Archive for June, 2006

Cigarette price hike starts tomorrow!

A warning to all smokers in Japan.  Starting tomorrow, you are going to be paying more for your habit:

The retail prices of cigarettes will be raised in July due to a tax hike. The prices of most cigarettes will be raised by 20 yen per package. However, those of popular brands such as Mild Seven will be increased by 30 yen to help finance the installation of vending machines that can distinguish children from adults and to pay to establish smoking areas in public places.

Damnit! Enforcing the legal smoking age! What is this country coming to?  Sure, it is only 30 yen now, but will it ever stop?  The government is trying to take away the god-given right to smoke!

Amazing earthquake survival technology revealed!

Are you living in a poorly-constructed house in Japan?  Are you worried about what will happen when the next big earthquake strikes?  Well, don’t worry anymore, a Japanese company has a solution for you:

A quake proof shelter!  It only costs 300,000 yen, and can be built inside of an already-existing house!

The shelter is strong enough to withstand the collapse of the rest of the house, allowing you to survive deadly quakes!   For more information, watch this news report (in English).

Who needs a quake-proof house when you have a single tiny room that is quake-proof!  Just be sure to get inside the room before the earthquake hits, so you will be safe when your house collapses!

Be Ambitious

Looks like JR is going to add some new toys to their bullet trains:

Passengers on the famous Japanese Shinkansen “bullet trains” will be able to surf the Internet while traveling at 300 kilometers per hour, thanks to a new service planned by the railway operator. But there’s going to be quite a wait until the first wireless LAN-equipped trains arrive at the platform.

Central Japan Railway (JR Tokai), which operates the Shinkansen service between Tokyo and the western Japanese city of Osaka, said it plans to offer wireless Internet service throughout all cars of its new N700-series trains in early 2009.

As cool as WiFi-equipped bullet trains are, why is it going to take almost 3 years to implement?  How long does it take to install a few wireless LAN hubs in some trains?  Am I the only one that read this article and was suprised with the 2009 service date?

Aya Ueto

Kyodo News reports:

Aya Ueto, 20, is the recipient of the 12th annual Beautiful E-line Award, presented by the Japan Association of Adult Orthodontics. Past winners of the award, which is a PR effort to promote the importance of orthodontics, include Rie Miyazawa, Ryoko Yonekura and Hiromi Kuroki and Maki Mizuno.

If I had to name one Japanese celebrity with really nice teeth, it would be Aya. As the award is meant to promote the importance of orthodontics, I am assuming she had some sort of orthodontic device to straighten her teeth out. Good for her. If every Japanese girl went out and got braces, this country could become a much better place (for guys who prefer straight teeth).
[Via Tokyo Times]

Is that Dokdo?

It was a touching day for a South Korea family yesterday, as Kim Young-nam, the South Korean abductee who is believed to have married Japanese abductee Megumi Yokota, was allowed to meet his mother:

A South Korean man allegedly abducted by the North met his mother for the first time in 28 years Wednesday amid concern the communist state is trying to use him as a tool to silence Japanese claims that his former Japanese wife is alive.

Kim Young-nam and his 78-year-old mother cried and hugged each other at the North’s Diamond Mountain resort, amid other reunions of Koreans divided by the world most heavily fortified border.

No details have yet emerged as to whether Kim Young-nam is still claiming that Yokata committed suicide in North Korea (a claim that many in Japan doubt), or whether he will be allowed to leave North Korea and live in the South. Some in Japan think that the North Koreans are allowing him to meet his South Korean family so that he can tell them Pyongyang’s story about how Yokata is dead.

The families of Yokota and Kim Young-nam had been working together recently in an effort to find out more about the fate of their abducted relatives. If Kim Young-nam tells his family that Megumi Yokota is dead, they will likely believe him and stop working with Yokata’s family (who believes she is still alive). Personally, I have my doubts about her being alive, but if some Japanese people want to think she is, they can.

After hearing about the above-mentioned news on TV, I did a little bit of extra reading on the internet. One one site I found the following image, which appears to be a screen captures from a Japanese TV show:

It appears to be am image from an ANN News broadcast earlier this month, in which Kim Young-nam’s mother and sister were discussing how they were looking forward to being able to finally meet him. They talk about how they would like for him to come back to South Korea with them and other related issues.

But wait, what is that image behind them? It looks like some sort of rocky island in some water…is that….Dokdo??

It sure looks like Dokdo/Takeshima. I can’t read Korean, but I am guessing it says something like “DOKDO IS KOREAN LAND”, or some other propaganda statement. I really hope I am wrong. I really hope that the Koreans involved would care more about the issue at hand, which has nothing to do with a territorial dispute, than saying ‘f-ck you the islands are ours’ to all the Japanese media assembled. I really hope I am mistaken and that really isn’t a picture of Dokdo or a propaganda poster… Somebody tell me what that image is, and what it says!

Update: There is a very good update about the abductee issue over at The Korea Liberator. Check it out!

Working holiday visas for the Irish!

It is a great day for Irish people without a college degree:  they can now experience the fun of teaching English in Japan through a newly-established working holiday visa program!   I dare say it is the biggest ireland-related news story since the discovery of a leprechaun in Alabama!
At this rate, by 2030 every country in the world except the United States will have a working holiday agreement with Japan.