2008 TOP 10 NEWS STORIES The Yomiuri Shimbun

This year's Top 10 domestic news stories were decided by a Yomiuri Shimbun poll of readers, who submitted 11,877 votes from around the nation and overseas. As shown by its top ranking, food poisonings caused by products made in China heightened public anxiety over food safety. Second place was the abrupt resignation of Yasuo Fukuda as prime minister, a move mirroring the resignation of his predecessor, Shinzo Abe, the year before.

Meanwhile, Japanese won plaudits in many fields, including several Nobel Prize winners and Kosuke Kitajima, who defended his Olympic 100- and 200-meter breaststroke titles at the Beijing Summer Games.

The Top 10 international news stories were decided by 7,374 votes. Barack Obama's historic victory in the U.S. presidential election to become that nation's first black president topped the list. The U.S.-triggered financial crisis came in third on the list. The story holds ongoing significance internationally, including in Japan, where the economy has plunged and major manufacturing companies are struggling to stay afloat. Four events related to China grabbed headlines across the globe, including the massive earthquake in Sichuan Province.

Domestic news

1. Chinese-made gyoza causes food poisonings

On Jan. 11, it was learned that 10 people from three families in Chiba and Hyogo prefectures had reported symptoms of food poisoning after eating frozen gyoza made in China, with nine requiring treatment at a hospital. Methamidophos, an organophosphate pesticide, was later detected in the gyoza and on parts of the packaging.

2. Fukuda quits, Aso becomes prime minister

Former Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda abruptly announced at a sudden late-night press conference on Sept. 1 that he would resign. Fukuda's Cabinet's approval rating had dipped under 30 percent, which he first sought to remedy with a reshuffle in August. But this failed to boost his approval or revive his administration. Fukuda left his post about a year after he took over from Shinzo Abe, who also resigned amid limp approval ratings.

3. Japanese, Japan-born scientists win Nobels

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announced on Oct. 7 that it would award the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physics to Yoichiro Nambu, a Japan-born U.S. scientist and professor emeritus at the University of Chicago; Makoto Kobayashi, a board member at the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science; and Kyoto Sangyo University Prof. Toshihide Masukawa. The following day, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Osamu Shimomura, professor emeritus at Boston University. The prizes brought the total number of Japanese Nobel laureates to 16.

4. Japan wins 9 Olympic golds

Japan won nine gold medals, six silvers and 10 bronzes at the 29th Summer Olympics, held in Beijing from Aug. 8 to Aug. 24. Kosuke Kitajima successfully defended both his men's 100- and 200-meter breaststroke titles with a world-record time for the 100 and a Japan-record for the 200. The women's softball team, led by gutsy pitcher Yukiko Ueno, defeated the United States to win Japan's first-ever Olympic gold in the sport. Ueno threw 413 pitches in three victories over two days. Saori Yoshida won her second straight Olympic title in the women's wrestling 55-kilogram class, and judoka Masato Uchishiba defended his title in the men's 66-kilogram class.

5. 7 killed in Akihabara street rampage

On June 8, a male temporary worker plowed a truck into an intersection in Tokyo's Akihabara district, striking five people. The man then alighted from the truck and stabbed people on the street, including those helping people hit by the truck. Seven people were killed and 10 others injured. The bloody rampage, which occurred within only two minutes, resulted in the highest death toll for an attack of its kind in postwar history. Tomohiro Kato was arrested at the scene on suspicion of attempted murder and later was indicted on suspicion of multiple murders and other charges.

He was quoted by the police as saying he wanted to massacre people and "didn't care who they were." He also reportedly said he hated his life. Earlier on the day of the attack, Kato posted messages to a Web site with his cell phone, saying he was going to kill people in Akihabara.

6. New health insurance system for elderly

On April 1, a new medical insurance system for people aged 75 and older was launched, targeting about 13 million people in an attempt to cut health care spending financed by insurance fees currently being paid by working generations. The new system met immediate criticism for the use of the phrase "koki koreisha"--literally "late-stage elderly people"--as part of its name, and for its scheme to automatically withhold insurance fees from the national pension paid once every two months to elderly people.

7. 2 killed in attacks targeting ex-bureaucrats

On Nov. 18, Takehiko Yamaguchi, former administrative vice minister of the then Health and Welfare Ministry, and his wife were found stabbed to death in their home in Saitama. That same evening, the wife of Kenji Yoshihara, another former administrative vice minister at the ministry, was stabbed and seriously injured in her Tokyo home by a man pretending to be a delivery man. Takeshi Koizumi was arrested on Nov. 23 on suspicion of violating the Firearms and Swords Control Law after he turned himself in to the Metropolitan Police Department's headquarters in Tokyo.

8. Stock market hits record post-bubble low

On Oct. 27, the Nikkei Stock Average closed at 7,162.9 points, the lowest close since the collapse of the bubble economy. The previous post-bubble low had been 7,607.88, marked 5-1/2 years ago. The following day, the average dipped below 7,000 in midday trading, the first time the average had tripped that threshold in about 26 years. After major nations jointly agreed to implement economic countermeasures, the Nikkei temporarily regained the 9,000 level. However, stock prices remain unstable due to mounting uncertainty over the economy.

9. Iwate-Miyagi Inland Earthquake kills 13

A magnitude 7.2 earthquake hit the southern part of Iwate Prefecture on June 14, leaving 13 dead and 10 missing. The quake measured upper 6 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7 in Oshu, Iwate Prefecture, and Kurihara, Miyagi Prefecture, causing major landslides and avalanches on Mt. Kurikoma in Kurihara. On July 24, another earthquake, with a magnitude of 6.8, struck the northern coastal area of Iwate Prefecture.

10. G-8 summit held in Hokkaido

From July 7 to July 9, the 34th Group of Eight summit meeting was held in Toyakocho, Hokkaido, at which world leaders agreed to set up a long-term goal to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 to combat global warming.

International News

1. Barack Obama elected U.S. President

On Nov. 4 Democrat Barack Obama defeated Republican John Mcain in the U.S. presidential election, winning more than twice the electoral college votes of his opponent in a landslide victory. Obama will be sworn in as the 44th U.S. president on Jan. 20, when he will make history as the first black president. Obama told voters that his candidacy represented "change," a word that also served as his campaign slogan. He criticized the economic polices of President George W. Bush's administration and voiced strong opposition to the war in Iraq. His efforts to unite the Democratic party and people of all races energized voters, including previously politically apathetic young people. Obama won the Democratic presidential nomination after an intense and protracted battle with New York Sen. Hilary Clinton, who had hoped to become the first female U.S. president. Obama was finally confirmed as the party's candidate in early June.

Obama has announced his intention to nominate Clinton as his secretary of state, as he now assembles a Cabinet to deal with challenges including the financial crisis, the environment and the Iraq war.

2. Over 60,000 die in Sichuan earthquake

On May 12, a massive earthquake measured at 7.8 (later revised to 8) on the Richter scale hit Sichuan Province in China, toppling thousands of buildings and triggering landslides. About 69,000 deaths resulted from the earthquake, which had its epicenter in Wenchuan County. A further 18,000 were listed as missing and more than 10 million lost their homes. Authorities acted to avoid social unrest after the quake. Parents of children who died when their primary schools collapsed were prevented from suing the local government, which they claimed ignored safety rules in constructing the school's buildings. "The reason [the children died] was shoddy construction," one parent said. China's government is funding reconstruction efforts in devastated areas. Six months after the earthquake, however, many survivors are still forced to live in evacuation shelters.

3. U.S. financial crisis spreads across globe

Turmoil in the financial markets of the United States and Europe, which began in 2007 due to the souring of mortgage loans to low-income earners in the United States, escalated into a global financial crisis in 2008. In September, U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. made the largest bankruptcy filing in history after suffering massive losses due to subprime mortgages. The widening global credit crunch saw banks in Iceland and Britain nationalized, while a currency crisis broke out in Hungary and other parts of Eastern Europe. In December, the United States officially announced its economy was in recession. European countries including Britain, France and Germany also fell into negative growth.

4. Beijing hosts 29th Olympic Games

The Beijing Olympics kicked off with a spectacular opening ceremony on Aug. 8, and was participated in by a record 204 countries and territories. The athletic level of the Games was one of the highest ever--U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps harvested a record eight gold medals, and Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt set world records in three events, including the 100 meters. Host country China also laid claim to the title of the world's strongest sporting nation by claiming 51 gold medals--its best-ever showing at the Olympics. The Chinese government was criticized for using computer-generated fireworks in the TV broadcast of the opening ceremony, as well as having a 9-year-old girl lip-synch to a performance of a traditional song.

5. Crude oil prices reach all-time high

2008 was a year in which consumers were held to ransom by intense fluctuations in the price of oil. Light, sweet crude briefly soared to an all-time high of 147.27 dollars per barrel on the New York Mercantile Stock Exchange on July 11. Reasons for the huge spike included the volatile global financial markets, which saw investors look to oil as a relative safe haven for investment. In Japan, the average price of regular gasoline surged to 185.1 yen per liter. Recent news has been somewhat brighter for consumers: The global economic slump has seen oil prices tumble to as low as nearly 35 dollars, a price last seen in July 2004.

6. Myanmar ravaged by Cyclone Nargis

Myanmar's biggest city, Yangon, and other places were battered by a massive cyclone that started in the night of May 2 and lashed the Southeast Asian country for the next three days. Cyclone Nargis left more than 130,800 people dead or missing. Myanmar's military junta was criticized by the international community for initially refusing humanitarian and international aid. More than six months after the disaster, reconstruction efforts remain slow, and many survivors are still stuck in makeshift homes

7. Terrorist attacks in Mumbai

The heart of India's financial center was rocked on Nov. 26 as terrorists launched a series of attacks that killed at least 163 people, including one Japanese. The attacks shocked the world, in part because two of Mumbai's plushest hotels were among the locations struck. Suggestions by the Indian government that Pakistan-based Islamic extremists were involved in the attacks caused further concern internationally, due to the fragile nature of relations between the two nuclear-armed nations.

8. Large-scale riots erupt in Tibet

On March 14, large-scale protests in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, against Chinese rule broke into riots. The chaos spread to other provinces, including Sichuan and Gansu, both home to Tibetan communities. Many protesters were injured or killed when the Chinese government poured in troops to quell the unrest. Several rounds of talks between representatives of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader, and Beijing failed to make any progress.

9. Olympic torch relay hindered by protests

With China's hosting of the Olympics, the governing style of the Chinese Communist Party come under the international spotlight like never before. The Olympic torch's globe-trotting journey, which began in March, met with protesters in many cities along the way. Rowdy protests against China's crackdown on the protests in Tibet took place in Paris, London, Istanbul and Nagano, among other places.

10. Bird flu death toll passes 100

The spread of bird flu through various countries in Asia showed no sign of abating in the early stages of 2008. On Jan. 29, the bird flu virus logged its 101th human victim with the death of a person who contracted it in Indonesia. Experts have expressed concern over the possibility of an outbreak of a new influenza strain, and urged countries to take measures to avoid a worldwide pandemic.

Compiled from news services Dec. 27, 2008 Yomiuri