Random Japan

Parody news announces “smart rice cooker” by KDDI, KDDI goes ahead and begins designing it

Master Blaster

On 13 November, a tweet went out from Kyoko Shimbun which read “AAAAAAAAAAAAA!” Generally, such single-letter interjections don’t yield much of a response, but in this case they got over 400 retweets.

That’s because on this day, Kyoko Shimbun which translates to “Fabricated News” learnt that their fictional Infojar, a next-gen rice cooker with several smartphone capabilities, was in the research and development phase by the very company they were spoofing at the time, KDDI.

■ Fake Infojar

In the fake announcement published back in January of this year, Kyoko Shimbun explained that due to each of Japan’s major mobile providers now carrying the iPhone, KDDI’s brand au would have to find another niche to fill. So, they decided to enter the rice cooker market.

10,896 Cases of violence committed by children at elementary schools during the 2013 academic year—the first time the number has topped 10,000, according to the education ministry

2,860 Number of public schools around the country that are “at risk of being affected by a tsunami,” according to a government survey

62 Percent of Japanese people who oppose a government plan to legalize casinos, according to a newspaper poll

THE CRIME FILES

• A court in Yokohama handed a two-year prison sentence to a local man who used a 3-D printer to manufacture handguns. The presiding judge said the man’s actions threatened to make gun control laws “toothless.”
• Cops in Saitama responding to the sound of an explosion at an apartment complex discovered a metal tube that “appeared to have been used as a shell launcher.”
• Police in southern Thailand arrested a local man for killing a 79-year-old Japanese expat who had been missing since September. The suspect’s girlfriend had withdrawn nearly ¥2.5 million from the victim’s bank account.
• Headline of the Week: “Chief of Kanagawa Police Molestation Division Arrested for Groping Teen” (via Tokyo Reporter)

Shoehorns? Hotel Room? Spanking?
Busted


Another Corrupt Politician 
Say It Ain't So Joe

Nothing Says Misogyny
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Asahi Shimbun announces new president

BY REIJI YOSHIDA

STAFF WRITER

The Asahi Shimbun announced Friday that its president and CEO, Tadakazu Kimura, will resign on Dec. 5 to take responsibility for his mishandling of erroneous reporting on the 2011 Fukushima triple meltdown and on the so-called comfort women issue in the 1980s and 1990s.

Masataka Watanabe, 55, managing director in charge of administration, personnel and compliance, will succeed Kimura on the day he steps down, when an extraordinary board meeting and shareholders’ meeting will be held, the company said.

Kimura will become a special adviser for the Asahi. Senior Managing Director Shinya Iida will become chairman of Asahi’s board.