The recent case of fugitive Ichihashi Tatsuya disguising his appearance through cosmetic surgery made the folks at Fuji TV wonder why men get such procedure. To investigate, they traveled to South Korea, a country that is apparently far ahead of Japan when it comes to the idea of men getting surgery to make their faces look better.
Some points from the video:
Surveys of Japanese and Korean men find that most Japanese men have a problem with the idea of men getting cosmetic surgery. The opposite is true for Koreans, who see no problem with getting cosmetic surgery. After all, if women are doing it, what’s wrong with men doing it?
We meet two Korean men who had work done on their faces. One man is concerned about his face getting a bit saggy as he ages. Another noticed how dark lines under his eyes always stood out in photos, so he had surgery to improve on that.
The number of Korean men getting cosmetic surgery has been increasing in recent years. Some men develop an addiction of sorts, seeking operations to fix every little flaw they perceive in their faces.
76% of South Korean women interviewed said they had no problem with the idea of men getting cosmetic surgery.
When asked what they thought of a fugitive like Tatsuya Ichihashi getting cosmetic surgery to evade capture, most people seemed surprised that such a thing would happen.
A veteran police detective says he is aware of a case in 2007 involving a fugitive who had plastic surgery and disguised himself as a woman. However, his act wasn’t very good and he was arrested after somebody reported the existence of a suspicious individual to the police. Another case in 2007 involved a woman who scammed some money from a man and used some of it to pay for plastic surgery. She was arrested after suspicions about bandages on her face led police to test her fingerprints. (The South Korean government keeps a database of every single citizen’s fingerprints.)
Korean and Japanese plastic surgeons interviewed said they had never heard anything from the police about how they should be on the lookout for criminals, so they apparently don’t do much to avoid an Ichihashi-like situation.
The newest Daiwa House commercial introduces a super hero:
After the first cut of a Daiwa House commercial, the director tells the actor he needs to speak to him about the next cut. Back in the trailer, the director explains that he will need the actor to put on a ridiculous super hero costume and become Daiwa Man. The actor is so shocked that he can barely talk.
An Asahi Shimbun video shows the selection of 2009’s Shinkichi Queen:
All of the contestants were hostesses from clubs in the Kitashinkichi area of Osaka. The winner was Ayako, a 21-year-old former OL who has worked a hostess for about 2 years.
When the alarm goes off, a referee voice begins counting to ten. If you are able to get up and smash the snooze button, you can go back to sleep. If you’re down for the count, the bell will start ringing when the count reaches ten.
They are given a special tour of the emergency walkway that runs under the road. In case of a fire inside the tunnel, there are evacuation slides every 300-meters that allow trapped drivers to escape into the emergency walkway.
At the end of the clip, they walk up a lot of stairs and get to walk around on the artificial island created as a ventilation shaft for the tunnel. (Warning: There is an absolutely stupid pun in the last few seconds of the video.)
This week’s “Nanikore Chin Hyakkei” had a segment about a samurai wedding at Matsue Castle:
The wedding was modeled after the kind of celebration that might occur if the groom had been a feudal lord. Their friends and family were dressed in samurai attire, taking on the role of the lord’s retainers.
The couple got to have this unique wedding because they had submitted the prize-winning entry to a contest celebrating the 400th anniversary of the castle. A local tourism NPO helped set everything up, so the ceremony only cost 30,000 yen ($337).
For tourism info about Matsue, check out this page.
A Fuji TV news report about how protective masks that offer “99%” virus protection are selling well:
A study conducted by the National Consumer Affairs Center of Japan found that most masks are far less effective than their packages claim. Of the fifteen brands of 99% anti-viral masks tested, twelve had filters with below 95% virus-blocking capability. Six of those twelve, six were below 80%. When one considers the fact that masks will not be a perfect fit for everyone’s head, the effectiveness of the masks is almost cut in half. Even the masks with very good filters are unlikely to provide total protection from the flu virus. The government will advise mask producers to change their packaging to better reflect reality.
Of course, this will have little effect on those who are buying and wearing these masks. Even when confronted with evidence that the masks are probably ineffective, people said they were going to wear the masks anyway because they need any protection they can get.
If this product has convinced you that you need an ultrasonic ion brush, you can buy it here, but I think the sound will melt your brains.
I could go on about the infamous dentata of the Japanese archipelago, but I am sure the comments will take care of that.
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Contributor Bio: Claytonian blogs and vlogs about Japan, language, and news at The Hopeless Romantic. He is rubbing his tongue against his teeth right now.
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