Random Japan

CHEEKY DEVILS

• Customs officials at Kansai Airport busted a Nigerian man attempting to enter the country with 86 bags of an unspecified drug in his stomach. The would-be smuggler said “he picked up the drugs in Paris and spent four to five hours swallowing the small bags, washing them down with water.”
• After being arrested for throwing his wife’s corpse in Tokyo’s Oyoko River, a 61-year-old man reportedly told police, “there is no doubt I dumped her in the river. I’ll discuss the details later.”
• A Tokyo-based software company has released an app called Karelog that allows PC users to monitor “the current whereabouts, phone call logs, remaining battery power and other personal data of a smartphone’s owner.”
• A Tokyo woman was arrested forcounterfeiting ¥10,000 bills the old-fashioned way—with a color photocopier.

stats

• 23,000Estimated number of visitors to “Dinosaur Kingdom Nakasato,” a fossil exhibit in the town of Kanna, Gunma Prefecture, which opened in April
• 2,500Residents of Kanna
• 8.66 millionNumber of Japanese aged 80 or older, the highest total ever, according to the internal affairs ministry

        195        Whales caught for “research purposes” by Japanese fishermen during this year’s three-                month Pacific expedition, according to the fisheries agency


YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK

• It was reported that the government has allocated ¥1.5 billion in its new supplementary budget to “counter harmful rumors relating to the nuclear crisis.”
• One of the ways it will accomplish this is by inviting “prominent users of social media sites to Japan.”
• A report by the UN Human Rights Council has found that “although the vast majority of the population in Japan enjoys continuous access to safe drinking water and sanitation, there are pockets of exclusionwhich must be addressed.”
• The internal affairs ministry has announced that Japanese people aged 65 or older spend an average of ¥17,112 shopping online each year.
• The good news: TEPCO has finally started the process of compensating individuals affected by the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plant.
• The bad news: the application form for receiving compensation is 60 pages long, and it’s accompanied by a 160-page instruction manual. Locals are said to be “furious” about the red tape.

Red, White And Yakuza
Sometimes Bears Don't .......... In The Woods
I'm Not Guilty Because I'm Special