Archive for June, 2008

Open the Isahaya Bay drainage gates!

The Saga District Court ruled yesterday that the government’s 253-billion-yen Isahaya Bay drainage project had caused major environmental damage, ordering the government to open the drain gates that dried up a big area of the bay in 1997:

Presiding Judge Ryuichi Kamiyama recognized that the dike’s closure of the bay was substantially responsible for the “devastated environments for boat fishing, clam fishing and aquafarming.”

The judge also harshly criticized the government for failing to follow up on the Environmental Dispute Coordination Commission’s request to conduct a mid- to long-term assessment of potential damage from the reclamation project.

He said the government’s lack of effort to document possible damage “almost constitutes interference in the claims of the plaintiffs and betrays the rules of faith at a trial.”

Although the court acknowledged that periods of red-tide outbreaks grew longer in the Ariake Sea after the government closed the dike in 1997, it said there was insufficient scientific evidence to confirm a correlation between the project and damage in the entire area.

About 100 fishermen who gathered outside the court building applauded the ruling and called on the government not to appeal.

“The court finally recognized the critical realities of our sea, where we can no longer catch fish and harvest seaweed,” said a weeping 49-year-old seaweed farmer and resident of Shimabara, Nagasaki Prefecture.

It is a major victory for citizens fighting against environmentally destructive public works projects, and hopefully the government will choose not to appeal the decision.

Alex Kerr’s Dogs and Demons: Tales from the Dark Side of Japan has a section about the Isahaya Bay drainage project. Here’s an excerpt from it that appeared on the New York Times’ website:
Read more…

eMobile pulls Obama-inspired commercial

The Guardian reports that eMobile has pulled its Obama-inspired commercial after facing criticism in the blogosphere:

The company, which stressed it had used the macaque mascot in several other adverts, said it had never intended to insult Obama but had decided to pull the “Change” ad in response to criticism in the blogosphere.

“We had no bad intentions, but this is a cross-cultural gap issue and we have to accept it,” eMobile’s chief executive, Sachio Semmoto, told Reuters. “There are African-Americans in Japan, so we decided to take prompt action and shut down the ad.”

Semmoto went further, describing the senator from Illinois as the kind of leader who could benefit not only the US but also Japan. “For two years I’ve been saying Obama has the capacity to change America, the kind of capacity that Japan needs,” he said.

Monkeys are revered in Japan, and their image can be found at numerous Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, but eMobile’s choice of animal for this ad did not impress the foreign blogging community.

I understand their decision, but I still stand by my previously written statements about the ad. It’s a shame that so many non-Japanese bloggers took the commercial out of context and screamed about racism.

[hat tip to 空]

Another knife attack in Akihabara?

A man was arrested in Akihabara the other day for apparently slashing a police officer after attempting to flee from officers that had found a knife in his bag. The knife in question was a tool knife with a 3-inch blade – a weapon that wouldn’t be very useful if one wanted to go on a psycho knife rampage.

The police officer hurt while trying to stop the man suffered only light injuries to one of his hands. According to a post on Akiba blog, the Asahi Shinbun’s coverage of the incident claimed that a police officer may have actually grabbed the knife by its blade when attempting to seize it, effectively causing his own injury:

Around 13:25 on the 26th, when police officers questioned two men, one of them kept a tool knife (the length of a blade was 7.5cm) in his backpack, so police was going to let him get in the police car to ask him to go to the police station voluntarily. Then, he took the knife back from the police and ran away. Police captured him right a way, but since police grabbed the knife, he got injured. Manseibashi Police Station arrested the guy for a charge of inflicting bodily injury and the interference with a government official in the execution of his duties.

Other newspapers were more vague in their coverage, and it is unclear if Asahi’s story is true or not.

One thing, however, does seem to be clear: one should avoid carrying any knives in their bags when going to Akihabara, even if the knives in question are seemingly harmless tool knives. Police seem to be regularly performing searches of individuals, and even knife owners that don’t react like fools have to deal with a lot of BS before police allow them to go free.

Taiko master Daihachi Oguchi dies

Master taiko drummer Daihachi Oguchi has died:

Oguchi was crossing the street when he was struck by the car Thursday. He was rushed to the hospital but died of excessive bleeding early Friday, said Yuken Yagasaki of Osuwa Daiko, the group in Nagano prefecture (state) in northern Japan that Oguchi had led.

Oguchi helped found top U.S. taiko groups, including San Francisco Taiko Dojo, which has performed in Hollywood movies and on international tours since its founding 40 years ago.

A former jazz musician, Oguchi was one of the first to elevate the traditional folk sounds of taiko to modern music played in concert halls, not just festivals and shrines.

[ht to Ashe]