Random Japan

History crash course: Charming animation shows 80 years of Singapore history in 16 minutes【Video】
Joan Coello
Singapore is an island country so small you can barely see it on the world map. But despite its modest size, Singapore is among the most globalised countries you’ll ever visit, one of the world’s major commercial hubs, and sees over 15 million tourists each year. And no, in case you were wondering, Singapore is not a part of China.

Some of you may have visited the city-state on a vacation or business trip, but do you know Singapore beyond its modern, bustling cityscape? In celebration of the nation’s 50th National Day, animation director Ervin Han and team created a 16-minute animation that looks back at the 80 years of ups and downs Singapore went through to get to where it is today. Get your history crash course after the break!

STATS
3,000: Estimated number of people who attended the funeral for Tama, the female calico cat that drew hordes of tourists to Wakayama after being declared “master” of a local train station

132: Number of police officers who were disciplined for official misconduct between January and June, the third consecutive year the figure has dropped

¥2 trillion: Estimated cost of hosting the 2020 Olympics, according to Yoshiro Mori, president of the organizing committee for the Games

HOW CONVENIENT
In time for the first restart of nuclear reactors since the March 11 disaster, government officials say they’ll raise the maximum permissible radiation dose for emergency personnel.

At the same time, a news service poll found that 54.3 percent of Japanese people oppose the restarts, while just 32.7 support them.

The annual human rights report from the U.S. State Department castigated Japan for so-called maternity harassment, alleging that companies “often [pressure] pregnant workers to quit.”

One year after a female member of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly was heckled with sexist remarks during a speech, officials still haven’t enacted concrete measures to stop misogynist behavior.

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The politics of time: Why countries switch time zones

by AP
North Korean officials announced Friday that the country is creating its own time zone, moving back 30 minutes on Aug 15. The establishment of “Pyongyang time” is a political move intended to erase the legacy of Japanese colonial rule a century ago. Before that, the entire Korean peninsula was 8½ hours ahead of GMT, the time that North Korea will now revert to.

Here is a look at ways in which countries have changed their time zones for political reasons: