Top News in Japan -- Monday, August 6, 2007

Top news in Japan with a little bit of opinion:

Abe to meet with unrecognized hibakusha. Hibakusha is Japanese for victims of the atomic bomb. There is a group of people, who although they feel they should be recognized as hibakusha, have not been. Hibakusha are entitled to get help from the government, and it also confers a certain status on people, officially recognizing their plight. This group recently took their case to court asking to be recognized and failed. Today, August 6 is always remembered in Japan as the day the first atomic bomb was dropped. Abe will be in Hiroshima to to attend a solemn ceremony remembering the dropping of the bomb. After the ceremony he said he would meet with the representative of this group to see if there was something he could do to help out the group members (ruling out officially recognizing them as hibaksha). Japanese story: 認定基準見直し検討へ　首相、被爆者代表と面会 More news stories follow ...

Creation of Japanese National Security Agency on hold? Abe has been keen to form in Japan a Japanese version of the NSC. (Which would be a boon to conspiracy theorists everywhere and also give manga writers new ideas for interesting comic plots.) However, the bill for the creation of such an agency will have to wait probably until next April. Right now Abe has decided he must concentrate on having Japan's unconstitutional support for American ships in the Indian Ocean renewed. Japan supports these ships by giving them all the fuel you can guzzle at cut throat if not free rates. (Probably 30% to 50% of all fuel comes from Japan.) This helps America not only nation-build in Afghanistan but also intimidate the hell out of Iran. The renewal for the Indian Ocean operation, which also includes policing the waters, comes up November 1st, but Abe will likely start dealing with the issue by the end of this month. As Abe has been intent on fueling nationalism in Japan, and playing up the North Korean threat, he has isolated Japan from Asia, and cannot afford to allow the alliance with America to weaken. Japanese story: 日本版ＮＳＣ創設先送り　政府、来年４月は困難に

Special session of diet to start as soon as Abe does the shuffle. Abe will be making a long-planned visit to India and other Asian countries early in August. As soon as he returns he intends to shuffle his cabinet and then begin a special session of the diet. He is anxious to get started on discussions regarding renewal of Japan's Indian Ocean operations. He hopes that by starting early the diet does not needlessly have to enter a stand still as a result of the opposition taking control of the upper house. He wants plenty of time for negotiations. (There is no information on this, but it may be he wants time to muster the necessary support for a 2/3 majority vote in the lower house, should the upper house reject renewed Indian Ocean operations.) Japanese story: 臨時国会、月末召集を検討　首相、２７日軸の改造直後に

Another deadly summer Sunday in Japan leaves 10 dead, 4 missing, and 9 seriously injured. As is typical in Japan during the summer season, each week-end leaves various people dead from swimming and mountain accidents. One man hit a high pressure area while hang gliding and crashed to his death 40 meters below. Japanese story: 全国で１０人死亡、４人不明　梅雨明け後、最初の日曜

12 people seriously injured in Fukui bicycle race. Half of this number is from 6 people turning at an intersection at the same time and crashing into each other. In other words, the bicycle race was on ordinary roads, and the person who designed the layout of the race did not put enough thought into where accidents might occur. Japanese story: 自転車レースで１２人重軽傷　福井県坂井市

A helicopter accident in America leaves Japanese national dead. A Japanese women operating an helicopter crashed in Washington state and died as a result. 3 others dead as well. Japanese news: 米で邦人操縦のヘリ墜落　４人死亡、ワシントン州

Fukuchiyama Line ill legacy lives on. Twenty percent of the 562 people injured during the train derailment have still not recovered. Many accident victims still suffering from PTSD. Japanese story: 負傷者２割、現在も治療中　尼崎脱線事故説明会

Swimming stopped at beach as large shark is captured. A 3.5 meter shark was captured 20 meters from a popular Ito city beach in Shizuoka prefecture. As a result swimming has been put off limits in certain areas at least for now. Japanese story: 伊東の海水浴場でサメ捕獲　体長３・５メートル、遊泳禁止

Women abducted over two hours, forced to bay 500,000 yen. A women was heading for her car in her apartment parking lot, when she was grabbed from behind by a man. He quickly taped her mouth, then her hands and legs. He drover her around for two and a half hours. He made her turn over her ATM card and tell him her secret code. He withdrew 500,000 yen from her account. (I'm not clear on whether the money was withdrawn before or after he let her go.) The women suffered minor injuries from the tape, and of course mental stress, but otherwise she was okay. Japanese story: 車に女性監禁、５０万奪う　東京・品川、男は逃走

IAEA on their way. While the clean up is still underway in at the quake stricken Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant the IAEA inspectors are on their way to begin their inspections. Japanese story: 「共有できる教訓得たい」　ＩＡＥＡ調査団が来日