Japanese girl screaming contest
Female students at a high school in Fukui participate in a screaming contest:
Summer vacation is about to begin, so the school and local police held the contest to help teach the girls to make some noise if they run into suspicious individuals. A little gadget is used measured the decibel levels of their shrieks and shouts for help. (According to the report, a 90 decibel scream is required to scare off an attacker.)
The report doesn’t mention anyone being named the winner of the contest, but their teacher does a pretty good job of loudly shouting an insult at the guy.
Do you find this to be a good example of practical crime prevention training?
Related video: While we’re on the topic of suspicious guys, here’s a comedy video starring Ken Shimura:
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Categories: Japanese Girls
Foreign snails invade Osaka
An apartment complex in Osaka is dealing with an invasion of alien escargot snails (cue the dramatic music, TBS news):
“They are resistant to dry conditions and can be active during winter, so it is feared they could spread further to other areas,” Nakai said.
The conservation society will hold a lecture for local residents Sunday on how to differentiate between garden snails and domestic species, which can be difficult for ordinary people, and how to eradicate the alien species.
Included at the end of the clip is some footage of a mongoose that was captured in a trap in Kagoshima prefecture. (As noted in an earlier post, two other mongooses have already been captured by such traps.)
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Categories: Animal Videos
Individual Chinese tourists can now visit Japan
A new rule regarding tourist visas went into effect this week, allowing Chinese individuals to visit Japan:
In the above TBS news clip about the first batch of individual Chinese tourists, a woman flashes her credit card and says she is going to use it to buy lots of Japanese style souvenirs.
Since 2000, tourist visas were issued to Chinese who came in tour groups, but now Chinese from certain cities who make at least 250,000 yuan a year will be allowed to visit by themselves. The income requirement is probably meant to allow rich Chinese to freely come to Japan and spend their money while restricting access to poorer individuals who might be tempted to overstay their visas and illegally settle in Japan.
A Japanese language article from Record China notes that some Japanese netizens are not happy about the idea of lots of Chinese getting easier access to their country. The bad manners of Chinese are mentioned a major reason why they are unwanted. (“Observe your schedules, obey the laws,don’t litter, and don’t hock up phlegm!”) Accompanying the article is a photo of a tourist site in China that has been horribly defaced by graffiti.
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Categories: Foreigners in Japan
Flowers & Troops
The trailer for “Flowers & Troops,” a documentary about Japanese soldiers who stayed behind in Southeast Asia after the war ended (the audio is in Japanese, but 空 blog has provided an English translation of its contents):
１９４５，Aug 15: some Japanese soldiers who survived didn’t return to their home country.
These are notes from them after 60 years from the end of the war.
More soldiers died from sickness than being killed in the battle by being shot.
He is a poor guy, the Japanese army left him alone.
There were hellish battle fields in Asia.
There were dead bodies after dead bodies along the road: they were Japanese soldiers. Their heads being cut off.
190,000 Japanese soldiers were killed in Burma in the Pacific War.
I suffer. My heart suffers.
Why didn’t they return?
I could but I didn’t.
I decided to marry him after the war. I had to.
What is life? What is family? And what is War?
I always think of my life, and it is impossible for us to live in Japan and it is hard to live in Burma
Another story of the post-war—”FLOWERS & TROOPS”
We want to leave this message NOW.
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Categories: Films
New guidelines for special residency permits
The Asahi reports on new Justice Ministry guidelines for granting special residency to illegal immigrants:
Under the new guidelines for the special permits, one of the biggest positive factors is if the foreign resident is living with biological children who have been in Japan for 10 or more years and are currently attending elementary, junior high or senior high school.
People with children in junior high school or higher levels of education have often been granted special residence permits. The scope will effectively widen under the new guidelines.
Another main positive factor is if the applicant is suffering from a serious illness, or has kin suffering from illness, that requires treatment in Japan.
Other factors that would work in favor of the foreign resident are residency in Japan for 20 years or longer and if the resident surrenders to authorities.
The main negative factor for an applicant would be a conviction and punishment for a serious crime, including gun or drug smuggling.
Membership to a criminal organization or illegal entry into the country would also be disadvantageous.
The new rules are quite clearly influenced by the case of Noriko Calderon, which focused a lot of negative attention on the government’s lack of clear policies about illegal immigrants who have children in Japan.
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Categories: Foreigners in Japan
Mongoose traps in Kagoshima catch their targets
An update on the story of wild mongoose being spotted in Kagoshima:
Authorities set up traps to catch the alien species, and as you know, they only managed to capture a cat. Several days have passed since the initial failure, and it seems the traps are now succeeding at their goal. Two wild mongoose have been captured.
A clip from FTV news:
The news clip notes that mongoose populations can grow very fast, and that Kagoshima may need to capture more of them. In the case of Amami Oshima, a population of 20 mongoose invaders grew to about 10,000 in just two decades. The meat-eating mongooses are believed to be responsible for a a huge drop in the number of Amami rabbits.
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Categories: Animal Videos