Daily Japan Headlines: Monday, Sept 5, 2011
Photo Source: the Score.
Yahoo! Sports: Blue Jays scout Japan’s Yu Darvish: Is he worth $100 million?
Anthopoulos, the GM of the Toronto Blue Jays , recently returned from Japan where he scouted 25-year-old right-hander Yu Darvish, one of the best pitchers — if not the best — in the Nippon Professional Baseball league.
If Anthopoulos wants Darvish for the Blue Jays, he likely will be costly. Very costly. Maybe not quite Vernon Wells money, but probably at least $100 million. And perhaps half of it would go Darvish’s team in Japan — just for the right to negotiate.
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Wall Street Journal: With Challenges in Abundance, New Japan Leader Reaches Out
Public opinion polls released by all of the major Japanese newspapers over the weekend judging his middle-of-the-road approach showed that support for the new Cabinet is strong. A Kyodo News telephone survey of 1,014 people Friday and Saturday pegged support for the new Cabinet at 62.8%, with 18.1% saying they do not support it.
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Sacramento Bee: Typhoon kills 20 in Japan
The number of confirmed dead from Typhoon Talas rose to 20, after the weather system dumped record rainfall across Japan, local news reported Sunday.
About 50 people remain missing, the Kyodo News service reported, while flooding and mudslides reported in western Japan. The number of victims could rise, especially in the region of Kii peninsula, south of Osaka.
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Daily Mail: Eerie echoes of Chernobyl: Inside Fukushima’s nuclear ghost town abandoned by people fleeing the fallout
Haunting images taken in a town close to Japan’s stricken Fukushima nuclear plant have been released showing a community frozen in time.
The new set of photographs, taken in the town of Futaba 12 miles from the Fukushima plant, bear grim similarities to those taken in Pripyat, two miles from the Chernobyl power plant.
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Wall Street Journal: In One Japanese City, Hot Spots to Avoid
DATE, Japan—This sprawling city, 35 miles away from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi reactors, is leading the next phase of Japan’s struggles with radiation: deciding how to handle populations in contaminated communities where the level isn’t high enough to justify evacuation.
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ABC News: New Japan PM Gets Approval Rating of 63 Percent
Japan’s new Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and his Cabinet received an initial support rating of 62.8 percent, a Kyodo News agency poll showed Saturday, a day after he announced his Cabinet and promised to guide the nation through its disaster recovery.
New prime ministers typically start out with relatively high approval ratings, but usually see them decline steadily after an initial honeymoon as the public grows impatient.
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Wall Street Journal: New Leader in Tokyo Chooses Cabinet
Japan’s new prime minister, Yoshihiko Noda, chose a cabinet of relatively unknown lawmakers on Friday, but one that reflects his attempts to unify the party and court the opposition.
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Wall Street Journal: Noda’s Successor Sheds Light on Views
New Japanese Finance Minister Jun Azumi said he plans to submit plans for a third supplementary budget next month, and that he favors tax increases to fund the massive reconstruction needed in the tsunami-torn northeast.
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Hollywood Reporter: Japanese TV Host’s Resignation Shines Light on Showbiz Mob Ties
The sudden retirement of Shinsuke Shimada, one of Japanese TV’s biggest stars, on Aug. 24 after links to a boss in the largest yakuza gang were exposed is bringing attention to the long and deep ties between organized crime and showbiz.
‘Various parts of society have made active efforts to eradicate links with crime syndicates, but the entertainment world is yet to follow suit,”
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Washington Post: 2020 Olympics bids received from six cities
The United States isn’t submitting a bid for the 2020 Olympics but six other cities are: Rome; Madrid; Tokyo; Istanbul; Doha, Qatar; and Baku, Azerbaijan.
Rome hosted the 1960 Olympics, and Tokyo hosted the Games four years later. Tokyo, which finished third in the vote for the 2016 Games, wants this bid to be symbolic of Japan’s recovery from the March 11 tsunami that wreaked havoc on the country.
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LA Times: France and Japan hit by injuries ahead of rugby World Cup
France winger Alexis Palisson and Japan centre Yuta Imamura are likely to miss next week’s World Cup opener between the sides, their respective coaches said on Saturday.
Palisson picked up a thigh injury in training on Friday, while the 26-year-old Imamura sustained an ankle injury in Japan’s final World Cup warm-up against the U.S. last month and will not be rushed back into action.
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