I came across this transcript of 9/11 hearings by the Japanese Parliament. I was hesitant to post it because I’m not one for conspiracy theories but it’s interesting to read. Yukihisa Fujita leads the questioning in to the events of that day and questions Japan’s role in the War on Terror.

A recent incident in Osaka underscores a government-created medical emergency in Japan that most probably will only get worse.

Last week an 89-year-old woman whose family called an ambulance when she started experiencing vomiting and diarrhea died after she was rejected for admittance by thirty hospitals. The poor woman was finally admitted two hours after the family called the ambulance.

The hospitals rejected the woman because they claimed they were too full or that doctors were not available to treat her.

The latest case underscores Japan’s health care woes, in part created by a shortage of doctors in the country’s rapidly aging society. Critics say long working hours and a government policy change several years ago to keep the number of doctors down are to blame.

Faced with a rapidly aging society, the government implements a policy to limit the number of doctors in the country. . . Brilliant!

Thanks to Vin Alsace

Click here to find out NOVA ex-president Nozomu Sahashi’s side of the story on the collapse of the English conversation giant over the past few months.

“I’m being set up as the bad guy,” he says. “I didn’t take a single day off from April as I went around busting my guts to try and get NOVA to rebuild under its own steam. I stopped taking a wage myself from July. If what’s going on now hadn’t happened, I thought I would have been able to get 10 billion yen to get the company back on track. (After I was sacked), there was this sudden liberation from the difficulties of trying to collect money and my mind is still a blur. I still haven’t thought about what I’m going to do from now.”

The L.A. Times has a very good report related to the recent murder of junior sumo wrestler Takeshi Saito at the hands of his sumo stable master and mates, and the subsequent attempted cover up by the stable and local authorities.

Photos of the teenager’s corpse show a deep cut on his right arm, horrific bruising on his neck and chest. His face is swollen and covered with cuts. A silhouette of violence runs from the corner of his left eye over the cheekbone to his jaw, and his legs are pocked with small burns the size of a lighted cigarette.

But police in Japan’s Aichi prefecture saw something else when they looked at the body of Takashi Saito, a 17-year-old sumo wrestler who arrived at a hospital in June. The cause of death was “heart disease,” police declared.

According to The Times, only 6.3% of the deaths due to unnatural causes in Aichi prefecture are investigated by a medical examiner. Nationwide, autopies are perfomed in 11.2% of the cases.

Forensic scientists say there are many reasons for the low rate, including inadequate budgets and a desperate shortage of pathologists outside the biggest urban areas. There is also a cultural resistance in Japan to handling the dead, with families often reluctant to insist upon a procedure that invades the body of a loved one.

But as the article reports, it is bureaucratic self-interest (probably the main underlying reasons that anything is ever done or not done in Japan) that makes police discourage autopsies and put pressure on doctors to blame unnatural death on health reasons. More autopsies would probably cause the homocide rate to rise.

“You can commit a perfect murder in Japan because the body is not likely to be examined,” says Hiromasa Saikawa, a former member of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police security and intelligence division. He says senior police officers are “obsessed with statistics because that’s how you get promotions,” and strive to reduce the number of criminal cases as much as possible to keep their almost perfect solution rate.

Japan’s annual police report says its officers made arrests in 96.6% of the country’s 1,392 homicides in 2005.

Why do the doctors do the bidding of the police? Saikawa says it is out of fear.

“The police textbooks taught us not to trust doctors,” he says, adding that police officers indirectly pressure doctors to sign death certificates without an autopsy. “Doctors are afraid of the police. They are afraid of retaliation. They worry the police could prosecute them for malpractice. So they are easily pressured.

The mandatory fingerprinting of foreigners entering Japan begins in just 11 days. Are you worried about the authorities’ ability to keep sensitive data secure?

There have recently been innumerable leaks of classified information into the public domain, for example by the careless use of (banned) peer-to-peer software, by the police, the military and government workers.

A Nara police officer has taken it a stage further by “posting information about police investigations [...] on a message board of Internet social networking site Mixi”.

He introduced himself in his profile section as a public servant working in the traffic division of a police station. He replaced some of the kanji identifying the police station where he is assigned with symbols, but it was still clear that he was a police officer working at a station in Nara Prefecture.

He then went on to post details of investigations, raids and the role he would play in them. After having been reprimanded, he was quoted as saying, “I’ve been careless.”

Yes, I’m sure logging in to Mixi, typing reams of confidential information and posting it to the internet making it available to a readership of some 11 million people can happen in just a few careless keystrokes. Oops!

So remember the ol’ maxim, kids - “If you keep your nose clean, you’ve nothing to worry about!” Except police officers using Winny, or Mixi, or just about any authority figure with an internet connection.

An American who was creative director of the U.S. branch of Japan’s Dentsu advertising agency has sued the company over being pressured to visit a brothel and partake in other sexual activities, and then being canned for complaining.

In a lawsuit seeking unspecified damages filed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Steve Biegel said he and other company employees were put in awkward, sexually charged situations by Toyo Shigeta, chief executive officer of Dentsu Holdings USA.

According to Biegel, Shigeta claimed that having sex with prostitutes was an accepted form of doing business and celebrating business deals.

Biegel also claimed that Shigeta was fond of going to beaches and photographing the crotches of scantily clad women there.

[On business trip to Brazil Biegel witnessed Shigeta repeatedly taking photographs emphasizing the crotches of scantily clad women on the beach until a male companion of one of the women on the beach threatened him, the lawsuit said.

Shigeta demonstrated a similar obsession during a photo shoot for an advertisement for Canon in Key Biscayne, Fla., when he took a picture of tennis star Maria Sharapova on the tennis court and proudly distributed the "crotch shot," the lawsuit said.

In Japan, Biegel would probably be the one in hot water for conduct unbecoming a salaryman.

“It’s serious to see such a reliable, time-honored maker be involved.”

Japan farm minister Masatoshi on hearing about how Arafuku, a Japanese sweets maker that has been in business since 1707, has been mislabling the production dates of its products for more than 30 years.

Politics watchers all over Japan have been shocked by the first week of the new Fukuda administration, which has been completely unmarked by any form of controversy whatsoever.

Even the revolving door at the Ministry of Agriculture appears to have stopped spinning. When asked how the new Agriculture Minister had managed to hold on to the particularly slippery job for over a week, a ministry insider was quoted as saying “He must be lost somewhere in the building.”

“We’ve been watching the exits,” said an anonymous senior journalist, “but the silence is eerie.” After the fireworks of the Abe government, observers are growing suspicious after this week’s lack of resignations. “We can only hope that things settle back in their usual pattern next week, and that the ministerial exodus starts up again,” he added.

With no daily cabinet dismissals to report, the morning news programmes and daily newspapers have been caught on the hop and have had to content themselves with the last resort of reporting international affairs.

What is it going to take for Japan to act and ensure that this is a thing of the past?

Sapporo hospitals refused four pregnant women last year, even though the women were taken to them in emergency conditions, the city said Tuesday.

None of the women suffered a miscarriage, but one in her teens was rejected 11 times and it took her 90 minutes to reach a hospital after calling an ambulance, it said.

A fifth woman, who was suspected of being pregnant, was also rejected, the local authority said.

The five women called ambulances while suffering abdominal pains or bleeding.

They were rejected by the hospitals for such reasons as “no doctors available” or “doctors are currently treating patients,” it said.

Just last week another woman who was refused by NINE hospitals, only to lose her baby when the ambulance she was in was involved in an automobile accident.

This type of thing happens a lot in Japan, and not just to pregnant woment.

The revolving door at Japan’s farm ministry has just spun again with the resignation of Agriculture Minister Takehiko Endo over shady dealings of a farmer’s group he headed (originally reported on here by Overoften), a mere one week after the appointment of a new cabinet by Prime Minister Shinzo. This is seen by some as one more stake in the heart of the beleaguered PM’s administration, the days of which also may be numbered.

Agriculture Minister Takehiko Endo admitted on Saturday that a farmers’ aid group he headed had illegally taken 1.15 million yen ($9,900) from the state and that he had failed to disclose this to the prime minister before his appointment.

The 68-year-old Endo, who had been reluctant to take over the ill-fated post, confirmed his resignation at a news conference on Monday after meeting Abe at his official residence.

The Agriculture Ministry has seen three different ministers come and go over a short period of time recently.

Abe’s first appointee to the portfolio committed suicide over a separate scandal and the second was fired over reports of discrepancies in his political funding records.

Two other ministers in Abe’s first cabinet were forced to resign over gaffes or scandals.

Update —————- September 3

Yukiko Sakamoto, Prime Minister Abe’s appointment as parliamentary secretary for foreign affairs, also resigned today to take responsibility for expense reporting irregularities in the political fund reports of her support organizations.

Sakamoto is not the first LDP appointee to be caught with double or triple submission of the same receipt, which seems to be common practice among LDP politicians.

The new top bod at the Ministry of Scandals (formerly the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries) has finally got his feet under the table with the first revelation of scandal after what seems like 10 minutes in the job.

New minister Takehiko Endo admitted at a press conference today that “a farmers’ mutual aid association headed by him has received 1.15 million yen from the state illegally”. The organisation had exaggerated the number of its members and the extent of crop damage in premium claims.

Endo told reporters, “We were informed three years ago that the association received the money in error, but were not told to return it.” And they still haven’t. They are, apparently, ‘awaiting instructions from the Board of Audit of Japan on what to do’. Eagerly, I’m sure.

Endo said that he would quit as head of the association, but denied suggestions he should resign as farm minister.

“I will resign as head of the association, but having accepted my appointment I intend to continue serving (as farm minister).”

You would have thought that, after the headlines created by Endo’s two predecessors, the Prime Minister’s first question on giving him the job would have been “Now, is there anything you think you should tell me?”

The Nihon Ethics of Video Association, an adult video screening body, is under police investigation concerning allegations that it overlooked obscene images in videos and DVDs that it should have deemed obscene.

The video production companies are accused of releasing DVDs and videos containing obscene images after they were screened by the association, the Metropolitan Police Department said.

The association allegedly helped the firms sell obscene DVDs and videos by failing to screen them properly, according to investigators.

Scientists in New Zealand have found formaldehyde, which is used to give clothing a permanent press and to prevent mildew, at levels of up to 500 times greater than that considered safe for humans in woolen and cotton clothing made in China.

Research by the World Health Organization (WHO) indicates that exposure to concentrations of formaldehyde of 20 parts per million (ppm) can cause eye, skin and nasal irritation, respiratory problems, asthma, and cancer. Consumers normally are advised to wash and air clothing before wearing it for the first time.

Initially, researchers thought they must have made some mistake when they saw the results of the tests they performed on a variety of different clothing items.

“Our results were shocking, ranging from 230ppm to 18,000ppm. This is almost unbelievable. Some of the clothes [we] tested have a reading 900 times the level that actually causes harm.”

China’s response to revelations that its products may be unsafe or even deadly?

[L]i Changjiang, head of China’s safety watchdog, claimed the product safety scares were “a new trend of trade protectionism”, and accused some governments of “demonising China’s products”.

The Yokohama city government has discovered that about 700 municipal employees gained employment by lying about their qualifications. . .By understating their academic credentials on job applications!

The employees in question secured employment offered to those with high school degrees or lower by omitting entries about their higher education in their resumes.

The city government announced that offending employees will be punished suspension for one month, which is a pretty good indication of why municipal jobs are so attractive. Even in a case like there where employment was secured dishonestly, the punishment is limited suspension, and not termination.

But that is about to change. Yokohama has announced that it will be adding falsification of academic achievements to its list of offenses that rate disciplinary dismissal.

Rick Guttormson, an American pitcher with the Pacific League Softbank Hawks has become the first player in the history of Japanese baseball ever to have failed a drug test.

According to the league’s commissioner, Rick Guttormson tested positive for a banned substance and has been suspended for 20 days. Guttormson’s team, the Softbank Hawks in Japan’s Pacific League, were fined $63,000.

Japanese baseball officials say a postgame test July 13 revealed Finasteride in Guttormson’s system. Finasteride is in a hair-growing agent the 30-year-old Guttormson has been taking for two years. It’s banned because it can be used as a masking agent.

Perhaps he could claim the test is a bald-face lie. . .

The Japanese government is often criticized for lacking transparency, and a recent report in The Yomiuri Shimbun indicates that such criticism is much deserved.

Of 40 central government officials dismissed for wrongdoing in 2006, the names of only 13 were disclosed, the lowest rate of disclosure since guidelines revealing details of the punishment given to errant officials were drawn up in 2003, The Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.

The Construction and Transport Ministry, Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry and the Japan Coast Guard expelled nine, five and two officials, respectively, last year, but none of their names were disclosed to the public.

The names of the offices to which more than 10 of the 40 punished officials belonged also were withheld when their punishments were announced.

Often, the government hides behind the public’s concerns about personal information security by saying certain actions of public officials using and misusing public funds are private matters and so cannot be made public. Even when it is discovered that government officials are misusing public funds to entertain bigwigs or to pay for other in-house junkets, disclosure of the names of who attended the events is withheld because of “privacy concerns.”

Though there is much fancy talk of governmental reform in Japan these days, there will be no reason for the cockroaches nibbling away at the national treasure to disperse until the light of publicity can be shone upon them.

The day after the upper house election, Agriculture Minister Norihiko “3 scandals” Akagi, when asked if he would resign, told a press conference that no, he had no intention of resigning, he would remain and “I will tackle a mountain of agricultural issues.”

Pity. The next day (yesterday) his boss laid down some pretty strong hints that he was going to have a major cabinet reshuffle in the autumn, and change was afoot at the Min. of Ag.

While the minister may not be too good with figures, he can at least read the writing on the wall. The Mainichi is reporting that he has today tendered his resignation.

No word yet on whether Akagi will be made to clear up the “confusion” over his expenses scandals, or whether he’ll just lie low until someone else’s scandal steals the limelight.

After the LDP’s trouncing in last weekend’s upper house elections, there have been calls from all corners for PM Abe’s resignation.

Abe refused to entertain any notion of quitting directly following what is held to be one of the LDP’s biggest electoral disasters.

It shouldn’t have come as a surprise, I suppose. Abe has supported many ministers who, had they been members of other administrations, would have been forced to resign. He gave his full support to scandal-hit former agriculture minister Matsuoka in the face of calls to quit. Matsuoka later committed suicide. He initially decided a slap on the wrist was the ideal course of action to deal with former minister Kyuma, over the latter’s comments on the second world war atomic bombings. Despite his boss’s backing, Kyuma announced his resignation days later. And of course Norihiko Akagi is still a government minister despite 3 (count ‘em) expenses scandals in the run-up to the election.

The Asahi Shinbun noted with relish that after such a rejection, the usual form would be for the PM to resign. Meanwhile the Mainichi and the Nikkei called for a dissolution of parliament and a general election.

A Sunday exit poll of voters revealed that 56% thought he should go. This led to further criticism when it was revealed he had no intention of doing so. His opponents had at least waited until the results were in before calling for his head, but they didn’t waste too much time before sticking the boot in.

So what odds will you give me on Mr Abe lasting out the summer as PM? Anyone want to take my money?

A police officer was nabbed in a citizen’s arrest when the father of a 9-year-old girl noticed him trying to photograph up her skirt at a game arcade in Yokosuka, Japan.

The man strapped his camera-equipped cellphone to one of his shoes in an attempt to shoot upskirts of young girls playing games.

Japan certainly has its share of food scandals these days, but they all seem to pale next to China’s bao zi (steamed bun) scandal.

According to an expose broadcast by China’s state-run television network CCTV, bun producers in Beijing have been cutting the meat fillings of their steamed buns by up to 60 percent with waste paper and cardboard.

The CCTV reporters found vendors chopped up waste cardboard and mixed it with fatty meat to produce the buns, known as “bao zi”, in a Beijing backstreet factory.

The bun expose highlights the uphill battle faced by authorities in the wake of a series of safety alerts over Chinese made products.

The paper and cardboard is soaked in caustic soda, a poisonous industrial solvent, in order to get it to a consistency that matches the meat it replaces. The paper is then mixed with fatty meat and monosodium glutamate.

The TV report said that the bun producers claimed customers were unable to tell the difference between the paper meat and the real thing.

“Do you eat them?” the CCTV reporter asked the factory owner.

“No, I don’t,” he replied.