[TODAY'S TOP STORIES] from [The Japan Times]
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2009
Yemen captors free engineer
Eight-day ordeal over for Japanese linked to JICA, local driver
By MASAMI ITO and JUN HONGO
Staff writers
A Japanese engineer abducted by armed Yemeni tribesmen Nov. 15 was freed early Tuesday Japan time along with his local driver, government officials said in Tokyo.
Takeo Mashimo, 63, who was working on a government-affiliated project, appeared to be in good health, the Foreign Ministry announced.
"I am relieved to have been safely released," Mashimo reportedly said over the phone after he was freed. "Please tell my family that I am O.K."
Mashimo had been working on a school project funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency. He and his Yemeni driver were ambushed while they were on their way to the construction site in Arhab, about 60 km northeast of San'a.
"I was held captive in a house. It was really tough," Mashimo said of his eight-day ordeal.
Mashimo, an employee of the Tokyo-based consultancy Mohri, Architect & Associates Inc., has been living in San'a for more than a year while working on the JICA project. He used his cell phone to call the Japanese Embassy to report he had been taken captive.
The kidnappers demanded the release of a 22-year-old relative who has been imprisoned and negotiations were held between the tribesmen and Yemen authorities mediated by tribal leaders. According to media reports, the sheiks promised the kidnappers they would urge the government to free the relative as soon as possible.
Later in the day, Mashimo arrived at the regional governor's office escorted by a long convoy of vehicles carrying scores of armed tribesmen from Arhab after tough negotiations between chieftains and the kidnappers.
"We have given them our word that we will support their case and press the government to either put on trial or release their relative," an Arhab tribal leader who took part in the mediation efforts said outside the governor's office.
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama expressed relief over Mashimo's release.
Information from Kyodo added
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2009
Hatoyama silent on funds probe
Charges loom over faked entries
By JUN HONGO
Staff writer
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama remained mum Tuesday on his ever-widening fundraising scandal, saying he trusts prosecutors to judge whether he is liable for any misconduct.
Prosecutors are reportedly preparing to file charges against a former Hatoyama aide for violating the Political Funds Control Law, including faking the sources of donations made to Hatoyama between 2005 and 2008.
Dismissed after the scandal broke over Hatoyama's fund management body's logging of fictitious donors, the former government-paid aide may be indicted without arrest, sources said.
"The issue has yet to receive a final decision, and I trust the prosecutors," Hatoyama said.
Earlier reports said Hatoyama's fund management body listed contributions made by deceased individuals and by people who deny ever making donations.
Asked if he might make a gesture of taking responsibility for the alleged shady practice, the prime minister said now isn't the time to address that question.
Hatoyama's aide allegedly faked the source of about 200 million in donations to the prime minister's fund management body. In addition to listing deceased individuals, Hatoyama has indicated he may have exceeded the annual 10 million cap on politicians putting their own money into their funding management bodies.
Hatoyama has claimed that while it was his understanding his assets would be used to cover operating costs, funds in excess of the 10 million limit constituted a loan he would later be repaid.
The opposition camp, mainly members of the Liberal Democratic Party, has demanded that a Diet panel take up the scandal.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano said Tuesday he wouldn't comment on personal matters pertaining to the prime minister.
Hirano said the Diet Affairs Committee will decide whether Hatoyama will face questioning over the issue in the Diet.
Hatoyama has been strongly criticized by the LDP, which has called for a long extension of the current Diet session intensively discuss political money scandals. The ruling DPJ, however, has been reluctant to comply.
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office has already questioned the secretary, who has not been identified, on a voluntary basis. Prosecutors are looking into what possible role Hatoyama played as well as that of the fund management body's chief accountant before deciding their next action, the sources said.
The Mainichi Shimbun reported Tuesday evening that false entries in Hatoyama's funding reports exceeded 300 million, quoting unnamed investigation sources.
"It is only natural that there is criticism (over the false entries), but it won't shake the base of the (Hatoyama) government itself," Deputy Prime Minister Naoto Kan said.
Information from Kyodo added
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2009
Dead babies found in bag at river
YOKOHAMA (Kyodo) Two dead babies were found in a duffel bag Tuesday on the banks of the Kawaotogawa River in Matsudamachi, Kanagawa Prefecture, police said.
{Cold trail: Investigators examine on Tuesday afternoon the spot where the bodies of two dead babies were found in a duffel bag in Matsudamachi, Kanagawa Prefecture.}
They said the corpses were decomposed to the point that the genders could not be determined and that they believe the babies had been dead for several weeks.
A 17-year-old high school boy cleaning up the bank of the river found the duffel bag at around 7:40 a.m. in a clump of grass under a bridge about 300 meters from Shin-Matsuda Station on the Odakyu Railway's Odawara Line.
Police suspect the bag was thrown from the bridge, sources said.
Each corpse had been put in a separate plastic bag inside the duffel bag, and one of the babies was between 30 and 40 cm in height, the police said.
[BUSINESS NEWS]
Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2009
CO2 goal could cost households big
Kyodo News
Japan's efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions could cost households \130,000 to \765,000 a year, a task force said Tuesday.
The financial burden will come in the form of estimated declines in disposable income. Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has pledged a goal of slashing emissions by 25 percent from 1990 levels by 2020 without purchasing emissions credits from foreign countries.
The previous administration estimated that a 25 percent cut would cost each household at least \360,000 a year.
Hatoyama's predecessor, Taro Aso, had set a more modest target of 8 percent. The new administration has since re-examined the economic impact of the more ambitious goal.
The task force, headed by Kazuhiro Ueta, a professor of environmental economics at Kyoto University's Graduate School of Economics, compiled the new estimates under various scenarios.
Think tanks that comprise the governmental task force came up with the new figures based on an assumption that the economy will expand 1.3 percent a year.
But they set different preconditions regarding how to use revenues from an environment tax which would be introduced by the administration to implement the 25 percent cut goal.
The scenarios involved returning tax revenues to households in a lump sum, using the money for policies to help achieve the emissions reduction, and allocating tax revenues to repayment of the national debt.
The task force also showed that financial burdens on households will be smaller if Japan tries to meet its goal through a combination of domestic efforts, purchasing emissions credits from abroad and forest absorption.
One combination model had the hit on disposable household income at \30,000 to \280,000 a year, according to the experts.
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2009
Yemen captors free engineer
Eight-day ordeal over for Japanese linked to JICA, local driver
By MASAMI ITO and JUN HONGO
Staff writers
A Japanese engineer abducted by armed Yemeni tribesmen Nov. 15 was freed early Tuesday Japan time along with his local driver, government officials said in Tokyo.
Takeo Mashimo, 63, who was working on a government-affiliated project, appeared to be in good health, the Foreign Ministry announced.
"I am relieved to have been safely released," Mashimo reportedly said over the phone after he was freed. "Please tell my family that I am O.K."
Mashimo had been working on a school project funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency. He and his Yemeni driver were ambushed while they were on their way to the construction site in Arhab, about 60 km northeast of San'a.
"I was held captive in a house. It was really tough," Mashimo said of his eight-day ordeal.
Mashimo, an employee of the Tokyo-based consultancy Mohri, Architect & Associates Inc., has been living in San'a for more than a year while working on the JICA project. He used his cell phone to call the Japanese Embassy to report he had been taken captive.
The kidnappers demanded the release of a 22-year-old relative who has been imprisoned and negotiations were held between the tribesmen and Yemen authorities mediated by tribal leaders. According to media reports, the sheiks promised the kidnappers they would urge the government to free the relative as soon as possible.
Later in the day, Mashimo arrived at the regional governor's office escorted by a long convoy of vehicles carrying scores of armed tribesmen from Arhab after tough negotiations between chieftains and the kidnappers.
"We have given them our word that we will support their case and press the government to either put on trial or release their relative," an Arhab tribal leader who took part in the mediation efforts said outside the governor's office.
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama expressed relief over Mashimo's release.
Information from Kyodo added
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2009
Hatoyama silent on funds probe
Charges loom over faked entries
By JUN HONGO
Staff writer
Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama remained mum Tuesday on his ever-widening fundraising scandal, saying he trusts prosecutors to judge whether he is liable for any misconduct.
Prosecutors are reportedly preparing to file charges against a former Hatoyama aide for violating the Political Funds Control Law, including faking the sources of donations made to Hatoyama between 2005 and 2008.
Dismissed after the scandal broke over Hatoyama's fund management body's logging of fictitious donors, the former government-paid aide may be indicted without arrest, sources said.
"The issue has yet to receive a final decision, and I trust the prosecutors," Hatoyama said.
Earlier reports said Hatoyama's fund management body listed contributions made by deceased individuals and by people who deny ever making donations.
Asked if he might make a gesture of taking responsibility for the alleged shady practice, the prime minister said now isn't the time to address that question.
Hatoyama's aide allegedly faked the source of about 200 million in donations to the prime minister's fund management body. In addition to listing deceased individuals, Hatoyama has indicated he may have exceeded the annual 10 million cap on politicians putting their own money into their funding management bodies.
Hatoyama has claimed that while it was his understanding his assets would be used to cover operating costs, funds in excess of the 10 million limit constituted a loan he would later be repaid.
The opposition camp, mainly members of the Liberal Democratic Party, has demanded that a Diet panel take up the scandal.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano said Tuesday he wouldn't comment on personal matters pertaining to the prime minister.
Hirano said the Diet Affairs Committee will decide whether Hatoyama will face questioning over the issue in the Diet.
Hatoyama has been strongly criticized by the LDP, which has called for a long extension of the current Diet session intensively discuss political money scandals. The ruling DPJ, however, has been reluctant to comply.
The Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office has already questioned the secretary, who has not been identified, on a voluntary basis. Prosecutors are looking into what possible role Hatoyama played as well as that of the fund management body's chief accountant before deciding their next action, the sources said.
The Mainichi Shimbun reported Tuesday evening that false entries in Hatoyama's funding reports exceeded 300 million, quoting unnamed investigation sources.
"It is only natural that there is criticism (over the false entries), but it won't shake the base of the (Hatoyama) government itself," Deputy Prime Minister Naoto Kan said.
Information from Kyodo added
[NATIONAL NEWS]
Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2009
Dead babies found in bag at river
YOKOHAMA (Kyodo) Two dead babies were found in a duffel bag Tuesday on the banks of the Kawaotogawa River in Matsudamachi, Kanagawa Prefecture, police said.
{Cold trail: Investigators examine on Tuesday afternoon the spot where the bodies of two dead babies were found in a duffel bag in Matsudamachi, Kanagawa Prefecture.}
They said the corpses were decomposed to the point that the genders could not be determined and that they believe the babies had been dead for several weeks.
A 17-year-old high school boy cleaning up the bank of the river found the duffel bag at around 7:40 a.m. in a clump of grass under a bridge about 300 meters from Shin-Matsuda Station on the Odakyu Railway's Odawara Line.
Police suspect the bag was thrown from the bridge, sources said.
Each corpse had been put in a separate plastic bag inside the duffel bag, and one of the babies was between 30 and 40 cm in height, the police said.
[BUSINESS NEWS]
Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2009
CO2 goal could cost households big
Kyodo News
Japan's efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions could cost households \130,000 to \765,000 a year, a task force said Tuesday.
The financial burden will come in the form of estimated declines in disposable income. Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has pledged a goal of slashing emissions by 25 percent from 1990 levels by 2020 without purchasing emissions credits from foreign countries.
The previous administration estimated that a 25 percent cut would cost each household at least \360,000 a year.
Hatoyama's predecessor, Taro Aso, had set a more modest target of 8 percent. The new administration has since re-examined the economic impact of the more ambitious goal.
The task force, headed by Kazuhiro Ueta, a professor of environmental economics at Kyoto University's Graduate School of Economics, compiled the new estimates under various scenarios.
Think tanks that comprise the governmental task force came up with the new figures based on an assumption that the economy will expand 1.3 percent a year.
But they set different preconditions regarding how to use revenues from an environment tax which would be introduced by the administration to implement the 25 percent cut goal.
The scenarios involved returning tax revenues to households in a lump sum, using the money for policies to help achieve the emissions reduction, and allocating tax revenues to repayment of the national debt.
The task force also showed that financial burdens on households will be smaller if Japan tries to meet its goal through a combination of domestic efforts, purchasing emissions credits from abroad and forest absorption.
One combination model had the hit on disposable household income at \30,000 to \280,000 a year, according to the experts.
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