A couple of precised articles, from the Daily Yomiuri.
Japan's population may shrink in 2005, for the 1st time ever
In an indication tht the country's population may shrink this year, for the first time in recorded history, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said Tuesday that the population fell by 31,034 in the January-June period.
The number of deaths totalled 568,671 in the first half of this year, while births registered 537,637, according to the data compiled by the ministry.
"Deaths have exceeded birth on a month-to-month basis, but we have not seen that happen over a 6 month period (ever) before," a ministry official said.
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Beheading contest libel case thrown out
The Tokyo District Court on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit filed by the relatives of two executed officers of the Imperial Japanese Army against two newspapers and a journalist, over reports in 1937 that said the two competed against each other to be first to behead 100 Chinese soldiers during the Nanjing Incident, by carrying out "hyakunin giri kyoso" (100 head contest).
Three family members of the two second lieutenants filed the lawsuits seeking ¥36 million in damages against The Mainichi Shimbun, The Asahi Shimbun, and Katsuichi Honda, a journalist and former Asahi reporter.
The soldiers were executed after the war, by the Chinese Government, after being tried at a military court in Nanjing.
Presiding Judge, Akio Doi, said it is difficult to prove the news articles were based on a fabricated incident because one of the soldiers made remarks indicating his role in the contest.
Doi also said the reports cannot be called "clearly false" as historians have yet to agree on whether the contest actually occurred.