Archive for August, 2009

Aflac duck gets some feline backup

Aflac Japan has summoned a cat to up the cute factor in its commercials (Aoi Miyazaki and the duck weren’t enough?):

They’re also offering mini maneki neko costume-wearing ducks to new customers.

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

Japanese tourist causes bomb scare in Germany

A Japanese tourist who chained a bag to a bench created a bomb scare in Hamburg:

The man attached his bag to the bench with a chain-like device and left the station for sightseeing, the paper said.

The police, suspecting the bag may contain explosives, closed the station for about an hour and a half Friday, and passengers were forced to evacuate the facility.

As the incident resulted in the cancellation of two train runs and delays of about 40 runs, the operator of the railway is considering demanding that the man pay damages, which could reach several tens of thousands of euros.

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
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Canadian confronts right-wingers at Yasukuni

This video of a Canadian visitor to the Yasukuni Shrine confronting former General Tamogami has been getting a lot of attention on YouTube:

The incident apparently took place on August 15th, the day on which people come to the Yasukuni Shrine to pray for those who died in the Pacific War. The Canadian, who is identified in YouTube comments as Pierre Pariseau, informs Tamogami that the kind of speeches he was giving in Japan would get him arrested in Germany. His statements anger the crowd of right-wingers around Tamogami, and they start yelling at Pariseau.

The following goes down:

• Pariseau keeps ranting about how this kind of speech would be illegal in Germany. Satoru Mizushima rants back about how he is being disrespectful, etc.
• As Pariseau is trying to walk away, Mizushima keeps grabbing him. A cop shows up and gets in the way. The cop then grabs Pariseau as Pariseau insists he is going home.
• Right-wingers with cameras follow Pariseau as he leaves the area. At one point he tries to walk into the middle of a busy road. (To catch a taxi?)
• Police completely surround Pariseau and force him against a wall. They question him about what happened. He keeps pointing at the camera, possibly because he does not want to be filmed. The camera footage ends with Pariseau being escorted down the street by a bunch of cops.

This site claims that police made Pariseau apologize:

Canadian Pierre Pariseau questions former Gen. Toshio Tamogami during commerations for the 64th anniversy of end of World War Two at Yausukuni shrine in Tokyo, Japan on Aug 15th 2009. Gen. Toshio Tamogami was dismissed after publishing an essay asserting that Japan was not the aggressor in World War Two. Long term Japan resident Pierre Pariseau was attempting to leave the shrine after being grabbed and shoved by supporters of the General as he attempted to get a taxi he was prevented from doing so by police. He was taken to a police box near Ichigaya station for 2 hours. He was released after writing a letter of apology to Yasukuni shrine,Channel Sakura and Gen. Toshio Tamogami. Mr Pariseau asked the General if he knew “That he would be arrested in Germany for doing what he was doing?” Established in 1869 by the Meiji Emperor to commerate those who died in the Boshin War. The shrine now houses the souls or ‘kami’ of Japan’s war dead including 14 A-class war criminals who were interned among the 2.5 million war dead in 1978. Visits to the shrine by Japanese Prime Ministers create tensions with Japan’s Asian neighbors.

It was really dumb of Pariseau to start an argument with a crowd of right wingers in the middle of their most sacred territory on the day they gather to honor the war dead. He could have been seriously injured.

The Yasukuni Shrine is not a public forum. It is a privately owned and operated religious site and it has the right to ask police to make troublemakers leave the grounds of the shrine. The shrine is not under an obligation to allow dissenters to come in and challenge its supporters. Pariseau would have been a lot safer if he’d joined the left wing protest going on outside the shrine that day. That being said, however, it seems that the police went a bit overboard in surrounding and detaining him.

Japan is not Germany. It does not restrict free speech by outlawing certain historical views. People are allowed to share opinions on history, even if those opinions are stupid.

Interesting related link: Pierre Pariseau writes about right wingers and glorification of war in Japan. ["Could anybody blame the paranoid Kim Jung Il for wishing to acquire a nuclear deterrent?"]

[hat tip to FG]

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
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Calf runs wild in Utsunomiya

A video from ANN of a calf that ran wild in Utsunomiya a few months ago (clip subtitled in English):

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

Tommy Lee Jones marries a Japanese woman

In the newest commercial of Boss Coffee’s “Alien Jones” series, Tommy Lee Jones experiences marriage with a human:

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
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New LDP attack ad: The DPJ makes disgusting ramen

Japan’s ruling party has released a follow-up to is popular proposal attack ad. This time, the DPJ character prepares a delicious-looking bowl of ramen (his party manifesto) for the woman:

As Mr. DPJ is readying the ramen, he hears complaints and suggestions from a variety of people and tries to respond to all of them. The final product is a ugly mess that doesn’t at all resemble the nice ramen he started with. Text appears on the screen reminding viewers that if you try to hard to please everyone, you’ll end up satisfying nobody. The clip ends with a reminder that the Liberal Democratic Party has solid policy plans.

Like the previous attack ad, it was no doubt produced by advertising mega-company Dentsu. It looks like it was expensive and it seems to have been worth the investment: the video is already at nearly 15,000 views on YouTube and is bound to get attention from TV news programs.

Update: They also have another attack ad making fun of the DPJ’s flip-flopping on the refueling issue, free trade with the United States, and decentralization of government authority. It also looks like Taro Aso took a ride on the Keihin Tohoku line.

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Side rant: Is the presence of a foreigner in the commercial a swipe at the DPJ’s view on non-citizen voting? [Not just a joke about their stance on the refueling mission.] Also, what’s the deal with the cartoon foreigner speaking with an appallingly fake gaijin-san accent?

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