Archive for April, 2009

Dewi Sukarno　clashes with right wingers

Officers from Shibuya Police Station say that a truck with speakers was driving past Dewi’s house in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward at around 9:30 a.m. when she leaned out of a second-floor window and hurled a flowerpot at it. She then came outside with a camera to photograph the truck. A quarrel ensued, during which the camera was damaged.

Police say the activists were accusing her of being too soft on North Korea’s recent rocket launch during recent TV appearances.

Apparently she is a believer in North Korea’s claim that they only intended to peacefully launch a satellite, and wasn’t afraid to say so on TV.

Another reason why the uyoku might not like her: Earth Aid Society, an NPO Dewi founded in 2005, has been involved in sending food to North Korea.

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Woman suffered paralysis of her right arm after donating blood

The Japanese Red Cross Society has agreed to pay 71.8 million yen (725,900 USD) to a woman who suffered paralysis of her arm after donating blood at a Red Cross event in Osaka:

According to the suit, a nurse improperly inserted a needle in the woman’s right arm. Another nurse then took over, and despite pleas of the donor to try a different location, spent 20 minutes moving the needle about in an unsuccessful effort to draw blood.

The woman was later diagnosed as having reflex sympathetic dystrophy, a result of nerve damage inflicted by the Red Cross nurse.

The woman had originally sought 130 million yen in damages from the Red Cross.

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Arlan Calderon speaks to the press

The Philippine Star has interviewed Arlan Calderon, father of Noriko Calderon. The interview fills in a few details about Noriko’s situation that were not included in other press reports. Here’s an excerpt [description of what it means to "look Japanese" emphasized in bold text]:

“One day, three Japanese police came to our house to tell us that we’re being arrested and questioned for overstaying,” Arlan said in Tagalog.

He could barely speak English but is in fluent Nihongo.

Arlan not only speaks Japanese fluently, but even looks Japanese, with slanted eyes, fair complexion, crewcut hair and bushy eyebrows.

He did not give details on how they were discovered, but discounted the possibility that they were turned in by a fellow Pinoy in Japan.

“Nobody snitched on us,” he said, attributing their being found out more to the efficiency of the Japanese authorities.

The couple came to Japan in 1993 to seek greener pastures, where Sarah initially sold various merchandise with the help of relatives and Arlan worked in a construction company.

When asked why her daughter never learned to speak Tagalog, Arlan said they tried to teach her but their daughter opted to speak Japanese.

“We tried to teach her our language but she would have none of it. And when she goes out of the house, all of her friends and classmates are Japanese,” Arlan said.

Arlan and Sarah said they will eventually live in Japan when Noriko turns 16 or 18, but are not sure if their daughter could apply to be a naturalized Japanese.

In case Noriko becomes a naturalized Japanese, they hope she would petition the Japanese government to let them stay in Japan permanently.

The Japanese government has already stated that it will allow the Calderons to make short visits to see their daughter. (Under normal circumstances, foreigners who illegally enter Japan are banned from re-entering the country for five years.)

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Ebay aims for Japan market

Watch out, Yahoo! Japan auctions, here comes Ebay:

…a translation service will provide Japanese sellers with English versions of their product descriptions within a day at rates of 700 yen ($7.20) for up to 100 Japanese characters and 1,200 yen for up to 200. “The cost will be less than half that of conventional services,” Nikkei said.

The service will also provide translations to Japanese from English to allow sellers to handle questions from buyers, Nikkei said.

It said explanations on how to list a product will be available in Japanese on a new web site.

The paper said: “By screening delivery options, eBay expects to keep shipping charges to roughly half of regular rates.”

Ebay is already reporting a 30% increase in the number of Japanese registered Japanese users since it began the new services on April 1st. FTV’s news report about Ebay (embedded above) is currently the most viewed news video on Yahoo! Japan News.

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Video: One box, many cats

“The cat which multiplies” [via Zaeega]:

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Japan’s first pets

They never got the attention that Obama’s new dog is receiving, but there have been “first pets” in Japan:

In Japan, the office of the prime minister said that former Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto brought a hamster with him when he entered the prime minister’s official residence in January 1996. However, when former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe moved into the residence in November 2006, he left his pet dog, a miniature dachshund named Roy, behind at his private residence.

“There are no regulations banning pets at the official residence, but we are not aware of any cases of cats or dogs being kept there,” an office representative said.

Prime Minister Taro Aso’s grandfather Shigeru Yoshida, who signed the Treaty of San Francisco, kept many pets at his private residence, including three dogs called San, Fran and Cisco.

A representative of Aso’s office said that the prime minister likes dogs, just like his grandfather, but he has reportedly not kept one since his miniature dachshund died several years ago. In February, when Aso was suffering from a slump in support, he welcomed service dogs (pictured above) into his office, and commented sadly that he was liked by dogs.

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