News for November 11, 2006
A few Japan news links for today:
-Today is November 11th, the appointed day of death that the two bullied-students who wrote anonymous suicide letters to Education officials. When I posted this at around 8:35am, no suicides had yet been reported. Keep your eyes peeled!
-Five more anonymous students have sent suicide letters to the Ministry of Education. Desperate call for action against bullying, or pranks copying the previous letters?
-In other bullying news, Mainichi reports that some parents have hired private investigators to spy on their kids to determine whether bullying is taking place. Some go as far as to secretly attach recording devices to their children’s bags to listen in on conversations with other students.
-Myojo Foods Co. is trying to merge with Nissin Co. in an effort to block a hostile takeover by an American investor group. Hopefully the merger won’t violate the anti-monopoly law, allowing them to keep those foolish profit-oriented foreigners out of the instant noodle business!
-A cool post over at Occidentalism with links to videos recorded by a 94-year-old American war vet who talks about his experiences as an advisor to Japan’s self defense forces in the aftermath of WW2.
-Mainichi’s WaiWai looks at fancy and strange love hotel gimmicks!
-ESPN is reporting that the Boston Red Sox have likely won the bidding battle for Daisuke Matsuzaka, the ace pitcher who led the Japanese team to victory in the World Baseball Classic. Word is the Red Sox have offered between $38 million and $45 million. I guess we’ll be seeing a lot of Japanese people wearing Red Sox hats soon….
-Japan’s anti-drunk driving measures have been blamed for a drop in the importation of Beaujolais Nouveau.
-Japan ranked seventh in the 2006 standard of living survey conducted by the U.N. Development Program. I guess insulated houses, centralized heating/air conditioning, and beauty of cities doesn’t have much weight in the survey? Or perhaps it was availability of high speed internet was considered, negating those three?
-A drought in Australia may lead to shortages of milk in Japan. What will school children do without disgustingly fatty whole milk in their school lunches?!
-Japanesed police have arrested a 73-year-old harmonica player for performing copyrighted Beatles’ songs at a bar. Michael Jackson wants his royalities, now pay up!
-The PlayStation 3 is officially on sale in Japan! [and is most likely already sold out in every store..]
