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Jero & Kirin Fire
May 9, 2008 | James | Filed Under Celebrity News, Foreigners in Japan | 2 Comments
African American Enka singer Jero has got a CM:
Enka newcomer Jero has been given his first TV commercial appearance. He is now the face of Kirin Beverage’s canned coffee product Kirin Fire Cafe Zero. The ad will begin rotation on May 21.
The official site of his Kirin Fire campaign is scheduled to open on May 20th.
While we’re on the topic of commercials, it has also been reported that the newest chapter of the highly successful Softbank “White Family” CM series will introduce a cat character to the cast.
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Memorial for a Korean kamikaze pilot
May 9, 2008 | James | Filed Under Foreigners in Japan | 3 Comments
The International Herald Tribune reports on the creation of a monument in South Korea to Tak Kyung-hyun, a Korean who fought and died as a Japanese special attack pilot in the Pacific War:
A half-century after his death, Tak’s Korean hometown is looking to change that legacy with the first memorial in South Korea to a former kamikaze. But as the unveiling approaches, opposition is growing from conservative residents who still harbor strong resentment against Japan’s brutal colonial rule of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945.
The 16-foot-high (4.6-meter-high) stone memorial, now covered with a tarp, was scheduled to be unveiled in the southeastern city of Sacheon on Saturday, the eve of Tak’s death 63 years ago. He died when his explosives-laden plane is believed to have crashed in the water short of a U.S. warship that was his target.
The project had attracted little controversy until a group of activists began demanding this week that the city cancel the opening ceremony, threatening to disrupt the event and take down the monument.
“He was a kamikaze, an aggressor,” said Lee Sun-bok, head of a group opposed to the memorial.
But Hong Jong-pil, a South Korean historian working on the memorial project, said the pilots should be seen as victims of the colonial period. He cited recent studies finding they did not volunteer for their suicide missions but were pressured or forced.
“It’s time to save those who have been lost in the black holes of history,” Hong said.
Sacheon City official Kim Tae-ju said his office is trying to convince the activists that the purpose of the memorial is to console war victims. But it remained uncertain whether the unveiling would go ahead as scheduled.
If you’re unfamiliar with the story of Tak Kyung-hyun, please watch this subtitled Japanese TV program about his death and the search for his surviving family in Korea. (Translated and uploaded by Oniazuma, featured on Japan Probe in May 2007)
[hat tip to the Marmot’s Hole]
Foreign Pride fighters vs. Japanese taxes
May 9, 2008 | James | Filed Under Celebrity News, Foreigners in Japan | 1 Comment
Several foreign mixed martial artists unknowingly failed to pay Japanese taxes, reports the Asahi:
They may have had no problems grabbing opponents’ necks, locking legs in submission holds or pinning rivals’ backs to the mat. But a number of top foreign fighters in the former Pride mixed martial arts battles could not grasp Japan’s complicated tax rules.
The Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau examined the earnings of nearly 10 fighters and found at least five of them failed to pay a combined 20 million yen ($192,000) in consumption tax on their winnings between 2004 and 2006 , sources said Thursday.
The five included Mirko Cro Cop, whose real name is Mirko Filipovic, from Croatia, Brazilians Wanderlei Silva and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, and Mark Hunt from New Zealand, according to the sources.
The five have filed corrected returns, the sources said.
In principle, Japanese promoters deduct income tax when they pay athletes of foreign nationalities.
However, foreign athletes are required to pay the consumption tax on their own if they earn 10 million yen or more a year in prize money and other income in Japan. Complicating the matter is the fact that the consumption tax is applied two years after that period, but the levies are made on earnings for the latest year.
Apparently the Japanese promoters of Pride (who have since gone out of business) failed to notify the fighters of the specific taxes they had to pay.
Hu Jintao visits Waseda
May 9, 2008 | James | Filed Under Foreigners in Japan, Politics | 3 Comments
President Hu Jintao’s upbeat visit to Japan has been going well so far. He has had friendly discussions with Prime Minister Fukuda, dined with the Emperor, played ping pong for the cameras, and has offered to rent two new pandas to the Ueno Zoo.
However, positive speeches and photo ops are not enough to quell the discontent among certain groups in Japan, and crowds of protesters were on hand when he visited Waseda University yesterday:
In a speech at Tokyo’s Waseda University, Hu touched on Japan’s 1931-1945 occupation of part of China, calling it “unfortunate history” that had brought terrible suffering. But he said there should be no grudges between the two neighbors. History is the textbook richest in wisdom, and to remember history is not to nurse hatred, but to use history as a mirror and look forward to the future, Hu said in a speech broadcast live on both Japanese and Chinese television.
Yet even as Hu spoke in the strictly guarded hall, protests and scuffles outside were a reminder of China’s image problems and a crackdown in restive Tibet that have magnified public wariness of Beijing in Japan and other countries. About 200 demonstrators waved signs outside the university gate saying “Free Tibet” and “No Pandas, No Poison Dumplings.” Hu has offered to lend two pandas to a Tokyo zoo, but many Japanese worry more about a row over Chinese-made dumplings laced with pesticide that made several people ill.
For a firsthand account of the protests at Waseda, check out this post at Swifty’s blog (includes photos).
Haruhi’s Meloncholic Wii Game
May 8, 2008 | Claytonian | Filed Under Otaku & Anime | 7 Comments
That’s right, in case you aren’t sick of it yet, you will be able to do the Haruhi dance in the upcoming Wii game, letting you look silly and enjoy existential nihilism at the same time–come to think of it, I may have just described the human condition generally, and the Japanese condition specifically…
It’s still a bit of a ways off though, so you have plenty of time to practice and maybe burn some of that otaku fat so that you are ready to bust a move. Original Japanese article scan is here.
[props to Kotaku]
And the obligitory:
Man destroys loud neighbor’s apartment
May 8, 2008 | James | Filed Under General Japan | 6 Comments
An extraordinary crime in Fukuoka:
A man has been arrested after climbing from his own balcony to the balcony of the apartment above to wreaking havoc. He smashed windows, threw a refrigerator off the balcony, and set a fire, destroying the interior the interior of the apartment while his neighbor was away.
The man said he did it because he was angry about the noise level coming from the apartment above.
Urban Chinese view Japan ‘more positively’
May 8, 2008 | James | Filed Under Anti-Japan, Politics | 3 Comments
A new survey shows that anti-Japanese nationalism may be on the decrease among urban Chinese:
The Beijing-based Horizon Research Consultancy Group last June polled 3,181 residents in the country’s 10 largest cities, including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
The perception of Japan by the city-dwellers improved dramatically last year, measuring 2.04 units out of a maximum 4 in the survey. The figure rose from scores of 1.84 in 2006 and 1.82 in 2005, the survey revealed on Sunday.
The research group considered the frequent exchange visits of high-level officials, particularly those after former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe’s “ice-breaking” trip in the autumn of 2006, as the cause for the dramatic improvement in perception.
In related news, President Hu Jintao had a friendly dinner with the Emperor yesterday and it looks like his visit to Japan will not be focused on arguments about history.
Ticket Gate Dance
May 8, 2008 | James | Filed Under Japanese TV | 4 Comments
Kinchan no Kasou Taisho shows us what ticket gates do when the trains aren’t running:
Burglar steals thousands of porn DVDs
May 8, 2008 | James | Filed Under Strange Japan | 12 Comments
A story from Mainichi:
KASUKABE, Saitama — A burglar apparently climbed through a toilet window and stole about 4,530 adult DVDs worth around 19.4 million yen from a movie sales outlet here, police said.
The owner of the Bee House Sengendai DVD store turned up for work just before 9:30 a.m. Wednesday to discover thousands of adult DVDs had been stolen.
“They stole the whole display,” the owner said.
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Hangmen: I’d go berserk with a shotgun if someone stole my hardrive filled with 120GB+ of JAV goodness. Ken: Insurance fraud? ダビ: I absolutely HATE that about Japan. It’s the goddamn 欧米コンプレックス and it seems 95% of... dk: I am Korean American, and my initial feeling when seeing this post was the sort of disdain one feels for someone... Timotei: Never heard of this guy, interesting. Gonna take a deeper look into this. MRL: Awesome to see! I always love new seeing new weird stuff done in freefall. Jack B: PRIDE had great fighters and put on some great shows, but the more you hear about how it was run makes you... |
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