Daily Japan Headlines: Saturday, Aug 20, 2011
Photo Source: Fox Sports.
The Independent: Teenage girl motorcycle daredevil wows Japan
At age 19, Sato last month won her first “Auto Race” contest, where riders speed around an asphalt circuit, sparks flying off their steel-capped boots, at up to 150 kilometres per hour on bikes without brakes.
The newcomer’s victory has made Sato – the first woman to join the sport in 44 years – the bright new hope for revitalising Japan’s version of speedway racing, where audiences place bets and riders compete for prize money.
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AFP: Disaster-hit Japan faces leadership change
The revolving door to the Japan prime minister’s residence is likely to spin again before the end of this month as Naoto Kan bows out to make way for the country’s sixth new leader in five years.
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ABC News: Aftershocks continue to hit Japan
Japan’s meteorological agency says it has recorded 16,000 earthquakes above magnitude-3.0 since the massive quake that devastated the country in March.
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NPR: In Japan, Restoring Photos For Tsunami Victims
Last March’s tsunami devastated the coast here. If people didn’t lose their lives, they lost practically everything else — except, it turns out, many of their photos. Survivors found countless pictures strewn amid the mud and wreckage, many badly damaged by water.
Over the past several months, All Hands Volunteers, a Massachusetts-based, nonprofit, has done everything from repairing homes to cleaning drainage ditches along the coast. The organization has also hand-cleaned more than 55,000 photos. In some cases, professionals from around the globe have even restored images digitally.
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UPI: Japan makes shift from nuclear power
A Japanese government estimate put the price tag at $39 billion in added energy costs as the country reacts to this spring’s nuclear power plant disaster.
The partial meltdown of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, which was triggered by the earthquake-generated tsunami in March, has prompted Japan to shut down 39 nuclear power plants, leaving only 15 still in operation, The New York Times reported Saturday.
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Sydney Morning Herald: Japan needs to emancipate itself from generations of ideological stagnation
Is Tokyo looking anew at how to open its economy and create growth via freer trade? Nope. Is it moving to address an ageing population by better using its female workforce or welcoming more immigrants? Of course not. Are legislators looking for ways to inspire growth with more innovative tax policies? Hardly. Are regulators strengthening corporate governance to create a more robust stockmarket? Definitely not.
There is still no serious discussion of an alternative to adding to a debt that is more than twice the size of the economy.
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New York Times: Japan Looks at Raising Fuel Economy
Japan is looking to join the United States and Europe in adopting standards that set fuel economy targets averaged across a carmaker’s entire fleet. The draft guideline calls for an improvement of 24.1 percent in the average mileage of passenger cars in Japan to 20.3 km/liter (47.75 miles per gallon) in 2020, against 16.3 km/liter (38.34 m.p.g.) measured in 2009, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry said.
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Stars and Stripes: Military installs two high-powered radiation detectors in Japan
The U.S. military can now do in-depth radiation testing and analysis in Japan, though officials say the new capability is only precautionary.
Two high-powered detectors recently installed at the Army public health laboratory at Camp Zama can provide advanced radiation analysis and eliminate the need to send samples to the U.S., officials said.
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Sydeney Morning Herald: A place to let off steam
Ise has recently gained a cachet among the Japanese as one of the main “power spots” in their archipelago where spiritual strength can be tapped and as a result visitor numbers shot up from the usual 5 million a year to 8.8 million last year. Yet it seems uncrowded. Local visitors don’t seem to mind foreigners performing the simple ablutions of washing hands and rinsing the mouth from a bamboo dipper before approaching the shrines, bowing twice and clapping to draw the attention of the gods to your prayer.
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LA Times: A South Korean’s unwanted war legacy from Japan
He always considered his Japanese enslavement, and the two years he later spent as a U.S. prisoner of war, as a lifelong humiliation. Then, in 2005, Kim received a new insult he insists he still cannot bear: For decades, the former conscript learned, he has been counted among Japan’s war dead and, because of an administrative error, his name is listed at Tokyo’s controversial Yasukuni shrine. He could no longer remain silent.
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Baltimore Sun: Japan will face Kentucky in title game of Ripken World Series Sunday
Japan and Lexington will meet Sunday for the 2011 World Championship in the tournament for 11 and 12 year-olds played on 70-foot diamonds under the auspices of Babe Ruth Baseball.
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Soompi.com: “K-Pop All Star Live in Niigata” Meets the Press
Twelve of K-Pop’s biggest and brightest groups headed over to Japan on August 20th to perform at MBC’s “K-Pop All Star Live in Niigata.” The event, hosted by SNSD’s Sooyoung, Tiffany and Yuri, featured performances by 2AM, 2PM, 4Minute, BEAST, CN Blue, Infinite, Kara, Norazo, Secret, Sistar, SNSD and Teen Top.
The concert is held in support of reconstruction efforts for those who were adversely affected by the March earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan.
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