Random Japan

FROM THE INTERNATIONAL DESK
A kids’ book written by a 34-year-old Tokyo housewife about the outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in Miyazaki Prefecture has become an internet hit, being downloaded approximately 2,600 times since late September. Sounds positively uplifting.

Kenya’s Daily Nation reported that a former ambassador to Japan was questioned by the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) over dubious dealings regarding the purchase of land in Tokyo. Not a terribly interesting story, but we just had to get that acronym in there.

Virgin Atlantic Airways and Mori Building City Air Services have started free helicopter shuttles from Ark Hills in Akasaka to Narita Airport for high-end travelers from Tokyo to London.

A few weeks after getting busted in Chiba with cocaine in his pocket, Aussie pro golfer Wayne Perske was banned for the rest of the season by the Japan Golf Tour Organization.

Perske’s problems came on the heels of Kiwi golf pro David Smail’s sex scandal, when his former Japanese girlfriend sent compromising photos and videos to the media after the married Smail tried to break up with her. Man, talk about putting it in the wrong hole!

A female desk clerk at a hotel in Aichi held a press conference to draw light to her situation after a male guest called her to his room to “apologize” over some issue with an escort service. The horny old dude then tried to jump her, “unbuttoning her clothing and touching her lower body.”

STATS
11
Japan’s ranking in the United Nations’ 2010 quality of life survey

10
Japan’s ranking in last year’s survey

44
Penalty kicks needed to decide a soccer game between Kyushu International University High School and Higashi Fukuoka High School earlier this month

696,000
Total number of hikikomori in Japan, according to the Cabinet Office

Just For Laughs
A manga cafe in Kobe became the center of an international uproar when a Coast Guard worker uploaded video of September’s run-in with a Chinese fishing boat. The 43-year-old officer responsible for “the leak heard around the world” said he felt “no sense of guilt at all” because the public had a right to know. So there.

Someone sent a letter to the Chinese consulate in Sapporo that “emitted smoke with what sounded like an exploding firecracker.” No injuries or damage were reported.

A buxom bronze statuette of a policewoman from the popular manga Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Koen-mae Hashutsu-jo has been restored after being damaged by vandals, and is once again titillating passersby at Kameari station on the Joban line.

A stoner who misplaced a bag containing some weed and a few of his meishi went to claim the lost articles from a local police box in Fukuoka. Needless to say, when cops asked him about the joint inside, he took off… but since they had his name cards, they soon tracked him down. D’oh!

Ichiro Ozawa

Pulls A Palin

Fighting Kabuki

The Latest "Rage"

Selling Pianos To North Korea

It's A Crime

Experts urge Japan for bolder steps to welcome refugees, immigrants

TOKYO
When five ethnic Karen families arrived recently from the Mera refugee camp in northwestern Thailand, Japan became the first Asian nation to accept refugees under the third-country resettlement program promoted by the United Nations.

Yet critics remain skeptical of Tokyo, often criticized for its restrictive refugee policy, and some experts said a much more comprehensive approach is necessary to make any significant difference.

‘‘Japan’s refugee policy lags way behind the rest of the world,’’ said Shogo Watanabe, a lawyer actively involved in human rights issues concerning refugees and other foreign residents in Japan. ‘‘From the very beginning when Japan ratified in 1981 the Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, it has never had a consistent policy.’‘

Merchants reeling with drop in Chinese visitors

2010/11/26
Japanese merchants are starting to feel the pinch amid a sharp drop in Chinese visitor numbers following the fallout from a prolonged row with Beijing over sovereignty of the Senkaku Islands.

Sales in many sectors have fallen sharply.

Department stores, electronics retailers and souvenir shops are now pinning their hopes on a rebound in February when many Chinese travel abroad and splurge during the Lunar New Year holidays.

John "Bomb Bomb Iran" Wants Regime Change In North Korea

Senator John McCain Republican of Arizona appearing on CNN this Sunday had this to say about the current situation on the Korean peninsula.

“I do not mean military action, but I do believe that this is a very unstable regime.”

Why is it that America's conservatives believe that the only way one can deal with certain nation states they find threating is through; as they euphemistically call it "Regime Change." Yes, there are governments that one would rather not deal with. But how does undermining one government or authoritarian leader improve an already dire situation only to be replaced by another government as unsavory as the last. The difference being that the government tells the world what they want to hear all the while still treating their countrymen just as cruelly as the previous regime.

America invaded Afghanistan almost ten years ago. Has the situation improved for the average citizen? Does the Taliban still control large portions of Afghanistan? To the first no as for the second yes. While Iraq has stabilized somewhat there is still underlying tensions which exist between all the ethnic groups. If the U.S. withdrawals all of its forces by the date specified will Iraq remain as it is today or will sectarian violence once again rule the day. All this because Americas conservatives wanted, no demanded regime change.

How will Senator McCain achieve regime change in North Korea will he invade with all of his Neo-Con buddies or will he just take the racist Republican lawmakers presently governing his home state of Arizona? Perhaps John McCain believes that the Kim family and the other ruling elites will just feel unbridled benevolence and quietly cede the reigns of power to a leader more acceptable to him and his conservative brethren.

Its clear that John McCain has no understanding of current problems involving the two Korea's and why a regime change could lead to a larger crisis engulfing the whole of Northeast Asia.

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Random Japan

SAY WHAT?
Officials in Toyama are taking multitasking to a whole new level with a project that trains hairdressers to spot emotionally disturbed customers who might be contemplating suicide.

How do you know when you’ve become an obasan? A survey of young Japanese women showed that muttering “Yoisho” is the number one indicator that you’ve made the transition from sexy young thing to a life of cutting in lines and holding on to other people when laughing.

Nissan has developed the world’s first Wrong-Way Alert Program, which gives clueless drivers a heads-up when they’re going against the flow of traffic.

Major insurance firm Nipponkoa became the first Japanese company of its kind to enter the daycare business

STATS
150,000
Novelty erasers produced daily by the Saitama-based Iwako Co.

223
Number of recently promoted principals, vice principals or senior teachers in public schools who asked to be demoted during the 2009 fiscal year

200 million
Number of copies printed of long-running manga One Piece, a record according to publisher Shueisha Inc.

3.4 million
Initial print run of the manga’s 60th volume, another record

FOR MATURE AUDIENCES ONLY
Adult videos and magazines must not have been enough for a 42-year-old Tokyo man who told police he was fulfilling his sexual desire after being arrested for throwing a condom full of his “desire” at a 19-year-old woman.

Officials in Saitama were shocked to discover a 59-year-old elementary school teacher was using what he called “sexual harassment dice” as a form of punishment for misbehaving students.

A 31-year-old Hokkaido housewife was busted for posing as Teru from the band Glay and tricking a fan into wiring her money.

Police in Yokohama believe members of a local crime syndicate have been running an adoption scheme to help Japanese obtain passports for foreigners. Some 60 men and women were thought to be involved in over 197 adoptions.

Slip Of The Tongue

Belittles Diet: Not Even Close

Underworld's No. 2 Boss Held

Devil's Senior Vice President?

Never Steal

From God

'Space Battleship Yamato' blasts off

TOKYO
One of the most eagerly anticipated Japanese films this year is “Space Battleship Yamato,” a live-action adaptation of the popular 1974 anime of the same name. Directed by Takashi Yamazaki, “Space Battleship Yamato” has an impressive cast, featuring SMAP’s Takuya Kimura, Meisa Kuroki, Toshiyuki Nishida, Toshiro Yanagiba, Naoto Ogata, Reiko Takashima and many more, but the project has been anything but smooth.

During much of production, the film was referred to archaically as the “Dream Project,” and quickly became the talk of the Japanese film world because of its rumored 1 billion yen production cost. It was also supposed to be the comeback film for Erika Sawajiri, who was initially chosen as the leading lady but lost out to Kuroki late last year after her former agency, Stardust Promotion, informed production management that they were terminating her contract.

Comiket exhibit opens a time capsule on the roots of amateur manga 'dojinshi'
2010/11/19
BY AYA ONO STAFF WRITER
On one wall hangs a hand-drawn map on a faded cream background. Some parts are torn, and brown bits of tape are still adhering to some corners. According to a description posted beside it, it's the "Layout plan for the third Comic Market (1976)."

One summer day in 1976, people from 56 fan groups gathered at a community space in Tokyo's Itabashi Ward. Each brought their own "dojinshi" (comic magazines drawn by fans, or fanzines). Someone drew the map so everyone could locate the other groups. Then the groups started trading. The event drew about 500 participants by the time it ended that day.

Thirty-four years later, that map is part of an exhibition: "The Beginning of Comic Market: A Market of the Fans, by the Fans and for the Fans."

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