In the drama, a Korean man played by Jang dreams of winning the gold medal at the Olympic Marathon by leaving behind his rival from Japan played by Odagiri. The two are conscripted in to the Japanese army and witness the battle between Soviet Union and China.

Both get captures by the Soviets and also escape but are unfortunately captured by the Germans due to which they are forced to separate. Nicole in the film will appear as a staff member when Odagiri in the drama attends a press conference for the Olympic Marathon.

The 20 year old singer while talking about her role said that acting for her is trial and error. Nicole said that she had tears in her eyes when she heard the story from the director. This was when Kang asked her to do a small role in the drama.

Japan’s more powerful lower house of Parliament has approved a legislation that will give the government authority to increase taxes.

The proceeds of tax collected will be used to help finance government spending for rebuilding the region which was hard hit eight months ago when a magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck off the northeastern coast.

A spokesman from the Prime Minister’s office, Noriyuki Shikata, said there are a number of factors that could pose barriers to a Japanese economy recovery.

“Such as constraints of electric power supply, the consequences of the nuclear accident, a further slowing down of the overseas demands or volatile exchange rate fluctuations, as well as the financial situation in the eurozone and the flood disaster in Thailand,” Shikata said.

The Elevated levels of radiation seen in the residential area of  Tokyo are not connected to the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant, say Japanese officers.

The reading of the radiation level which was taken on a small area of pavement in Setagaya ward, had fueled fears about the possible effects of radiation from the plant.

“The Local residents have been told the radiation was no threat to health. The hotspot was detected at height of about one metre above the pavement, after Setagaya residents who had been monitoring radiation levels alerted the authorities.”

“I’ve been measuring radiation levels throughout the metropolitan Tokyo areas, but I have never seen such a high level of radiation [as] I found here,” one member of a nuclear action group told reporters.

Shigeyuki Endo, the 61-year-old owner of the house had lived in the home since the day he was born. Endo decided not to demolish the house, now leaning heavily to one side, because it “withstood the tsunami despite its old age.”

He hopes the home will be seen by many people after its restoration.

According to Endo, who is head of the 13th generation of the family, the house was built in 1702 in the middle of the Edo Period (1603-1868). The family has maintained the house from generation to generation by rethatching it regularly, a costly practice.

Shikokumura plans to move Endo’s house next year or later after drawing up plans this year and surveying the building.

“We want to keep the house permanently and will look for opportunities to make use of it, such as when artists make presentations,” said a museum official in charge of the project.

Amid crisis with a territorial dispute, the Japanese foriegn Minister Koichiro Gemba urged the Russian bomber flights said Friday Sept 9, 2011 to stop doing from moves its area.

Russian bombers have flown around Japan calling on Moscow to refrain from “provocative” military action.

In a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, Gemba said he expressed Japan’s concern about the flight of two Tupolev Tu-95MS bombers around the Japanese mainland on Thursday,

The two countries are in dispute over Russian-held islands on the fringe of the Okhotsk Sea, called the southern Kurils in Russia but also claimed by Japan, where they are collectively known as the Northern Territories.

Radiation Bankrupts Japanese Cattle Ranch

Agura Bokujo, operator of a cattle ranch in  Tokyo, became Japan’s biggest corporate failure this year after consumer fears over beef contaminated with radiation damaged sales,

bloomberg.com reported: “The closely held company in Tochigi prefecture had 433.1 billion yen ($5.6 billion) in liabilities, Tokyo Shoko said on its website today, citing Agura’s application for bankruptcy protection on Aug. 9.”

In its earnings report for the year ended March 2011, Agura had liabilities of 62 billion yen, said Kazufumi Masuda, a spokesman for Tokyo Shoko, which tracks corporate bankruptcy data.”

The discovery rattled consumer confidence after the government, which had assured shoppers that food sold in the market was safe, confirmed radiation contaminated beef had been sold in stores. Companies affected included Aeon Co., Japan’s biggest supermarket chain.”

“Radiation from Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s crippled Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant has entered Japan’s food chain in recent months, contaminating products from beef to milk and fish. Cattle with unsafe levels of radiation have been found in four Japanese prefectures after they were fed with hay contaminated with as much as 690,000 becquerels a kilogram, compared with a government safety standard of 300 becquerels.”

More than 80,000 people were evacuated from the 20 km radius surrounding the nuclear plant. Another 10,000 have shifted to some other zone in nearby towns.

“We have taken a sound step towards rebuilding and reconstruction in areas suffering damages from the nuclear disaster,” Trade Minister Yukio Edano, who oversees economic damages from the world’s worst nuclear disaster in 25 years.

“We recognise those who evacuated from this zone are concerned about radiation contamination and infrastructure,” he said, adding the government will help clean these areas and organise social infrastructure such as schools and hospitals. Read the complete story here.

10million Japanese yen ($131,000) was found in a public toilet by an anonymous donor in Tokyo on Sept 29, 2011.  The letter was found along with the money saying it should be donated to victims of the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in March.

The neatly wrapped bills were found in a plastic shopping bag in a toilet for disabled people in the city hall of Sakado in the Tokyo suburbs.

The note read: “I am all alone and have no use for the money.” Offiicials said that they would handover the money to the Red Cross if it was not reclaimed within three months.

Recently, 18 residents of a Tokyo apartment found around 1.8m yen stuffed into envelopes in their mailboxes.

Read the complete story at BBC.

The Aviation Ministry said  on Sept 10, that the officer, who works at the Tokyo International Airport at Haneda, might face charges of leaking national top secrets.

The Japanese officials were really embarrassed by the posting of the sensitive details, which also included flight info of an unmanned United States military drone.

Japan is now worried that the posting might raise new doubts in Washington about Japan’s ability to handle sensitive information, following a scandal four years ago over the leak of American naval radar secrets.

Japan’s largest newspaper, The Yomiuri Shimbun wrote that Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda may apologize to President Obama for the breach during a summit meeting which will be held in New York.

At a jam packed media correspondents meeting at The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan on Tuesday, the 79-year-old actress said the biggest difference is the lack of big studios making films today.

“The studios supported the filmmakers with much money and time so that they could make masterpieces,” said Kagawa, who started her career at now defunct studio Shin Toho in 1949.

“But today it seems that everyone is an independent filmmaker and there is more freedom, for better or for worse. When I worked with the masters, it was intimidating, but now it is more casual.”

She also said, the modern day cinema making is easier than the one they used to make 5-6 decades ago.