Who knew?
It turns out that Japan and Russia still haven’t formally signed a peace treaty ending World War II because of a territorial dispute over four islands off of Hokkaido.

A team of Japanese scientists working at Keio University and the National Institute for Child Health and Development have discovered that menstrual blood can be used to repair heart damage.

Speaking ahead of this month’s Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Yokohama, Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura announced that Japan will finance the construction of some 1,000 schools on the continent.

About 200 people were selected to attend a public screening of the controversial documentary Yasukuni in Tokyo. Some 1,500 people had applied for a spot.

The University of Southern California awarded certificates to students who had been prevented from graduating by the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.

It was reported that 13 Diet members have formed a group to “seek the conclusion of a convention on a ban on cluster munitions.”

A 74-year-old retired fishing boat captain in Shizuoka received a letter written to his grandmother during World War II. The letter, whose author is unknown, had been brought to the US by an American serviceman who had been stationed on Iwo Jima, and was only discovered by the man’s family after his death.

Here we go again
After meeting with top-ranking EU officials in Tokyo, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda announced that Japan and Europe have agreed on a “highly ambitious and binding international approach to cut greenhouse gas emissions.”

Four former executives of a company hired by the government to clean up chemical weapons left in China by the Imperial Japanese Army during World
War II were arrested for misappropriating funds.

The head of Osaka’s Expoland amusement park stepped down after two of its executives were arrested over the crash of a roller coaster that killed a 19-year-old woman and injured 19 others last May.

The Supreme Court upheld a sentence of life in prison for two men convicted of kidnapping the 22-year-old-daughter of a prominent Tokyo surgeon in 2006 and demanding a ¥300 million ransom.

A Japanese oil tanker was attacked off the east coast of Yemen by an unidentified ship, but none of its 23-member crew were injured.

After a series of complaints by local residents, self-proclaimed “multi-sexy idol” Asuka Sawamoto was arrested for “indecently flashing her underpants” in Akihabara.

I told you not to do that
Police in Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, announced that they had arrested a 73-year-old man for stealing 1,469 books and magazines from the local public library.

A 27-year-old professional soccer player identified only as a “hopeful for Japan’s national squad” was arrested for a 2001 incident in which he allegedly broke into a female university student’s house in Kobe and stole her underwear.

A man in Gifu who was arrested for theft and traffic violations got himself into deeper trouble after setting fire to a futon at the police station where he was being held.

A 65-year-old Japanese man has become a reviled figure in the Philippines after he was busted for patting the buttocks of the daughter of the governor of Cebu as the two were waiting for their luggage at a baggage carousel in Manila airport.

A 41-year-old Myanmar man was arrested and 10 of his compatriots hospitalized during protests over voting rights outside the Myanmar Embassy in Shinagawa.

A 41-year-old Tochigi man was arrested for making some 8,000 “silent phone calls” to his 30-year-old ex-girlfriend after she broke up with him last July.




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