Japanese Politics & Culture

The Hokkaido Utari Association, a major Ainu group, changed its name Wednesday to the Hokkaido Ainu Association as a means of enhancing its ethnic identity.
The move apparently reflects deepened understanding in Japanese society of the ethnic minority, including the government’s June 2008 recognition of them as an indigenous people. (AP)

The Metropolitan Police Department began deploying female officers Wednesday at a “koban,” a type of police box set up for community policing, on a full-time basis.
A total of 20 female officers are posted at 10 koban, including those near JR Ikebukuro Station and a marine park in Daiba, Minato Ward, department officials said. (AP)

A survey of land prices by the land and infrastructure ministry made public March 23 shows that the global recession has caused a general decline in demand for land throughout Japan. As of Jan. 1, commercial land prices fell by an average 4.7 percent and residential land prices by an average 3.2 percent from a year before – the first drop in three years. (Japan Times)

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is adopting a nonbinding – but potentially controversial – guideline intended to increase safety and security in shopping areas. The guideline, to be enacted Wednesday, calls on shop owners to better educate their employees on crime prevention and for shopping arcades to set up security cameras. (Japan Times)

April marks the beginning of the business year, and for Tokyo-area train stations, a breath of fresher air. Starting Wednesday, most metropolitan East Japan Railway Co. train stations will go completely smoke free, and platform ashtrays are being removed from 201 JR East stations. (Japan Times)

Japanese stocks retreated for the third day in a row, closing out a dismal business year that saw the country’s benchmark index tumble 35 percent.
The Nikkei 225 stock average lost 126.55 points, or 1.5 percent, to close Tuesday at 8,109.53. Exactly a year earlier, the Nikkei was at 12,525.54. (Forbes)

Since becoming a mother to twins Max and Emme last year, Jennifer Lopez insisted her diva image is firmly in the past.
But after taking an incredible 11 bags for a weekend break in Japan, it appears J.Lo isn’t quite so low maintenance as she would like us to believe. (Daily Mail)

We all know how popular video gaming is right now in the UK. Families playing Wii at home together on a Sunday afternoon. Groups of friends wailing on Rock Band or SingStar instead of going down the pub. Fantastic fun and anything but anti-social. (telegraph.co.uk)

Many Americans – and certainly those who are baseball fans – know the Curse of the Bambino, which came about when the Boston Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees, and then endured 86 years without a World Series title.
Japan – another country with a great baseball tradition – has a colorful superstition of its own: the Curse of the Colonel.
This one involves a pathetic team, fans jumping into a filthy canal, and the mystery of a missing statue of Colonel Sanders. (Global Post)

A middle-aged Japanese woman in Yokohama, Japan, received a shock early this year when she received a letter from her 25-year-old son, who had been missing since October last year.
The letter, which began, “Mother, I’m sorry for causing trouble,” was surprisingly sent from a detention house in Incheon.
The man elaborated on how he, a college student, got arrested on charges of drug trafficking in the letter. (donga.com)