110627

Japan's AKB48 cafe opens in Singapore

by AsiaOne

The world's first official AKB48 Cafe opened yesterday at SCAPE, along Orchard Road. Started in 2005, AKB48 is one of Japan's top female idol pop groups, with their own theatre performance in Akihabara, Tokyo. The soft-launch yesterday saw three members of the group - Maria Abe, Haruka Shimazaki and Miyu Takeuchi - attending the event, where they met with fans and gave out souvenirs. The cafe in Singapore, which can seat 60, has been designed to replicate AKB48's very own theatre in Japan, where girls with potential to become next-generation idols are given a chance to audition. (AsiaOne)

Lady Gaga sued over Japan relief bracelet proceeds

by nbcdfw.com

1 person liked this

Just before she headlined Saturday night's Japan disaster relief benefit concert, Lady Gaga was sued over the bracelets she's been selling for the same cause. According to the federal class action, the do-gooder pop star wasn't exactly being honest when her Web site claimed all the proceeds from sales of her "We Pray for Japan" wristbands would go to help victims of the March earthquake and tsunami. A Detroit-era legal network said in its complaint, filed Friday, that Gaga kept part of the $5 that every customer paid for a wristband and inflated shipping charges so she could pocket more. She then counted even the money she allegedly pocketed in her donation figures, artificially inflating donation numbers, in order to make more money, the suit charged. (nbcdfw.com)

110627

Japan's Hiraizumi decided as World Heritage site

Kyodo

The Buddhist temples and landscape in the ancient town of Hiraizumi, Iwate Prefecture, in northeastern Japan, have won approval as a World Heritage cultural site at an ongoing UNESCO meeting in Paris, Japanese government officials said Saturday. Hiraizumi becomes Japan's 12th World Heritage cultural site, according to the decision by the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's World Heritage Committee, and follows endorsement of the Ogasawara island chain in the Pacific south of Tokyo as the country's fourth natural heritage site. (Kyodo)

Tokyo, old and new

Japan Times

The bridge at Nihonbashi, a symbol of old Tokyo, has had a hard time in the modern age. A bridge was first built there in 1603, the first year of the shogunate in Edo, and the present stone bridge in the Meiji Era, in 1911. Still bearing the marks of the wartime firebombing of Tokyo by American forces in 1945, it is overshadowed by an expressway built directly overhead for the Tokyo Olympics of 1964 and by later high-rise buildings. In April, the 100th anniversary of the bridge was lost in the aftermath of the March 11 disaster. The new symbol of Tokyo, the Sky Tree tower, seems to be faring better. Although suffering a delay of two months due to disaster-related shortages, it will open not too long after schedule, in May of next year. (Japan Times)

110625

Japan Inc balks at staying put amid quake, power risks

by Reuters

The threat of more quakes, power shortages and loss of clientele is forcing Japanese firms to shift more production, much of it offshore and with a new sense of urgency. Big manufacturers, hurting after the March 11 earthquake, tsunami and subsequent nuclear crisis wreaked havoc with the supply of parts, are demanding that suppliers diversify output facilities, especially those with key technologies. "If you are the only supplier for any particular good, we're going to ask you to have at least two production plants and not in the same area," Nissan Motor Co Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said at the Reuters Rebuilding Japan Summit this week. (Reuters)

Sunflowers to clean radioactive soil in Japan

by khaleejtimes.com

Campaigners in Japan are asking people to grow sunflowers, said to help decontaminate radioactive soil, in response to the Fukushima nuclear disaster that followed March's quake. Volunteers are being asked to grow sunflowers this year, then send the seeds to the stricken area where they will be planted next year to help get rid of radioactive contaminants in the plant's fallout zone. The campaign, launched by young entrepreneurs and civil servants in Fukushima prefecture last month, aims to cover large areas in yellow blossoms as a symbol of hope and reconstruction and to lure back tourists. (khaleejtimes.com)

110624

Lady Gaga on Japan: It's safe, food's great

by AP

Lady Gaga says that if you want to help Japan recover from its tsunami disaster, come visit. The flamboyant pop star, in Tokyo this week for a benefit concert for tsunami victims, said Thursday in an interview with The Associated Press that she's making a point to get out and enjoy the city and its food, and that her fans should do the same thing. "I can't say enough to people all over the world that the majority of Japan right now, Japan in general, is very safe," she said. "It's fine to come here. It's beautiful." (AP)

Okinawa marks 66th anniversary of WWII battle

by Kyodo

Okinawa Prefecture on Thursday marked the 66th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Okinawa that killed more than 200,000 people in the closing days of World War II. During a memorial ceremony attended by Prime Minister Naoto Kan, Gov. Hirokazu Nakaima reiterated his calls on the Japanese and U.S. governments to reduce U.S. bases in Okinawa to lessen the burden on local residents and to "relocate the dangerous Futenma Air Station outside of the prefecture with no further delay." After almost 40 years since its return to Japan in 1972 following postwar U.S. occupation, the small island prefecture still hosts about 75 percent of all U.S. military facilities in Japan in terms of land area. 

110623

Tokyo, the megacity that works

by AFP

On a satellite image of the Earth at night, there is no brighter spot. Greater Tokyo, home to an astonishing 35 million people, is by far the biggest urban area on the planet. The most amazing thing about it, say its many fans, is that it works. Although Tokyo dwarfs the other top megacities of Mumbai, Mexico City, Sao Paulo and New York, it has less air pollution, noise, traffic jams, litter or crime, lots of green space and a humming public transport system. American writer Donald Richie, who first came to Tokyo in 1947 and recently published the coffee table book "Tokyo Megacity", has dubbed Japan's massive capital and primary city the "livable megalopolis". Many visitors marvel at the politeness and civility that, along with the nation's wealth, have helped Tokyo avoid the pitfalls of other big cities that have become polluted, noisy and dangerous urban nightmares. Amid the neon-lit street canyons, thoroughfares for millions every day, small shrines and quaint neighbourhoods survive as oases of tranquility, largely shielded from blights such as graffiti and vandalism. (AFP)

Japan's crown prince thanks German president for quake assistance

by Kyodo

Crown Prince Naruhito paid a courtesy call on German President Christian Wulff in Berlin on Wednesday, conveying his appreciation for Germany's relief assistance in the wake of the March earthquake and tsunami. "I offer my gratitude for the various kinds of assistance, including the dispatch of a rescue team, and condolences expressed by Germany," the crown prince was quoted by Japan's Imperial Household Agency as telling Wulff at the president's office. (Kyodo)

110622

London to Tokyo in two hours

by Daily Mail

It will take only two hours to fly from London to Tokyo, be virtually pollution free, and promises to be no louder than today's modern planes. There's only one catch for prospective commuters - it will be another 40 years before commercial flights take place. Plans were unveiled this week for the first hypersonic passenger jet, which would use three sets of engines to reach 3,125mph, more than four times the speed of sound, known as Mach 4. Hailed as the heir to Concorde, the aircraft would be propelled by a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen, meaning its only emissions would be water. (Daily Mail)

Vital water treatment system halts

by Japan Times

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Tuesday that a pump on its new radioactive water treatment system at the Fukushima No. 1 plant halted automatically during an early morning trial run, freezing up the entire apparatus. Tepco said it believes the pump, a component developed by France's Areva SA to inject chemicals into the key system to decontaminate radioactive materials, stopped because it was overburdened by excessive liquid flow. Tepco said it restarted the trial run in the afternoon after adjusting the liquid flow. Smooth operation of the treatment system, which is designed to remove highly radioactive materials from the massive amount of water accumulating at the power station, is essential to containing the crisis; Tepco plans to eventually recycle the water to cool the plant's damaged reactors. (Japan Times)