Random Japan

BREAKTHROUGHS

Tohoku University Hospital will begin testing a drug that may delay the progression of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

Researchers from three Japanese universities published a paper in the British journal Nature that “revealed the three-dimensional structure of the central part of human chromosomes.” The finding could help scientists better understand Down’s syndrome and cancer.

It was announced that a 4,300-year-old pottery shard unearthed in Aomori in 1993 may contain the “oldest depiction of a shaman on an artifact uncovered in Japan.”

The University of Tokyo asked the education ministry if it would be OK to begin the academic year in the fall, just like schools overseas.

Leading Japanese e-tailer Rakuten announced that it will open an online shop for electronic books early next month. Panasonic will provide the tablet device for the service.

Stats

66.4

Percent of female university graduates who found full-time employment this spring, according to a newspaper survey

57.7

Percent of male graduates who found jobs, according to the same survey

2996

Number of suicides in Japan in June, according to the National Police Agency. That’s the highest for the month since the NPA began recordkeeping in 2008

TO PROTECT AND SERVE

Police officers in Gifu admitted that they dealt with rowdy detainees by serving them tea spiked with “excessive doses of a hypnotic drug.”

The government was ordered to pay ¥80 million to the family of an Air Self-Defense Forces officer who committed suicide after his superior “abused him and gave him a huge amount of assignments.”

Police in Nagoya believe that a man arrested for robbing two Sukiya beef-bowl restaurants researched his crimes by consulting an online manual that offers tips for stealing from the fast food outlet.

While being investigated for insider trading, the former deputy head of the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy blamed the crimes on his wife.

Nationalistic  

And Stupid  

They Couldn’t  

Find Their Way  

Taking The Taxi  

Wasn’t Cheap

Utility says NISA sought ‘plants’ to talk up MOX bid



By KAZUAKI NAGATA

Staff writer

Chubu Electric Power Co. said Friday it was asked by the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency to set up supportive or neutral questions from the audience at a 2007 symposium about a plan to use a controversial fuel mix at the Hamaoka nuclear plant.

According to Chubu Electric, NISA orally requested that it draft such questions and give them to people who would attend the symposium to make sure not all the questions would be against the use of plutonium-uranium mixed oxide (MOX) fuel