Archive for January, 2009

Japanese sumo wrestler arrested for marijuana possession

“Japanese sumo wrestlers too!” declares the Sponichi headline. Today at around 2:00PM, juryou rank sumo wrestler Wakakirin and a musician friend were busted with marijuana during a police search of a business in Roppongi.

If the charges prove to be true, I expect the Japan Sumo Association to ban him for life as they did with the Russian wrestlers caught with marijuana last year.

Update: Wakakirin has admitted that the marijuana was for his personal use.

Update 2: Kyodo News has released an English language article about Wakakirin’s arrest.

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
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Beams factories overworked and underpayed Chinese trainees

Mainichi reports that factories making Beams clothing illegally made Chinese trainees work overtime for low wages:

“We had to use sewing machines until dawn while only eating instant noodles and bread,” recalled Ren Xin-Yan, 26, who worked at the plant after she came to Japan from China’s Tsingtao in October 2005. She had to work overtime for 200 to 480 yen per hour, including New Year’s Eve and New Year’s holidays. Ren, who currently resides in China, lost 10 kilograms in weight and was hospitalized three times over the two and a half years she stayed in Japan.

In June last year, a Labor Standards Supervision Office in Yawatahama, Ehime Prefecture, urged the plant’s manager to pay the nine Chinese women about eight million yen to cover unpaid wages. The Takamatsu Regional Immigration Bureau later ordered the plant to stop accepting foreign trainees, which forced it to suspend the production of clothes.

Beams’ public relations department has confirmed that illegal labor practices took place, but has claimed that local factory operators were acting on their own without the knowledge of the company.

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• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
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Yokosuka Navy Burger

Restaurants in Yokosuka have used a special recipe they received from the US Navy to add ‘Navy Burgers’ to their menus:

The burger is initially available at four restaurants chosen by the city government, which wants to promote it as a local delicacy. Six other restaurants will begin to serve the burger by mid-February.

The burger, made with a 200-gram ground beef patty, uses less salt and sauce than other burgers to enable customers to fully taste the flavor of beef, the restaurants say. Each restaurant also uses its own secret ingredient.

Among the four restaurants is Tsunami, a Mexican restaurant located just in front of the Navy base, which is serving an extra-large burger called “the George Washington” after the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier with the same name that was deployed to Yokosuka last September.

The four restaurants with Navy Burgers are the Bistro Gourmand, Tsunami, Honey Bee, and Launa.

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
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Worker nearly crushed to death by elevator

An incident that took place a few days ago in Tokyo highlights the dangers of elevator maintenance work:

As on maintenance worker worked at the bottom of the shaft, another worker did some maintenance on the elevator while testing its movement between other floors. The worker at the bottom told his colleague not to take the elevator down to the first floor, but at some point the “1″ button was accidentally pressed. Had there not been a ladder at the bottom of the shaft, the worker there would have been killed. Instead, he was given 18-centimeters of space – enough to experience the horrible pain of being crushed without fatal injury.

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
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Apartment designed by Kazuo Umezu

If you thought Kazuo Umezu’s house looked cool, you might enjoy this designer apartment he produced for a company in Osaka:

The Japanese/Romanian couple living in the apartment seem to enjoy its wacky interior、and don’t have a problem paying 250,000 yen a month in rent for the place.

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)

North Korea to capure the moon

First they abduct Japanese citizens, now they plan to abduct the moon:

[via the Marmot's Hole]

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)