Drama: 88th Tokyo-Hakone University Ekiden (第８８回東京箱根間往復大学駅伝競走復路) Network: NTV Time & Date: 7:50-14:18, Jan 3 Rating: 28.5

Week of Jan 2 – Jan 8, 2012

(Program, Channel, Time & Date, Rating)

2. Drama: 88th Tokyo-Hakone University [...] Related posts:

1. Japanese TV Ratings: Dec 26 – Jan 1, 2012
2. Japanese TV Ratings: Jul 18 – Jul 24, 2011
3. Japanese TV Ratings: Nov 9 – Nov 15

CNN: Japan’s pop music impresario.

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ABC Australia: Japan delayed release of radiation details

A Japanese government official has admitted information about the spread of radiation from Fukushima was provided to the United States more than a week before it was given to the Japanese public. The official from the Science and Technology Policy Bureau says [...] No related posts.]]>

CNN: Japan’s pop music impresario.

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ABC Australia: Japan delayed release of radiation details

A Japanese government official has admitted information about the spread of radiation from Fukushima was provided to the United States more than a week before it was given to the Japanese public.
The official from the Science and Technology Policy Bureau says the government passed the information to the US military first in a bid to get its support in helping with the crisis.

Bloomberg Video: Japan’s `Whistle-Blower’ Protection Weak

Nicholas Smith, a Japan strategist at CLSA Asia Pacific Markets Ltd., talks about the accounting scandal at Olympus Corp. Olympus, the Japanese camera maker that hid $1.7 billion in losses, faulted five internal auditors for the fraud and filed a lawsuit against them, the company said yesterday.

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NPR: Olympus Probe Finds 5 Auditors Responsible

An internal investigation at Olympus Corp. found that five current and former auditors are responsible for a combined 8.38 billion yen ($109 million) in losses linked to the Japanese company’s accounting scandal, and plans to sue them.
The panel’s report released Tuesday said it found two accounting firms hired by Olympus as external auditors, KPMG Azsa LLC and Ernst & Young ShinNihon LLC, had not violated their fiduciary duties.

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UPI: Japanese firm to pay $55M criminal penalty

A Japanese trading firm will pay a $54.6 million criminal penalty for its role in a scheme to bribe Nigerian government officials, U.S. officials said Tuesday.
Marubeni Corp. of Tokyo was accused under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of participating in a decade-long scheme to bribe Nigerian officials to obtain engineering, procurement and construction contracts.

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Wall Street Journal: Ben Stein Sues Kyocera Over Ad Campaign

In the complaint, Mr. Stein alleges all that was left to sort out was the kind of tea and snacks to serve during the commercial shoot when in February 2011, two months after the company first approached him, printer making unit Kyocera Mita questioned “whether Ben Stein’s views on global warming and on the environment were sufficiently conventional and politically correct for Kyocera.”
The Kyoto-based company has prided itself on its eco-friendly measures to combat global warming – in December, it won the annual award from Japan’s environment ministry in December, lauded for its initiatives to “cope with global warming.” According to the complaint, Mr. Stein responded to a question from the company seeking to ascertain his views on global warming that while he was concerned about the environment, “he was by no means certain that global warming was man-made, a position held by many scientists and political conservatives.”

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Daily Mail: Hell in the Pacific: Rare World War II photographs show American soldiers’ fight for survival in brutal Battle of Saipan

It is the little-known battle that claimed the lives of thousands of Americans during World War II.
But now black-and-white photographs, captured by Life magazine photographer W. Eugene Smith, show the everyday horrors for the U.S. soldiers fighting against Japanese forces on the Mariana Island of Saipan between June 15 and July 9, 1944.
The photographs were taken during a battle that claimed the lives of 22,000 Japanese civilians – many by suicide – and nearly all 30,000 Japanese troops on the island. Of the 71,000 American troops who landed on Saipan, 3,426 perished, while more than 13,000 were wounded.

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ABC Australia Audio: Nuclear fallout brings bleak winter for Japan tourism

More than 10 months on from the meltdowns at Fukushima and Japan is now confronting more fallout from the nuclear crisis.
The country’s tourism sector is still struggling to convince foreigners that Japan is safe. One of the hardest hit areas are the ski fields 300 kilometres from Fukushima and some of the businesses suffering are run by Australians.

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LA Times: Tommy Lee Jones to ‘Emperor’: Actor to play Gen. MacArthur in political thriller

Tommy Lee Jones will portray Gen. Douglas MacArthur opposite Matthew Fox in Peter Webber’s Japan-set political thriller “Emperor,” a co-production of Fellers Film and Krasnoff/Foster Entertainment.
Inspired by true events, “Emperor” is a story of love and understanding set amid the uncertainties of the days following the Japanese surrender at the end of WWII, when MacArthur, as supreme commander of the occupying forces, served as de facto ruler of Japan.
Fox will play Gen. Bonner Fellers, one of MacArthur’s Japan experts, who is charged with reaching a decision on an issue of historical importance: Should Emperor Hirohito be tried and hanged as a war criminal?

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Eatocracy: The secret taste of umami

What do tomatoes, cheese and mackerel have in common?
They are all responsible for umami, the slightly mysterious fifth basic taste now counted alongside sweetness, saltiness, sourness and bitterness. Umami is often likened to savoriness, but defining exactly what it tastes like can be tricky.

“Most people confuse the umami taste for the tastiness of the dish,” said Mikuni who has been promoting the umami taste for more than 20 years. “But they are two entirely different things. Umami is a basic taste, whereas the tastiness of the dish is an appreciation.”

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Japanese Box Office: Jan 7 – Jan 13, 2012

Movie: Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol Weekend Box Office (US$): $4,313,322 Cumulative Take (US$): $50,703,521 Fourth Week at No. 1

(Rank, Movie Name, Weekend Box Office (US$), Cume (US$) (Note: US$1=76.86yen))

2. Admiral Yamamoto (聯合艦隊司令長官 山本五十六 -太平洋戦争70年目の真実-), $1,498,197, $12,429,522

3. Magic Tree House (マジックツリー・ハウス), $1,382,059, $1,382,059

4. Friends: Naki [...] Related posts:

1. Japanese Box Office: Dec 31, 2011 – Jan 6, 2012
2. Japanese Box Office: Apr 9 – Apr 15, 2011
3. Japanese Box Office: Dec 10 – Dec 16, 2011

Oricon Top 10 Singles for the Week of Jan 2 – Jan 8, 2011:

Number 1:

Artist: NYC/Nakayama Yuma Song: Wonderful Cupid Units Sold: 40,399 Up 3 spots to No. 1 this week

(Rank, Artist, Song Name, No. of Units, Last week, Purchase Info.)

2. YGA, Rising Sun Japan!, 19,170, NEW

3. baroque,

Photo Source: Seattle PI.

Seattle PI: Japan Airlines debuts Hello Kitty Boeing 777

Japan Airlines unveiled a Hello Kitty-themed ‘Hellosmile’ Boeing 777-300 at Tokyo Haneda Airport on Friday, Jan. 13, 2012. JAL, TOKYO FM Broadcasting and Hello Kitty parent Sanrio Co. joined in the effort to promote cervical cancer awareness and prevention.

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Business Week: [...] No related posts.]]>

Photo Source: Seattle PI.

Seattle PI: Japan Airlines debuts Hello Kitty Boeing 777

Japan Airlines unveiled a Hello Kitty-themed ‘Hellosmile’ Boeing 777-300 at Tokyo Haneda Airport on Friday, Jan. 13, 2012. JAL, TOKYO FM Broadcasting and Hello Kitty parent Sanrio Co. joined in the effort to promote cervical cancer awareness and prevention.

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Business Week: Noda Says Japan Must Heed Lessons of Europe Credit Downgrades

Europe’s fiscal situation “isn’t a house burning on the other side of the river,” Noda said on TV Tokyo Holdings Corp.’s program on Jan. 14. “We must have a great sense of crisis.”

Japan’s government, which has enjoyed borrowing costs that are around 1 percent, wouldn’t be able to manage its finances if bond yields surged to 3 percent, Noda said last week. The country risks seeing a spike in government bond yields unless it controls a debt load set to approach 230 percent of gross domestic product in 2013, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said on Nov. 28.

Forbes: PM Noda Shows Real Leadership in Cabinet Reshuffle

Decisive was the appointment of Okada Katsuya as Deputy Prime Minister. Okada is as heavy and heavyweight—by which I mean solid on the issues and effective—as there is in the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ). He was DPJ’s president and served as the first foreign minister during the first cabinet after the DPJ took power in 2009. Noda gave to Okada, and Okada accepted, responsibility for getting through the Diet during next six months the comprehensive consumption tax increase and welfare reform package (of which only the tax increase to 10 percent by 2012 has specifics) worked out during last year.

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Wall Street Journal: Japan Cabinet Shuffle Fails to Lift Noda

Weekend polls showed the government’s approval ratings hardly changed or even down, and found most voters still oppose Mr. Noda’s plan to double the sales-tax rate from the current 5% in two stages by 2015. The Nikkei business daily found support for the cabinet up one percentage point from December, to 37%, while the Asahi Shimbun showed it down two percentage points to 29% and the Yomiuri Shimbun showed it down five percentage points to 37%.
On the government’s plan to raise the consumption tax, the Yomiuri and Nikkei polls found 55% and 56% of respondents opposed, respectively. A Kyodo News poll published Saturday found 80% against the increase if it’s not accompanied by spending cuts, including reductions in the number of lawmakers and in the salaries of civil servants.

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Wall Street Journal: Japan DPJ Tax Chief Urges Tax Increase

Unless the country shows that it’s serious about reining in its public debt, there will be a credit-rating downgrade “right before our eyes,” said Hirohisa Fujii, former finance minister and Democratic Party of Japan tax policy chief.
“Our social security is floating on borrowed money,” the veteran lawmaker told Dow Jones Newswire in an interview. “In our aging society, it’ll continue to do so. You need only look at southern Europe to understand that this will lead to more debt issuance and soaring interest rates.”

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AFP: Japan probes radioactive apartment block

Radiation levels of up to 1.24 microsieverts per hour were recorded in the building in Nihonmatsu, Fukushima, 55 kilometres (35 miles) from the crippled power plant, local authorities said Sunday.
Local media reported that 12 families were living in the block.
The three-storey condominium was constructed in July with concrete made from gravel taken from a quarry near the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power plant in April, one month after it began spewing radiation into the air and sea.

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San Francisco Chronicle: New probe vows to cut deeper in Japan nuke crisis

A newly formed investigative panel on Japan’s nuclear disaster will use its subpoena powers wisely and cut deeper into the accident than the government’s probe, the leader of the independent commission said Monday.
The panel appointed by parliament last month has gained attention here because its 10 members include outspoken critics of Japan’s nuclear policy who long ago questioned the seismic risks to the country’s 54 nuclear reactors.

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ABC News: Japan to Name Islets in Disputed Area

Japan has decided to name several uninhabited islands in a group that is also claimed by China and Taiwan, a move likely to anger the Asian neighbors.
Japan’s chief government spokesman said Monday that 39 uninhabited islands will be given names by the end of March.
The islands all are within what Japan claims as its exclusive economic zone. But four of them are in the Senkaku, or Daioyu, island group in the East China Sea, which is also claimed by Taiwan and China and have been a flashpoint in diplomatic relations.

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Wall Street Journal: Bank of Japan Downgrades View of 7 Regions

The Bank of Japan softened its assessment of regional economies as the recovery following the March disaster has stalled, but the central bank said it doesn’t see the economy immediately slipping back into a downward trend.

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Yahoo Sports: Oakland manager Melvin excited about Japan series

The Athletics and Seattle Mariners open the regular season with a two-game series at Tokyo Dome on March 28-29. Many hoped the series would feature a showdown between Matsui and countryman Ichiro Suzuki, but Melvin said the A’s likely wont be re-signing the 37-year-old free agent Matsui.

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No related posts.

Oricon Top 10 Albums for Week of Jan 2, – Jan 8, 2012

Number 1:

Artist: Exile/Exile Atsushi Album: Exile Japan/Solo Units Sold: 151,511 2nd Week at No. 1 BUY in Japan: BUY from Overseas:

(Rank, Artist, Album Name, No. of Units, Last Week, Purchase Info.)

2. Golden Bomber, Golden Album, 66,195, NEW BUY:

3. Kara, [...] Related posts:

1. Top 10 Japanese Albums: Dec 26, 2011 – Jan 1, 2012
2. Top 10 Japanese Albums: Feb 9 – Feb 15
3. Top 10 Japanese Albums: Apr 27 – May 3, 2010

Oricon Top 10 Albums for Week of Dec 26, 2011 – Jan 1, 2012

Number 1:

Artist: Exile/Exile Atsushi Album: Exile Japan/Solo Units Sold: 350,277 1st Week at No. 1 BUY in Japan: BUY from Overseas:

(Rank, Artist, Album Name, No. of Units, Last Week, Purchase Info.)

2. Girls Generation, Girls Generation, 82,768, 24 BUY:

3. [...] Related posts:

1. Top 10 Japanese Albums: Jan 2 – Jan 8, 2012
2. Top 10 Japanese Albums: Dec 19 – Dec 25, 2011
3. Top 10 Japanese Albums: Mar 15 – Mar 21, 2011

Wall Street Journal: Honda CEO: We Were Jinxed

“We were jinxed,” Honda President Takanobu Ito told reporters at the Detroit auto show Monday. Mr. Ito said that when people hit a certain age in Japan, they have bad fortune “no matter what you do. You have to go to a shrine to get [...] No related posts.]]>

Wall Street Journal: Honda CEO: We Were Jinxed

“We were jinxed,” Honda President Takanobu Ito told reporters at the Detroit auto show Monday. Mr. Ito said that when people hit a certain age in Japan, they have bad fortune “no matter what you do. You have to go to a shrine to get rid of it.”

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Wall Street Journal: Geithner Prods China, Japan on Iran Oil Imports

“We are in the early stages of a broad global diplomatic effort to take advantage of this new legislation to significantly intensify the pressure on Iran,” a senior U.S. official said. “We are telling them [the Chinese] what’s important to us and they are listening.”"We have a reasonable shot at getting a number of countries to wean themselves off Iranian oil.”

BBC: Japan ‘to reduce Iran oil imports’

Japan will take “concrete steps” to reduce its oil dependency on Iran, its finance minister has announced.
The comments from Jun Azumi came after he met US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in Tokyo.

“We wish to take planned and concrete steps to further reduce this share, which now stands at 10%.”

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Chicago Tribune: Analysis: Ageing, indebted Japan holds lessons for others

Economists have generally played down the implications of Japan’s prolonged stagnation for Western economies that are now wrestling with apparently similar balance sheet recessions. These occur when firms and households are forced to reduce their excess debt by cutting consumption and investment.
But Kapur said it would be a crucial error to dismiss Japan’s malaise since 1990 as somehow reflecting specific national ‘cultural’ traits. Many other countries were displaying similar features.

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BBC: Tsunami tales win Imperial Palace poetry contest

Poems about the Japanese tsunami were among the winners at the country’s annual Imperial Palace poetry contest.
Emperor Akihito and his family attended a ceremony in Tokyo, where the 10 winning poems were read aloud.

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Telegraph: Louvre ‘courting disaster’ over plans to send works to Fukushima

The world’s most visited museum is due to send around 20 works in April to three towns in northern Japan, including Fukushima City, less than 40 miles from the site of a major nuclear power plant disaster last March triggered by an earthquake and tsunami.

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Bloomberg: Japan Builders Tout Quake-Resistant Features

“Some may think that people will refrain from buying homes after the quake, but it’s the opposite. People want to move in to apartments they deem safe.”
Tokyo’s stringent building code, which includes rubber bearings used as foundation so that seismic energy can shift from structures, helped the city’s buildings avoid major damage from the nation’s record magnitude-9 quake, though the temblor turned landfill in the Tokyo Bay area into mud, shattering pipes and disrupting gas, electricity and water supplies.

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BBC: Manhunt in Japan for first jail-breaker in two decades

Li Guolin, a Chinese national, is serving a 23-year sentence for offences including attempted murder.
He broke out wearing only his prison-issue underwear, Japanese reports say.

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UPI: Japan suicides top 30,000 for 14th year

Statistics released by the Japanese government estimate 30,513 people committed suicide in 2011, the 14th year in a row the total has exceeded 30,000.
The number of suicides for 2011 is the lowest it has been since the annual suicide count topped 30,000 in 1998.

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Daily Mail: Brain training games DO speed up your brain – or at least they’re better for you than playing Tetris

Nintendo’s Brain Training and Brain Age games sold 19 million units and became one of the biggest hits on DS – but their supposed health benefits have always been disputed.
Now a study of elderly volunteers has found that Brain Age seems to speed up brain function – when compared to a control group who played Tetris five days a week for a month.

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UPI: Japan’s oldest elephant turning 65

The oldest Asian elephant in Japan will turn 65 next month and officials at the Inokashira Park Zoo in western Tokyo say they’re planning a party for her.
The elephant, named Hanako, has been living at the zoo for more than 50 years and has never had a major disease or injury, her keepers say.

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Japanese Box Office: Dec 31, 2011 – Jan 6, 2012

Movie: Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol Weekend Box Office (US$): $4,273,363 Cumulative Take (US$): $36,104,406 Third Week at No. 1

(Rank, Movie Name, Weekend Box Office (US$), Cume (US$) (Note: US$1=78.06yen))

2. Friends: Naki On the Monster Island (friends もののけ島のナキ), $1,287,968, $9,845,409

3. Admiral Yamamoto (聯合艦隊司令長官 山本五十六 -太平洋戦争70年目の真実-), [...] Related posts:

1. Japanese Box Office: Jan 7 – Jan 13, 2012
2. Japanese Box Office: Dec 10 – Dec 16, 2011
3. Japanese Box Office: Dec 17 – Dec 23, 2011

Drama: 62nd Annual NHK Kouhaku Utagassen (第６２回ＮＨＫ紅白歌合戦) Network: NHK Time & Date: 21:00-23:45, Dec 31 Rating: 41.6

Week of Dec 26, 2011 – Jan 1, 2012

(Program, Channel, Time & Date, Rating)

2. Drama: [...] Related posts:

1. Japanese TV Ratings: Jan 2 – Jan 8, 2012
2. Japanese TV Ratings: Nov 9 – Nov 15
3. Japanese TV Ratings: Jun 6 – Jun 12, 2011