daughter had established a sense of stability with her father during the years in which Kobayashi fought her case, and that removal her from his care would interfere with the child's welfare. (MSNBC)

NHK World TV struggling for recognition

Yomiuri — 2010-03-02 06:32:43

NHK World TV last month marked its first year of broadcasting, with the number of households around the world capable of receiving such broadcasts expanding to 124 million. Meanwhile, NHK affiliate Japan International Broadcasting Inc., which makes its own English programs with the help of sponsors, is still struggling. NHK began broadcasting internationally in 1995, and mainly targeted Japanese living overseas with Japanese programs. But as the government adopted a policy of strengthening international broadcasting, NHK World TV, which had broadcast partly in Japanese, became all-English in October 2008. Programming also was overhauled in February last year. (Yomiuri)

Kids without a clue to their destiny

Japan Times — 2010-02-27 22:18:47

As a Canadian national who came to Japan to teach English, I have noticed that many students fail to get a job because they lack confidence in themselves. Each day I work with high school students who are currently nearing graduation. Many haven't a clue as to what to do with their lives. Many spend too much time studying to pass an exam instead of acquiring real knowledge. The problem with most of these kids is that they don't have anyone to be their mentor - someone to give them something to look forward to, to look up to. (Japan Times)