スカイプでオンライン英会話を楽しもう！

Japan Kingmaker Ozawa Should Be Charged, Panel Says

Ichiro Ozawa, Japan's most powerful politician, was recommended to face criminal charges over a finance scandal involving his aides, increasing pressure on Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama to dismiss his former boss.

Ozawa, secretary general of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, should be indicted, a newly empowered judicial panel said in a statement today. The recommendation to prosecutors, made by Japan's equivalent of a grand jury, would become legally binding if the panel votes the same way a second time. Ozawa vowed to keep his post, saying he had done nothing wrong.

The case will likely further damage Hatoyama, whose popularity is already plummeting ahead of upper-house elections set for July. Voters are disenchanted over his own funding scandal and a dispute with the U.S. over relocating an American military base. Hatoyama has repeatedly rebuffed calls to fire Ozawa after three aides were indicted in February.

"There's going to be criticism either way, but it will grow even louder if Ozawa doesn't quit," said Yasunori Sone, political science professor at Tokyo-based Keio University. "The impact on the election is inevitable."

Ozawa, 67, is a former DPJ leader and architect of the party's landslide election victory last August. Prosecutors declined in February to pursue charges against him.

"As the prosecutors' investigations have shown, I didn't receive any suspicious money," Ozawa said in remarks shown on NHK Television. "I will keep doing my duties calmly."

Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirofumi Hirano, the government's top spokesman, said he "wasn't in a position to comment." Hatoyama declined to comment to reporters outside his office.

Ozawa was forced to resign as DPJ leader in May 2009 after a top campaign official was charged with falsifying fund reports. He engineered the party's 2007 victory in the upper house of parliament, and retains the loyalty of many DPJ lawmakers for spearheading last August's landslide in the more- powerful lower house. As party secretary-general he is in charge of determining which candidates will run in the next election. 

Sukiyaki

Sukiyaki is a Japanese dish in the nabemono (Japanese Hot pot) style.

It consists of meat (usually thinly sliced beef), or a vegetarian version made only with firm tofu, slowly cooked or simmered at the table, alongside vegetables and other ingredients, in a shallow iron pot in a mixture of soy sauce, sugar, and mirin. Before being eaten, the ingredients are usually dipped in a small bowl of raw, beaten eggs.

Generally sukiyaki is a single dish for the colder days of the year and it is commonly found at bōnenkai, Japanese year-end parties. There is a theme in Japanese comedy that one can make passable sukiyaki even on a very tight budget.

Sukiyaki(song), "Ue o muite arukō"  is a Japanese song that was performed by Japanese crooner Kyu Sakamoto, and written by Rokusuke Ei and Hachidai Nakamura. It is best known under its alternative title "Sukiyaki" in English-speaking parts of the world. The song reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100 charts in the United States in 1963, and was the only Japanese language song to do so. In total it sold over 13 million copies internationally.[1][2] The original Kyu Sakamoto recording also went to number eighteen on the R&B chart.[3] The recording was originally released in Japan by Toshiba in 1961. It topped the Popular Music Selling Record chart in the Japanese magazine Music Life for three months. Well-known English-language cover versions include a 1981 cover by A Taste of Honey and a 1995 cover by 4 P.M.

The lyrics tell the story of a man who looks up and whistles while he is walking so that his tears won't fall. The verses of the song describe him doing this through each season of the year. The English lyrics of the version recorded by A Taste of Honey are not a translation of the original Japanese lyrics but a completely different set of lyrics set to the same basic melody. Probably the nearest translation, at least in feel, was recorded by US soul singer Jewel Akens, on ERA records, as "My First Lonely Night" which, although not a literal translation, tells a similar story. A lonely man walks through the night, after losing his love. 

Stocks slump as Greece debt downgraded to junk

A leading credit agency lowered Greece's rating to junk status, dealing a blow to an international rescue plan for the country and hammering U.S. and European stock markets.

The junk rating, unusual for a developed nation, deepened fears that big fiscal deficits and debt burdens elsewhere could threaten the economic recovery in Europe. Stock markets on both sides of the Atlantic tumbled about 2 percent or more after the downgrade by Standard & Poor's.

The downgrade fanned investors' doubts that the proposed economic reforms in Greece will go far enough to prevent the country from spiraling into even deeper trouble. It also presented a new obstacle to the planned $60 billion bailout from European governments and the International Monetary Fund.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 1.9 percent to 10,991.99, while the broader Standard & Poor's 500-stock index fell 2.3 percent to 1183.71. They were the biggest one-day losses in more than two months. The sell-off spread to Asia Wednesday, with Japan's Nikkei average falling 2.6 percent.

The junk rating and investor skepticism make it harder for the country to finance its debt because they raise the interest rates it is charged. They also put pressure on the Greek government to carry out promised fiscal reforms despite determined political opposition.

"I am determined to do whatever it takes, when it is needed, to revive our country," Prime Minister George Papandreou told parliamentary deputies Tuesday. "It's now or never -- but we will succeed."