JAPANESE WWII LIBEL SUIT DISMISSED: Oe Vindicated

Kenzaburo Oe - photo source Wikipedia

A Nobel Laureate who documented some of Japan’s World War II atrocities on Okinawa has beaten back a libel charge that stemmed from his work.

Japanese judges threw out a libel case against author Kenzaburo Oe, who was accused of lying about the country's wartime past.

In his book Okinawa Notes, Oe described how Japanese soldiers forced hundreds of civilians on Okinawa to commit suicide as US troops advanced during World War II.

The legal battle pitted two retired military officers - including one who thought he recognized himself in the book - against Japan's best-known living author.

In claiming Oe lied, the officers demanded the book be banned and $200,000 (20 million yen) in damages.

Judge Toshimasa Fukami concluded: "The former Imperial Japanese Army was deeply involved in the mass suicides."

The ruling likely chagrinned Japanese right-wing nationalists who have been locked in an overwrought ideological battle with intellectuals such as Oe, whom they see as unpatriotic.

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ORIGAMI IN SPACE: Paper Re-Entry Vehicle Okayed For Testing

Japanese scientists and origami masters hope to launch a paper airplane from space and learn from its journey back to Earth.

A prototype passed a durability test in a wind tunnel this month and Japan's space agency adopted it Wednesday for feasibility studies.

A successful flight from space by an origami plane could have far-reaching implications for the design of re-entry vehicles or space probes for upper atmospheric exploration, said project leader Shinji Suzuki, a professor at Tokyo University's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

In a test outside Tokyo in early February, a prototype about 2.8 inches long and 2 inches wide survived Mach 7 speeds and broiling temperatures up to 446 degrees Fahrenheit in a hypersonic wind tunnel.

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SKULL and BONE HEADED

Geez, maybe someone ought to look into President Bush's resume, after all...

A South Korean college is suing Yale University for $50 million claiming Yale made  an administrative error that snowballed into a national scandal.

And, while we should just leave it at that delicious claim, here's the rest of the story.

It roots extend back to 2005 when Dongguk University hired a woman named Shin Jeong-ah as it art history professor after Yale confirmed she had graduated there.

Last year, someone claimed that Shin, who dates a South Korean presidential aide, had never studied at Yale.

At that point, Yale said it had confirmed her degree by mistake.

Now, Dongguk has brought suit claiming the scandal has "irreparably damaged" its reputation.

In the fallout from "Shingate", as the affair has been dubbed by the Korean media, several other leading academics in South Korea were exposed as having lied about their degrees, too.

Shin also became curator of one of the country's most prestigious art exhibitions. She's is now on trial in South Korea for forgery – a charge she denies.

In papers filed in Connecticut District Court, the Seoul university says it has been "labeled as being dishonest and has been held up to disgrace and ridicule".

In the suit, Dongguk say that Yale sent it fax message in September 2005 confirming that Shin had studied there.

When suspicions about her credentials arose, Dongguk contacted Yale again.

But, this time the Yale said Shin had not graduated there.

Then Yale claimed the 2005 fax was forged... but, low and behold, Yale officials now admit the fax had been sent by mistake. 

It apologized... but has yet to open its checkbook.

Hey, I went to Yale too... you probably did, as well... just ask 'em. 

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CHINA SOCIETY: BBC Website Unblocked

People in China are reportedly able to access stories on the BBC News website in full, after years of strict control by the Beijing government.

Dubbed the great firewall of China, the Communist government routinely blocks foreign news sites such as the BBC.

But BBC staff working in China now say they are able to access news stories that would have been blocked before.

However, the firewall remains in place for Chinese language services on the website and for any links in Chinese.

Beijing has never admitted to blocking access to BBC news stories – and there has been no official confirmation that the website has been unblocked.

But Chinese users trying to access pages on the site have almost always been redirected to an error message telling them: "The connection was reset."

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ASIA BUSINESS & INVESTING: April Newsletter Adjunct

This is an adjunct to the April 2008 Asia Business & Investing newsletter.

Still, this Paddy Chayefsky-penned soliloquy from the 1976 movie, Network, is a keeper.

Now, everyone knows the savage satire that is Network... but man oh man... could Chayefsky write movies. 

He wrote the adapted screenplays for Marty and  The Goddess, along with the original screenplays for The Americanization of Emily, Altered States (wrote the book too), The Hospital and one of my top 10 (along with Network), Paint You Wagon, which is doubly great in an altered state.

The man had a fearless soul.

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RED SOX TOKYO: It Is A Big Deal

So, I didn’t believe it's a big deal.

Still, just before game time I started watching the Japanese TV feed of the Boston Red Sox exhibition game against the Hanshin Tigers.

The scene is electric… the World Series Champs are in Tokyo... in baseball crazy Japan.

This is a big deal!

Daisuke Matsuzaka, a mega-star of Japanese baseball; a national hero – and a member of the reigning World Series Champion Red Sox – enjoyed the homecoming like a high school senior in May.

As I watch on the Internet at 11:39 p.m., March 21, here in Boston (12.39 p.m. March 22, in Tokyo), I realize again that bandwidth means we are a total global society... except the Japanese have far better Internet than we, in the US, will ever have.

My friend Hao, in Beijing, whom I took to a Red Sox game last July when he was over, is watching the same feed I am.

On top of that, it's pure Red Sox baseball. Apparently, the Sox do what the Sox do no matter the time zone… they go deep into counts… then batter the opposition’s pitching.

In the bottom of the first, the Tigers’ Yuya Andoh opened the frame by striking out Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youklis.

Then – as the Grateful Dead’s record American Beauty played on my iPod's Bose sound dock – Andoh hung a slider to David Ortiz.

GuBYE – opposite field homer to left… just as Ripple started playing.

Manny Ramirez walked… Mike Lowell singled… JD Drew pounded at 2-2 hanging slider to left center for a 4-0 Sox lead in the first… Brokedown Place is right, for Andoh at this juncture.

A couple innings later I can tell you Andoh can pitch – great curve and change up – and the Hanshin Tigers can flat out pick it on defense.

Good game.

The Tiger's got into the Sox bullpen in the fourth, knocking Clay Buchholz out after three and two thirds innings.

If you’re here you know we’ve each gone global in our own way – tonight I am really lovin’ it… for all the ups and downs I still can’t believe how sweet this continues to be.

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GLOBAL ECONOMY: The Bottom Is Near

It looks like we've hit the market and economic bottom?

Along with the Bear Strearns collapse, evidence is found in a Sat. March 21, Financial Times story.

The FT reports that, "Central banks on both sides of the Atlantic are actively engaged in discussions about the feasibility of mass purchases of mortgage-backed securities as a possible solution to the credit crisis.

"Such a move would involve the use of public funds to shore up the market in a key financial instrument and restore confidence by ending the current vicious circle of forced sales, falling prices and weakening balance sheets.

"The conversations, part of a broader exchange as to possible future steps in battling financial turmoil, are at an early stage. However, the fact that such a move is being discussed at all indicates the depth of concern that exists over the health of the banking system."

Read the whole story here (subscription usually required, but the FT generally makes stories like these public).

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TIBETAN PROTESTS: Pelosi Photo Op

Speaker Pelosi offers a shallow wai to the cameras and not to the Dalai Lama.

No offense to the 14th Dalai Lama, but sucking up to the Speaker US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi D-Calif., just doesn't cut it.

I have a sweet spot for Pelosi, too.  She's a Baltimore girl from one of the city's legendary political families.

But, when she traveled 7,000 miles to Dharamsala, India, to call for an international inquiry into China's reaction to the latest protests in Tibet, she became a media whore... hungry for attention because she has been relegated to irrelevance by the US housing crisis, the world economy, Tibet and the US presidential election... events that apparently that don't need the leadership touch of the woman who is second in line to the US presidency. 

Dharamsala is the hill-town home to Tibet's government in exile. Pelosi met with the Dalai Lama, who was more than willing accommodate a dual photo op, as well.

When you hear Pelosi has publicly pinned backed the ears of Chinese President Hu Jintao or Premier Wen Jiaboa on their Tibetan problem then you can believe Pelosi is a player.

Until then, she's just a political poser.

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CHINA SOCIETY: Prices On The Rise

It may not be much comfort as you confront $4-a-gallon milk and $3.50-a-gallon gas, but fast-rising prices are getting the Chinese down, too.

Xinhua News reports that a 50-city quarterly survey conducted by the People's Bank of China found that in 2008’s first quarter, 49.2% of the 20,000 respondents said prices had become intolerable.

According to the results, released on Thursday, the proportion was a record high, up from 25.9 percent in the first quarter of 2007.

The central bank attributed the change in attitude to recent price hikes for food and the impact of the severe winter weather on prices of grain, edible oil, vegetables and fruits in southern China.

The PBOC said that 64.8 percent of the respondents expected further price rises in the second quarter, down 15.9 percentage points from a quarter earlier.

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BEIJING OLYMPICS TOILET CONCERNS: Squat or Sit Custom Is A Comfort Issue

China is rushing to install sit-down toilets for the nearly 500,000 foreigners who'll visit the Beijing Olympics.

The drive to build thousands of sit-downs came after complaints that Olympics' venues only offered Asian-style squat toilets.

A lack of Western-style facilities was the common complaint after more than three dozen trial runs Games’ sites.

"A lot of parties have raised the question of toilets... We have told the venues to improve on this," Yao Hui, deputy head of venue management, told the BBC

He said bathroom renovations were already under way at three key venues.

As people who have traveled with me to some of China's far reaches can attest – particularly on Hainan – most Chinese are used to the (sometime just a hole-in-the-ground) squat toilet.

Yao said that the proportion of squat toilets to sit-down facilities would vary depending on the nature of each venue. Most of the bathroom facilities at the 91,000-seat National Stadium - known as the Bird's Nest, the Water Cube and the National Indoor Stadium "should be" sit-down style.

Beijing will spend $40 billion on 37 venues. The Beijing Olympics are set to commence on August 8… or 8-8-08… an auspicious string of numbers for the Chinese.

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MLB JAPAN TRIP: Sox On Field

12:50 p.m.

The Red Sox have just taken the field to warm up for their spring training game against the Blue Jays. So, Stipend-gate must be resolved.

Bravo to Red Sox players for sticking up for their coaches and support staff!

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MLB JAPAN TRIP: Red Sox Balk At Tokyo Sojourn - Broken Promises The Issue

While Japanese baseball fans slept, the future of Major League Baseball’s 2008 regular-season debut in the Tokyo Dome next week fell into jeopardy.

Boston Red Sox players voted unanimously this morning not to make the trip. The players are honked because MLB apparently went back on its promise to pay team coaches and support staff a $40,000 stipend.

The money – also paid to the players – is to compensate for the grueling pace and travel schedule surrounding the team’s trip to Japan where it will face Oakland in MLB’s season-opening series.

Sox third baseman Mike Lowell told The Boston Globe’s Jackie MacMullen that, ''They [MLB] promised us the moon and the stars, and then when we committed, they started pulling back. It's not just the coaches, it's the staff, the trainers, a lot of people are affected by this…. When we put it to a vote it was unanimous, we're all in agreement that we're not going to put up with this.''

The Globe reports that Red Sox Manager Terry Francona learned that Oakland’s coaching staff were not being paid. Francona thought it was unusual that one team's staff would be paid and the other not. So he checked and found he and his coaches were getting nothing.

The Red Sox are scheduled to leave Fort Myers after today’s 12:05 p.m. Grapefruit League tilt against the Blue Jays.

David Ortiz told MacMullen, "It's really f***ed up."

The Sox are/were scheduled to face the Oakland in season-opening games in Tokyo on March 25 and 26.

Prominent  on the World Series champs are Japanese pitchers Daisuke Matsuzaka (above, right) Hideki Okajima. Matsuzaka is slated to pitch opening day again the A's.

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HONG KONG INVESTING: Li & Fung IPO

Li & Fung Group should be set to announce plans to raise $1 billion by listing its mainland and Asia Pacific retail business in Hong Kong.

A source in Hong Kong tells me Li & Fung has filed its HKEx listing application. JP Morgan is slated to arrange the sale.

Li & Fung has about 950 retail outlets across Asia that were said to generate more than $700 million in revenues last year.

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TIBETAN PROTESTS: At Least Two Dead

It now appears that at least two people died during the Lhasa protests. Word is that hundreds have been injured and that Tibetan ethnics may be in control of The Barkhor - a heavily populated, center-city Lhasa neighborhood, which features a nice square.

That square is central to the Jokhang Buddhist Temple. The Jokhang is Tibetan Buddhism’s most scared temple.

For those of you who’ve been to Lhasa, Barkhor is a about a mile east of the Potala Palace, which was the chief residence of the first 13 Dali Lama.

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TIBETAN PROTESTS: Lhasa Lockdown

The US Embassy in Beijing is warning travelers to avoid the Tibetan capital of Lhasa. That’s probably a bit of an overreaction to the current state of affairs in Tibet, but I guess it has to say something about the clash between protester and police.

On its website the Embassy says that it “has received first-hand reports from American citizens in the city who report gunfire and other indications of violence,” in Lhasa, Tibet’s capital.

Those “citizens,” of course, are US espionage agents. 

Anyway, the Embassy warns that “American citizens in Tibet and especially in Lhasa are advised to avoid areas where demonstrations are taking place.  US citizens in Lhasa should seek safe havens in hotels and other buildings and remain indoors to the extent possible.  All care should be taken to avoid unnecessary movement within the city until the situation is under control.” 

This warning comes in the aftermath of a day, Friday, when protesters marked the anniversary of the failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule.  

I am told that the scene was quite chaotic. In an area around a busy central-Lhasa square, Buddhist monks and ethnic Tibetans burned cars and shops and battled well-armed state police.

The same source told me that in the end Chinese authorities had imposed a curfew and basically locked down neighborhoods surrounding Buddhist monasteries.

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EMPERORS CLUB VIP: Spitzer Big Loser - Intuit Big Winner

Here's some irony.

Intuit Inc., should be the big winner in the Emperors Club VIP prostitution-ring bust - that rumors say involves New York's Democratic Governor Eliot Spitzer.

That's because late last year, Intuit bought Homestead Technologies, which hosted the Emperors Club brothel website.  The site was taken down today. What's left is a link to Homestead - a very good small company with a dynamic leader.

But this is the best part. Back in Feb. 2004, when Spitzer was New York's attorney general, he sued Intuit because its popular Turbo Tax software had a minor glitch that prevented one taxpayer from copping a $200 New York State College tax credit, to which he claimed entitlement.

Intuit paid $15,000 in costs to the state and mailed out notices to NY residents who bought the software.

If rumors are true, you have to wonder what it will cost Spitzer, who is married and the father of three... and apparently the "uncle" to at least one very hot chick.

After all, he screwed a ton of people and major corporations for reasons that looked for the most part to be for purely personal and political gain.

Now, you have to wonder who in NY politics, organized crime or corporate America called in a favor at the US Department of Justice and got this deal done.

And you also have to wonder just how big of a total megalomaniac Spitzer is. Because when you're "holier than thou," you'd better be pretty g-d'd holy.

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CHINA INVESTING: Sane Railway Construction Debut Sees 28% IPO Jump

Have Chinese investors gained a risk-reward maturity?

Some may bemoan the fact that China Railway Construction rose by a smaller-than-expected 28% on its debut in Shanghai. But, maybe it’s a sign that the Chinese are becoming investors and not traders.

After all, a 28% jump would be considered a fast start anywhere else,

Or maybe the Chinese are learning how to diversify. They already loaded up on CRC’s rival, China Railway Group, which jumped 69% on its first day of trading in December.

Still, Railway Construction's public offering raised $5.4 billion.

The company will make its Hong Kong debut on Wednesday. This should a nice IPO with a steady ride ahead of it.

By the way, China Railway Construction built the world's highest railway in Tibet. The train traverses an altitude so high that its passenger cars offer oxygen.

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CHINA SOCIETY: Rock 'n Roll

Icelandic singer Bjork angered Chinese officials last weekend when she shouted "Tibet! Tibet!" at a Shanghai concert.

Bjork chanted the name of the Chinese-ruled Himalayan region after performing her song "Declare Independence," which she has used in the past to promote independence movements in other places such as Kosovo.

The performance "not only broke Chinese laws and regulations and hurt the feelings of Chinese people, but also went against the professional code of an artist," the ministry said in a statement quoted by the official Xinhua news agency.

You have to figure that will make it tougher on all foreign acts that play China venues now.

The Chinese are going to get tired of Debbie and Pat Boone.

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CHINA SOCIETY: Death Penalty

China's Supreme Court has rejected 15% of all death sentences handed down by lower courts in 2007. That’s probably a higher rate that the U.S. Supremes.

But, China has many more crimes punishable by death. Corrupt public and corporate officials pay the ultimate penalty there… so besides the fact that it can screw U.S. taxpayers out of billion of dollars, there’s a good reason why Halliburton is relocating its corporate headquarters from Houston to Dubai and not Shanghai.

Anyway, back in China, the media quoted the country's Supreme Court chief judge as saying the 15% death-penalty-overturn rate was due to unclear or insufficient evidence and wrong application of procedures.

China is believed to execute more people than rest of the world combined

Non-violent crimes such as tax fraud and embezzlement carry death penalty, as do murder, rape, robbery and drug offenses

Many cases are based on confessions and trials often take less than a day.

During 2007, the most high profile execution in China was that of the former head of the State Food and Drug Administration, Zheng Xiaoyu, for taking $860,000 in bribes and for dereliction of duty.

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RED WINE: Taming Headaches

One of the years best lines was penned by wine writer Jennifer Rosen of localwineevents.com.

In piece about the reasons some people suffer red wine headaches, she wrote, "... I'm not a doctor, though I play one in the bedroom..."

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CHINA INVESTING: Mainland Investors Left On Hong Kong Outbound Platform

Wen Jiabao

Beijing is still dragging its feet in setting a schedule for the much-hyped “through train” investment scheme that would allow mainland Chinese investors to buy shares directly on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

I am now more convinced than ever that this train will never leave the station.

The Chinese state media organ Xinhau today quotes Liu Mingkang, chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, as saying Beijing needs more time to study the scheme.

If you remember, when the through-train was first unveiled last August I told you it would be 18 months to two years before it came to pass.

At the time, other U.S. newsletter writers pilloried me. They claimed I was trying to throw cold water on their marketing, which promised that U.S. investors could ride to riches on the backs of Chinese trading on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

What was weird about the criticism was that I was, and still am, the only U.S.-based Asian investment authority with a published HKEx portfolio.

Still, these new-to-China rookies and charlatans sent their readers out into the wilds of an exchange about which they knew next to nothing.

In the end, the irony is just who it was that tossed the wet blanket on a fire that saw billions of dollars flow into Hong Kong in August and September on speculation alone.

That fireman was none other than Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶). In early November, he temporarily derailed the through train over his concerns that Chinese investors didn’t understand the risks associated with investing.

Maybe he needs a newsletter.

Wen also said – and this is the biggie – that China needs a law to regulate outward funds to minimize the impact on the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock markets, and to look at the negative impact such a move could have on Hong Kong's index.

That latter concern is due to the fact that individual Chinese investors trade like day-traders on steroids… in and out of stocks at an alarming rate. And, churn does not create stability.

On top of that, once the through train was announced the HKEx jumped 30% on foreign speculation.

So, my guess is Wen rightly surmised that adding mainland investors to this mix would turn the HKEx into the Wild West. Not an image China wants to promote.

My instinct about a permanent derailment is also fueled by the new deal China struck with Taiwanese banks. It's one that allows them to invest directly in Hong Kong, as I reported here in late February.

That move adds professional and risk-adverse liquidity to the HKEx.

So, the good news is for now, and hopefully forever, Hong Kong will remain home to the pros.

Maybe we could reroute the through train into the U.S. pink sheets and Over The Counter Bulletin Board.

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Chinese Police Shoot Hijacker

Here’s news the Chinese central government couldn't suppress – even as the Olympics loom.

Chinese police shot and killed a man after her took 10 Australian tourists hostage.

The incident began when the man hijacked a bus carrying the tourists and their translator in the central city of Xi'an.

He later released them but was killed by police when negotiations for his surrender failed.

Xi'an is one of China's most popular tourist destinations.  Its main attraction is the Terracotta Army, a collection of ancient life-size figures. 

The ordeal began just before 10 a.m. yesterday – 9 p.m EST last night – when the hijacker, armed with explosives, boarded the tourist bus near the historic square in Xi'an.

Nine of the hostages were quickly released, but a 48-year-old woman from New South Wales was held longer, according to Janaline Oh, a spokeswoman for the Australian Embassy in Beijing.

"Chinese security authorities intervened and secured the release of the woman," Oh told the BBC. "The Australian government is pleased that the woman is now safe."

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HONG KONG INVESTMENT NEWS: Top Deutsche Desk Set For HK Move

Wow, after meetings in Florida last week and crushing research-paper deadlines at Harvard - a perfect storm of reach-for-the-baby-aspirin stress - it feels great to be engaged in the simple pleasures of blogging and equity-market research.

There is some very significant news breaking out of New York this morning.

Deutsche Bank is set to move global equity and derivatives trading from New York to Hong Kong.

The move is significant not only because of who leads this division but for the fact it’s the first time anyone can remember a big multinational investment bank relocating such an important trading operation to Asia.

This reflects the bank’s increased focus on Asia-Pacific, which it thinks will overtake Europe in terms of equity trading this year, according to the Financial Times.

The HK operation, both Asian and global, will be run by Noreddine Sebti, who is Swiss.

The FT reports that he is ”very suave” and ”one of the most important non-Americans in the New York trading world.

The move makes great sense because in 2007, the bank saw revenues from its Asian equities business jump by 80%.

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