The BBC World Service has conducted its annual poll measuring perceptions of different countries’ influence in the world. Japan has topped the ranking:
“Japan is seen as having the most positive influence in the world among all countries evaluated, and views have improved slightly since 2011. On average, in the 21 tracking countries surveyed, 58 per cent of respondents hold positive views of Japan’s influence (up from 56% in 2011), and 21 per cent hold negative views (up 1 point from 2011). This very favourable global picture is reflected in the picture by country: out of the 22 countries surveyed in 2012, 20 countries lean positive and only two lean negative (South Korea and China).”</blockquote>
Earlier this year, it was reported that Tommy Lee Jones would be playing the role of General Douglas MacArthur in Emperor, a film set during the American occupation of Japan.
To help spread the hype about the film, the studio recently released this promotional photograph:
“Tommy Lee Jones turned up on set that day with that hat, those glasses, and — bang — he was the man,” director Peter Webber says.
Jones concedes, in typical bluntness: “I bear no resemblance to Douglas MacArthur whatsoever. But a campaign hat, some aviator glasses and a corncob pipe go a long way.”
Since 2007, Disney has allowed gay couples to participate in its Fairy Tale Wedding program in the United States.
Tokyo Disney Resort (TDR) has not banned gay weddings, but they did have some restrictions in place. When LGBT rights activist Koyuki Higashi contacted TDR this year to inquire about holding a lesbian wedding there, officials told her that they would allow a ceremony, but would not allow both women to wear wedding dresses. Somebody had to dress as a woman and somebody had to dress as a man (“同性カップルの場合、一方が男性に見える格好で、もう一方が女性に見える格好であること。異性カップルに見えない装いでの結婚式はお断りしている”).
Using her Twitter account, Higashi spread the news of this disappointing policy. In response to the negative online PR, the company that manages TDR contacted Disney’s American offices for a clarification of its gay wedding policy. It only took one week for them to reverse their decision and apologize to Higashi. Tokyo Disney will no longer require homosexual couples to dress like like heterosexual couples at its wedding ceremonies.
(Note: Disney may be allowing these ceremonies, but gay marriage is still not legally recognized in Japan. )
Paul Watson, the infamous leader of Sea Shepherd, has been detained in Germany. Costa Rican authorities had made a request for his extradition:
“He is accused of using his ship, the Farley Mowat, to ram a vessel called the Varadero, which was observed conducting illegal shark-finning activities. In claims filed with prosecutors in 2002, several members of the crew described Watson’s behaviour as attempted murder.”
It is interesting that Germany acted based on the Costa Rican arrest warrant. Japan supposedly issued an international arrest warrant for Watson in 2010, but nothing ever came of it.
Learn more about Watson by checking some of these other posts:
