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Stories Checked for Students of English by Jamaby

HALF MOON BAY, Calif. (AP) Paula Creamer could finally look to all those supporters who have seen her through every stage of her young golf career and know she'd made them proud while playing right in her backyard. Creamer calmly won her biggest LPGA Tour title yet, holding off a large pack to win the Samsung World Championship on Sunday about 1 1/2 hours west of where she grew up in Pleasanton. (Japan Times)

Survival now arcades' most pressing game

Once viewed as dens of delinquency, game center arcades are diversifying their entertainment fare, and in the process, attracting not only youths but families, high school girls, couples and video game fans. Basic information about game centers follows: (Japan Times)

Rest-area dog runs unleashed

OSAKA — People who take their dogs on long expressway rides can now give them some respite by unleashing them in grassy areas exclusively established for their pleasure. These so-called dog runs have been flourishing since the government privatized the state-backed highway corporations in 2005. Since dogs face air- and train-travel restrictions, the new expressway companies are setting up canine rest areas at highway service and parking areas in an effort to increase profits. (Japan Times)

Billionaire's run-down, vermin-rife estates irk Oahu neighbors

HONOLULU (AP) Neighbors of billionaire Genshiro Kawamoto are urging the Honolulu government and the Japanese Consulate to force him to clean up 20 of his properties. The City Council tentatively agreed to ask the consul general of Japan in Honolulu to talk with Kawamoto about resolving his dispute with the 1,700 members of the Kahala Community Association, The Honolulu Advertiser reported. The dispute is over unkempt yards, broken walls and vermin infestations. (Japan Times)

Rightist ex-cop may get prison time

Prosecutors on Monday sought a one-year prison term for a former police officer who threw a bottle at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo in August, because he was holding a Japanese sword at the time, which violates the Firearm and Sword Control Law. "It was rightist activity conducted by a former police officer and the impact it has on society is significant," the prosecutors said at the Tokyo District Court's first hearing for Takashi Kuninobu, 36. Kuninobu belongs to a rightwing group. (Japan Times)

Higashikokubaru opts out of race

Miyazaki Gov. Hideo Higashikokubaru told reporters Monday he will not run in the next Lower House general election, ending speculation that he may quit his post in the middle of his four-year term in a bid to get a Diet seat. Higashikokubaru, however, did not rule out running for a Diet seat in the future. (Japan Times)

Japan, U.S. urged to join hands on green biz

Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone called on U.S. and Japanese businesses to join hands in developing and promoting innovative technologies in such fields as clean energy and energy efficiency, as he addressed an annual U.S.-Japan Business Conference in Tokyo on Monday. "Climate change is the most important issue for the international community in the 21st century," Nakasone said in a speech. "About 70 percent of investments in environmental technology development comes from Japan and the United States. . . . The (Japanese) government too will give its maximum support." (Japan Times)

Welfare swindlers hiked fraud tally to record-high ¥9.2 billion in '07

About 16,000 people illegally received ¥9.2 billion in government funds for day-to-day living expenses in fiscal 2007, the highest level on record since fiscal 1997, according to preliminary government data released Monday. The tallies rose by 1,300 cases and ¥200 million from fiscal 2006, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said. (Japan Times)

Businesses reflect election jitters

Prime Minister Taro Aso's wavering on when he might call a general election and increasing speculation about a possible date are leaving many people in suspense, especially those whose businesses depend on politics. The concerns range from a chef near the Diet, to florists and publishers of politics-related books. (Japan Times)

Video parlor manager admits he turned off alarm in deadly arson

OSAKA (Kyodo) The manager of the building that housed the video parlor where 15 customers perished in an arson blaze last week has told authorities he switched off the fire alarm because he believed it was a false alarm, officials said Monday. Several customers who escaped said evacuation lights in the establishment were off at the time, prompting police to investigate whether the deaths were preventable, investigative sources said. (Japan Times)

Utsumi pans rate cuts, dollar props

Makoto Utsumi, a former top currency official at the Finance Ministry, said he doesn't see the need for joint interest-rate cuts and coordinated intervention to support the dollar by the United States, Europe and Japan. "There was and will be no chance for a coordinated rate cut," Utsumi, who led Japan's currency policy from 1989 to 1991 as vice finance minister for international affairs, said in a Friday interview in Tokyo. He said joint dollar buying is unlikely "at least for the next several months." (Japan Times)

MMC chief sees rough road ahead for autos

Mitsubishi Motors Corp. President Osamu Masuko said Monday that the auto industry can expect to face a harsher business environment over the next few years. Factors behind the grim outlook include global financial uncertainty, the rising cost of raw materials, and the need for greater spending on research and development, he said. (Japan Times)

Nikkei plunges to four-year low

Tokyo stocks plunged Monday, sending the Nikkei index spiraling to its lowest level in more than four years and the Topix index to its worst finish in nearly five years. Investors remained jittery about the slowing global economy despite measures to quell the ongoing financial turmoil announced by U.S. and European authorities late last week. (Japan Times)

'Gaijin' mind-set is killing rural Japan

Allow me to conclude my trilogy of columns regarding the word "gaijin" this month by talking about the damage the concept does to Japanese society. That's right — damage to Japanese society. I previously mentioned the historical fact that "gaijin" once also applied to Japanese — to "outsiders" not from one's neighborhood. But as Japan unified and built a nation-state, it made its "volk" all one "community," for political and jingoistic reasons. Anyone considered to be Japanese became an "insider," while the rest of the world became "outsiders," neatly pigeonholed by that contentious term "gaijin." (Japan Times)

Berdych, Wozniacki collect Japan Open singles titles

Tomas Berdych claimed his first singles title in 16 months with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Juan Martin Del Potro on Sunday to win the Japan Open. The ninth-seeded Czech relied on strong serves and solid ground strokes to beat the Argentine, who was not able to show the form that had seen him win 29 of 30 matches going into the final. (Japan Times)

Creamer keeps cool, fires 68 to move into lead

HALF MOON BAY, Calif. (AP) Paula Creamer acknowledges she often lets her emotions get the better of her. On Saturday, she vowed to be steady and keep her head in check. (Japan Times)

Rooney makes difference for United against Rovers

LONDON (AP) Manchester United climbed back into the Premier League title race with a 2-0 victory at Blackburn on Saturday, and Cesc Fabregas headed an injury-time equalizer for Arsenal in a 1-1 draw at Sunderland. Wayne Rooney provided the cross for Wes Brown to head United's first goal in the 31st minute at Ewood Park. (Japan Times)

Bush quiets Philly bats as Brewers stave off elimination with victory

MILWAUKEE (AP) J.J. Hardy and the Milwaukee Brewers kept their postseason hopes alive for another day. All it took was a little patience. Back home at Miller Park, the Brewers got three hits from Hardy and a sharp outing from Dave Bush to beat the Philadelphia Phillies 4-1 Saturday night and stave off elimination in the NL division series. (Japan Times)

OB-GYN to work at Afghan hospital

NARITA, Chiba Pref. (Kyodo) A Japanese obstetrician-gynecologist left for Afghanistan on Sunday to assist in childbirths and offer advice to pregnant women in the war-torn country. Makiko Kikuchi, a 34-year-old OB-GYN of the Japanese Red Cross Society, will work for five months in a hospital in Kandahar. (Japan Times)

Farewell to Thabo Mbeki

It was widely believed of South Africa's outgoing president, Thabo Mbeki, that the only time when he wasn't plotting was when he was asleep. More than his bizarre views on AIDS or even his failure to do much for South Africa's poor, it was that reputation as an inveterate plotter that finally brought him down. Mbeki's humiliation has been very great. First the governing African National Congress (ANC) refused to re-elect him as its leader last year, which dashed his hopes of winning a third term in next year's election. (Japan Times)

Counterproductive antiterrorism

Buried deep in the U.S. Pentagon somewhere is an official in charge of the detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. As he goes about his daily chores — organizing the floor shackles, bully guards, illegal confinements, arbitrary trials and occasional torture sessions — he no doubt thinks he is doing his bit in the "war on terror." In fact, al-Qaida and other Islamic militant groups owe him a medal for helping their recruitment efforts. His activities have encouraged even more Middle Eastern and other Islamists to want to take even more violent action against the United States and its allies. (Japan Times)

Tinge of green as China becomes top polluter

SINGAPORE — The latest tally of greenhouse-gas emissions blamed for warming the world shows that China has emerged as the top polluter, ahead of the United States, by an increasingly big margin. Released last month, the scientific findings of the Global Carbon Project show that, in 2007, over half the world's emissions came from high-growth developing economies led by China and India, and that this share is rising because emissions from developed economies are growing less fast. (Japan Times)

After the Dear Leader has passed

SEOUL — Korea is a unique country. The Cold War ended when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, and is now remembered only as history to most people around the world. The Korean Peninsula, however, remains divided along ideological lines, and the two Koreas coexist as living remnants of the Cold War. A total of almost 1.5 million young soldiers from both North and South Korea face off against each other across the heavily armed Demilitarized Zone. Events and structural forces, however, have affected and changed the nature of the North Korean system sine 1991. The sudden discontinuation of the supply of petroleum and natural resources from Russia in the early 1990s, the failure of the centrally planned economy and the massive famine in the mid-1990s left North Korea's leaders no alternative but to tolerate informal market activities. Nowadays, every North Korean seems to appreciate money and know its value. (Japan Times)

Del Potro upsets Ferrer in quarters

Argentina's Juan Martin Del Potro sent top seed and defending champion David Ferrer crashing out in the quarterfinals of the Japan Open on Friday, while American Andy Roddick continued his successful tour of Asia with a comfortable 6-3, 6-4 win over Serbia's Viktor Troicki. Del Potro broke Ferrer's serve three times as the Spaniard skewed shots wildly off-target throughout the first set, and the world No. 12 turned the screw in the second to close out the match 6-1, 7-5. The win earns Del Potro a semifinal clash with Kei Nishikori's third-round conqueror, Richard Gasquet, who beat German Rainer Schuettler 6-3, 6-2 later in the day. (Japan Times)

Loss to Hull could push Ramos closer to the door

LONDON — At the start of the season Sunday's Premier League fixture between Tottenham and Hull had the look of a game between one team riding comfortably high with the other in the relegation zone. And so it will be, only unexpectedly it is Hull which is sixth and Spurs who are rock bottom. (Japan Times)

Bills' Evans OKs four-year deal

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) Having stuck it out through the tough times in Buffalo, receiver Lee Evans had no intention of leaving now that the Bills have begun to turn the corner with their fast start. Looks like Evans will be around for quite a while longer after Thursday, when he signed a four-year, $37.25 million contract extension that locks him up through 2012 and prevents the Bills from losing him to free agency this offseason. (Japan Times)

Longoria rips 2 HRs; Rays top White Sox

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) Cool and calm, or so it seemed. Evan Longoria and the Tampa Bay Rays appeared perfectly at home in the playoffs with a Game 1 victory over Chicago. The rookie said looks can be deceiving, though. (Japan Times)

Street corner fish stores declining rapidly

Fresh fish stores on street corners are disappearing because supermarkets are taking over their turf and convenience is denting demand for the traditional staple. The number of street corner fish stores has more than halved over the last 20 years. According to statistics from the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Trade, there were 19,709 fish stores across the country in 2007, dropping below the 20,000 mark for the first time, compared with 44,000 in 1988. (Japan Times)

Poor scores prompt call for fewer law students

A government advisory panel has proposed reducing the number of law school students to improve the quality of judicial education. In its interim proposals, unveiled Tuesday, the subpanel under the Central Council for Education also called for mergering or consolidating the nation's 74 law schools. Some have low enrollment, and pass rates for the bar exam fell 7 points to 33 percent this year. (Japan Times)

Women's group aims to narrow wage gap

Inspired by the basic principle of equal pay for equal work, a group of working women in Osaka is gearing up to pressure the government to narrow the gap in wages between male and female employees. The Working Women's Network, a civic group formed by female workers in Osaka in 1995, is putting together a report on sexual discrimination in the workplace to be distributed in November to members of the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). (Japan Times)

No leak from Ibaraki nuke plant fire

MITO, Ibaraki Pref. (Kyodo) A small fire broke out Friday at a nuclear fuel plant in the village of Tokaimura, Ibaraki Prefecture, but did not cause any injuries or environmental damage, said the operator of the plant, which was scolded for delaying the report. The Ibaraki Prefectural Government told Mitsubishi Nuclear Fuel Co. to promptly report fires to local authorities in the future after learning that the company waited for about 30 minutes to report the fire, prefectural officials said. (Japan Times)

Kawamura to show receipts for all office expenditures

Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura repeated Friday that he has used his political funds legally and said his office is preparing to disclose receipts that back up his suspiciously high expenditures. "My support groups had been active in accordance with the Political Funds Control Law, but they must be managed so as not to raise doubt," Kawamura said during a regular news conference. "I am a bit bewildered at the media reports." (Japan Times)

Power pricing system to be revised

Japan plans to revise its power pricing system next year to better reflect fluctuations in fuel costs while minimizing the impact on consumers, trade minister Toshihiro Nikai said Friday. Representatives from power companies, consumer groups and experts will meet in mid-October to work out how to revise the current system. Under the old method, in place since 1996, power companies are able to adjust prices each quarter to pass on part of their fuel expenses. (Japan Times)

Pension-funding mystery continues

Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa said Friday the government has yet to decide how to pay for next year's increase in contributions to the national pension program. Nakagawa, speaking to reporters in Tokyo, was responding to a Nikkei newspaper report that said the government may sell bonds to finance contributions that will rise from the current one-third to a half in April. (Japan Times)

Toyota reducing fixed-term temps

NAGOYA (Kyodo) Toyota Motor Corp. has reduced a certain segment of its factory workers in Japan by some 20 percent in the six months to the end of September due of a global slump in vehicle sales, informed sources said Friday. The number of the so-called fixed-term workers employed under contract for up to 35 months fell from about 8,800 in March to some 6,800 in September as the firm imposed a freeze in June on hiring replacements for those leaving the firm for various reasons, they said. (Japan Times)

Experts back idea of public bailout in U.S.

Painful as it may be, acting swiftly to tackle the U.S. financial crisis with a public bailout is the right move — and perhaps the chief lesson from Japan's bad debt debacle of the 1990s, economists and politicians here say. Japan waited too long — seven years — before resorting to a bailout of banks, burdened with mountains of bad loans, they say. The result: what Japanese call the "lost decade" of economic stagnation. (Japan Times)

Yosano lauds BOJ plan to uphold interest rates

The Bank of Japan has made the right decision to pump liquidity into the financial system, economic and fiscal policy minister Kaoru Yosano said Friday, supporting the view that the central bank does not need to cut interest rates. The senior Cabinet minister's remarks came as the financial crisis in the United States spreads to the global economy. Observers are expecting the world's major central banks, including the BOJ, to lower lending rates in a coordinated action to increase liquidity. (Japan Times)

Fire at a video parlor

The fire at a Nanba video parlor in Osaka's Naniwa Ward, which killed 15 customers and injured 10 other people, highlights a potential danger at similar facilities with small private rooms. It is outrageous that a customer is suspected of deliberately starting the fire — on the very day that a revision to the Fire Service Law took effect, requiring video parlors with private rooms to install automatic fire alarms. A 46-year-old customer, arrested on suspicion of arson and murder, is believed to have set fire to tissue paper and personal articles, aware that his act could cause others to die. He is quoted as saying that he had become fed up with life. It is also reported that parlor employees called a fire station but left the scene without trying to extinguish the fire or lead people to safety. (Japan Times)

Goya is dead — he's gone

Milos Foreman's "Goya's Ghosts" significantly lowers the bar of the creative biography, a bar that Foreman himself had raised to unprecedented loftiness in "Amadeus." It's still the one film whose robe most aspire to touch, even fleetingly, before falling to the knees in abject worship. Foreman refashioned the great Austrian composer into a charming, farting, lecherous buffoon touched by a divine gift, but in "Goya's Ghosts," Spanish court painter Francisco Goya has precious little of that irresistible magnetism. In fact, he's kinda boring — the type of guy who, at parties, tends to stand to one side with a napkin-wrapped drink, affable but ultimately invisible. Hi Goya, bye Goya. (Japan Times)

Japan's soccer calendar sorely in need of a revamp

Last season's J. League title race was as notable for Urawa Reds' physical breakdown as it was for eventual champion Kashima Antlers' success, and one glance at the rest of this year's fixture list should be enough to send a familiar shiver running down Reds manager Gert Engels' spine. Urawa has slipped back to fourth in the table after a grueling run that saw it play six J. League and Asian Champions League games in the space of just 18 days, with another crucial domestic match against JEF United to come on Sunday. (Japan Times)

Penguins swept up by offseason turbulence

PITTSBURGH (AP) Sidney Crosby understood the Pittsburgh Penguins wouldn't begin this season with the same team that finished two victories away from winning the Stanley Cup only 17 weeks ago. Free agency made that an inevitability. So did the salary cap, and the need by some players to go elsewhere to seek out the roles they felt best suited them. Change is inevitable in sports, and the Pittsburgh Penguins were not spared the inevitability of change. (Japan Times)

It's a cakewalk for Tokyo's newest doughnut maker

Yoshihisa Yamada, at 44 a holder of an MBA from Harvard, quit his job as president of Rakuten Travel Inc. and established Neyn, a handmade doughnut shop in Tokyo's Akasaka district last month. After graduating from the University of Tokyo, he landed a job at the prestigious Industrial Bank of Japan, which later merged with other banks to become today's Mizuho Bank. He moved on to Goldman Sachs Japan Holdings and then to online shopping operator Rakuten Inc. to work in its M&A section before taking the helm of Rakuten Travel. (Japan Times)

Hosei students arrested over pot possession

Five students at Hosei University have been arrested on suspicion of possessing marijuana, the Metropolitan Police Department said Thursday. The five males, sophomores aged 19 to 20 and members of a snowboarding club, allegedly told investigators they smoked and distributed marijuana in a library room at the campus in Machida, western Tokyo. (Japan Times)

Police record 12 suspect interrogations in first month of taping

Police have recorded 12 interrogations in the first month since the practice was introduced, the National Police Agency said Thursday. Five prefectural police departments, including the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, began to partially film and record interrogations involving suspects in murder and other serious crimes on a trial basis Sept. 2. (Japan Times)

Kawamura under fire over office expenses

The political support groups of Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura logged about ¥22 million in expenditures over the past three years — with almost ¥15 million spent on office and personnel fees — even though the home of his secretary was registered as a rent-free office. The unusually high numbers have raised suspicions Kawamura used the political funds for other purposes he did not want to disclose and is trying to disguise it. (Japan Times)

Justice Ministry should 'respect' rulings on executions, Mori says

Justice Minister Eisuke Mori supports the death penalty because it helps maintain the social order and eases the mental pain of crime victims' families. Though he was vague during an interview Wednesday on whether he will have death-row inmates sent to the gallows, he said he will follow in the footsteps of recent justice ministers. (Japan Times)

U. of Tokyo sold rice tainted with illegal chemical

The University of Tokyo, the country's top academic institution, revealed Thursday that a banned agrochemical was used to grow rice at its research farm in a Tokyo suburb for three years through 1999, and that around 3.6 tons of the harvest was sold to faculty members and consumers. The rice from the farm was reportedly sold to the university's co-op and served in campus cafeterias in the late 1990s. While most of the 3.6 tons in question was sold to people living near the farm, some was sold to faculty members. The remaining details were not clear. (Japan Times)

Sapporo uses 'space' barley in beer

In the first undertaking of its kind, Sapporo Breweries Ltd. on Thursday began producing beer with barley that traces its roots to outer space. In 2006, barley seeds were carried to the International Space Station to test the effects of radiation on them. The barley used by Sapporo is two generations down the line from the plants grown from the seeds when they were returned to Earth. (Japan Times)

Fujitsu may sell off hard disk drive unit

Fujitsu Ltd. is in talks to sell its sluggish hard disk drive business to Western Digital Corp. of the United States, sources said Thursday. Industry observers say increasing global competition and lackluster consumer spending from the global economic slowdown have forced Japanese electronics makers to scrap unprofitable businesses and pour resources into areas promising higher returns. (Japan Times)

BOJ injects another ¥1.6 trillion

The Bank of Japan injected another ¥1.6 trillion into the Tokyo money market Thursday, with repayment due Oct. 9, as it continued emergency liquidity operations to facilitate interbank borrowing, especially by foreign financial institutions. The latest injection is the BOJ's 12th straight in the emergency operation, which was set up with other central banks after U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. went bankrupt on Sept. 15. (Japan Times)