Archive for October, 2009

More bullying from the Shibuya Center-Gai Patrol

Back in February 2008, I blogged about the Shibuya Center-Gai Patrol, a group of volunteer security guards who patrol the main shopping area near Shibuya station in Tokyo. The SCGP lacks the power to arrest people, so its members rely on intimidation to enforce minor ordinances and stop “rude” behavior.

A couple weeks ago, the SCGP were featured on Japanese TV again. Here’s a clip of them shouting at a couple foreigners:

Unfortunately, I was only able to find this part of the clip. The first few seconds of the confrontation are not included.

However, according to a post in a 2channel thread about the SCGP, the incident took place because they didn’t want the foreigners to sit on a guard rail:

Patrolman: Don’t sit on the guard rail.
Black guy: Why?
Patrolman: You aren’t allowed to sit here.
Black guy: Why? I’m not doing anything!

The black guy raises his voice and the patrol leader gets excited.

Patrol leader: You Bastard! Do you want to mess with a Japanese samurai??!!!

Another commenter shares his thoughts on what happened:

Cuz, I mean, they’re telling people sitting on the guardrails to stand up, but caused trouble with that group of black guys.

Legally, you probably aren’t allowed to sit on guardrails, but do you really have to go that far? I mean they’re not nazis or anything…From a foreigner’s perspective I think they’d think it’s really ridiculous.

I’m all for cleaner and safer streets, but I consider a gang of vigilantes who intimidate and bully pedestrians to be far more unsightly than a few young people loitering or sitting on guard rails.

[The Japanese news article translations in this post were provided by myGengo's simple human translation system.]

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Is Denso violating Chinese environmental law?

According to Kyodo News, Greenpeace thinks Japanese auto parts company Denso is in violation of Chinese environmental law:

The companies are eight multinationals on the 2008 Fortune Global 500 rankings that include Denso, Shell and Samsung Electronics, and 10 Chinese companies listed on 2008′s Fortune China 100 rankings, including local oil firm Sinopec and the Dongfeng Motor Group that has joint ventures with several Japanese auto makers, Greenpeace’s report Silent Giants said.

The Chinese regulation, introduced in May last year, requires companies that exceed pollution discharge standards to publish their emissions data on a major media platform within 30 days of being reported by local environmental bureaus.

But the report said that none complied with the 30-day time limit, and only three eventually made public their pollution information, one of them a year after the 30-day timeline.

Greenpeace’s report also concluded that the Chinese government’s unwillingness to enforce its own environmental laws encourages noncompliance with regulations.

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South Korea punishes more minor lawbreakers

The Chosun Ilbo reports about a Korean politician who felt the need to compare punishment statistics of minor lawbreakers in his country to punishment statistics from Japan:

This difference is vast even given that Japan’s Minor Offenses Act lists only 34 offenses against Korea’s 54.

In the case of neighborhood disturbances, which are offenses in both countries, Korea saw 46,955 cases last year but Japan a mere 25. For garbage dumping, Japan punished 98 people and Korea 60,940, and for urinating in public, Japan booked 191 people but Korea 11,535. “The number of minor offense cases was 622 per 100,000 people in Korea, 44.4 times more than Japan’s 14 per 100,000 people,” An said.

The National Police Agency in August conducted a survey to sound out the reasons why people did not comply with public-order rules. Some 40.5 percent of respondents said because not many minor offenses are checked and punished, and 11 percent said compliance would be inconvenient.

An said if Korea is to become “a healthy society and a first-rate advanced nation,” a public-order drive is urgently needed.

I’ve seen a fair share of illegal garbage dumping and public urination in Japan, and I’d like to think that authorities actually punish more than a handful of offenders each year. These statistics seem to prove otherwise.

[via The Marmot's Hole]

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Hatoyama Scandal

A TV news graphics team gets creative in its depiction of Prime Minister Hatoyama’s funding scandal:

The stylish image of Hatoyama is taken from footage shot at a charity fashion show that took place last week:

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Kyung Lah: Japan “lacks sufficient medical services for disabled children”

CNN’s Kyung Lah has a new article up about child custody disputes in Japan. This time, she has placed focus on an American man whose Japanese-Brazilian wife left him with their disabled son while Japanese courts have allegedly ignored his attempts to obtain joint-custody of the couple’s daughter:

In Japan, a country that lacks sufficient medical services for disabled children, the only person to care for Spencer is his father. Morrey says his wife left, overwhelmed by the strain of their son’s medical condition.

That would be pain beyond what most parents could imagine. But Spencer’s mother fled while pregnant with Morrey’s daughter, Amelia. In more than a year, Morrey says he has only seen his daughter four times.

“She wouldn’t recognize me,” Morrey said, with Spencer propped on his lap. “She wouldn’t call me daddy. She’s just starting to talk now. But she’s not going to know who I am. I think she deserves my love. And I think she deserves to be with Spencer and Spencer deserves to be with her.”

Morrey, a native of Chicago and a U.S. citizen, was married to a Japanese woman of Brazilian descent. They divorced in a Japanese court.

Under Brazilian law, Morrey would likely have joint custody and guardianship of both children.

But in Japan, where only one parent gets custody of a child in a divorce, the family courts have left the case in legal limbo for a year because they have not decided which parent legally has custody of the children. Typically, the parent with physical custody of a child retains custody.

Considering the numerous factual problems found in Kyung Lah’s previous reports, it’s hard to say much about the legal aspects of this case.

The one phrase that really caught my attention in the article was her declaration that Japan is “a country that lacks sufficient medical services for disabled children.” Normally, one would expect a professional journalist writing such a strong statement would be required to provide some examples of how Japan’s medical services for disabled children are lacking, but Lah does not. She moves on with the story as if the statement is so obvious that it needs no explanation.

I was generally under the impression that the Japanese government provides financial support to families with disabled children. The WHO’s general ranking of healthcare systems place Japan far ahead of the United States, but it is possible that the United States offers more money and medical services for disabled children. Would that make Japan’s medical services insufficient?

[hat tip to Mozu]

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Rhinestone Mt. Fuji

“Champions” puts artists who specialize in rhinestone decoration to work on transforming an old Mt. Fuji painting inside a bathhouse into a fabulous “deco” Fuji:

The head of the project, Tadasuke Miyazawa, runs a shop in at the Sunshine Sakae shopping center in Nagoya and also works as a “deco” teacher.

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