Archive for January, 2010

Japanese announcer aging before our eyes

An announcer for NTV’s “Zoom In” morning show visits a software company and experiences the effects of the “Hourface” iPhone app:

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Time altering bird

A pet parrot in Japan who has the power to alter time itself:

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Tardy Chinese tourists in Japan

A short clip that shows the difficulties facing businesses that offer bus tours of Tokyo to rich Chinese tourists:

The tour guide’s schedule includes trips to various sites in Tokyo, where the tourists are given 30 minutes to an hour of free time to wander about before getting back on the bus. Unfortunately, many of the tourists completely ignore the schedule and return to the bus when they feel like it. At the first place they visit, only one tourist comes back to the bus on time. The poor guy has to wait 20 minutes while the others trickle back to the assembly area.

Throughout the day, the tour guide is forced to run around searching for late tourists and must make changes to the schedule because of the time lost.

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Monkey escapes from Ueno Zoo

The addition of new monkeys to the Ueno Zoo had some unexpected results yesterday:

A total of 23 nationally protected macaques from Aomori’s Shimokita Peninsula, which were transported from their native habitats to Tokyo last spring, were shown to the public starting at 9:30 a.m. but one of them went over the fence and disappeared, the officials said.

Zoo staff members tried unsuccessfully to capture the monkey with nets and tranquilizer guns, and around six hours later, the monkey was finally detected and captured by a net near the zoo, they said.

“The monkey must have been surprised with the new surroundings and escaped,” a zoo official said. “I’m relieved it was captured.”

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Naturalized Japanese citizen: Don’t give voting rights to non-citizens

On Friday night’s episode of “Prime Minister Ota,” the DPJ’s decision to move forward with its plan to grant voting rights to non-citizens was introduced as #2 in the top ten anger-inducing news stories of the week:

A guest from the LDP voices opposition to the move, saying that foreigners who want to vote should naturalize and that he thinks giving voting rights to non-citizens is unconstitutional. A DPJ guest says he does not think it violates the constitution and that the measure has popular support because it was written in the party’s platform prior to the most recent election. He thinks that taxpaying permanent residents should be given voting rights.

Among the guests was author and political commentator Kin Birei (Kin Alice Mei ling), an immigrant from Taiwan who became a Japanese citizen last year. She often aligns herself with right wingers, and in this case she has taken their side in opposing the foreigner suffrage plan. Her argument, however, is not one of sensational xenophobia. Kin says she became a Japanese citizen so she could have the right to vote, and any other foreigner who wants that right should follow her example. Kin cannot see why it should be obvious that taxpaying foreigners be given voting rights. She fears that this will lead to an increase in foreigners with permanent residency who do not naturalize. In certain areas with large foreign populations, granting voting rights to non-citizens could make them a crucial swing vote in elections.

The DPJ representative replies by emphasizing that the measure will only grant voting rights for local elections, so it won’t have any impact on national issues.

The debate is cut off on that point. If the opposition had been given a chance to respond, they would have probably pointed out that local elections can influence national policy. In fact, much of the media is predicting that yesterday’s election of an anti-base mayor in a small Okinawa town will do just that.

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Japanese commercial for Norton Antivirus

The latest series of ads for Norton Antivirus feature blogger/idol Shokotan switching to Norton because other antivirus software slows down her computer:

Not as awesome as their 2007 Norton Fighter ad campaign, but probably better at directly addressing issues the viewing audience probably care about.

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