2009 June | Japan Probe

Archive for June, 2009

Crested ibis given honorary residency

The city of Kurobe in Toyama prefecture has granted a crested ibis an honorary certificate of residency :

The crested ibis in just one of a handful of the endangered birds currently living outside of captivity in Japan. It was raised in captivity and released on Sado island back in September. After some time on the island, if flew to Honshu and seems to have settled in Toyama. Since the bird could not tell them its name, they registered him as “Tokimeki” (rough translation: toki = crested ibis / tokimeki = heartbeat, throbbing, palpitation).

The granting of juminhyo to animals is often a great annoyance to some foreign residents of Japan, especially those who are have married Japanese citizens and cannot be listed together as family on the registries of their Japanese spouse/children. However, it now looks like that issue may be resolved by 2012.

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2 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - June 16, 2009 at 9:10 am

Categories: Animal Videos

Father’s Day gift ideas in Japan

FTV news featured some new products being marketed as ideal Father’s Day gifts:

A fruit vinegar drink, strategically positioned in the men’s clothing section of a store to remind us that fat father’s need to slim down to wear polo shirts.
A stylish man purse for new fathers! It’s got a baby bottle holder and a pocket at the bottom for diaper storage. (It is hoped that older parents will give this as a gift to their sons who have just become fathers.)
Sake and snacks – for the father who can’t go out drinking as much these days because of the bad economy.

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1 comment - What do you think? Posted by James - at 8:10 am

Categories: General Japan

How not to protest against discrimination

Some screen captures from a YouTube video apparently taken at a counter-protest held in Kyoto on Saturday in response to a march by groups opposed to giving voting rights to non-citizens:

hi no maru

As you can see, the red sun in the middle of the Japanese flag has been replaced with a steaming pile of shit. The narrator of the video doesn’t seem to have an unfavorable view of the flags, featuring them alongside more thoughtful anti-discrimination banners. While the poop flags will clearly annoy some of those who participated in the other march, I doubt this kind of counter-protest will do much for furthering the idea of giving non-citizens voting rights.

Here’s the full video clip:

As one might expect, the flags have drawn angry responses from more than a few Japanese internet users. One YouTuber has copied and re-uploaded the video, adding subtitles explaining that Zainichi Koreans are criminals and that Japanese women must be protected from Zainichi rapists. It has surged up the YouTube Japan rankings for today, and has received more views than the original clip.

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43 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - June 15, 2009 at 5:19 pm

Categories: Discrimination, Foreigners in Japan

Interview with Arudou Debito: Talking about the new gaijin cards

Japan Podshow recently interviewed Arudou Debito of Debito.org:

The interview touches on a lot of topics that have been already brought up in other Debito interviews, such as the Otaru onsen case, being treated like a guest in Japan, and his beard. But there is one sort-of-new topic brought up: Debito’s fear that the Japanese government will use the IC chips in its new gaijin cards to track every foreigner (“like the aliens in Alien 2“).

[via JapanSoc]

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