Thu, 23 Oct 2008 17:07:23 -0600 http://www.japanaddicted.com/ Japan Addicted! en-us http://www.japanaddicted.com/images/logo.jpg http://www.japanaddicted.com/ evil@japanaddicted.com http://www.japanaddicted.com/Article5004.phtml While much of Japan is grappling with deepening economic turmoil, the country's dapper prime minister has come under fire for enjoying a lavish nightlife. Since taking the helm a month ago, Taro Aso has spent all but four nights out on the town at fancy bars and eateries, according to reports in leading newspapers. Aso's haunts include an upscale hotel bar where coffee is poured out at $15 a cup and a ritzy restaurant where the plates of grilled eel start at $175 a serving. The opposition has seized on Aso's lifestyle, claiming that the 68-year-old political blue blood and scion of a wealthy family is out of touch with the people. "He won't understand the real concerns of people by going to such places," Susumu Yanase, a lawmaker from the country's largest opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan, said Wednesday. Aso, who is well-known for enjoying cigars and meticulously tailored suits, has defended his nocturnal habits, saying visits to less-exclusive places would be a security headache for others. Besides, he said, he is not charging the government for his fun. "Don't you know bars at hotels are not so expensive?" Aso said Wednesday night. "Fortunately, I've got money, so I'm paying the bills myself." Still, he is making efforts to develop a common touch. He visited a supermarket in central Tokyo on Sunday to see how shoppers were being affected by price increases. Since taking office Sept. 24, Aso has been under pressure to lift the popularity of the ailing ruling party before he calls parliamentary elections. The economy, however, is sputtering. Automakers are cutting production and stocks are nose-diving. The benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average fell 2.46 percent Thursday. Thu, 23 Oct 2008 17:07:23 -0600 http://www.japanaddicted.com/Article5003.phtml Japan's trade surplus shrank sharply in September, as the rising cost of importing energy and raw materials exacerbated the impact of limp overseas demand, the government said Thursday. The data underscore that while fuel prices may be starting to moderate, Japan's export-driven economy is likely to hit more turbulence ahead as fallout from the global financial crisis intensifies. Japan's surplus tumbled a more-than-expected 94.1 percent to 95.111 billion yen ($965.7 million) in September, far worse than the 1.609 trillion yen ($16.34 billion) surplus it posted in the same month last year, according to the Ministry of Finance. The resource-poor country was saddled with high costs for oil, coal and natural gas, sending its imports up 28.8 percent to 7.272 trillion yen ($73.8 billion). Meanwhile, total exports inched up just 1.5 percent to 7.368 trillion yen ($74.8 billion) as shipments of cars and consumer electronics to North America and Europe fell. Still, September's figures represent a turnaround from the previous month, when the world's No. 2 economy posted a rare trade deficit. The country spent slightly less on energy imports in September than it did in August, reflecting recent declines in crude oil prices. For the April-September period, Japan's trade surplus shrank 85.6 percent to 801.97 billion yen ($8.14 billion). Thu, 23 Oct 2008 16:54:59 -0600 http://www.japanaddicted.com/Article5002.phtml A 43-year-old Japanese woman whose sudden divorce in a virtual game world made her so angry that she killed her online husband's digital persona has been arrested on suspicion of hacking, police said Thursday. The woman, who is jailed on suspicion of illegally accessing a computer and manipulating electronic data, used his identification and password to log onto popular interactive game "Maple Story" to carry out the virtual murder in mid-May, a police official in northern Sapporo said on condition of anonymity, citing department policy. "I was suddenly divorced, without a word of warning. That made me so angry," the official quoted her as telling investigators and admitting the allegations. The woman had not plotted any revenge in the real world, the official said. She has not yet been formally charged, but if convicted could face a prison term of up to five years or a fine up to $5,000. Players in "Maple Story" raise and manipulate digital images called "avatars" that represent themselves, while engaging in relationships, social activities and fighting against monsters and other obstacles. The woman used login information she got from the 33-year-old office worker when their characters were happily married, and killed the character. The man complained to police when he discovered that his beloved online avatar was dead. The woman was arrested Wednesday and was taken across the country, traveling 620 miles from her home in southern Miyazaki to be detained in Sapporo, where the man lives, the official said. The police official said he did not know if she was married in the real world. In recent years, virtual lives have had consequences in the real world. In August, a woman was charged in Delaware with plotting the real-life abduction of a boyfriend she met through "Second Life," another virtual interactive world. In Tokyo, police arrested a 16-year-old boy on charges of swindling virtual currency worth $360,000 in an interactive role playing game by manipulating another player's portfolio using a stolen ID and password. Virtual games are popular in Japan, and "Second Life" has drawn a fair number of Japanese participants. They rank third by nationality among users, after Americans and Brazilians. Thu, 23 Oct 2008 16:51:43 -0600 http://www.japanaddicted.com/Article5001.phtml Kazuyoshi Miura, a Japanese man who was earlier this year taken into custody in the U.S. commonwealth of Saipan in connection with a 1981 Los Angeles shooting that resulted in the death of his wife, committed suicide on Friday, soon after being returned to California to face trial, the Japanese consulate general here said. Miura, 61, the former president of a company selling imported goods, apparently hanged himself in his cell at about 10 p.m. on Friday local time. His suicide was confirmed by the consulate general. The motive remained unclear. Officials at the consulate general said they had earlier received a phone call from Miura, and a consul had met him at the Los Angeles Police Department where he was being detained. At the time Miura had reportedly said he was fine, and appeared well. Miura had complained that he couldn't read where he was being detained, but he appeared satisfied with the situation after it was explained to him that he would only be there temporarily before being moved to a detention center. Miura had been unable to speak directly with lawyers in Japan as he could not make international calls from where he was being detained. He had said that he wanted to meet his lawyers before he was due to appear in court on Tuesday. Thu, 16 Oct 2008 19:36:08 -0600 http://www.japanaddicted.com/Article5000.phtml Once roundly denounced during the 90s for their extravagant lifestyles, "parasite singles" -- single women living off their parents -- are now contributing more to the household than before. Parasite singles are giving more money and spending more time on chores than they once did, according to a study of single women living at home in 1998 and 2007 by the Institute for Research on Household Economics. With the percentage of parasite singles in permanent employment down from 77.7 percent to 71 percent over the past decade, average net income for single women dropped from 170,000 yen to 157,000 yen per month. Their disposable income also declined from 55,000 yen to 44,000 yen. However, the survey also found that single women contributing part of their income to their parents had increased from 49.1 percent to 57.1 percent, whilst time spent for housekeeping chores on weekdays also jumped from 43.4 minutes to 49.3 minutes. Thu, 16 Oct 2008 19:33:30 -0600 http://www.japanaddicted.com/Article4999.phtml Nobel laureate in physics Yoichiro Nambu will be listed as an American in public documents to be issued by the Japanese government, while his award-winning research will be recognized to have been achieved as a Japanese national, the government has announced. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has come up with the unusual measures as Nambu, 87, is a Tokyo-born American citizen. It is the first time that a Japanese of foreign nationality has won the prize. When listing Nambu -- professor emeritus at University of Chicago -- in public documents such as white papers, the ministry said it will count him as an American citizen in such categories as "Nobel laureates by country." However, since Nambu held Japanese nationality when he made the achievements for which he was awarded the prize, the ministry will also regard him as one of this year's four Japanese Nobel laureates. The ministry has always calculated the number of Nobel laureates by country based on the nationality of the recipients at the time the award is made. Since the United States is home to many immigrants -- including some of its Nobel Laureates -- the ministry decided to keep with its established method. "Considering his current nationality, he cannot be recognized as a Japanese citizen. However, he had Japanese nationality when he made the achievements. In emotional terms, we would like to congratulate him as Japanese," said a ministry representative. Nambu's achievements will be introduced in government publications along with those by the three other Japanese laureates. Thu, 16 Oct 2008 19:31:39 -0600 http://www.japanaddicted.com/Article4998.phtml Tokyo stock prices nose-dived more than 1,000 yen on Thursday following a sharp plunge in share prices in the United States a day earlier. The Nikkei Average of 225 selected issues at the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) plummeted 1,089.02 points, or 11.41 percent, from Wednesday's closing index to close at 8,458.45. It was the second sharpest fall in TSE's history, following a 14.9 percent fall recorded on Oct. 20, 1987, known as "Black Monday." The broader TOPIX closed at 864.52, down 90.99 points from the previous day's closing figure. A wide variety of issues, such as shipbuilding, real estate, steel and precision machinery, were sold on the TSE in reaction to growing concerns about a global-scale recession and the yen's appreciation against the U.S. dollar. Thu, 16 Oct 2008 19:30:39 -0600 http://www.japanaddicted.com/Article4997.phtml Japanese health officials warned residents on Wednesday not to eat a variety of frozen green beans imported from China that are contaminated with an extremely high concentration of pesticides. "Don't eat it. Report if you have it and bring it in," says a warning from the Japanese Ministry of Health. Thirty-thousand packages of the Ingen-brand green beans had been sold in Japan before the pesticide contamination was discovered. The public health office in Hachioji city, outside of Tokyo, said the concentration of pesticides was more than 34,000 times the acceptable limit, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported. Retailers have pulled the beans from the shelves, the latest incident in a string of tainted products that have come out of China in recent years, including milk, dog food and children's toys. The beans were imported by Nichirei Foods. They were produced by Chinese manufacturer Yantai Beihai Foodstuff, located in eastern China's Shandong province advertisement Authorities are investigating the tainted beans as a possible criminal case, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department said. There are no reports of serious injuries from the pesticides, although several people have been sickened. Thu, 16 Oct 2008 19:29:28 -0600 http://www.japanaddicted.com/Article4996.phtml With job signs stuck to their vans' windshields and sliding side doors left open in expectation, the recruiters were sizing up the potential hires at Japan's largest day-labor market here recently. By 4:30 a.m., thousands of aging day laborers had spilled out of the neighborhood's flophouses and homeless shelters, or risen from its parks and streets, to form a potential work force of mostly graying men. A sign on one blue van, barely legible in the twilight, offered a 15-day construction job paying $95 a day, minus $33 in room and board. Although the terms were comparatively decent, the recruiter sitting in a folding chair in front of the blue van had found only one suitably young laborer by 5 a.m. Most were above the unwritten cutoff age of 55. "It's really hard to use the men here because they've gotten old," said the recruiter, Takuya Nakamae, 55, turning his head toward his prize catch, a recruit in his 30s. "If you're this young, everybody wants you and you get plenty of offers. Just look at how young you are!" And yet it was the older men who really knew how to work, he said, adding: "They're the ones who worked during Japan's decades of economic boom, so they know the ins and outs of every job. It's just that they don't have the strength anymore." Nowadays, few young men gravitate here, the Airin district of Osaka. Little is being built in Japan's stagnant economy, and young day laborers or part-time workers find jobs by registering their cellphone numbers with temporary employment agencies. Many of the older men who remain arrived here to work on the 1970 Expo in Osaka, which, like the Tokyo Olympics six years earlier, became a symbol of postwar Japan's rebirth. Over the decades, they left to work on bridges, buildings and highways all over the country, performing the dirtiest and most dangerous jobs in helping build Japan. Some made it out of here and moved on to steadier jobs and lives. But many others are still in Airin, one of the few corners of Japan where stray dogs lie in the middle of the street alongside drunken men, and Japanese mobsters, or yakuza, sell drugs openly on street corners and run gambling dens on certain blocks. After one worker claimed abuse by the police, scores of people here rioted for five days over the summer, though old-timers said the disturbances were only a faint echo of the violent and widespread riots of the 1960s and 1990s. Many of the men left in Airin, on average just shy of 60 years old and with no family ties, are waiting to die here, said Minoru Yamada, who moved here in 1973, once worked as a day laborer and is now chairman of Kamagasaki Shien Kiko, a private organization that helps laborers. "At one time, this was a place where you could remake yourself," Yamada said. "But not anymore. Now it's become a dumping ground for old men, a place where waste is disposed of." A grim report by the city government last year said that conditions in Airin were rapidly worsening: an aging population, rising homelessness, deepening poverty and increasing cases of tuberculosis and alcoholism. The number of welfare recipients has grown fivefold in the past decade. An ancient slum, this area was renamed and reshaped into Airin in the 1960s when the city government cleared it of family dwellings, concentrated all the city's day laborers here and invited others from all over Japan to meet a construction boom. Today, the city estimates that 30,000 people live here, about a quarter of its peak two decades ago, in this 62-hectare, or 153-acre, neighborhood, which is less than one-fifth the size of New York's Central Park. The district's overall population is more than 85 percent male. But in Airin's core - an urban valley hemmed in by wide avenues and an elevated train track - there are almost no women at all. During Japan's economic go-go years, the number of jobs offered here swelled, peaking at 9,614 a day in 1990. The number has fallen to about a third of that today and no longer includes jobs in the kind of large and lucrative construction projects that fueled Japan's boom. Still, recruiters show up every morning at the Airin General Center, the day-labor market, saying they need to check over hires before sending them to a job. "This is different from bidding on dead tuna at a fish market auction," said one recruiter, who said he shifted to Airin more than two decades ago after working as a pimp in Tokyo. "Sure, you can recruit on the Internet, but on the Internet, you can't make out someone's character. For example, a guy can be O.K. if he hasn't been drinking. But if he has, he may get crazy and create problems for everybody around him." A couple of hours after the recruiters had left for the day, Tadashi Kato showed up at the center to put his name down for a job as a night watchman. Kato, 75, came here in 1957, abandoning forever his home in rural Hokkaido and family talk of fixing him up with a job at the national railway. "It'd be natural to wonder whether I would have been better off joining the national railway, but I've led a carefree life and have seen things that people usually can't," Kato said in a guttural voice, explaining that he had taken photos of past riots here and was looking for a "successor" to inherit them. He once lived in a flophouse. But nowadays, with few jobs coming his way, he sleeps on the streets. He refused to apply for welfare or enter the city-run homeless shelters, where each person receives one piece of hardtack bread a night. He would never, he said, depend on the government. He was married briefly, and he said that, unlike many of the men who came here to escape after accumulating debts or abandoning their families, he long supported his former wife and their only child, a daughter. He last saw his daughter, in Tokyo, when his first grandchild was born three decades ago. "'Your feet stink - don't come here dressed like that,"' he said she told him. "She said I could come if I had some money for her, but not to bother if I didn't. Either way, it's hard being a man." He had not seen his daughter since, but he said he knew her address. "When I die, I'll absolutely go to my daughter's," Kato said of his ashes, adding, "Sometimes, you know, I think if I could go painlessly, it wouldn't be that bad not to wake up in the morning." It was not 11 a.m. yet, but Airin's tiny outdoor drinking stalls were already filling up. These days, the most popular was a five-stool stall that belonged to Yayoi Onodera, 48, who charged $5 per drink and sold rice balls. She had earned around $40,000 in profit since moving here from Tokyo six months ago. "I never dreamed I'd make so much money," Onodera said, adding that she had struggled in the beginning but was encouraged by a local yakuza leader who used to stop by before he was arrested and imprisoned for drug dealing. Later that afternoon, many of the men drifted to Sankaku Park nearby where they watched sumo wrestlers on a television set atop a pole. But Kazuyasu Ikeda, 64, went straight home to the 4.5-square-meter, or 49-square-foot, room he had been renting for the past six years for $11 a night. From his fourth-floor room, where he had a television set, 16 small cactuses and a small tank filled with guppies, he had a view of a parking lot and, beyond that, the Hankai train line. He had just collected his wages for cutting grass that day and was in high spirits. The wages, of course, were nothing compared with what he had made during Japan's economic boom. Helping to build a highway in Okinawa back then, he said, he far outearned American marines stationed there. "At a foreigners' bar that I used to go to, I was even more popular than the foreigners," Ikeda said, adding that he was such a regular that the bar kept a bottle of Camus Cognac for him. He never had children and thus suffered no guilt, he said with a laugh. But as he watched the end of the sumo matches of the day, Ikeda, a red towel he had used while working still wrapped around his head, seemed to grow tired and his mood darkened. The conversation drifted, as it often did in Airin, to the topic of death. Ikeda boasted that he had never taken a handout, stood in a soup line or stayed in a homeless shelter. When there were no jobs, he collected aluminum cans. His "policy" was to rely on no one, he said. "I'll hang on for another 10 years," he said. The men here, he said, were like cigarette lighters worth 100 yen, or less than $1. "It's painful to throw away a Zippo or Dunhill lighter even if it doesn't light properly anymore," he said. "But 100-yen lighters you just throw away. That's what we are." Sun, 12 Oct 2008 07:19:57 -0600 http://www.japanaddicted.com/Article4995.phtml Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs says over 70 percent of Japanese inns and hotels that didn't have foreign guests last year don't want any in the future either. The ministry says that a survey of such businesses showed they feel unable to support foreign languages and that their facilities are not suited to foreigners. The survey released Thursday shows that over 60 percent of Japan's inns and hotels had foreign guests last year, but the majority of the rest don't want any. It was released as Japan continues its efforts to attract more foreign visitors. The country's "Visit Japan Campaign" aims to draw 10 million foreigners to the country for trips and business in the year 2010, up from 8.35 million last year. Thu, 09 Oct 2008 09:08:52 -0600 http://www.japanaddicted.com/Article4994.phtml Taro Aso, an outspoken politician and a former foreign minister, became Japan's new prime minister Wednesday after the powerful lower house of parliament overruled the upper house's choice for a leader. Aso handily won the vote in the lower house, where his ruling Liberal Democratic Party holds the majority. The upper house had voted in favor of opposition leader Ichiro Ozawa. Under Japan's constitution, though, the lower house overrules the upper one when the two cannot reach consensus. Aso, 68, was officially declared the prime minister after a meeting between representatives from the two bodies. Soon afterward, he named his new Cabinet. He succeeds Yasuo Fukuda, who resigned amid plummeting approval ratings after less than a year in office. Fukuda and his Cabinet stepped down ahead of Wednesday's vote. The new prime minister inherits an office that is expected to confront several pressing challenges immediately. Foremost among them is the country's sagging economy. Aso advocates an increase in public spending and tax cuts to stimulate the economy. The party is also expected to call a snap election as early as next month, in hopes that Aso's name-recognition will help the ruling party retain control of Parliament. But the tactic can backfire, analysts say. The LDP is in the midst of a political crisis. The last two prime ministers, both from the party, resigned after less than a year in office. Because of the turmoil within the LDP, the opposition party, the Democratic Party of Japan, senses a shift in political tides. A snap election could see a turn in political power in Parliament, after nearly half a century of continuous control by the LDP. Aso, a former Olympic sharpshooter, is a Catholic in a country where only one percent of the population is of that faith. And he is also known for his verbal gaffes. He recently likened the opposition party to the Nazis. Fukuda's popularity plummeted after he introduced a medical plan that raises premiums for people over age 75 and deducts health-care expenses from pension payments. The government has said the plan is unavoidable in a country with one of the world's largest aging populations. Opposition parties have criticized it for its effect on one of the most vulnerable segments of society. advertisement In June, Japan's opposition-controlled upper house of parliament approved a motion of no-confidence in Fukuda. It was the first time a chamber of parliament has passed such a censure in the country's post-war history, but the motion was non-binding and largely symbolic. While no-confidence motions only count in Japan when approved by the LDP-controlled lower house, analysts said it was a stinging rebuke for the prime minister. Wed, 24 Sep 2008 04:55:05 -0600 http://www.japanaddicted.com/Article4993.phtml Five candidates vied Monday for the presidency of Japan's embattled ruling party, a position that virtually guarantees the winner election as the country's next prime minister. Former Foreign Minister Taro Aso, a brash straight-talker who has criticized China's military growth and vowed to turn around Japan's sagging economy, was widely expected to clinch the race in the first round. Lawmakers of the Liberal Democratic Party and its rank and file members were to cast ballots later on Monday. The winner will then be the LDP's candidate for prime minister in a vote in parliament on Wednesday. In their last campaign appearances Sunday, Aso and four other party candidates pledged to bolster the economy. The party -- which has ruled almost uninterruptedly since 1955 -- is struggling to rebuild public support and jockey for a better position in upcoming parliamentary elections, which reportedly could come as early as October. "The greatest concern right now is the economy," Aso told a crowd of supporters outside of Tokyo in a drizzling rain. "America is facing a financial crisis ... we must not allow that to bring us down as well." Political gridlock with the opposition has sent the party into a crisis. The opposition Democratic Party of Japan has been making big gains and took control of the upper house of parliament in elections in July last year. It has since managed to block many of the main policy initiatives of the ruling party, and helped force out Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda and his predecessor, Shinzo Abe, in a span of less than two years. Democratic Party leader Ichiro Ozawa, who was re-elected as his party's leader on Sunday, is calling strongly for snap elections in the powerful lower house to test the ruling party's mandate. Polls indicate such calls are resonating with the public and the rising pressure could force the ruling party to comply. The elections do not need to be held until next September, but the prime minister has the power to call them at any time. The abrupt resignation of Fukuda -- he said earlier this month he felt he could not deal with the opposition's uncooperative strategy -- forced the Liberal Democrats to call the vote for the party presidency. Aso, who has led from the start, is running against economic minister Kaoru Yosano, young lawmaker Nobuteru Ishihara and two former defense ministers, Shigeru Ishiba and Yuriko Koike, who is also the first woman to run for the post. Aso is seen as an important departure from the taciturn and often low-key Yasuo Fukuda, who was reluctant to engage the opposition and had trouble connecting with the public. Aso is a much more colorful character. He was on Japan's 1976 Olympic shooting team, would be Japan's first Catholic prime minister, and has made much of his love for comic books. Aso is seen by the public as a straight talker. The party hopes that he will generate more support from both within and outside its ranks, while posing an attractive alternative to Ozawa, who is a deft political dealer and was a former Liberal Democratic Party leader before bolting in the 1990s. Over the past two weeks, Aso has tried to counter critics who say he is too direct. He has reassured the party's conservative base that he will continue to seek a strong alliance with Washington, which has long been a cornerstone of Japanese foreign policy. advertisement Though he has in the past described the rise of China as a threat to Japan, he has gone out of his way recently to stress that relations are good and benefit both sides economically, although he has not backed down from his calls for more transparency regarding China's rapid military growth. A change in leaders in the Liberal Democratic Party is not expected to ease the standoff with Ozawa's Democratic Party of Japan, however. Sun, 21 Sep 2008 21:56:09 -0600 http://www.japanaddicted.com/Article4992.phtml The Bank of Japan injected 2.5 trillion yen ($24 billion) into markets Tuesday, as Japan scrambled to calm fears about a financial crisis after U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. Financial Services Minister Toshimitsu Motegi sought to allay fears by saying the impact on Japanese financial institutions was limited. "So far, we haven't confirmed any signs that Japanese financial institutions are seriously affected," he said, adding officials will "raise alert levels" to closely monitor the situation. Japan's central bank pumped 1.5 trillion yen ($14 billion) into money markets even before trading began to prepare for possible volatility in the wake of Monday's news that Lehman had filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States. Its Japanese unit did the same on Tuesday. In the afternoon, the Bank of Japan added another 1 trillion yen ($9.5 billion) to money markets. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index plunged more than 5 percent, falling under than 12,000-point level for the first time since mid-March. The dollar also nose-dived to 104 yen levels. With Monday being a holiday here, Tuesday was the first day for investors to react to the news about Lehman's collapse -- and the stunning news that Bank of America had taken over Merrill Lynch for about $50 billion. nvestors also are worried about the fate of American Insurance Group, the world's largest insurer. It was fighting for its survival after downgrades from major credit rating firms, adding pressure to AIG as it seeks billions of dollars to strengthen its balance sheet. The Bank of Japan issued a statement vowing to take measures to maintain stability in the country's financial markets. Cabinet ministers, along with the central bank chief, were also holding an emergency meeting. "The Bank of Japan will closely watch development surrounding the latest U.S. financial institutions and its impact, and will continue to take appropriate measures to maintain smooth settlement and stability in the financial market," Bank of Japan Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa said in a statement. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection from its creditors on Monday. The 158-year-old investment bank was crippled by $60 billion in soured real-estate holdings and was unable to find an investment partner to throw it a lifeline. Its Japanese unit also filed for bankruptcy protection at a Tokyo court Tuesday under the Japanese civil rehabilitation law, according to the office of Hiroyasu Ueda, lawyer representing the company, with debt totaling about 3.43 trillion yen ($33 billion). That makes it the second-largest bankruptcy in Japan since World War II, according to Tokyo Shoko Research, Ltd. "To ensure a fair treatment of all creditors and that the rehabilitation procedures are carried out in an orderly manner, the companies are working with the relevant Japanese regulatory authorities and are in the process of ascertaining its financial process," Lehman Brothers Japan said in a statement. Some of the Japanese lenders to Lehman Brothers said Tuesday that their actual exposure to Lehman would be little changed from their earlier projection or even smaller. Aozora Bank Ltd., which is among the top lenders to Lehman, said its projected exposure could be "less than $25 million," or "less than 6 percent of the $463 million exposure reported in Lehman bankruptcy filings, as it assumes "reasonable recoveries" against Lehman's Japan unit and market pricing for recoveries against its U.S. parent. Chuo Mitsui Trust Holdings, Inc. said it has a total of 15 billion yen in loans to Lehman Brothers and its Japan unit, while regional Chiba Bank said its lending to Lehman totaled $47 million (4.98 billion yen) and will announce its impact on earnings projections. On Monday, Japan's financial watchdog ordered Lehman's Japan unit to suspend operations. The agency said in a statement that Lehman's Japanese operations -- except those that involve returning assets to customers -- would be suspended for 12 days starting Monday. advertisement The agency issued a separate statement ordering Lehman's Japanese unit to take "full measures" to protect investors and assets after it filed for bankruptcy. The Japanese watchdog also ordered Lehman Brothers Japan Inc. to keep certain assets in the country. Lehman opened its first office in Japan in 1973. Citing data from the Japanese financial watchdog, Kyodo News agency said Lehman's Japanese unit manages about 1.2 trillion yen ($11.4 billion) worth of assets from investors. Tue, 16 Sep 2008 17:41:56 -0600 http://www.japanaddicted.com/Article4991.phtml FUKUOKA -- Hundreds of venomous redback spiders that popped up in parks and residences here have been exterminated, city officials said. Mon, 15 Sep 2008 09:53:49 -0600 http://www.japanaddicted.com/Article4990.phtml Some 5,000 customers queued up for the opening of Swedish clothing company Hennes & Mauritz AB's (H&M) first Japanese store in the Ginza shopping district of Tokyo on Saturday. Mon, 15 Sep 2008 09:53:04 -0600 http://www.japanaddicted.com/Article4989.phtml Mount Nantai in Nikko, Tochigi Prefecture, is probably still an active volcano, experts said, after finding erupted material believed to be about 7,000 years old in its crater. Mon, 15 Sep 2008 09:52:38 -0600 http://www.japanaddicted.com/Article4988.phtml A leap second will be introduced at the beginning of 2009 -- the first in three years, the government said. Mon, 15 Sep 2008 09:51:41 -0600 http://www.japanaddicted.com/Article4987.phtml A Japanese version of Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel "The Brothers Karamazov" has sold more than one million copies and started a second print run on Thursday, it has been learned. Mon, 15 Sep 2008 09:51:15 -0600 http://www.japanaddicted.com/Article4986.phtml Rice wholesale company Mikasa Foods, currently at the center of a food safety scandal for selling contaminated rice for human consumption, has bought around a quarter of the spoiled rice sold by the government since 2004, allegedly selling it on for use in shochu liquor and other foodstuffs while claiming it was to be used for industrial processes. Mon, 15 Sep 2008 09:50:53 -0600 http://www.japanaddicted.com/Article4985.phtml An unidentified submarine of unknown origin was spotted and briefly pursued by the Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) destroyer Atago in the sea off Kochi Prefecture early Sunday morning. Helicopters and P-3C aircraft continue to patrol the area. Mon, 15 Sep 2008 09:50:10 -0600 http://www.japanaddicted.com/Article4984.phtml People aged 75 or over account for more than 10 percent of Japan's population this year, according to a government estimate, for the first time since the current method of keeping statistics began in 1950. Mon, 15 Sep 2008 09:49:34 -0600 http://www.japanaddicted.com/Article4983.phtml Almost half of the 21 fluorescent lamps aboard Japan's experimentation module Kibo on the International Space Station (ISS) have burned out, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said. Mon, 15 Sep 2008 09:48:53 -0600 http://www.japanaddicted.com/Article4982.phtml A cram school operator has opened a special tuition-free school in downtown Tokyo to help so-called "Net cafe refugees", high school dropouts and others who are too poor to graduate from secondary education. Mon, 15 Sep 2008 09:47:26 -0600 http://www.japanaddicted.com/Article4981.phtml Three people on death row were executed Thursday, the Ministry of Justice announced, marking the first executions in Japan in about three months. Mon, 15 Sep 2008 09:47:03 -0600 http://www.japanaddicted.com/Article4980.phtml One person was killed and six others injured Saturday when a man went on a stabbing rampage in central Japan -- the latest in a series of such sprees in the country in the last few months. The attacks occured during a festival at a shrine in Ishikawa Prefecture, when a man was seen indiscriminately slashing people with a sickle, the Kyodo news agency reported. Police arrested a 42-year-old vendor, Toshiaki Arai, and charged him with killing a 30-year-old man and wounding six others, Kyodo said. The Associated Press reported that Arai told police he was angry that customers had made fun of him. Police say Yohei Okada died from severe blood loss shortly after the stabbing. Among the six other men injured, two remain hospitalized Sunday afternoon, AP said. In June, a man ran over a group of people with his truck and then stabbed 18, killing at least 7, in a video game district of downtown Tokyo. Twelve others were wounded, police said. The following month, a woman stabbed seven men at a train station outside Tokyo after unsuccessfully trying to slit her wrist. Sun, 14 Sep 2008 09:15:59 -0600