Japan Times: News & Business

NEW YORK — The withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq in what is euphemistically called the end of the Iraq war portends anything but the end of the conflict.
The consequences of the war will be felt for many years to come. Former President George W. Bush and his advisers are to blame for engaging in a war that has ravaged Iraq and cost the United States not only economically but also the lives and well-being of hundreds of thousands of its soldiers.

Campaigning officially kicked off Wednesday for the Sept. 14 Democratic Party of Japan presidential election, with Prime Minister Naoto Kan trying to keep the helm and DPJ kingpin Ichiro Ozawa seeking to wrest it from him.
The two faced reporters at the New Otani hotel in Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward and laid down their goals and fielded questions, with Kan, who unlike his rival is not dogged by scandal, underscoring that the poll winner would be prime minister.

Animal rights activist Ric O'Barry, who starred in the Oscar-winning documentary "The Cove," stressed Wednesday in Tokyo he will use peaceful methods to press Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, to stop its annual dolphin slaughter.
The port's annual hunt started the same day.

Democratic Party of Japan President and Prime Minister Naoto Kan, a civil-activist-turned-politician, is known for his sharp remarks in parliamentary debates.
He only assumed the party presidency in early June, following the sudden resignation of his predecessor, Yukio Hatoyama.

OSAKA (Kyodo) A 58-year-old woman is suspected of keeping her father's decomposed body inside a closet in their house in Izumi, Osaka Prefecture, for five years after his death and drawing off his pension, police said Wednesday.
After the body of a man believed to be Asakichi Miyata — who would be 91 if alive — was found in the house, the woman claimed her father was dead when she came home one day five years ago and she put his corpse in the closet afterward, they said.

AOMORI (Kyodo) Japan Nuclear Fuel Ltd. is making arrangements to postpone by roughly two years the completion of a spent nuclear fuel reprocessing plant in the village of Rokkasho, Aomori Prefecture, due to a series of troubles during test operations, sources said Wednesday.
The plant, designed to extract uranium and plutonium from the nuclear fuel spent at power plants in the country, has been in the stage of what the operator calls the Final Commissioning Test and its construction is currently expected to be completed in October.

The average temperature in Japan between June and August was the highest since records began in 1898, breaking the previous record set in 1994 and exceeding the average between 1971 and 2000 by 1.64 degrees, the Meteorological Agency said Wednesday.
Average temperatures at 61 of the nation's 154 meteorological observatories, including those in Tokyo, Sapporo and Sendai, set or equaled record highs in the three-month period.

Visiting Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero tried Wednesday to allay investor concerns over his country's fiscal health, saying his government has been implementing austerity measures and various structural reforms to secure economic growth.
Zapatero, who kicked off his three-day Japan visit Tuesday, told the Japan National Press Club that Spain aims to reduce its fiscal deficit, which amounted to about 11.2 percent of its gross domestic product in 2009, to 6 percent in 2011 and 3 percent in 2013 through cuts in civil servant wages, tax hikes and pension reforms.

Einoshin Arima and Giselle Leung, former proprietary traders at Mizuho Securities Co., raised about $120 million for a new hedge fund that will bet on rising and falling stocks, mostly in Japan.
The Hareion Fund will start with money from institutional investors in Asia, according to Arima, the founder of Hong Kong-based Areion Asset Management Co. The fund, which is able to take up about $300 million, won't accept additional money for a while to build up performance, he said.

Now that Ichiro Ozawa has made it official and will run for president of the Democratic Party of Japan, a key question is whether he can be indicted over his alleged financial illegalities should he win and become prime minister.
Ozawa is facing an automatic indictment if an official judicial review panel, called the Committee for the Inquest of Prosecution, concludes for the second time that he should be charged with falsifying his political fund records. The long-running scandal has already seen three of Ozawa's former aides indicted.

Democratic Party of Japan kingpin Ichiro Ozawa has been at the center of politics for decades and earned a not-so-pleasant reputation as a backroom fixer who skillfully maneuvers politics in turbulent times.
Ozawa was DPJ president before stepping down in spring 2009 over a funds scandal. He was replaced by Hatoyama, who went on to become prime minister last September.

Police turned over to prosecutors Wednesday their case against a 21-year-old man who walked naked on a street in Yokohama last month and a 22-year-old woman who ordered him to do so, alleging they committed acts of public indecency.
The unemployed man was arrested while walking naked near the JR Yokohama Line's Tokaichiba Station in Midori Ward for about 15 minutes from around midnight Aug. 19, a Yokohama police officer told The Japan Times.

Japan "is ripe" for more mergers and acquisitions as companies have ample cash and the level of takeover activity is lower than it should be, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
Japanese companies should consolidate in industries where there is excessive competition, and be more aggressive in making acquisitions in Asia, where the long-term growth potential is high, Kathy Matsui, chief strategist for Goldman in Japan, said Wednesday.

The Children's International Speech Contest, held Saturday in Tokyo, was unique in that its participants also experienced beforehand various programs promoting cross-cultural understanding.
In the event's second year, 39 children from elementary schools introduced themselves in English and delivered speeches on their assigned countries in either Japanese or English.

Sales of new cars, trucks and buses soared 46.7 percent in August from a year earlier to 290,789 units for the 13th straight monthly increase, an industry group said Wednesday.
Analysts attributed the rise to a rush for fuel-efficient vehicles before the government pulls the plug on subsidies at the end of this month.

The London Underground began using in August Mitsubishi Electric Corp. air conditioners, the first such equipment to be installed in the world's oldest subway system, according to company officials.
In a deal worth about ¥3.3 billion, Mitsubishi will deliver 1,402 air conditioners for passenger rail cars and 380 for the driver's compartment by 2015 as well as provide maintenance services through 2018 for the system serving the British capital and its vicinity.

SAPPORO (Kyodo) Fuel oil from a tank at Otaru Aquarium in Otaru, Hokkaido, spilled into the nearby port early Wednesday, the aquarium said.
The spilled oil, used to warm water for tropical fish aquariums, could reach up to 2,000 liters, and has spread to a 500-meter radius covering the surface, according to the aquarium and the local coast guard.

The general-account budget for fiscal 2011 on a request basis reached a record-high ¥96.75 trillion due to swelling debt-servicing and social security costs, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday.
The amount eclipsed the previous high of ¥95.04 trillion sought for fiscal 2010 through next March 31, leaving the government with the daunting task of trimming the bloated requests in the course of drafting the budget under severe fiscal constraints.

Japan Airlines Corp. and its bankruptcy administrator, the state-backed Enterprise Turnaround Initiative Corp. of Japan, submitted a rehabilitation plan to the Tokyo District Court on Tuesday. This marks the start of JAL's full-scale efforts to reconstruct itself.
But the environment surrounding the airline is severe, including the dim world economic outlook. Both management and labor of the airline must do their best to build a company that can turn a profit consistently while giving priority to flight safety.

The Japanese and U.S. governments on Tuesday disclosed details of a technical report on a replacement facility for U.S. Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, now set in a crowded residential area of Ginowan in the central part of Okinawa Island. A 2006 Japan-U.S. accord called for building two, V-shaped runways at Camp Schwab in Henoko, a less densely populated area in Nago in the northern part of the island, and in adjacent waters. The report presents two options — either V-shaped runways or a single runway. Under either plan the runway portion would be 1,800 meters.
It was the Japanese government that included the single runway plan, which would reclaim some 40 hectares less, or 25 percent less sea area than the V-shaped option, and have a smaller impact on the local marine environment — a habitat for dugongs — in order to appease Okinawan people over the relocation of the Futenma functions. But as long as the new facility is built within Okinawa Prefecture, local opposition is not likely to wane.