Archive for February, 2010

Al Jazeera English reports on Japan’s Ainu community

A pretty interesting report from Al Jazeera English about Ainu activists who want compensation from the Japanese government:

101 East looks at Japan’s indigeneous people and their fight for cultural survival and acceptance. Over the last century, they have seen their traditions and their language stripped away, along with their ancestral lands. But after generations of oppression, racism and forced assimilation, change is in the air for the Ainu.

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

Bear reads newspaper to find out about global warming

The latest in a series of commercials for Nisshinbo follows up its “we shave bears to help them deal with global warming” with a new episode:

Now the bear is crying as he reads a newspaper article about polar bears.

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

Blue hood used to protect the privacy of criminals

If you’ve watched the TV news in Japan a lot in the last few months, you’ve probably noticed that criminals seem to be wearing blue hoods over their faces when being escorted into vehicles by police officers. Here’s a clip that explains what’s the deal with them:

Apparently the hoods are part of a jacket that police in Chiba prefecture use to protect the privacy of individuals who have been arrested. The blue hoods can be adjusted to different levels depending on just how much a person wants their face to be blocked from the eyes of the media and the public. They’ve been in use for a few years now, but didn’t get much attention because there had not been many high profile crimes in Chiba until recently.

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

Sitting Dog in Japan

Meet Ban, a dog in Ibaraki prefecture that loves to a climb and sit atop a wall:

Her owners claim she learned to do this on her own, probably because she was bored with being restricted to a narrow space and wanted a better view of the neighborhood.
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• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

Another collision between Sea Shepherd and Japanese whalers

Radical animal rights group Sea Shepherd was all over the news last month when a collision with a Japanese whaling ship left one of their boats heavily damaged. The media attention had died down, but they’ve managed to get themselves back into yet another collision.

Here is a video filmed from the deck of the Sea Shepherd ship:

Sea Shepherd founder Captain Paul Watson said by satellite telephone that the Japanese ship rammed the Bob Barker—named after the U.S. game show host who donated millions to buy it—as it blocked the slipway of the Japanese fleet’s factory ship.

Japanese officials were not immediately available to comment on the incident, and Watson’s claim that the Bob Barker was deliberately hit could not be independently verified.

No video from the Japanese side has been posted to the internet yet, but it will probably appear on YouTube sometime in the next 24 hours, but here is a video from yesterday showing Sea Shepherd aiming a laser beam at the eyes of the Japanese crew:

Statements have been issued from the Japanese side denying that their ship intentionally rammed the Sea Shepherd vessel:

Institute spokesman Glenn Inwood says the impact was far from deliberate.

“Japan is doing a legal operation there. It has no need to ram anyone. This is all the work of the Sea Shepherd group.”

Mr Inwood says the Yushin Maru was trying to avoid acid bombs being lobbed by crew on the Bob Barker and in doing so, the vessel made a dramatic turn, clipping the Bob Barker. He also claims the protesters had been repeatedly firing a high-power green laser device at the Nisshin Maru crew.

Sea Shepherd admits to actively blocking the slipway of the Japanese whaling fleet’s factory ship when the collision occurred. It was trying to prevent slaughtered whales being loaded onto the vessel.

Meanwhile, in Europe, the Dutch parliament is considering a new law that could lead to the de-flagging of Sea Shepherd’s ships:

The amendment to the law on the nationality of ships would deprive Dutch-registered vessels of certificates of registry issued by the Dutch government “when harm is done to a ship, its crew or load or when it would be used in such a way that relations with other countries could be affected negatively,” according to the draft text of the legislation.

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

Japanese Hostess Union

The story of some Japanese hostesses forming a labor union was reported back in December by several English language news outlets, but they didn’t make video reports about it.

Australia’s ABC apparently noticed those old articles and dispatched a camera team to interview the hostesses in question. Here’s their report:

[hat tip to Rob]

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