Archive for October, 2006

Reporter of Korean ancestry under fire for disrespecting the emperor

As Mutant Frog reports, Park Chong Ju, a zainichi Korean reporter for the Mainichi Shinbun, is under attack for apparently insulting the Japanese royal family:

Park was rude when questioning the necessity of spending millions of dollars to bring the emperor to the prefecture when govt finances are in trouble. He not only failed to use the proper honorifics when speaking of the emperor and his wife (calling the imperial couple “those two” rather than the formal 天皇皇后両陛下 “their majesties, the emperor and empress”), he questioned “the meaning” of an imperial visit, suggested that the money spent on the imperial visit could be used to help “the less fortunate,” and asked whether people would be forced to wave the Japanese flag, an act controversial among Japan’s left wing.

Personally, I’m not surprised by the reaction to the reporter’s remarks. Every single news report I have watched about the royal family uses a boatload of honorifics when referring to anything they do. It might seem ridiculous that calling them “those two” offends people, but when the media standard is to grovel before the majesty of the throne and honor it with flowery honorific language, it really shouldn’t be a shock that some people are offended. The fact that such anti-patriotic comments came from a “foreigner” certainly does not help the matter. It’s the perfect recipe for netizen rage.

Many of the most-viewed videos on YouTube today are variations of a video clip featuring the press conference. You can view it here. Check out the comments section of the video for some good ol’ Japanese/Korean/Chinese/American flame wars.

Remote Control (Video)

It’s been a while since a perverted update, so here’s a new one: The ever popular “put a remote control vibrator in a girl’s underwear” and go to a public place video, carefully edited out of a Japanese adult film to make it almost work safe…

Halloween Trees

Today is Halloween, so here are some pictures of Halloween ghost tree crafts constructed by a class of 6th graders I taught on Friday. Don’t be surprised to see popular characters such as Kewpie and Spoo in the mix:

Read more…

Random Japan News: October 31, 2006

News for October 31, 2006:

-The government has announced that high school students who were not taught the required classes for graduation must take extra classes before March if they wish to graduate. One high school principal in Ibaraki prefecture hung himself after it was revealed that his school was not teaching the required classes. It sure beats having to face parents, apologize, and offer an solution to the problem.

-Padres pitcher Chris Young will be blogging about his trip to Japan over at MLB.com. Young will be a part of the MLB all-star squad that will take on Japan’s professional teams in promotional games.

-Author Haruki Murakami has been awarded the Kafka Prize. Will he be in the running for the next Nobel Prize?

-The Chinese ultranationalists who unsuccessfully tried to land on the Japanese-held Senkaku islands have declared victory and will be suing Japan. I guess the new definition of “victory” is “failure.”

-Foreigners are outraged by Japan’s restrictions on mergers between Japanese and foreign companies. Apparently Japanese companies fear hostile merger and acquisition activity by foreign companies.

-Product recalls by major Japanese manufacturing firms are tarnishing Japan’s image as a producer of high quality products. One spokesman has compared the recalls to a good team making “mistakes in fielding during a baseball game.”

Yamanote Halloween Train 2006 (Video)

Every year around Halloween, a huge group of people (most of them foreigners) gather in costume and take advantage of the lax enforcement of rules on Japanese trains by having a rowdy Halloween party on a single train of Tokyo’s Yamanote loop. This year the event started around 9PM on October 28, and as this video posted on YouTube shows, it was a wild event:

I wouldn’t be surprised if the gaijin Halloween train hasn’t shocked more than a few Japanese people into hating foreigners for the rest of their lives. There are also unconfirmed reports that police attempts to break up the party may have caused delays along the Yamanote Line.

You can read more about the event here (wikipedia nazis removed the article, but it is still available in cache).

Also, keep an eye on Drunk Nampa for possible updates about the party, since the Drunk Nampa dude was very active in organizing and spreading info about the party.

Update: Chopstick Sensei has posted an account of a racist police crackdown on the 2006 Osaka Halloween Train party.

Update for 2channel visitors (October 29 2007): My opinions on this event are in the comment section below.

Nobunaga’s Legacy

Over the weekend, Japanese figure skater Nobunari Oda won the men’s gold medal at the Skate America competition. While most of the Japanese media focuses on Oda’s lineage, I have yet to see an English language news source that makes mention of it. Nobunari Oda is the 17th generation direct descendant of Nobunaga Oda, one of Japan’s most famous samurai warlords. The commentators on TV were making a huge deal out of his “Oda DNA,” and how it factored into his performance. I guess it can’t be helped, since Nobunaga remains wildly popular.

I wonder what the great Nobunaga would have to say about Nobunari’s mastery of the “sport” of figure skating. I bet he’d love the shiny costumes.

Oh, and Miki Ando won the women’s championship, but she’s still not hot.