A Japanese TV program shows the top three results of a survey that asked people in 50 different countries if they believed in UFO’s:
As you can see, Japan is ranked second, with 45.3%. Mexico and Brazil are tied for first place. The clip includes “real” UFO footage from Mexico. A big deal is made out of the Mexican government’s apparently recognition of their existence. (Recognition from Japanese government officials is not mentioned.)
Saori Oguri, author of the “My Darling is a Foreigner” manga series, is a guest on the show. She says she believes in UFOs, but her husband, Tony László, does not (even though he once saw one).
Note: The Japanese for the poll question is “Do you believe in UFOs?” It wouldn’t make much sense as a question, because there definitely are sightings of unidentified flying objects. So the original question, before being translated, probably asked people if they believed that UFOs were alien spaceships visiting our planet.
A news video about the safe recovery of 13 small dogs that were stolen along with a van in Kobe:
The van belonged to a dog grooming school and the dogs belonged to customers.
The theft took place on the 8th. An employee of the school left the van running with the keys in the ignition while loading dogs into the vehicle. In the couple minute interval between putting one dog in and getting another, somebody stole the van.
The van was found the next evening, about 20 kilometers away from the grooming school in a parking lot of a shopping center. A person who heard news about the theft heard the sound of the dogs barking and alerted security.
Here’s the latest episode of Korean ultra-nationalists’ ongoing struggle to force the world to use a Korea-centric name for the Sea of Japan:
Seoul officials plan to ask the International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) to adopt the Korean name of East Sea along with the Sea of Japan when the organization holds a general meeting in Monaco on April 23-27 to update its global charts this year. Currently, the IHO’s sea maps only refer to the waters as the Sea of Japan.
“We will never tolerate the sole use of Sea of Japan,” said the foreign ministry official handling the issue.
“The Korean government is preparing to cope with the upcoming IHO meeting with various scenarios in mind,” the official said on the condition of anonymity.
As I noted in a recent post, this policy is influenced by anti-Japanese sentiment. South Korea already uses “East Sea” on its maps, but some can’t stand the idea that foreign countries are using “Sea of Japan.” Although historical records show widespread international use of the name predates Japan’s opening to the world in the 1850′s, these Korean ultra-nationalists insist that the sea must be renamed because Japanese imperialists are responsible for the name.
They suggest that the entire world adopt the translation of their Korea-centric term for the sea. They’d probably want “Sea of Japan” totally removed from maps, but they’ve got to fight their battles one at a time. So the first step is to demand equal recognition of the English translation of the name that Koreans already use.
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Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe, another group of idiots wants a new name for a body of water. Mississippi Legislator Steve Holland (D) has answered the requests from voters and submitted a bill that will rename the Gulf of Mexico:
For all official purposes within the State of Mississippi, the body of water that is located directly south of Hancock, Harrison and Jackson Counties shall be known as the “Gulf of America.”
Update: Holland has since announced claiming that it was a “satirical” bill, meant as a response to other legislators’ apparent desire to drive everything Mexican out of the state. [hat tip to Daniel Feit]
Wish I could say that the same about the Korean government’s policy.
Somebody has translated an Japanese TV documentary about Sea Shepherd’s activities in Taiji and uploaded the video to youtube:
Part 1
Part 2
The documentary mentions how “The Cove” won the Academy Award for best documentary “last year,” so this probably aired on Japanese TV some time in 2011.
The network that created the documentary, Asahi TV, is considered politically liberal/left. However, even a liberal network has great difficulty feeling any sympathy for the SS members, who harass both fishermen and documentary filmmakers.
The fishermen are pleased to receive attention from legitimate journalists, and even tell the TV crew about a hill where they can film the dolphin hunt. In the early days of the filming, SS members were also willing to be interviewed, but they later decided to sop doing so. ( It’s probably not good PR to have your people make asses of themselves on Japanese TV by talking about how “fun” it is to harass fishermen. )
They also interview Peter Bethune, a former member of Sea Shepherd who resigned after he was arrested and jailed for illegally boarding a Japanese ship. Bethune thinks that Paul Watson and other leaders of Sea Shepherd are dishonest and do more harm than good. Examples of this dishonest include scuttling a ship and claiming that the Japanese whalers “sunk” it, as well as Watson’s infamous “I’ve been shot” episode.
We are also shown activists who oppose the dolphin hunt but do not support Sea Shepherd’s tactics. One is Ady Gil, a former donor to Sea Shepherd who thinks that people should help Taiji develop and eco tourism business. And there is a Japanese woman (formerly a member of the Sea Shepherd anti-whaling crew) and a group of foreign activists who are protesting without hatred towards the people of Taiji.
Here are a few links to additional information about this issue:
A video shows a group of babies Tohoku receiving a gift of wooden chairs from a Hokkaido-based project:
All of the babies were born on March 11th 2011, the day of the great earthquake and tsunami. Each oak chair was engraved with the name of the child and a message wishing them strength in the future.
According to the news report, a total of 104 babies were born in Iwate, Fukushima, and Miyagi prefectures on that day.
