Archive for January, 2009

Daughter of illegal immigrants submits petition seeking special residence permission

Last year, I blogged about the situation facing Noriko Calderon, a girl born in Japan who is facing deportation because her parents were illegal immigrants. Back in November, the Justice Ministry decided to delay the deportation of the Calderon family, and the new date by which they must leave Japan is January 14th.

Noriko went to the Ministry of Justice yesterday to ask the government to grant her family special residence permission:

Noriko Calderon, a 13-year-old attending a junior high school run by the city of Warabi, Saitama Prefecture, said she told a ministry official, “I was born in Japan. I have friends in Japan and have a dream for the future. I want to be allowed to continue studying.”

Submitted along with her request were signatures from around 7,400 supporters, bringing the total number of people who have signed petitions on her behalf to nearly 14,500.

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Hand grenade found in Kanagawa

Kanagawa prefectural police display a grenade they found while searching the house of a yakuza gang member:

The grenade was found in the house of Satoru Hirayama, a leader of a gang linked to the Inagawa-kai. Hirayama, who is already in police custody over a drug-related crime, has told police that somebody gave him the item in question for safekeeping about a year ago and he had no idea it was a hand grenade.

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Tokyo 2009 New Year’s Photos

A happy new years to all JapanProbe’s readers.

I spent counting down the new year at Tokyo’s Zōjō-ji (増上寺) with my best mates, Some people went to the famous Meiji Shrine, but I prefer this one right beside Tokyo Tower.

The moment that Tokyo Tower reveals to the world its 2009!

Were you part of this crowd??

We felt warm although it was freezing winter in Tokyo, I guess that is because of the enormous amount of heat we get squezzing through people.

How did you spent your New year’s count down? Were you there with me at Zōjō-ji??
Share your stories!!

I hope the year 2009 will bring happiness and prosperity to all!

Additional Information:
Photos courtesy of my friend’s camera (Eko Prasetyo)
Official name of Zōjō-ji is San’en-zan Zōjō-ji (三縁山増上寺)

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Robot density in Japan

Just in case you ever need to prove to your friends that Japan really does have a lot of robots, here is a graph of robot density by country:

[via Foreign Policy Passport]

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Japanese culture tours for foreign tourists

A 10-minute clip about special tours for foreign tourists visiting Japan (from Real Time News):

The report says that tours offering foreigners a chance to experience Japanese culture are particularly popular. Two examples are given.

The first tour shown is of a “samurai dojo” in Tokyo where foreigners are given a chance to experience sword fighting. After watching a few professionals who do sword fighting in movies and TV shows demonstrate some techniques, the foreign tourists are given a chance to swing around some wooden swords. An Israeli woman who participated in the tour tells the reporter that she had a lot of fun and she might use some of the techniques she learned in the next fight she has with her husband. (The tour costs 12,000 yen per person, and is organized by HIS.)

Most foreign tourists who visit Japan spend some time in Tokyo, so nearby Saitama is trying to attract some of them to its famous sites. The Saitama prefectural government and HIS have started a “True Japan” tourism program that urges foreigners to “Come to SAITAMA, Next to TOKYO.” The second tour shown in the news report is their “Wear Kimono in Kawagoe with Onsen, Dinner and Samurai Geisha show” tour.

The tour group consists of five foreigners and three Japanese people. After some initial explanation of the contents of the day’s tour, they are taken to a kimono rental shop. While they are trying on kimonos, the shopkeeper tells the camera that foreign tourists tend to pick color combinations that few Japanese people would choose. The foreigners seem pretty happy with their kimonos, but the narrator of the report notes that they are a little too tall for what they are wearing and some of them must wear zori that are too small for their feet. (Apparently HIS, which charges each tourist 13,800 yen, did not think of preparing a few pairs of larger sandals.)

The kimono-clad foreigners walk through the streets of Kawagoe, sampling local foods and enjoying the atmosphere of the old town. They also attract Japanese onlookers who compliment their beauty and want to take photos with them. The French girl notes that she is used to being on the other side of such exchanges.

Their next stop is an onsen. After listening to a quick explanation in English they are given a chance to relax in the warm hot spring waters. Afterwards, a Spanish guy and an Australian guy who are part of the tour group comment on how the onsen felt great and helped them relax.

While they are at the onsen, something odd is going on at a nearby restaurant/theater. When told that a foreign tour group would be coming, the restaurant staff had assumed that “gaijin” would not like to sit on tatami mat floors, so they set up chairs on top of the tatami. When the foreign tourists found out about the weird arrangement, they insisted on sitting Japanese style.

As they finish their meal, a performance of “Mabuta no Haha” begins on the stage. The play is entirely in Japanese, but the actors insert a bunch of katakana words into the play in an attempt to entertain the foreigners in the audience. Most of the foreigners can’t understand a word of the “English” thrown into the play, but they still get some entertainment value out of it. As the tour ends, most of the foreigners declare that they enjoyed the tour very much.

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Domestic animators disappearing as anime studios outsource to Asia

A rather alarming news report about the future of anime:

According to the report, the number of people in Japan who are engaged in the creation of anime is dropping. Most studios outsource the actual drawing and animation portions of their projects to other Asian countries, a practice that could hurt future development of the industry. Some believe that individuals must spend decades doing animation grunt work before working as directors or story planners. They fear that outsourcing all that manual labor reduces the amount of anime-related jobs in Japan and it could lead to a shortage of Japanese people capable of creating anime masterpieces.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government released a special series of anime textbooks last month. The textbooks cover the planning, production, and business sides of the industry. The books also include an instructional DVD about how to draw the movement of people and animals. It is hoped that the books will encourage younger Japanese to join the anime industry.

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