Japan News

TOKYO (AP) -- Japanese already use cell phones to shop, read novels, exchange e-mail, search for restaurants and take video clips. Now, they're taking a university course.

Cyber University, the nation's only university to offer all classes only on the Internet, began offering a class on the mysteries of the pyramids on mobile phones Wednesday.

For classes for personal computers, the lecture downloads play on the monitor as text and images in the middle, and a smaller video of the lecturer shows in the corner, complete with sound.

The cell phone version, which pops up as streaming video on the handset's tiny screen, plays just the Power Point images.

In a demonstration Wednesday at a Tokyo hotel, an image of the pyramids popped up on the screen and changed to a text image as a professor's voice played from the handset speakers.

Cyber University, which opened in April with government approval to give bachelor's degrees, has 1,850 students.

The virtual campus is 71 percent owned by Softbank Corp., a major Japanese mobile carrier, which also has broadband operations and offers online gaming, shopping and electronic stock trading services.

The cell phone lectures may be expanded to other courses but for now will be for the pyramids course, according to Cyber University, which offers about 100 courses, including ancient Chinese culture, online journalism and English literature.

Unlike the other classes, the one on cell phones will be available to the public for free, although viewers must pay phone fees.

The catch is the lectures can only be seen on some Softbank phones. The service may be expanded to other carriers, officials said.

Sakuji Yoshimura, who heads Cyber University and gives the pyramids course, said the university gives educational opportunities for people who find it hard to attend real-life universities, including those with jobs, the handicapped and the sick.

"Our duty as educators is to respond to the needs of people who want to learn," Yoshimura said.

He scoffed at those who question the value of Internet and cell-phone classes, noting attendance is relatively high at 86 percent. Whether students play the lecture downloads to the end can be monitored by the university digitally, officials said.

Although real-time exchange with professors and other students isn't possible in Net classes, social networking and other cyber-discussions are flourishing, said Hiroshi Kawahara, professor in the Faculty of Information Technology and Business.

Pin-up icon Aki Hoshino charmed in a bee costume at a preview of the film "The Bee Movie," while an Academy Award nomination for "Mongol," a film starring actor Tadanobu Asano, in stories that topped Japanese language entertainment news for the week from Jan. 19 to Jan. 25.

On Jan 22, "Mongol", which was filmed in Kazakhstan, was nominated for best foreign film for the 80th Academy Awards, to the joy of the film's star Tadanobu Asano.

"I joined the shoot on behalf of Japan and spent precious time there, so seeing the film get a nomination is a great feeling," Asano said during an event held on Jan 23.

On Jan. 21, pin-up idol Aki Hoshino attracted audience attention as she appeared in a bee costume for a preview of the animated film "Bee Movie. "

"I'd like to keep on working, and since I can't give orders, I guess I'm a working bee, not a queen bee," Hoshino said.

"I will continue to work as a pin-up idol," the 30-year-old Hoshino said, declaring that she would keep breaking the record as the oldest active pin-up idol.

Also on Jan. 21, a preview of the film "Kabe," which stars Sayuri Yoshinaga and Asano, was held in Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture, where Asano's wife and singer Chara hails from.

"I was happy to shoot the film here and felt relaxed," Asano shyly told the audience as he stood on the stage with co-stars Rei Dan and Mirai Shida before the preview started.

On Jan. 23, actress Mariya Yamada, 27, announced on her official blog that she will be getting married with actor Toru Kusano, 40.

"I will be a married woman (laugh)," wrote Yamada in her statement on her blog. The couple is slated to officially announce their marriage during a press conference to be held on Monday.

On Jan. 24, actress Tomoko Yamaguchi and actor Ken Ogata joined in a live dubbing of the U.S. film "His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass."

Playing the main role of Lyra was Mariya Nishiuchi, 13, a rookie voice actor who won the post in an audition contested by 5,104 applicants.

HANYU, Saitama -- A man hit with fresh theft charges is suspected of stealing about 47 million yen from elderly women in 253 cases by offering to take their bags out of kindness and fleeing with their purses, law enforcers said.

Suguru Washio, 25, of no fixed address, admitted to the allegations against him. "Elderly women don't counterattack, and it was easy to run away from them," Washio told police.

In the specific case for which he was slapped with new charges, Washio deliberately bumped into a 79-year-old woman who was riding her bicycle home on a municipal road in Yokohama's Minami-ku on May 9 last year, investigators said. He then allegedly pretended to help her pick up her luggage and stole her handbag that contained about 7,000 yen in cash and a cash card. He then withdrew about 140,000 yen with her cash card, according to police.

In other cases, Washio kindly asked elderly women, "Shall I take your bag?" and after the women handed them over, he stole their purses and ran off, police said.

Some victims did not even report their losses to police because they thought, "A man of such good nature would not do such a thing."

Washio was initially arrested on charges of attempted theft in October last year after intruding into the house of a 70-year-old woman in Hanyu in April.

Washio is suspected of stealing approximately 47 million yen from elderly women in 253 separate cases in Tokyo, Saitama and six other prefectures over a one-year period since October 2006, according to local police.

OSAKA -- A group of three women burglars who investigators called "Cat's Eye" after a famous manga about robbers have been arrested and now face further charges, police said.

Yoshimi Takeda, Akiko Sakai and Michiko Shinohara have been sent to the Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office accused of trespassing with intent to steal.

The three single mothers who met each other through school or work are suspected of burglarizing at least 50 homes, netting about 10 million yen worth of booty in a spree across the Osaka and Kobe areas that went from February to October last year.

Takeda, 26, Sakai, 27, and Shinohara, 29, all of Osaka's Yodogawa-ku, have already been charged with three counts of theft. Police said that on the afternoon of Oct. 9, they broke into a home in Takaishi, Osaka Prefecture. On March 16 last year, police said the three also broke in to a Nishi Yodogawa-ku home, stealing about 160,000 yen in cash and bags and other valuables worth around 550,000 yen.

Each of the three women is divorced and the mother of one child. They would leave their children at a daycare center and then go around searching for houses to sneak into in the hours from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., police said. Each of the women also had a specific role on heists, with Sakai serving as lookout, Shinohara the driver of their getaway car and Takeda going into the homes.

Each of the women are on welfare, but allegedly took to stealing to get money for entertainment and other lifestyle needs.

KARUIZAWA, Nagano -- A "singing human" Christmas tree set up at a Christian retreat here has begun performing carols in the lead-up to Christmas.

The tree is actually a lit-up 7-story pyramid standing about 7-meters high and is illuminated in the garden of the Megumi Chalet Karuizawa.

The tree was a gift from a church in the United States and setting it up in the garden cost about 2 million yen.

Over the weekend, about 40 people formed a choir dressed in red gowns and lined up along the various stories of the Christmas tree. The choir sang carols such as "Silent Night" together with local residents who came to watch them.

The singing human Christmas tree will put on shows each night on weekends and public holidays until Christmas Eve.

MITO -- A man who turned himself in at a police box following a stabbing rampage and who was arrested over a separate killing had the character for "death" painted in red near a door in his home, investigators said.

Masahiro Kanagawa, 24, was arrested over the killing of 72-year-old Yoshikazu Miura when he turned himself in at a police box in Tsuchiura, Ibaraki Prefecture, on Sunday following a stabbing rampage at JR Arakawaoki station that left one dead and seven injured.

When police searched his home, they found scratches on the walls and door that had apparently been made by a knife. Near the door they found the letter "Z" and the kanji for "death" written in red.

The markings are believed to have been left by Kanagawa in or after January, when he quit his job at a convenience store and shut himself off from society, remaining at home.

Kanagawa surfaced as a suspect in the killing of Miura as a mountain bike was left at Miura's home. When they searched the 24-year-old's home, they reportedly found blood on his clothing matching Miura's blood type.

Kanagawa's mother, who lived in the same home, said the scratches and the character for death were not there when she went into his room around January.

In January, Kanagawa quit a convenience store job that he had kept for about a year, and in mid-January he bought a survival knife through a cell phone Web site. He reportedly then purchased a kitchen knife at a hardware store in Tsuchiura in February.

A man who called himself the "Dragon of Kabukicho" and boasts of living off millions of yen given to him each month by women has been arrested for having sex with a schoolgirl, police said Monday.

Tsuchida, who was known around the Tokyo entertainment districts of Shinjuku and Ikebukuro as the "Dragon of Kabukicho," admits to the allegations.

"In some months, women would give me as much as 2 million or 3 million yen," police quoted Tsuchida as telling them.

Police said that on two occasions in September and October last year, Tsuchida performed indecent acts on a 17-year-old schoolgirl in a love hotel in the Shinjuku-ku entertainment district of Kabukicho.

Police said Tsuchida approached the girl by telling her that he would become her bodyguard.

An elephant playing tennis and a hare wearing a skirt are just two of the characters that appear in some 1,200 illustrated letters that British veteran Sir Henry Thornhill sent to his four grandchildren in the early 1900s, and which are on display for the first time in Japan.

About 100 of his original illustrated cards and letters are currently on display at an exhibition being held at Tamagawa Takashimaya Shopping Center in Tokyo's Setagaya-ku.

The letters were discovered about 30 years ago by one of Thornhill's great-grandsons while he was going through his late mother's effects. These letters, coupled with other letters that were in possession of his relatives, gained great attention in the U.K.

The 12-day exhibition, which will last until May 6, was produced by Aisuke Matsutoya, 52, president of London-based Cross Culture Holdings. The event showcases the original cards and letters penned and crayoned by Sir Henry, as well as replicas of his letters and other photos and memorabilia from his family.

Matsutoya's encounter with the "Grandfather's Letters" collection dates back to the early 1990s.

"I was touched by the warmth that the original illustrations have when I first saw them," Matsutoya recalled during a recent interview with the MDN in Tokyo.

"The fact that these illustrated letters, which were elaborately drawn by an amateur about 100 years ago, have been kept by his grandchildren and great-grandchildren over the years struck me," he said.

Last year, Matsutoya formed a group of people in Japan who sympathize with the concept of cherishing the family bond exemplified in the Grandfather's Letters collection. The Tokyo-based group, called the Grandfather's Letters (GFL) Project Committee, has published a book titled "Grandfather's Letters - Mago ni Ateta 1,200-tsu no Etegami," which chronicles the history of Sir Henry and his family and descendants, along with an abundance of his illustrated cards and letters.

Matsutoya's passion even led him to visit India in March last year. From Delhi, Matsutoya drove up north for about 13 hours and finally reached Shimla, where Teddy -- the first grandchild of Sir Henry -- and his family used to live in the summer.

"In the evening, I could see the mountains in front of the house turning purple and yellow in the sunset, and there were many birds and monkeys around. The visit helped me deepen my understanding of some of the illustrations in the Grandfather's Letters and of how much Sir Henry remembered India when he was back in Britain," Matsutoya said.

A resident of Britain for nearly two decades himself, Matsutoya finds Japanese people smile less compared to people in other countries in Asia or in Europe, every time he comes back to Japan. "If we had something like a smile index, Japan would be ranked as a developing country," he said.

"Today, we hear many sad stories in Japanese newspapers about parents killing their children or children killing their parents. I think these incidents are now played up in the news all the more because people are getting aware that family ties have been broken nowadays. At such times, I believe it is very significant and necessary to introduce Grandfather's Letters to people here in Japan," said Matsutoya. (By Tetsuko Yoshida, Mainichi Daily News)

"Hiroto" and "Hina" topped Japan's favorite names for newborn babies this year, a survey by Benesse Corp. has shown.

The survey, which covered 36,544 babies born between January and November this year, found that "Hiroto" ranked No. 1 among the favorite names for newborn boys for the second consecutive year.

The equivalent for baby girls was "Hina," which topped the rankings for the third consecutive year.

The popularity of names bearing the kanji character "yu," or "hisa," (meaning eternity) also rose, apparently because the character is used in the name of Prince Hisahito, who was born to Prince Akishino and Princess Kiko in September last year.

As many as three names bearing the character ranked in the top 10 names for baby boys this year, while only one name bearing the character was in the top 10 list last year.

Following the success of teenage celebrity golfer Ryo Ishikawa, the name "Ryo" climbed up to 57th in the rankings from 86th last year.

Posters of the popular film series "Otoko wa Tsurai yo (It's tough being a man)" fetched 1.6 million yen in an Internet auction after they were confiscated from a delinquent taxpayer and sold by the National Tax Agency.

The posters of all 48 installments of "Otoko wa Tsurai yo" were auctioned on the Internet and were sold for 1.601 million yen on Wednesday. The posters had been seized from a tax delinquent by the Utsunomiya Taxation Office and were in good condition.

The popular film series features Torajiro Kuruma, a vagabond affectionately called "Tora-san," and his interaction with various people in Tokyo's old town and his encounters with women while traveling across Japan.

The film was directed by Yoji Yamada from 1969 to 1995. The series came to a close in 1996 with the death at age 68 of its main actor, Kiyoshi Atsumi, who played the role of Tora-san.

The late Japanese diplomat known as "Japan's Schindler," Chiune Sugihara, was awarded a decoration by the president of Poland for his efforts to issue visas to Jewish people who tried to escape from Nazi persecution during World War II.

The decoration was handed to Chiune's grandson, 43-year-old Chihiro Sugihara, by Polish Ambassador to Japan Marcin Rybicki during a ceremony at the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Tokyo's Meguro-ku on Wednesday.

"I feel honored that my grandfather has been recognized for his achievements," said Chihiro Sugihara, who lives in Bangkok.

Chiune Sugihara (1900-1986), who was serving as a Japanese consulate representative in Lithuania, issued visas to Jewish refugees from Poland in the summer of 1940 against the instructions of the Japanese Foreign Ministry.

His actions are said to have saved the lives of about 6,000 Jewish people.

In October last year, Polish President Lech Kaczynski decided to award decorations to 53 people who saved the lives of Jewish people from Poland during the war.

Actress Chiaki Kuriyama, who appeared in Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill: Vol. 1," has been awarded the annual best-looking celebrity in leather title.

Clad in a black leather one-piece suit, Kuriyama appeared excited about the honor she was given during an award ceremony held at the Omotesando Hills shopping complex in Tokyo's Shibuya-ku on Monday.

"I love leather because it can be enjoyed both when new and used. My family is also happy about the award," the 22-year-old actress told reporters.

This year's award highlights the "age softening" of leather and Kuriyama is set to appear in two variations of promotional pin-ups that show leather outfits that are relatively new and aged.

When presented with a leather-made motorcycle jacket as one of her prizes, she beamed and said, "I had intended to buy a leather jacket this year, so I'm really happy," adding that she would wear it when she meets the press next time.

Past winners of the annual award include Ryoko Yonekura, Anna Tsuchiya, Asami Ishikawa, Ayako Kawahara, Ai Tominaga and Eriko Sato. This year's award was the seventh annual event in honor of leather-clad celebrities. The prize is sponsored by the Tanners' Council of Japan (http://www.tcj.jibasan.or.jp).

"I am honored to hear that the award has been given to so many cool people," Kuriyama said when commenting on the past winners.

Kuriyama's love of leather started as early as in her elementary school days, when she wore a leather jacket that matched her mom's. Even now, Kuriyama regularly slips into leather and even wears leather boots in summer.

Asked about what she thinks of men in leather outfits, Kuriyama said, "Men look cool (in leather). It reminds me of Kaneda (Shotaro), a boy I loved in the animated film 'Akira.'" When a leather tanner later told her that some customers order leather jackets modeled after what Kaneda wore in the popular Akira flick, Kuriyama replied, "I'd love to get one, too!"

Japan's largest labor union organization plans to bombard North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il with bilingual postcards demanding the return of Japanese captives the Stalinist state has abducted, union officials said.

The Japanese Trade Union Confederation, known by its Japanese acronym of Rengo, has printed about 100,000 pamphlets and handed them out to members, as well as made the document available on its website, each of which contains a cut-out postcard urging Kim to "let our comrades come home."

Interested parties can cut out the postcard on the pamphlet, affix a 70-yen stamp and send it off to North Korea in the hope it will convince Kim to allow the Japanese hostages to return to their homeland.

Rengo is carrying out the campaign as part of its human rights and peace activities.

"These abductions are a tremendous violation of human rights and should never be permitted," a Rengo spokesman said.

Rengo's postcards are written in Japanese and Korean phrases that say "let our comrades come home." They go on to add: "Just as you have parents you respect, so there are comrades who have sons and daughters your country has abducted. Please allow these people to return home as soon as possible." The postcards also contain the photos of 12 people the government recognizes as having being abducted by North Korea, not including the five who returned to Japan in 2002.

Rengo's effort is not the first postcard campaign Japanese have conducted to try and prompt Kim to move on the abduction issue. Ten years ago, relatives of abductees carried out a similar campaign, spending a year sending letters to Kim asking for the Japanese to be freed. To make sure the postcards are not destroyed when they arrive in North Korea, their front has been adorned with a photo of the Dear Leader.

Leading Japanese actor Tadanobu Asano, whose latest film, "Mongol," was nominated for an Academy Award in the best foreign language film category, said he hopes the flick will win an Oscar later this month.

During a recent press conference in Tokyo, Asano, who plays the main role of Genghis Khan in the film, told reporters, "I'm happy that the film was rewarded with an Academy Award nomination because the shooting was very tough and took a tremendous amount of time. I'm praying that the film will win an award."

The film traces the life of Genghis Khan from his childhood days as a nomad through to the days when he established the Mongolian Empire.

The film was directed by Russian director Sergei Bodrov, who is known for such works as "Bear's Kiss" (2002) and "Prisoner of the Mountains" (1996). The shooting took place in China, taking seven months in 2005 and 2006 and cost about 5 billion yen.

Negotiations are still underway for the release of the film in Japan. The winners of the Academy Awards will be announced on Feb. 25 Japan Time (Feb. 24 U.S. Time).

BEPPU, Oita -- Queen Fruits Parfait, a huge, 2-kilogram dessert, has gone on sale at the Kijima Amusement Park here, with gluttons given the chance to eat it at no cost.

Anybody capable of eating their way through the monster-sized parfait alone will get the dish normally costing 3,800 yen a serving for free.

Gal Sone, a well-known competitive eater, is bound for the park next month to try and chomp her way through the dish, designed to serve six.

Since the Queen Fruits Parfait went on sale almost two weeks ago, nobody has yet been able to single-handedly eat their way through it, park officials said.

The Queen Fruits Parfait features three different types of ice cream, pancakes, cream puffs and a healthy serving of seasonal and frozen fruits.

Asuka Sawamoto, a self-professed idol who became an Internet star for her exhibitionist photo shoots on the streets of Tokyo's geek haven Akihabara, has been arrested, according to police.

Sawamoto, 30, was arrested for breaking a Tokyo Metropolitan Government ordinance forbidding people from creating a public nuisance. Sawamoto denies the allegations.

Police say that Sawamoto acted indecently by flashing her underpants on the streets of Tokyo's Chiyoda-ku on the afternoon of April 20.

On her popular blog, Sawamoto refers to herself as a 'multi-sexy idol'. Since last summer, she has been performing what she calls "street concerts," where she puts on provocative poses for photographers on the streets of Akihabara on Sundays and public holidays, when they are closed to traffic.

Complaints from Akihabara residents led police to act against Sawamoto.

A group of Tokyo junior high schoolboys inspired by the hip "Ocean's 11" series of movies have been reported to prosecutors after they went on a spree of car robbery and pick-pocketing, police said.

Documents accusing the four boys -- all third-year classmates at a public junior high school in Tokyo's Hino -- of theft have been sent to prosecutors.

The boys, whose ages range from 14 to 15 and thus cannot allow them to be identified in accordance with the Juvenile Law, admit to the allegations.

"We wanted to look really cool like the guys in the movie," one of the boys told the police.

Police said the specific charge the boys were reported for involved the theft of a station wagon from a Tokyo apartment block's parking lot on Oct. 10. The vehicle was unlocked, but there were no keys in the ignition. The boys shoved a scissor blade into the ignition and turned it to start the engine. Police said the boys told them they had stolen two cars and been involved in eight pick-pocketing incidents.

The boys are all classmates at the same school. They saw "Ocean's 13" over the summer. Two of the boys were questioned by officials from their school in connection with a theft in adjacent Hachioji, then ran away from home, using a stolen car they planned to drive to Hokkaido, police said, adding that officers in Aomori Prefecture arrested them for theft.

Borodin's rich and rambling "Prince Igor" brought the Mariinsky Opera's 2008 Japan tour to a close in three performances over the weekend.

NHK Hall provided nothing if not clear sightlines of the vintage 1954 Yevgeny Sokovnin production, with its serve-the-drama painted flats, bold costumes, unfussy stage action, and -- no minor detail -- flowing, biting choreography in the Polovstian Dances. The latter, said the credits, retrace a 99-year-old scheme by Michel Fokine.

Just six weeks earlier, this company and this same opera had graced the brand-new boards of Beijing's National Centre for the Performing Arts.

How exactly China's sparkling "Egg" compares for performers with the Japanese broadcaster's 3,600-seat tired blocky barn is a thing for conjecture. What we do know is that spaces built without regard to scale have never served the interests of classical art.

Still, the Mariinsky Orchestra on Saturday emitted sweet, smooth, clean tones from NHK Hall's pit, lodged forward of the proscenium.

This "opera house" configuration cannot rival Tokyo Bunka Kaikan but it projects a fuller symphonic sound than the "orchestra shell" used for weekly concerts by the house band. The NHK Symphony Orchestra always makes a finer splash on its forays to Suntory Hall, or even to the oddly opera-less Tokyo Opera City.

Borodin toiled for twenty years on the tale of Ukraine-based Igor's failed 1185 raid against nomadic Tartars -- specifically Polovstians -- encamped nearby on the Lower Don. He wrote all the music. He left at least two structural outlines.

St. Petersburg's Mariinsky Theatre (pr. marry-een-ski) hosted the premiere in 1890 using a full score prepared by Borodin's colleagues, the composer having died. The action unfolds in a prologue and four acts.

With this legacy, we might assume the Mariinsky Opera would adhere to Borodin's intentions, as far as those can be known: Igor ignores evil omen, leaves for battle; home rule goes awry; Igor in captivity; Igor escapes; Igor returns. Logical, at least by the standards of opera.

Instead, conductor Valery Gergiev opted to place Act One (chaos back home) at the end, with Igor showing up just in time not to be needed.

Dubbed the "2007 Gergiev Version," this was deployed at the Egg as well. Its flawed drama is mirrored by a jolt and anticlimax in the music. Closing chords resolve in a way detached from what has just been heard, and the musical inspiration does not uphold a three-hour arch. Borodin was a chemist, not a builder. So no goose bumps.

A definitive "Prince Igor" evidently eludes the Mariinsky. Gergiev's 1990s way of putting Act One after Act Two at least offered some merits and needed no tinkering with the score. In fact some music was restored. On the other hand, the company's 2008 website runs an English synopsis with Act One in its 1890 place and Act Three cut entirely, a once-sanctioned "solution."

The singing at NHK Hall fought for attention. Angles and dimensions that suited dinosaur TV cameras in the 1970s have a way of sapping vocal power.

Thus the Mariinsky's bravura chorus threw a wan shadow of its week-earlier self at Tokyo Bunka Kaikan.

The slightly irrelevant lovers, Konchakovna and Vladimir, blended amiably in the duet, Natalia Evstafieva a dusky mezzo, Yevgeny Akimov a nasal tenor with spinto reserves.

Larisa Gogolevskaya introduced a long-taxed, Brunnhilde-like Yaroslavna. Sergei Aleksashkin's bass wobbled and flailed all evening in the kind-barbarian duties of Khan Konchak. Andrei Popov and Grigory Karasev tore up the stage as army deserters Eroshka and Skula, albeit at the wrong point in the proceedings, thanks to editor Gergiev.

Maestro Gergiev, meanwhile, presided over stage and pit with seeming calm at this Japan Arts event. (By Andrew Powell, special to the Mainichi)

A man who ran a website claiming to be a professional avenger, and a woman previously employed by an NHK subsidiary who hired him to go after an employee of the taxpayer-funded public broadcaster, have been arrested, police said.

Hisashi Aimonoya, 50, unemployed of no fixed address and the operator of the site offering revenge for payment, and the 36-year-old woman formerly employed by a subsidiary of the Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) were arrested for willful destruction of property and intimidation.

Both Aimonoya and the woman, who have never met in person, admit to the allegations.

An NHK spokesman declined to offer an opinion on the case.

"We don't know any of the details at the moment, so would rather not comment," the spokesman said.

Police said that during May last year, Aimonoya and the woman were behind a series of incidents that occurred in a parking lot at the NHK employee's home in Tokyo, including his car being splattered with paint remover and threatening pamphlets being distributed.

Aimonoya is currently standing trial for inflicting bodily injury. He is charged with having doused a man with sulfuric acid in Fukuoka in November last year after he accepted a job from a woman who saw his vengeance site.

OSAKA -- A sexagenarian pensioner who made a DVD about himself entitled "I'm The Sexiest Man Alive" was jailed Tuesday by the Osaka District Court for tricking a club hostess into giving him millions of yen in the belief he would marry her.

Yukichi Kamibeppu, 66, from Osaka, was found guilty of fraud and ordered to serve 3 years, 4 months in prison.

"You used devious methods to cheat people out of large sums of money and the mental anguish suffered by the female victims who trusted you was significant," Presiding Judge Kenji Yasunaga said as he handed down the ruling.

During April to May 2006, Kamibeppu suggested to his 50-something hostess lover that they should start living together and that she should consider his suggestion a proposal. He told her he needed money to build their love nest and she gave him 26.55 million yen, which he used for different purposes other than what he had claimed.

Kamibeppu's "sexiest man alive" DVD featured footage of himself that he had taken walking around places in Osaka, such as its Dotonbori entertainment district. His past also included periods where he pretended to be the head of a finance company, a ruse that helped him seduce women and take their money from them fraudulently.

TOMAKOMAI, Hokkaido -- A man who molested a 2-month-old baby girl has been imprisoned for 3 years by a court here, with the presiding judge in the case calling his actions a "shock to society."

Koji Nakano, 35, a company employee from Tomakomai, was found guilty of indecent assault and assault by the Tomakomai Branch of the Sapporo District Court.

"Society was shocked to learn about this defendant, who had gone so far as to use a newborn infant as a sex object," Presiding Judge Tetsuo Tanahashi said as he imprisoned Nakano.

On the afternoon of Oct. 4, Nakano approached the newborn's 25-year-old mother at a Tomakomai supermarket, telling her he was about to become a father and begging for a chance to nurse the child. The young mother acquiesced, but Nakano responded by molesting the baby's genitals.

SASAGURI, Fukuoka -- A ceremony to clean a huge sleeping Buddha statue was carried out at Nanzoin Temple here on Wednesday, with about 200 people taking part.

During the annual ceremony, a group of people, including the temple's deputy chief priest, stood on a special platform and used bamboo leaves fixed to the end of 5-meter-long poles to clean the face of the Shaka Nehan (nirvana) statue, which lies horizontal on the ground. Afterwards, temple followers dressed in happi coats wiped down the body and legs of the statue.

After the ceremony, visitors clasped their hands together in prayer in front of the cleaned statue, praying for good health in the new year.

The Shaka Nehan statue, which is familiarly known as "Nebotoke-san" (sleeping Buddha) was built in 1995. It is 11 meters tall and 41 meters long, and weighs about 300 tons. It is said to be one of the largest bronze Shaka Nehan statues in the world.

OSAKA -- An 81-year-old tobacconist has twice in the past week convinced a would-be robber to leave his store empty handed, even after he turned up armed at the second attempt, police here said.

Just a week after the old man prompted the wannabe thief to leave his store because he had no cash there, the elderly cigarette vendor did the same thing again even when the man re-appeared wielding a knife.

After hearing the old man cry poor the second time, the thief silently packed his knife away and forlornly walked out the door, again bagging nothing.

Police are now searching for the thief to charge him with attempted robbery.

"He's probably thought he'd give the old man a bit of a scare if he pulled out a knife, but when he saw how relaxed the shopkeeper was, it might have dented his confidence," an officer from the Joto Police Station said.

Police said the wannabe robber, who tried to rob the store early on Sunday afternoon, is about 40, stands some 165 centimeters tall and was wearing a black cap.

KAWASAKI -- A National Police Agency (NPA) superintendent was found dead here early Tuesday, apparently after he leaped to his death from a building, law enforcers said.

The 43-year-old officer was found dead on a road outside the apartment block where he lived at about 5:25 a.m. on Tuesday. A note saying, "I'm tired," was found in the superintendent's home, leading police to suspect that he committed suicide. They are investigating possible motives.

NPA officials said that the superintendent was hired by the Imperial Guard, and from March 14 he had been assigned to a division specializing in international terrorism countermeasures.

"He had just been transferred, and we can't think of any worries or trouble with work he might have had," an NPA representative said.

In the Imperial Guard, the superintendent had belonged to the No. 2 protection division in charge of guarding the crown prince and his family.

A 79-year-old home in Tokyo's Suginami-ku dubbed the "house where Totoro lives" after being praised by Hayao Miyazaki, director of the popular anime film "My Neighbor Totoro," is set to be preserved.

The Suginami Ward Office has decided to make the house, whose future was previously uncertain, part of a park.

"We want it to be a home that serves as a model of coexistence between humans and greenery," a ward official said.

Local residents had called for the structure to be preserved after it was praised by Miyazaki, who said it was a house in which people and plants interacted as living things.

The wooden, western-style home was built in the Asagaya Kita district of Suginami-ku in about 1929. Miyazaki, who happened to pass the home about 20 years ago, introduced it in his book "Totoro no Sumu Ie" (The house where Totoro lives), along with photographs and illustrations.

In July last year, the owner moved out, leaving the future of the empty house uncertain. This prompted local residents to form a petition to preserve it, and about 6,300 signatures were collected.

The ward plans to purchase about 850 square meters of land in fiscal 2008, and turn the area into a park the following fiscal year so people can see the home up close. The project is expected to cost about 400 million yen.

Miyazaki praised the move.

"If my book is the reason for it being preserved, I would be really happy," he was quoted as telling local government officials.

Despite perception of Japan being short of natural resources, "urban mines" mean the country actually possesses world-leading amounts of rare metals such as gold, silver, lead and indium, the National Institute for Materials Science said.

Urban mines refers to the metals found in discarded items such as cars or electrical equipment. Business interest in tapping into urban mines is on the rise, though the precise amounts of metals in existence had remained unknown.

"If we can use the urban mines, Japan would be one of the world's leading sources of resources and this could create new economic opportunities," the institute's Komei Harada said.

The institute compared estimates of 20 different rare metals in Japan's urban mines with reserves in overseas mines.

The institute estimated that Japan's urban mines contain 1,700 tons of indium -- about 61 percent of known natural reserves -- 60,000 tons of silver (22 percent of natural reserves), 6,800 tons of gold (16 percent of natural reserves) and 5.6 million tons of lead (10 percent of natural reserves).

The study also guessed that Japan's urban mines contain 1.2 billion tons of steel, which is about 2 percent of the world's natural reserves, 60 million tons of aluminum -- 0.2 percent of the total amount in the world -- and 8 percent of the world's copper, with 38 million tons.

"Waist Size Story," a new DVD with exercises centering around such activities as teeth-cleaning and putting on socks, has hit Japanese stores.

"Waist Size Story" aims to allow viewers to exercise while going about their daily lives around the home.

Among the exercises it offers to teach viewers are "sock removal repeats," "one-legged teeth cleaning" and "exercise for those sick of 'Billy's Boot Camp.'"

Hokkaido University Prof. Yuko Agishi oversaw the exercise program used in "Waist Size Story," while the narrator is Harahekomu. The DVD contains level 3 exercises and advice on health muscle tone methods.

SAPPORO -- "White Lover" cookies have been selling well since their return to the market last month following a stale-ingredient scandal that forced their manufacturer to remove them from the shelves.

Ishiya Co. resumed sales of the chocolate cookies, known as "Shiroi Koibito" in Japanese, at about 400 shops across Hokkaido on Nov. 22 and has already run short of stock at some shops.

Production of the cookies was halted on Aug. 15 after the Hokkaido-based company was found to have altered the use-by dates.

Ishiya says that the production of the cookies has now recovered to levels prior to the suspension.

Some customers say that their trust in the product has improved apparently because the company has boosted its hygiene controls.

Respondents in an annual survey by a glasses manufacturer have named South Korean actor Bae Yong-joon as the male celebrity that suits glasses the best, while Japanese celebrity Miho Takagi has topped the women's list.

The survey was by Seiko Optical Products Co. over the Internet ahead of Japan's "Glasses Day" on Oct. 1.

It was the first time that Bae, known familiarly in Japan as "Yon-sama," topped the list in the annual survey. Takagai took the top spot in the woman's list for the fourth year in a row.

In the survey, the percentage of people who said they liked glasses fell slightly, but still exceeded the halfway mark, hitting about 55 percent. Reasons people gave for liking glasses included that they could change the look of their face and that they enjoyed matching their glasses with their clothes.

The manufacturer's survey was conducted in July on a total of 1,074 people (Mainichi)

MIDORI, Gunma -- A woman is dead while a man and two other women are in critical condition following what investigators believe is the latest case of a mass suicide in Japan over the weekend, police said.

The dead woman was found in a Midori swamp on Sunday morning.

The man and two other women were discovered unconscious in a car parked nearby.

Police said inside the car they also found two charcoal burners, typically used by those taking part in group suicides as they attempt to fatally poison themselves with toxic fumes, and suicide notes.

SHIJONAWATE, Osaka -- A junior high school girl died and her younger sister was seriously injured after they apparently fell from a bridge onto a national highway here and were hit by multiple cars early Saturday, police said.

At around 12:10 a.m. on Saturday, a number of cars hit a 15-year-old girl and her 13-year-old sister on Route 163 in Shijonawate and sped off, local police said.

The sisters, both junior high school students, were rushed to hospital where the elder sister died shortly afterwards and the younger sister remains in serious condition.

Noting that the 15-year-old girl's bag was found on a bridge above the highway and their bicycle was abandoned about one kilometer west of the bridge, investigators suspect that the sisters plunged 13 meters from the bridge before being hit by the cars.

The sisters had left home by bicycle about two hours before the accident. (Mainichi)

SUZAKA, Nagano -- A full 1,000 hina dolls for the March 3 Hina Doll Festival for girls are on display on a 6-meter-tall, 30-tiered stand at a museum here.

Visitors to the museum have expressed surprise at the exhibits. "I'm overwhelmed by the dolls. Each one has a happy expression," said Yumiko Suzuki, 25, from Ueda, Nagano Prefecture.

The dolls exhibition at the World Folk Doll Museum in Suzaka is on until April 13, as part of the traditional Hina Doll Festival. The festival is supposed to bring young girls beauty and happiness.