Archive for November, 2009

Plug-in electric scooter put to the test

“Mezamashi TV” morning show takes a new plug-in scooter for a 141-kilometer test run from Numazu to Tokyo:

The scooter runs fine on flat roads, but has serious trouble climbing hills – even with the assistance of some pedaling. They find that its battery dies rather quickly and the scooter must stop at random houses/businesses so that it can be plugged in and charged for a few hours.

The plug-in scooter needed 33 hours and 10 minutes to make the journey (with 5 battery charging stops). A gas-powered scooter made the same trip in 12 hours and 4 minutes. The gas for the trip cost 425 yen, while the battery charges totaled a mere 53 yen.

It would seem that the plug-in scooter is a really cheap way to make short trips in areas without steep hills.

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

Japanese TV report about Shanghai’s preparations for 2010 expo

A Japanese TV news report takes a look at how Shanghai is preparing for the big 2010 expo:

The report isn’t exactly positive. Here are some of the main points covered:

• Work is progressing on the giant red copy of the Tokyo Big Sight China Pavilion. (The Japan Pavilion will look like an ugly pink dome.)
• As work on massive infrastructure construction projects progresses, some older-looking buildings are being covered up with fake facades.
• Shanghai is trying to convince its residents that wearing pajamas in public is not polite.
• Some stores are selling ridiculously expensive gold medals to commemorate the expo. Street merchants are selling illegal knock-offs of official expo merchandise.

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

The Pervasiveness of anti-Japanese imagery in South Korea

The above picture is from a children’s book found on the shelves of a kindergarten playroom by Matt, an English teacher in South Korea who blogs at Gusts of Popular Feelings. The picture books contained images of Japanese torturing, shooting, and stabbing Koreans. There were also images of heroic Koreans killing Japanese:

These aren’t sophisticated in the least, but then, when aimed at children under ten (they’re available for children under seven at the hagwon), they don’t need to be. Showing these images to children who are too young to critically evaluate them does nothing but inculcate hatred for Japan.

Read the full post here.

[via ROK Drop]

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

American President bows before Japanese Emperor

An interesting flashback, brought to you by ABC News and Life Magazine:

An “an academic with expertise about the Japanese Empire” had the following to say about Nixon’s bow:

At their 1971 meeting in Alaska, the first visit of a Japanese Emperor to America, President Nixon bowed and referred to Emperor Hirohito and his wife repeatedly as ‘Your Imperial Majesties.’

Yet, (and?) Nixon gets the bow right. Slight arch from the waist hands at his side.

Obama’s handshake/forward lurch was so jarring and inappropriate it recalls Bush’s back-rub of Merkel.

Kyodo News is running his appropriate and reciprocated nod and shake with the Empress, certainly to show the president as dignified, and not in the form of a first year English teacher trying to impress with Karate Kid-level knowledge of Japanese customs.

The bow as he performed did not just display weakness in Red State terms, but evoked weakness in Japanese terms….The last thing the Japanese want or need is a weak looking American president and, again, in all ways, he unintentionally played that part.

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

Top comments about Obama bowing before the Emperor

The LA Times went through the 1000+ comments left on its blog post about Obama bowing before Emperor Akihito to pick its favorite ten one-liners:

We mostly enjoyed what readers had to say about the president’s greeting — a mixture of outrage and patriotism, snarky one-liners and more serious diatribes.

Here are the top 10 best comments so far (leave your own below):

1. Mitch wrote: Obama to Emperor of Japan: “May I shine your shoes, Sir?”
2. Plain Jane wrote: Obama WASN’T bowing – He SAW a Japanese Yen on the floor and went to pick it up because it might be Worth More Than Our Dollar!
3. Veteran wrote: Was that before or after he appologized for World War 2?
4. bmcc wrote: Palin would have winked at him. You betcha!
5. Maripo wrote: I’m surprised he didn’t curtsy.
6. MP wrote: Whatever happened to the good old days when we could count on a Republican in the White House to puke on foreign dignitaries?
7. marty1234 wrote: I wish are first black president had been a rapper at least he’d have some attitude…
8. Wax on wax off wrote: Look eye! Always look eye! -Mr. Miyagi
9. helen roach wrote: I wonder why they didn’t run the dust mop over the floor. It would have looked much nicer in the picture.
10. Xavier wrote: See, Obama is not a Muslim. He’s a shintoist.

[hat tip to HamachiMan]

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

Hatoyama wants to make it easier for foreigners to live in Japan

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama made some remarks on Saturday about Japan’s policy towards foreigners who settle and work in Japan:

Japan has some of the world’s strictest controls on immigration, and Hatoyama admitted that he was broaching a “sensitive issue”.

But he said that as well as introducing pro-family policies, Japan should attempt to encourage migrants to live and work there.

“I think Japan should also make itself a country attractive to people so that more and more people, including tourists, hope to visit Japan, hope to live and work in Japan,” he said on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit

“I am not sure if I can call this ‘immigration policy’, but what’s important is to create an environment that is friendly to people all around the world so that they voluntarily live in Japan,” he said.

Just talk, or a sign of serious policy change in the future?

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Immigration-related news link that doesn’t deserve its own post: Meanwhile, on the other side of the Pacific, the Japanese mother of “Balloon Boy” has avoided deportation by pleading guilty to a class three misdemeanor.

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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)