Edano named Japan's new trade minister (AP)

TOKYO – Former Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano was named Japan's new trade minister Monday, replacing a politician who resigned over comments considered insensitive to evacuees in the country's nuclear crisis.

Yoshio Hachiro resigned over the weekend, after just eight days in the post, after he called the area around a crippled nuclear power plant a "town of death." The resignation was an embarrassment for the government Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda as it tries to tackle the massive task of rebuilding the tsunami-battered northeast coast.

Edano's appointment was announced by Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura.

Edano, 47, became a familiar figure on television as the government's chief spokesman during the crisis at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant.

Some 100,000 people who used to live around the plant have been evacuated and it remains unclear when they will be able to return to their homes.

Hachiro, Noda and other government ministers were visiting the Fukushima plant Thursday when Hachiro made his comments. He later told reporters he just meant to convey the seriousness of the situation and his commitment to decontaminate it so residents can return.

Announcing his resignation on Saturday, Hachiro said the remarks "rubbed the feelings of Fukushima people the wrong way" but that he did not intend to be hurtful.

Hachiro, 63, was less forthcoming about a second comment that also was criticized. According to local news reports, he joked with journalists that radiation he acquired on his clothing during his visit to Fukushima might be contagious.

Support for Noda's new government has started out strong, with an approval rating of 62.8 percent in a Kyodo poll released last Saturday. But that rating could take a hit over Hachiro's gaffe.

Past leaders have had honeymoon periods of relatively high approval ratings that declined steadily as the public grew impatient.

Noda's predecessor, Naoto Kan, had early approval ratings topping 60 percent that crashed to below 20 percent near the end of his 15-month tenure due to perceptions his government mishandled the tsunami disaster and nuclear crisis.

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Edano named Japan's new trade minister

Edano named Japan's new trade minister Former Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano was named Japan's new trade minister Monday, replacing a politician who resigned over comments considered insensitive to evacuees in the country's nuclear crisis. Yoshio Hachiro resigned over the weekend, after just eight days in the post, after he called the area around a crippled nuclear power plant a "town of death." The resignation was an embarrassment for the government Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda as it tries to tackle the massive task of rebuilding the tsunami-battered northeast coast. Edano's appointment was announced by Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura.
12 Sep Across from a noodle shop in a Yokohama suburb, Hisayoshi Teramura's inn looks much like any other small lodging that dots the port city. Occasionally, it's even mistaken for a love hotel by couples hankering for some time beneath the sheets. But Teramura's place is neither a love nest nor a pit stop for tired travelers. The white and grey tiled building is a corpse hotel, its 18 deceased guests tucked up in refrigerated coffins. "We tell them we only have cold rooms," Teramura quips when asked how his staff respond to unwary lovers looking for a room. The daily rate at Lastel, as it is known, is 12,000 yen ($157). For that fee, bereaved families can check in their dead while they wait their turn in the queue for one of the city's overworked crematoriums. (Reuters)
12 Sep Two Japanese teenagers, Shota Sometani and Fumi Nikaido, won the Marcello Mastroianni Award for best young actor and actress at the 68th Venice International Film Festival on Saturday for their performance in the Japanese film "Himizu" directed by Sion Sono. Sometani, 19, and Nikaido, 16, became the first Japanese actor and actress to take home the prize, which was created in 1998. At press conference in Tokyo on Sunday, the actors expressed their joy at receiving the award. (Japan Times)
12 Sep Former Morning Musume member Ai Kago was found in her Tokyo apartment yesterday after an apparent suicide attempt, reports daily tabloid Sports Hochi (Sept. 12). Tokyo Metropolitan Police reported that medical personnel were alerted to Kago's apartment, located in the Roppongi area of Minato Ward, just before noon on Monday after members of the 23-year-old's management agency discovered her on the floor with her wrists cut. She was transferred to a local hospital, where she is now recovering. The one-time member of the popular idol group also seemed to be suffering from an overdose of tranquilizers, police said. (Tokyo Reporter)
12 Sep Even before the March 11 earthquake and tsunami struck knocking out the Fukushima nuclear plant, Aya's life was a struggle. She had divorced her abusive husband and was left on her own to care and provide for her two daughters. Now, six months after she fled her home just 9 km (6 miles) away from the radiation-spewing plant, the 26-year old single mother is barely surviving. She has no job, languishes in hiding from her violent ex-husband in temporary housing and will probably never see her home again. (Reuters)
12 Sep Former actress and stripper Minako Komukai will make her debut next month in the adult video business, reports Zakzak (Sept. 10). Minako KomukaiAV producer Alice Japan will release the "AV Actress Minako Komukai" DVD - described as containing "super hardcore" content - on October 14. Komukai will have two sex scenes in the 120-minute film (3,990 yen). Zakzak reports that Alice Japan already employs top talents like Minami Kojima and Aoi Tsukasa and likens the debut to that of former AKB48 member Rina Nakanishi (performing under the name Riko Yamaguchi), who entered the AV biz in August of last year. Mukai was arrested for the second time earlier this year for stimulant drug violations. (Tokyo Reporter)

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Japan's Cabinet Expanded, Ex-PMs Named Ruling Party's Supreme Advisers - RTT News

(RTTNews) - Japan's new Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda on Monday expanded his cabinet and appointed two former prime ministers as the ruling Democratic Party of Japan's (DPJ) supreme advisers as part of efforts by the current leadership to boost party unity.

Noda formed his Cabinet last Friday, installing his allies in key Cabinet posts to achieve policy goals of reconstructing a nation hit hard by twin disasters, and saving it from a protracted economic slump.

Many of the 22 Diet members, whom he appointed as senior vice ministers on Monday, belong to the other party group that did not back Noda in the party's presidential election last week, reports say.

They include lower house member Tenzo Okumura, an ally of party power broker Ichiro Ozawa, who was named as Senior Vice Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

New Senior Vice Minister of the Cabinet Office, Ikko Nakatsuka also belongs to Ozawa camp.

In another development on Monday, former premiers Yukio Hatoyama and Naoto Kan were named as DPJ's supreme advisers, Japanese media reported quoting party members.

by RTT Staff Writer

For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com

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Azumi to be named Japan finance minister: media (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) – Jun Azumi, a former parliamentary affairs chief for the ruling Democratic Party, will become Japan's new finance minister, Fuji TV reported, after new Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda's first choice for the job reportedly turned it down.

Azumi will take charge of Japan's currency and fiscal policies at a time when the world's third-biggest economy grapples with the yen's sharp appreciation and a public debt twice the size of its $5 trillion economy.

Katsuya Okada, a fiscal hawk who held the party's No.2 post, turned down Noda's request to take over the crucial financial portfolio, public broadcaster NHK reported earlier.

(Reporting by Yoko Kubota; Editing by Chris Gallagher)

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