The Japan Times has an article up about the growing popularity of miniature pigs as housepets in Japan. While the pigs make lovable pets, the fact that the pigs can grow to over nearly 200kg is proving to be a problem for some owners. [ Read more about it here and a use a password for Japan Times if you need one. ]
Categories: Odd / Strange
Beard plucking = Sexual Harassment
Watch out, salarymen: the next time you ask that cute office lady to pluck your beard, you may be committing SEXUAL HARASSMENT! The Scotsman has the story:
A JAPANESE man has been found guilty of sexual harassment for forcing a female work colleague to pluck his beard.
“Asking a female colleague to pluck your beard is totally inappropriate and illegal,” the judge said as he ordered the man and the government, as his employer, to pay a total of almost £2,700 in compensation.
The man – an employee in his thirties in an office affiliated with the labour ministry – had repeatedly asked the woman to pluck his beard, and she was finally forced to give in.
Media reports said the man had been warned previously for sexually harassing the woman, including sending her notes demanding she come on a company trip in her “best bathing suit”.
It’s a sad day for businessmen in Japan. What’s next? Will women expect equal pay for the same job?!
Categories: General Japan, Odd / Strange
Japanese diplomat goes on a whale watching tour, gets heckled
Oh no! Japanese whaling!
What exactly was the Japanese ambassador to New Zealand thinking when he accepted an invitation from New Zealand’s Conservation Minister to go on a whale watching tour? Here’s what happened:
New Zealand is one of Japan’s strongest critics on the whaling issue and the visit came a month after Japan led an international push to end a 20-year moratorium on commercial whaling.
About a dozen protesters waving flags and banners met the diplomats’ bus at the waterfront in Kaikoura.
The activists had also suspended an old freezer from a crane with “Whales don’t live in a freezer” written on it.
Reports said Saito looked embarrassed and uncomfortable at the attention, avoiding the media when the cruise ended and hurrying back onto the bus.
Earlier police were called when the bus was briefly stopped by black balaclava-wearing protesters when it arrived at a Maori meeting ground, Radio New Zealand reported.
A traditional Maori welcome was interrupted by activists shouting slogans through a megaphone from the roof of a neighbouring house.
Carter said the tour had been an opportunity to demonstrate the value of whale conservation.
“It may not make any difference at all but it’s a chance in a very practical way to show why New Zealanders feel so passionate about whales,” he told reporters.
An anti-whaling activist who took part in the protest also supported the visit.
“The more whale hunting nations that can see the benefits of whale watching instead of eating them, the better,” Brad Thorpe told Television New Zealand.
Did the ambassador not realize that it was a trap?
Apparently anti-whaling rage has been on the rise in NZ since a recent Australian report about Japanese whalers killing pregnant whales in an area considered a sanctuary. An article over at CDNN manages to link Japanese whaling to the evil Japanese militarists and their World War II war crimes. It is also the source of the ridiculous image I posted at the beginning of this article. [Read it here.]
Categories: General Japan
Clean rivers? I don’t think so.
Reported at Crisscross Japan News:
TOKYO — Rivers in Japan have been found to be contaminated with ingredients of antibiotics and medicines for humans and animals that flowed into them via sewage systems, raising concern that drug-resistant strains of bacteria might be produced, a recent scientific research shows.
Fantastic, I can’t wait until the new combination of drug-resistant bacteria and Japanese doctors who refuse to prescribe adequate doses of anti-biotics wrecks havoc on my health.
Categories: General Japan
