Chinese students to visit Japan on exchange program

Two hundred high school students from China will pay a nine-day visit to Japan from Wednesday as part of the government's initiative to broaden exchanges among youths in East Asia Summit member nations.Japan will invite about 6,000 youths annually for the next five years.Japan hopes to invite youths from South Korea, India, Australia, New Zealand and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Farther leaves preschooler in baby hatch

The hospital operating the controversial baby hatch in Kumamoto Prefecture received a surprise last week when a boy 3 years old was reportedly put inside the day it opened. If the boy’s parents do not come forward, he will be raised at a child welfare center or adopted. The hospital has notified the Kumamoto prefectural police and that the police are investigating the case as parental abandonment and are trying to identify the father. The baby hatch has been praised as away to save unwanted babies, but critics, including top government officials, say it encourages people to abandon their children too easily.

the article from Japan times
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070516a1.html

Japan to check U.S meat-packers

Japanese inspectors will start a two-week tour of U.S. meatpacking plants to check whether beef for export to Japan is being processed safely in compliance with a bilateral agreement.
If no problems are found, the plants will move to random checks from the current system in which all beef exports to Japan are checked.
U.S. beef exports to Japan have been limited to meat from cattle 20 months or younger as a result of concern that older cattle are likelier to be infected with the disease.
If no safety problems are found during the inspections, Japan and the United States are expected to launch negotiations on upping the age limit.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nb20070512a5.html

Pass the pills to get me through spring's upheavals

The commercials on television and billboards endorse stomach pills in a big way in spring. Most things go through upheavals in spring, especially in Japan. For one thing, people don’t get as much sleep. There are the nendomatsu (year’s end) obligations. For example, sobetsukai (farewell parties), ohanami (cherry-blossom viewing) and kansogeikai (welcoming new employees and respectfully ushering out retirees). These three obligations always give us too much alcohol and worries.

the article from japan times
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ek20070410ks.html

BABY HATCH

Jikei Hospital in Kumamoto opened first baby hatch on May 10th. This hatch is called konotori no yurikago, which is effectively an incubator with access from outside and inside the facility. And this baby hatch allows people to anonymously leave babies. The reason why Taiji Hasuda, the president of the hospital ,opened the baby hatch is that he think what is the most important is to save the lives of babies. But this system has various opinimons. For example, people think that those who abandon thier babies can be increased.But this system is not only to save babies' life but it gives a chance to think about abondonment.

article from Japan times
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20070511a2.html