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The United States and Japan are poised to strike a deal that will remove one of the most widely reviled distortions in global rice markets and could send prices plummeting in the coming weeks. The move, which will flood the market with an estimated 1.5 million tonnes of high-grade American rice that is sitting in Japanese silos, comes amid continuing rice export restrictions by some of the world's biggest suppliers and rioting in countries where the population cannot afford the price increases. American farmers supply Japan with large quantities of high-grade rice, much of which languishes in silos or becomes...

A significant number of West Virginians (and some others in America) evidently take the view that U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Hussein Obama is a Muslim. In a surpassingly depressing report from the coal-miner state on the eve of Tuesday's West Virginia primary, The Los Angeles Times noted voter views that go like this: "We do not need a Muslim to lead the good ole USA." It would not necessarily be so horrible if this well-spoken senator from Illinois were in fact Muslim. It turns out that most Muslims, like those in the country with the world's most Muslims (Indonesia),...

The Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office (DPMO) announced today that a small team of Japanese and U.S. specialists is visiting Attu Island, Alaska, in search of burial locations of the Japanese soldiers who are still missing from a 1943 World War II battle there. The Department of Defense, the U.S. Coast Guard and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are supporting a team of three Japanese and 11 Americans. The team departed from Kodiak today via a C-130 on a flight to the U.S. Coast Guard Station on Attu Island. Some engineering equipment will be flown to Eareckson AFS on a...

Fascism Was Anti-Religious Too Bethany Stotts, May 13, 2008 In our age of moral relativity, leaders like George W. Bush and Tony Blair have been cast as modern Adolph Hitlers—a practice which trivializes the “moral collapse” perpetuated by the Third Reich. Weekly Standard contributor David Gelernter, in contrast, is intent on magnifying these moral differences. Claiming inspiration from T.S. Eliot’s characterization of WWII as a choice between “Christianity” or “paganism,” the Yale professor said at the American Enterprise Institute that “The thesis I want to investigate, one that involves such a daunting tangle of complex issues and demands so many...

TOKYO — Japan will strengthen monitoring of speculative money in cooperation with the International Energy Agency based on the recognition that the movement of money from hedge funds contributes to escalating crude oil prices, government sources said Saturday, in accordance with the outline of the government’s annual white paper on energy for fiscal 2007. The Japanese government also plans to take up the issue of speculative money in crude oil markets at the upcoming Group of Eight summit in Hokkaido in July, the sources said. The government wants to improve statistics about crude oil trading by cooperating with the IEA...

Japan to scrap space weapon rules Japan has already developed an advanced space programme Japanese MPs have backed plans to scrap rules restricting the use of military technology in space. Lawmakers say Japan still opposes putting weapons into space, but claim the rules drawn up in 1969 have stifled innovation by Japanese firms. Some supporters of the bill say it could open the way to Japan launching spy satellites. Tokyo was alarmed last year when China conducted a test and shot down one of its own weather satellites. The bill is backed by government and opposition MPs, making it...

After 40 years of unwavering official pacifism Japan is poised to overturn its ban on the militarisation of space. Within the next month, the nation whose constitution renounces the use of force in settling international disputes will be allowed formally to direct its massive industrial and scientific communities to what it now calls the challenges of “changing global security situations”. The officially sanctioned use of space for military purposes will build on Japan’s longstanding civil space programme, which is regularly accused by Japanese peace activists and foreign governments of including military elements. It is an open secret that since the...

CALGARY - Ten years after establishing an in-situ oilsands demonstration plant, Japan Canada Oil Sands Ltd. (Jacos) signalled today it is ready for commercial production. Prompted by surging oil prices and results from a seismic and delineation program over the last two winters, the company said it will increase production at its Hangingstone project by 2014 by up to 35,000 barrels per day over the current 8,000 bpd. "Today's oil price encourages us to look at oilsands development," said executive vice-president Yukio Kishigami, adding more assessment is planned for next winter. Jacos is the operator of the project, which it...

The National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg will celebrate a groundbreaking ceremony for its new, 40,000-square-foot expansion at 11 a.m. Friday. Gov. Rick Perry will be on hand as the keynote speaker, and master of ceremonies will be retired Gen. Michael Hagee. John Nau, chairman of the Texas Historical Commission; State Rep. Harvey Hilderbran; and John Kerr, president of the Admiral Nimitz Foundation, also will speak. The groundbreaking will be followed by a celebratory Texas barbecue at noon. “The new expansion will be added directly to the back of the George H.W. Bush Gallery,” said director of marketing...

TOKYO — Japan celebrated a national holiday on Monday in honor of its children. But Children's Day might just as easily have been a national day of mourning. For this is the land of a slow-motion demographic catastrophe that is without precedent in the developed world. The number of children has declined for 27 consecutive years, a government report said over the weekend. Japan now has fewer children who are 14 or younger than at any time since 1908. The proportion of children in the population fell to an all-time low of 13.5 percent. That number has been falling for...

Just a few minutes ago I think...

Japan celebrated a national holiday on Monday in honor of its children. But Children's Day might just as easily have been a national day of mourning. For this is the land of disappearing children and a slow-motion demographic catastrophe that is without precedent in the developed world. The number of children has declined for 27 consecutive years, a government report said over the weekend. Japan now has fewer children who are 14 or younger than at any time since 1908. The proportion of children in the population fell to an all-time low of 13.5 percent. That number has been falling...

Despite poor weather early on, the public flocked to see airplanes and eat food at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni’s annual Friendship Day on Monday. The event is a rare opportunity for Japanese citizens to visit the base, view military and civilian aircraft and see exhibition flights. This year, about 200,000 attended the day-long event, according to the provost marshal’s office. There was some morning sprinkles but the weather began to break around lunchtime, said Iwakuni spokesman Lance Cpl. Noah Leffler. Gates opened at 5 a.m. for the event and the weather was overcast. But by noon, about 93,000 people...

MADRID (Kyodo) The finance ministers of Japan, China and South Korea agreed Sunday to create a new framework by the end of the year to promote financial stability in Asia, recognizing the current financial market turbulence as a major risk to the regional economy. In a joint message issued after they met in Madrid, the three ministers said, "The current international financial market turbulence is one of the main risks to the economies, and the interdependence in terms of both financial transactions and trade of goods and services is steadily increasing in the Asian region." Against this backdrop, they said...

(SHIMONOSEKI, Japan) — Poison has been as integral to fugu, the funny-looking, potentially deadly puffer fish prized by Japanese gourmands, as the savor of its pricey meat. So consider fugu, but poison-free. Thanks to advances in fugu research and farming, Japanese fish farmers are now mass-producing fugu as harmless as goldfish. Most important, they have taken the poison out of fugu’s liver, considered both its most delicious and potentially most lethal part, one whose consumption has left countless Japanese dead over the centuries and whose sale remains illegal in the country. But what could be seen as potential good news...

TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese civil servant was demoted for logging more than 780,000 hits on pornographic Web sites on his office computer over nine months, an official said Friday. The man, a Kinokawa city government employee in western Japan, visited porn sites from June 2007 to February 2008, city official Tomiko Waki said. The man's name was withheld. City officials said the number of hits discovered on his computer's internal log was so high in part because one click on certain types of pornographic sites registers multiple hits. Despite his frequent porn viewing, none of his colleagues noticed his...

SHIRAKAWA, Japan -- When it comes to rice, Japan inhabits a strange and faraway planet. Consumption of rice has been falling for nearly half a century, yet rice paddies still account for 60 percent of all farmland. Rice farms here are inefficient and tiny -- about 4,000 times smaller, on average, than rice farms in Australia. Yet Japan's harvest vastly exceeds domestic demand. But what's truly otherworldly about this country's rice is its price -- especially in a year when the cost of Asia's staple food crop has exploded, causing hoarding, riots and hunger. The price of rice on international...

TOKYO, April 30 (AP) - (Kyodo)—Ling Ling, a male giant panda at Tokyo's Ueno Zoo, died early Wednesday morning, zoo officials said. He was 22 years and seven months old, equivalent to about 70 human years. Since the cause of his death is unknown, the zoo will conduct an autopsy on the panda, the officials said. Ling Ling, born in Beijing Zoo in China in 1985, was the only giant panda in Japan who belonged to Japan. He was given to Ueno Zoo in 1992 in exchange for a Japan-born panda to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the normalization of...

Methamidophos pesticide has been detected inside a package of Chinese-made frozen “gyoza” dumplings—the second time that the pesticide has been detected in a product with packaging showing no holes or damage, the Hyogo prefectural police announced Monday. The National Police Agency believes that the organophosphate pesticide entered the package in China and has notified the Chinese government of the finding. Police believe that the latest incident reinforces their theory that methamidophos entered the products in China before they were sealed.

Japanese Royal Tomb Opened to Scholars for First TimeTony McNicol in Tokyo for National Geographic NewsApril 28, 2008 A rare visit by archaeologists to a fifth-century imperial tomb offers hope that other closely guarded graves in Japan might soon be open to independent study. This month a group of 16 experts led by the Japanese Archaeological Association released results from their February visit inside Gosashi tomb. The event marked the first time that scholars had been allowed inside a royal tomb outside of an official excavation led by Japan's Imperial Household Agency. Archaeologists have been requesting access to Gosashi tomb...

The Japan leg of the Beijing Olympic torch relay ended Saturday in Nagano passing along a route lined with protesters against China’s crackdown in Tibet, leaving five men arrested and four men injured. The last runner, Athens Olympics women’s marathon gold medalist Mizuki Noguchi, reached the goal where more than 1,000 protesters and supporters were gathered in pouring rain, some waving Tibetan or Chinese flags. While five men were arrested and four men were injured along the relay route, the torch passed from one runner to another without major disruptions as dozens of police officers ran abreast. The relay finished...

TOKYO, April 23 (KUNA) -- Ayman Al-Zawahri, Al-Qaida's second man and deputy of Osama bin Laden, has vowed to punish Western countries that participated in the Iraq war, hinting that Japan could be a target, Kyodo News Agency reported Wednesday. Al-Zawahri was answering Kyodo News' questions along with hundreds of other questions submitted by Al-Qaida followers, critics, and journalists for more than a month on major Islamic websites used by Islamic militants. A 2-hour-and-36-minute audiotape of answers surfaced Tuesday on militant websites, the agency said, adding that the message is one of two lengthy audiotapes by Al-Zawahri answering questions posted...

Oil prices spiked to a record $117.40 a barrel after a Japanese oil tanker was hit by a rocket near Yemen and militants in Nigeria claimed two attacks on pipelines. The 150,000-ton tanker Takayama was attacked about 270 miles off the east coast Yemen coast in the Gulf of Aden while it was heading for Saudi Arabia, its Japanese operator, Nippon Yusen K.K., said in a statement. None of the ship's 23 crew members was injured. Hundreds of gallons of fuel leaked before a 1-inch hole in the tanker's stern was repaired, the company said. Kyodo News agency reported that...

Oil prices have spiked to a record of $117.40 a barrel after a Japanese oil tanker was attacked in the Middle East, off the east coast of Yemen.

The haunting discovery of the watery graves of long lost Australian, German and Japanese sailors has uncovered vital clues to two World War II mysteries. The 66-year-old secrets of two of Australia's strangest wartime naval encounters have been at least partially revealed through the location of three sunken ships over the past 18 months. In November 2006, a Japanese midget submarine involved in a daring raid on Sydney harbour in the heart of the nation's biggest city was found off the beach of the Pacific east coast. The sub is believed to be the tomb of its two-man crew, who...

MOTEGI, Japan (AP) -- Danica Patrick became the first female winner in IndyCar history on Sunday, taking the Indy Japan 300 after the top contenders were forced to pit for fuel in the final laps. Danica Patrick shows off her trophy after winning the Indy Japan 300 in Motegi, Japan, Sunday. 1 of 3 Patrick finished 5.8594 seconds ahead of pole-sitter Helio Castroneves on the 1.5-mile Twin Ring Motegi oval after leader Scott Dixon pitted with five laps left and Dan Wheldon and Tony Kanaan came in a lap later. "It's a long time coming. Finally," Patrick said. "It was...

Danica Patrick used a fuel gamble to take a historic victory in the delayed Motegi round of the IRL IndyCar Series. The Andretti Green Racing driver took the lead with just two laps to go as the rest of the front-runners had to pit for fuel and became the first woman to win a major American open-wheel race. Patrick had run towards the foot of the top ten for most of the race, as Ganassi's Scott Dixon and Penske's Helio Castroneves dominated the event. But AGR's decision to bring Patrick in for an additional fuel top-up at the end of...

Danica Patrick used a fuel gamble to take a historic victory in the delayed Motegi round of the IRL IndyCar Series. The Andretti Green Racing driver took the lead with just two laps to go as the rest of the front-runners had to pit for fuel and became the first woman to win a major American open-wheel race. Patrick had run towards the foot of the top ten for most of the race, as Ganassi's Scott Dixon and Penske's Helio Castroneves dominated the event. But AGR's decision to bring Patrick in for an additional fuel top-up at the end of...

(TOKYO) — A major Japanese Buddhist temple withdrew Friday from a plan to host the Beijing Olympics torch relay, citing safety concerns and sympathy among its monks and worshippers for Tibetan protesters facing a Chinese crackdown. Zenkoji Temple has refused to serve as the starting point for the April 26 relay, said Kunihiko Shinohara, secretary-general of the Nagano city organizing committee for the event. The relay has drawn protests around the world against China's crackdown on Tibetan demonstrators. "We respect the temple's decision. This means the starting point will change," he said after he met with Zenkoji monks. Another city...

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan will not allow the squad of Chinese flame guards to intervene with the Beijing Olympic torch's progress when it arrives in a Japanese city this month, the national police head was quoted as saying on Friday. "We should not violate the principle that the Japanese police will firmly maintain security," Kyodo news agency quoted Shinya Izumi, head of the National Public Safety Commission, as saying. "We do not know what position the people who escorted the relay are in," Izumi was quoted as saying. "If they are for the consideration of security, it is our role."...

Four death row prisoners have been executed in Japan, the authorities have announced. The four inmates, aged between 41 and 64, were hanged at separate locations in Japan, the justice ministry said. Japan, one of the few industrialised countries to retain the death penalty, appears to be stepping up the pace of prisoner executions. Three capital sentences were carried out in February, as well as nine executions in 2007. Human rights groups are critical of the secrecy surrounding executions in Japan. Relatives are told only after the hangings have taken place and, until December 2007, the names of those executed...

CHINESE IN REVOLT BEHIND FOES’ LINES Guards of the Puppet Regime in Shantung Attempt to Seize Tsinan, the Capital MORE INVADERS CUT OFF Forces in Taierhchwang Area Reported to Be Running Short of Food and Ammunition By F. TILLMAN DURDINWireless to THE NEW YORK TIMES. HANKOW, China, Sunday, April 10. – Japanese and Chinese are fighting in widespread suburbs of Tsinan, the capital of Shantung, following a revolt yesterday by two battalions of Chinese who had surrendered when the invaders occupied the city. The Chinese had been reorganized under the puppet Governor, Ma Liang, and had been used to maintain...

Europe votes Democrat, but Asia tends Republican. That’s the headline from the fastest-growing part of the world where, as throughout a shrinking globe, the U.S. election is arousing passionate interest. Many a Shanghai dumpling gets slurped to the accompaniment of chat about superdelegates. Eric John, the U.S. ambassador to Thailand, told me the campaign was “the best public diplomacy tool I’ve had in a long time.”

Japan to plant coral island in the Pacific By Julian Ryall in Tokyo Last Updated: 12:01am BST 10/04/2008 Japanese scientists will attempt to "grow" an island in the Pacific Ocean to maintain its fishing territory. Up to 50,000 shards of coral will be transplanted into the waters around Okinotorishima, two stone outcrops 1,000 miles south of Tokyo, in an effort to stop them sinking. The outcrops sit just 4in above water at high tide. If they disappear, Japan's maritime territory will shrink dramatically. addition, rights to oil, minerals and gas beneath the seabed could be lost. However, the £3.6 million...

CHICAGO (AP) — The Boeing Co. has announced another delay involving its 787 jetliner, pushing back its expected debut in commercial service to the third quarter of 2009. It's the fourth time Boeing has had to revise the schedule for the top-selling plane, which has been plagued by supply-chain problems. The latest setback had been expected by analysts as well as customers of the aircraft. It further undermines the company's credibility after failing to deliver on its previous three scheduled plans for the 787. Boeing says the plane's first flight now won't take place until the fourth quarter of this...

TOKYO — The Bank of Japan said on Tuesday Washington may have to use public funds to bail out U.S. banks hit by the credit crisis as Tokyo joined European calls for the Group of Seven states to work together calm financial markets. The collapse of a mortgage bubble has so starved some U.S. banks of capital that the government may have to step in if private investment does not work, said Masaaki Shirakawa, deputy governor and acting head of the central bank said before a G7 meeting this week. “First of all, it should be efforts by the private...

At first glance, the man and woman at the nightclub look like any other couple on a date. He flirts and pours champagne. She looks at him and laughs. This isn't a date, though. It's business. The woman, a successful executive, has joined a growing number of professional women in Japan in forking out from $1,000 to $50,000 a night for male companionship. They meet their "hosts" in hundreds of clubs that have sprung up around Tokyo - the industry says only compliments are exchanged. The women pay for a man to lavish them with undivided attention. "There's nothing wrong...

A most astounding program has appeared on national Japanese TV, viewed by millions, in prime time. Just this last Friday night, April 4th. It is a new show called "Wakaru TV", or "TV You Can Understand". They take five or six topical news buzzwords of the day which are often heard, but not truly understood by everyone--and then they give a core explanation of the word, with graphics, statistics and reenactments.The Americans' "SUB PRIME DISASTER" was one of these words this last Friday night. What the Japanese moderator/announcer stated, and the panel agreed (some in true disbelief) showed that...

NORFOLK When the George Washington ties up in Yokosuka, Japan, in August, it will become the first nuclear-powered carrier based in the only nation ever to be attacked by nuclear weapons. While its departure Monday from the East Coast brings both a sentimental and financial loss, its relocation to the Far East means the ship’s crew must bring along as much diplomacy as weaponry. “What people don’t understand they sometimes fear,” said Rear Adm. Philip Cullom, commander of the George Washington Strike Group. “Sometimes it’s a matter of articulating the story so that people understand it.” The carrier’s arrival in...

TOKYO - Kaku Yamanaka, Japan's oldest person, has died of old age in central Japan, officials said Saturday. She was 113. Yamanaka died at a hospital where she was taken early Saturday after falling ill at a nursing home in Yatomi City in Aichi prefecture (state), an official at her nursing home said on condition of anonymity, citing policy. Born on Dec. 11, 1894, Yamanaka became Japan's oldest person when Tsuneyo Toyonaga, 113, died in February. It was not immediately clear who had become Japan's new oldest person, and Health Ministry officials were not available for comment Saturday. Yamanaka was...

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said here Friday any country moving in line with the pre-designed paths of the superpowers would suffer losses and taste the agony of defeat, stressing, "It is time now for Japan to rid its government of domineering of the US hegemony. The IRI President made the comment in an interview with Japan's Kyodo news agency, adding, "Independent conduct of the world countries is to the benefit of the entire nations and since Japan has an independent government, there is no need for it to yield to the US pressure." Pointing out that the Japanese firms are...

A lot of people are comparing the current U.S. economic mess with that of Japan, a supremely underperforming economy for much of the past two decades. That's a mistake. What's more, for those who don't buy into the "we are the next Japan" hysteria, there could be some tidy profits. The thrust of the (ultimately false) comparison is that low interest rates in Japan couldn't help the country out of its own real estate bust, which started in 1990. If it didn't work for them, so the theory goes, it won't work for the U.S. It is true that Japan's...

Oldsmobile fans rejoice! (Or revolt—we suspect most will choose revolt.) Your brand lives again, and you’ll never guess how. Nearly four years to the day that the final Oldsmobile rolled off the assembly line in Lansing, Michigan, comes word that Oldsmobile is back. More startling than the announcement itself is its origin—not from Lansing, not from Detroit, not from Michigan, not even from anywhere in North America. A statement from Tokyo, of all places, reports that Toyota has secured rights to the Oldsmobile name. Asked for comment, GM is remaining extremely tight-lipped on the issue at the moment while presumably...

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea's official news agency warned South Korea Sunday that the country's military would not "sit idle" until "warmongers" launched a pre-emptive strike. "Everything will be in ashes, not just a sea of fire, if our advanced pre-emptive strike once begins," the North's Korean Central News agency said. The harsh rhetoric from an unidentified KCNA military commentator also warned that the North will suspend all scheduled inter-Korean dialogue unless Seoul retracts and apologizes for a remark by the new head of the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff. Kim Tae-young told a parliamentary hearing Wednesday the...

NEW YORK The newspaper industry has experienced the worst drop in advertising revenue in more than 50 years. According to new data released by the Newspaper Association of America, total print advertising revenue in 2007 plunged 9.4% to $42 billion compared to 2006 -- the most severe percent decline since the association started measuring advertising expenditures in 1950. The drop-off points to an economic slowdown on top of the secular challenges faced by the industry. The second worst decline in advertising revenue occurred in 2001 when it fell 9.0%. Total advertising revenue in 2007 -- including online revenue -- decreased...

TOKYO - Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is going ahead with its mid-sized regional jet — the first "made in Japan" passenger aircraft in three decades. The announcement from the company President Kazuo Tsukuda came Friday, a day after major Japanese carrier All Nippon Airways placed the first orders for the twin-engine aircraft that seats about 70 to 90 people. ANA ordered 15 of the jets from Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. on Thursday for delivery from 2013, with an option for 10 more. Mitsubishi, a Japanese machinery maker, has been testing out the response to the jet — which would face tough...

Has the ground zero of the nuclear age become too "normal"? Welcome to the Hotel Hiroshima. That's what my AmEx travel itinerary called it: "Hotel Hiroshima." I don't know whether this was the official name of the hotel I was booked in to. It may, more mundanely, have been shorthand for "Hotel in Hiroshima." Or it may have been the name before it was changed to what it calls itself now: "The Crowne Plaza Hiroshima," part of the global chain that has joined other American chains in this shiny rebuilt city. There's a Hiroshima KFC, a Hiroshima Mickey D's (perfect...

Conan the dog joins the priests at Jigenin temple at prayer time Attendance at a Buddhist temple in Japan has increased since the temple's pet, a two-year-old dog, has joined in the daily prayers. Conan, a Chihuahua, sits on his hind legs, raises his paws and puts them together at the tip of his nose. "He may be showing his thanks for treats and walks," says a priest at Jigenin temple on Okinawa island. Priest Joei Yoshikuni would like Conan to meditate, but "it's not like we can make him cross his legs", he says. "Basically, I am just...

Hundreds of years ago in Japan, people offered thanks to the gods by sacrificing a horse or a pig. Horses and pigs, however, were valuable and expensive, so poor folks had a hard time expressing their gratitude. So they came up with a solution: Rather than sacrificing a horse, they would simply draw a painting of a horse on a wooden tablet and hang it in the temple. Then someone, most likely an impoverished samurai, realized that horses and pigs were hardly the only thing that could be drawn on a tablet. He had the idea of painting something original,...

The head of the Japanese Navy was dismissed yesterday and scores of officers and civilian bureaucrats punished after a series of fiascos that have heaped humiliation on what was once the proudest of the country’s armed services. Admiral Eiji Yoshikawa, chief of staff of the Maritime Self-Defence Force (MSDF), was one of 88 people disciplined one month after an incident in which a 7,750-tonne ship crushed a fishing boat while the officers on watch were sheltering from the rain and its captain was asleep. Yesterday Shigeru Ishiba, the Defence Minister, published a report revealing that the ship’s lookouts were inside...