Art Music the lAst Word sports **dining** - Metropolis

The Small Print
“
This goes againsT
The principle of
innocenT unTil proven
guilTy”
—Author manabu miyazaki, on a new law that allows
cops to target yakuza groups even without identifying
specific members who have committed crimes
MilesTones
ć Shunpei ueyama, a philosopher and former
president of Kyoto university, died earlier this
month at the age of 91. According to an obituary,
he survived World War II despite being a
“member of a human-guided torpedo suicide
attack group.”
ć In a survey of 358 movie directors, including
Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen and Quentin
Tarantino, Yasujiro Ozu’s 1958 Tokyo Story was
named the greatest film of all time.
ć Dynam became the first Japanese company to
list its shares exclusively on the Hong Kong Stock
exchange. It also became the first pachinko
parlor to go public.
ć Vietnam has become the 17th country in the
world to sell Pocari Sweat. We can only hope
the name translates better into the local language
than it does into english.
coMing & going
ć Princess Mako, the 20-year-old daughter of
Prince and Princess Akishino, will take a break
from her studies at International Christian university
in Tokyo to spend a year abroad at the
university of edinburgh.
ć It was reported that Ri Sol-ju, the newly
unveiled wife of North Korean leader Kim
Jong Un, visited Fukuoka in 2002 to participate
in a uN-sponsored arts festival.
ć A JAL jet flying from Tokyo to New York was
forced to return to Narita—after getting all
the way to Alaska, no less—when some whackjob
phoned in a bomb threat demanding the
release of Aum Shinrikyo cult founder Chizuo
Matsumoto.
ć Officials in Osaka suspect the same person
posted a message on the municipal government
website threatening “to indiscriminately run
over people with a truck and randomly stab
people... before committing suicide.”
WhaT’s The Japanese for
“aclu?”
ć An advisory panel with the Central Disaster
prevention Council recommended that “the
movements and personal rights of the public
should be restricted to maintain order in case
of a major disaster.”
stats
ć Japan’s “vote-value gap”—the discrepancy
in the population of representative electoral
districts—is getting wider. The biggest gap is
between the Chiba No. 4 district (population
602,996) and Kochi No. 3 (242,976).
ć Troops from the ground Self-Defense Forces
joined US Marines for exercises on Tinian
and guam. The drills are intended to “improve
defense capabilities on remote islands.”
ć Scientists at Fujitsu and Nagoya university have
teamed up on a system that can automatically
detect phone scams. potential victims will be
warned via “a synthesized voice message.”
governMenT in acTion
ć The Fair Trade Commission scolded three
wholesalers for selling booze below market
value to the Aeon supermarket chain.
ć The DpJ and LDp both say they want to amend
the Industrial Safety and Health Act to include
a recommendation that businesses provide
smoke-free environments for their employees.
The two parties stopped short of making the
plan mandatory, though.
ć In an effort to “correct the gap between the pub-
lic and private sectors,” government officials will
cut the retirement benefits of civil servants by
¥4 million.
ć The upper house of the Diet passed a bill set-
ting forth the terms for municipalities to collect
small electronics items for recycling “rare metals
and other resources.”
froM The Business pages
ć Officials at Sumitomo announced a $2 billion
deal with a uS company to develop an oil field
in the permian Basin in Texas. The area is said to
have “the largest proven oil reserves in North
America... by far exceeding those of Alaska and
the gulf of Mexico.”
ć The company also said it wants to set up a new
TV shopping network in Thailand that would
offer viewers “jewelry, cosmetics, electric appliances
and other high-end products.”
ć Mitsubishi says labor unrest at coal mines in
Australia is largely to blame for a big drop in its
second quarter profits. The company operates
seven mines in Australia in a partnership with
BHp Billiton.
ć Among 47 joint environmental projects to be
undertaken by Japan and China are the development
of an electric car and the establishment
of a “smart city.”
anD The survey says...
ć According to the science ministry’s latest survey
of earthquake readiness, 84.8 percent of elementary-
and middle-school buildings around the
country would be able to withstand a quake
measuring 6 on the Japanese scale of seismic
intensity. That’s up 4.5 percentage points from
last year’s survey but still leaves some 3,500
schools at risk of collapse in a major quake.
ć A uS-based research firm predicts that China
will overtake Japan as the world’s second largest
market for ad spending (after the united
States), and that it will become the second largest
internet market the following year.
ć Analysts say the rise in popularity of carbonated
drinks aimed at adults—like Kirin Mets
Cola, Orangina and Schweppes British Lemon
Tonic—is due to “health-conscious men and
women in their 30s and 40s who are longing for
the good old days of their childhood.”
ć The Kashima Antlers defeated Universidad de
Chile in a penalty shootout in Ibaraki to win
the Suruga Bank Championship. The annual
contest matches the J-League champion against
the winners of the Copa Sudamericana.
suMMerTiMe Blues
ć The NpA says there’s been a 25 percent jump
in the number of fatal accidents on expressways
over the past year. This led an official to
conclude—quite reasonably, we’d say—that
“drivers have become less cautious about highspeed
driving.”
ć A 31-year-old Chinese man drowned while
swimming in Chuzenji Lake in Nikko. The lake
is a popular sightseeing spot, but swimming is
prohibited.
ć Toyota was forced to recall 780,000 vehicles
“to fix a defect that could allow rust to form in
the suspension to the point where parts break
off.” Yeah, you might want to take a look at that.
ć Bottom Story of the Week: “Japanese Ambassador
Sings for uS governor” (via Ap)
compiled from reports by Ap, Japan
Today, The Japan Times, Jiji, The Tokyo
Reporter, Japan Probe, The Mainichi,
Daily Yomiuri, AFp, Reuters and Kyodo
� 44.1 Percentage of south Koreans who have an unfavorable view of japan, according to a
gallup survey � 11.7 Percentage of south Koreans who have an unfavorable view of north Korea,
according to the same survey � 14 consecutive months that the Toyota Prius has been japan’s topselling
car � 50,000 Publications on display at the Kitakyushu city manga museum, which opened
to the public earlier this month
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This weeK’s required reAding, by reg dunlAP
miwA KAneoyA