Archive for June, 2009

Another Thai boy looking for his Japanese father

Ever since the media helped Keigo Sato track down his Japanese father, other half-Japanese children in Thailand have been contacting the press requesting that their long lost Japanese fathers also be found.

In this TBS news report, journalists help find the father of young Yamato Niimura:

Yamato Niimura, 10, wept while chatting with his dad Masato on the Net in a hotel room. The contact was made behind close doors following the father’s request for privacy.

Masato, who is now married and has a family in Japan, reportedly told the boy he wanted to take care of him and would soon come to Thailand. He explained that he hadn’t been able to afford the fare to Thailand for the past few years.

The father had wanted to take Yamato to Japan, but because the boy’s mother was an illegal immigrant from Burma, Yamato had no passport. Attempts to talk government offices and embassies into letting him take the boy to Japan failed. The father’s bank book shows that he has been sending about $400 a month to Thailand to support Yamato, but the woman caring for Yamato claims they have received any money (he will now be modifying the transfer info to make sure it is properly sent).

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Terminator meets Doraemon

Coming June 26th:

“Doraemon 1-Jikan ‘O-26(furo) Special’ ~Nobita o Aishita Bishōjo~”(Doraemon One-Hour O-26 (Bath) Special: The Beautiful Girl Who Loved Nobita) begins when a cute assistant robot named Rury suddenly appears before Doraemon’s hapless owner, Nobita. Rury was sent to terminate Nobita by Boss Walther, an evil future organization bent on world conquest. A humanoid T-800 robot named “Terrinanor” appears in the story’s climax as the ultimate weapon.

It’s about time Japanese children learned about Judgment Day.

[hat tip to Clay]

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Religious group ran love hotels to raise money for needy children

A “religion” that hid the money it made operating love hotels:

The Kanto-Shinetsu Regional Taxation Bureau has ordered Uchu Shinri Gakkai (Space truth academic society) to pay 300 million yen in back taxes and penalties.

Uchu Shinri Gakkai, based in Tadotsu, Kagawa Prefecture, has filed an objection to the order.

“We actually send money to needy children in the country. We’ll fight the tax authorities,” said the 46-year-old president of a company in Chikuma, Nagano Prefecture, that processes and sells mushrooms and vegetables.

The love hotels are apparently run by a 71-year-old former president of the company.

Uchu Shinri Gakkai appears to be a religious organization in name only. The vegetable company apparently used the name of Uchu Shinri Gakkai to win tax breaks offered to religious groups, including tax exemptions on donations.

The article mentions that the practice of purchasing dead religious groups to avoid paying taxes is not exactly unheard of in Japan.

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Keystone Copter

If you happen to find a helicopter window, please contact the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department:

The MPD’s “Otori 7″ helicopter departed the Tachikawa flight center on Tuesday afternoon. A crewmember noticed a change in atmospheric pressure while the helicopter was flying along the metropolitan expressway over the Ikejiri area of Setagaya Ward, and found the rear left window was missing. The loss of the window did not affect the flight, and the helicopter landed at its scheduled destination of Tokyo Heliport in Koto Ward. No injuries or damage were reported.

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Arab satellite TV network to produce 30 episodes on moral lessons from Japan

On The Media has an interview with moderate Muslim televangelist Ahmad al-Shugairi in which he comments on creating a series of programs about Japan:

This season it will be all from Japan. So we have 30 episodes about the Japanese culture, the Japanese morals and manners and the Japanese work ethics. And I’m just aiming at showing the Arab world how they are implementing a lot of the things that we are just preaching.

For example, we preach in our schools that cleanliness is a major part of the believer. However, you see the streets in the Arab world, a lot of it, it’s just a mess because we’re not practicing this virtue of cleanliness.

I’m showing the Arab world how the Japanese were able to have extremely clean streets and how they are implementing these morals.

It would be truly great if somebody could translate these programs into English or Japanese. I wonder if there will be any mention of “Oshin,” an old Japanese TV drama that was used (in a heavily edited form) as moral education in Iran?

[hat tip to Adamu]

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Lady Gaga in Japan

Lady Gaga has come to give a few concerts in Japan:

Included in the clip is a scene of Gaga visiting a kimono shop. She shows up wearing some sort of goth loli outfit, which looks pretty terrible when combined with the ganguro-esque make-up she has on (the shop clerk is shocked when she takes off her sunglasses!). When she puts on a pink kimono, she feels like a “Japanese barbie.”

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