Japan News for December 07, 2006
Japan news and links for today:
-December 7th, 1941: A date which will live in infamy. Trans-Pacific Radio writes about the Pearl Harbor on the 65th anniversary of the attack.
Police have arrested an 80-year-old woman in Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture, for allegedly throwing a cup of urine at a window of a neighbor’s house.
-Natural black hair is coming back into fashion, according to Mainichi’s WaiWai.
-Japan’s first privately managed prison, due to open next year, will use wireless tags in place of guards and inmates will be put to work learning about computers instead of making furniture.
-The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has started making a Japanese menu for astronauts on long-term missions on the International Space Station. JAXA is aiming to get about 100 items on the menu, including such favorites as rice balls, ramen, beef curry and green tea.
-A Reuters feature on the growing funeral industry in Japan: Sushi at funerals?
-Japanese police have arrested 64 people in a major forgery ring crackdown, uncovering data on thousands of fake foreigner registration cards, passports, driver’s licenses, student ID cards and other identification. They had sold passports and alien registration certificates in sets for 35,000 yen, and sold driver’s licenses for 8,000 yen each. What a bargain!
-Toyota Motor Corp. plans to produce more cars overseas than in Japan for the first time ever in 2007.
-The Electric New Paper interviews J-pop singing sensation Ayaka.
-The blame game: A South Korean government panel on Wednesday unveiled a list of over 100 South Koreans who had helped imperial Japan colonize the Korean Peninsula in the early 20th century.
-NEC has developed the ShieldPro waterproof laptop. The ＦＣ－Ｎ２１Ｓ notebook can also withstand temperatures as cold as -20 degrees Celsius, and can be dropped from a height of 90cm.
-Japan’s hot pro-bowling stars. [HT to Zaeega]
-Japan Visitor checks out Kyoto’s stip clubs.
-Anti-whaling activists are planning to ram Japanese whaling vessels with a converted coast guard ship.
Afternoon update:
-Could Japan’s shrinking population actually help its economy? Some “Freakanomics” proponents think so.
-Richard Lawless, the U.S. deputy defense undersecretary for Asia and Pacific affairs, has been quoted as saying it would be “crazy” of Japan not to shoot down a missile clearly heading toward the United States, apparently suggesting a change in interpretation.
-Adamu at Muntantfrog has written an explanation of what the Japanese government’s move to make the a Defense Ministry actually means.
-A Chinese man on an international wanted list for allegedly killing a Japanese businessman in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, in 2000 has been captured in China.
-The Yoimiuri Shinbun marks the 20th anniversary of the JET Program. While it has done little towards improving the English of Japanese students, it has been a fantastic program for international exchange, creating legions of ex-JET’s who have spread Japanophilia in their home countries.
-Former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has said he wants to revive the 2002 joint declaration between Japan and North Korea and that he is willing to visit North Korea for the third time to break the current diplomatic stalemate. Hopefully he won’t pull a Jimmy Carter..
-The Japanese government is exploring the possibility of transporting natural gas via ship in solid form. Such a transportation method would vastly increase the amount of transportable gas and allow Japan to tap into South East Asian natural gas supplies.
-The Maritime Self-Defense Force has suspended the captain and three crew members of its guided-missile patrol boat for shooting live ammunition by mistake toward land in Aomori Prefecture in September. Whoops!
-The Yoshinoya gyudon (beef and rice bowl) chain will stop selling alcoholic drinks at restaurants with parking lots as part of efforts to curb drink driving. he sale of alcoholic drinks reportedly counts for less than 1 percent of the company’s total sales, so the PR is probably worth it.
-Did you know that Ethiopia once “looked East”…to Japan. Or that in Madagascar, an early attempt to gain independence was prompted not by Western liberalism, but by a desire to pursue Japanese-style economic development? Africabeat takes a fascinating look at the Japan-Africa connection.
[Via Global Voices]
Zero translates a Japanese news segment in which Chinese men, who are illegally parking, verbally attack a journalist who confronts them about it, blaming Japan’s historical actions in China for the current situation. Because, you know, illegally parking your car has everything to do with Japanese imperialism in China.
-A poll conducted by a municipal employees union in the financially troubled city of Yubari, Hokkaido, has revealed that over 85 percent of municipal employees are considering leaving their jobs. Yubari city is famous for declaring bankruptcy after wasting enormous amounts of money on unprofitable projects such as a coal-mining-themed amustment park, hotels, and an international film festival.
-Japan is expected to join the International Criminal Court.
-You know you’ve been in Japan too long when you read this Yonhap News article about retired South Korean big wigs groping for power on the outskirts of politics, and the first thing that comes to your mind is anything but politics…
