Archive for February, 2008

Impressive Sales For Jero’s Enka Single

American enka singer Jero‘s first single has gone on sale, and it’s popular:

American “enka” singer Jero set records on Oricon’s weekly music charts, coming in fourth with his runaway hit debut single “Umiyuki,” according to results released on Tuesday.

The 26-year-old Jero, born in Pittsburgh in the United States, grew up listening to enka (traditional Japanese ballads) as a child, inspired by his Japanese grandmother. After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh in 2003, he moved to Japan to become an enka singer. He was scouted by a record label after doing well at several amateur singing contests, and made a sensational debut with the single “Umiyuki,” created by charismatic songwriter Yasushi Akimoto and famous musician Ryudo Uzaki.

“I’m so happy to have realized my dream of becoming an enka singer in Japan, something I promised my grandmother (who died three years ago). I’ll do my best for another goal I promised her — to participate in Kohaku (N-H-K’s year-end singing contest),” Jero remarked.

His story has even been picked up by USA Today!

US Navy Training Film From WW2

A screen capture from a World War 2 era US Navy training film that taught downed pilots how to distinguish between friendly Filipinos and their Japanese occupiers:

Check out the full gallery of screen captures here.

[via It's Beyond Me]

An In-Depth Look At Narita Airport’s Immigration Checkpoints

Here’s a “Super Report” that aired last week on FTV. The report focuses on the security systems in place at Narita Airport’s immigration checkpoint (length: 13 minutes):

A brief translation of a few things mentioned in the video:

• The frightening buzzer that goes off a minute and 40 seconds into the video indicates that there is a suspicious individual at one of immigration booth. In such a case, it is necessary to call in extra staff and bring the foreigner to a back room for questioning. Dubious passports and suspicions about stated reasons for entering Japan are the two main things that trigger such alerts. At peak times, the buzzer goes off almost every minute.

  According to the report, one in ten foreigners called to the back room end up being refused entry to Japan.

• The first foreigner who is called to a back room for questioning is a South Korean woman who is accompanied by a small child. She seems nervous, and it is revealed that she had visited Japan before with her husband and the husband had been forced to return to Korea because he committed a crime. The immigration officials suspect that she may attempt to overstay her tourist visa (such cases are “overwhelming numerous,” claims the narrator), and after questioning she allegedly confesses such an intention. She is refused entry and leaves in tears.
• The second foreigner who is called to the back room is a Filipino man who claims he is coming to Japan to visit his sister, who is married to a Japanese citizen. Immigration officials verify that his sister actually lives in Japan, and he is allowed to enter the country.
• The third foreigner is shown in handcuffs. Apparently he is being forcibly deported for illegally attempting to enter the country as a refugee. (not too sure on the translation here)
• The report mentions the new fingerprinting/photographing system introduced at immigration checkpoints last year. It also mentions that 10,000 foreigners illegally enter Japan a year, 600 of whom are caught at immigration checkpoints. An official claims the fingerprinting system is very useful in catching such illegal entrants.
• The fourth and fifth foreigners called to the back room are two men who suspiciously arrive at the immigration checkpoint at a time when there have been no recent international arrivals. No immigration checkpoint was even in service at the time, so an employee had to rush out and man a booth for them. They were promptly called to the back room for having suspicious passports. Apparently the men had handed over both Sri Lankan passports and Malaysian passports. We are shown that for one of the men, both passports had the same photos, but the names did not match! Their passports are rushed to a special counterfeit document inspection lab, and the Malaysian passports were found to be fakes.

  The men later confessed under interrogation that they had arrived at Narita 12 hours earlier, hoping to meet with a broker that had arranged for them to board a transit flight to Great Britain. Failing to find their broker, they were left with no choice but to head to the immigration checkpoint. The narrator says that such cases are not uncommon. The men in this particular case were eventually deported to Sri Lanka.

FamilyMart Hamburgers Contained Fishing Hooks

Pretty scary news:

HIMEJI, Hyogo — A teenager required hospitalization after swallowing a fishing hook left in a hamburger he bought from a convenience store here, police said.

The manager of the convenience store that sold the burger reported the presence of two fishing hooks — another one was found inside the packaging.

Investigators are looking into the matter in the belief that the hooks were deliberately placed there.

The Kobe foodstuffs company that produced the hamburger said it was one of about 1,200 burgers made on Sunday morning. They received notice of the discovery of the fishing hooks on Monday afternoon and have since been trying to recall the rest of the batch.

Group With Google Building Pacific Cable

Anybody want 20% more fiber-optic capacity between Japan and America?

TOKYO (AP) ・A group of six international companies, including Google Inc. of the U.S., is building a $300 million underwater fiber-optic cable linking the United States and Japan.

The 6,200-mile trans-Pacific broadband cable system called Unity will respond to the expected growth in data and Internet traffic between Asia and the U.S., the companies said in a statement Monday. A signing ceremony was held Feb. 23, they said.

Besides U.S. Internet search company Google Inc., the Unity consortium includes Bharti Airtel Ltd., India’s leading integrated telecom services provider, and Japanese telecommunications company KDDI Corp.

[...]

NEC Corp. and Tyco Telecommunications are suppliers for the project, set to be up and running in the first quarter of 2010. Construction begins immediately, according to the consortium.

The cable is expected to initially increase trans-Pacific fiber-optic capacity by about 20 percent, with the potential to add additional bandwidth, the companies said. It will connect Chikura, near Tokyo, with Los Angeles and other U.S. West Coast points, and the system will connect to other Asian cable systems via Chikura, they said.

How Chinese View Japanese Products

Just found this graph showing the results of a survey conducted in China that asked people to name Japanese goods they considered to be high quality. The top categories on the graph (left to right) are translated as follows:

1. Digital Cameras
2. LCD Televisions
3. Automobiles
4. Video Cameras
5. Notebook Computers
6. Game Consoles
7. Video Games
8. Mobile Phones
9. Washing Machines
10. Audio Visual Electronics
11. Fashion
12. Computers
13. Wristwatches
14. Motorbikes
15. Toys
16. Household Goods/Daily Sundries
17. Accessories
18. Food
19. Alcohol
20. Musical Instruments
21. Stationary
22. Golf Equipment
23. Bicycles
24. Furniture

The colored bars in the graph represent the results in three areas of China where the poll was conducted.
Orange = Shanghai, Red = Beijing, Green = Guangzhou