Archive for September, 2008

Fat dolphins go on a diet at Kinosaki Marine World

The dolphins at Kinosaki Marine World were having trouble making high jumps during shows, so trainers investigated and found that the dolphins were too plump to jump:

Keepers measured their weight and found all had gotten plumper, some up to 22 pounds heavier just during the summer.

All had the same menu _ about 31 pounds of mackerel mixed with some white fish _ but keepers found the mackerels had gotten fattier, adding too many calories for the dolphins.

Keepers immediately put them on a weight loss program, feeding them more white fish and less fatty mackerels, while instituting a routine exercise regime, Imazu said.

Expect updates on the progress of the Diet at Kinosaki Marine World’s WordPress blog (Japanese).

Record number of foreigners apply for refugee status

It is incredibly hard for foreigners to get refugee status in Japan, but that hasn’t stopped over 1,000 individuals from applying this year:

According to the association, about 975 people applied for the status with the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau between January and early September. Over the same period, 25 people applied to the Nagoya Regional Immigration Bureau and 15 people with the Osaka Regional Immigration Bureau.

Many of the applicants are from Myanmar and Turkey. Applicants from Sri Lanka, Nepal and Ethiopia, who face political uncertainty in their homelands, are on the rise, the association said.

One of the reasons for the increase is that European nations and the United States have strengthened immigration controls, mainly due to terrorism concerns.

Only 41 applicants were granted refugee status last year. However, the Japanese government announced earlier this year that it intended to take in greater numbers of refugees, so this year’s applicants might have more luck.

Unemployment rate hits 2-year high….

And this photo of a homeless guy pulling a junk cart is being used in the AFP article about the rising unemployment rate:

The number of unemployed people increased by 230,000 from a year earlier to a total of 2.72 million.

The labour ministry said in a separate report that there were only 86 job opportunities for every 100 job seekers. It was the ninth straight month that the number of job hunters exceeded the number of job offers.

Video: Inside Tokyo’s giant underground storm drainage tunnels

A FTV newscaster gets a special look at one of the gigantic storm drainage tunnels deep beneath Tokyo:

The tunnel shown in the video is about 40 meters (130 feet) underground and about 12.5 meters (41 feet) wide. While looking through the tunnel, the reporter and his guide are able to see marks left over from heavy rains that took place earlier this year, as well as a few marine animals that got washed in with the rainwater.

Russian sumo wrestler claims matches were fixed / Japanese wrestlers smoked marijuana

The Japan Sumo Association might come to regret its decision to ban Russian wrestler Wakanoho over a marijuana scandal. Today he went before the press and claimed he was forced to throw matches in exchange for money:

“I was forced to accept money and put in unfair bouts,” Soslan Aleksandrovich Gagloev, known by his ring name, Wakanoho, said through an interpreter.

Wakanoho also accused trainers and other wrestlers of smoking marijuana.

He said he will give further details when he testifies in court later this week as a witness for the weekly magazine Shukan Gendai, which faces a defamation suit by the Japan Sumo Association and several wrestlers over its articles last year alleging bout-fixing.

“The world of sumo is dirty,” Wakanoho said. “I just want to make it a clean place.”

Photo: Abe & Fukuda

An unflattering photo of former Prime Ministers Shinzo Abe and Yasuo Fukuda listening to the speech Taro Aso gave today:

[via Foreign Policy]