Archive for March, 2010

Sea Shepherd’s sources of funding

An investigative report by NTV’s “Bankisha” into the companies and individuals who financially support the violent animal rights activism of Sea Shepherd:

• The Animal Planet TV network, for airing pro-Sea Shepherd propaganda
• Celebrities like Paul McCartney, Sean Penn, Pierce Brosnan, the Dalai Lama
• People who use a special Sea Shepherd Visa card that donates a little bit of money every time it is used to make a purchase
• Lush, a British company that sells specialty soaps (their Japan branch doesn’t directly fund Sea Shepherd – as if that matters)

A Sea Shepherd spokesman says their budget was about 2.5 million dollars a few years ago. Now, thanks to the greater attention given to their cause, it has risen to over 5 million dollars.

The second half of the clip is about Sea Shepherd’s next target: the bluefin tuna fishing in the Mediterranean. It looks like many countries have teamed up to ban the fishing of the species, and since 80% of the catch is sold on the Japanese market, it is being interpreted as yet another attack on Japan’s cultural traditions.

Joining the reporters in the studio are an art director who does marketing for many of Japan’s famous brands and a legal scholar. The legal scholar points out how America used to kill whales for oil. He also thinks the American position towards Japanese whaling is influenced by an underlying hostility that the “white world” [白人社会] feels towards Japanese. The art director thinks that Japan needs to do a better job at presenting its case to the world, as so many people in other countries don’t understand why Japanese people eat whale meat.

—

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

What lies beneath Hatoyama’s hat?

Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama has a bit of a wardrobe malfunction while touring a factory that recycles metal from old mobile phones:

Some sort of hat liner….or proof that he is a secret Muslim?? We report – you decide.

—

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

69-year-old English teacher arrested for molesting students

An American who has apparently operated an private English conversation school for decades in Japan has been arrested for molesting his students:

An American man running an English school in Fukuoka Prefecture has been indicted for allegedly shooting pornographic images of a girl who was his student, investigative sources said Monday.
The 69-year-old resident of Fukuoka City was indicted in early March after police seized from his home more than 600 videotapes and photographs comprising images of dozens of his students, mostly elementary school-aged girls, they said.

The man was initially arrested in January on suspicion of conducting lewd acts on his students but released later without being indicted, according to the sources.

This story has been getting pretty big attention on the news tonight.

Here’s a quote from the Yomiuri’s article about it, including an excuse the man gave when questioned by the police:

「撮影は子供が大人になった時、成長記録として見せてやるつもりだった」
“I filmed the children so that, when they became adults, I could show them a record of their growth.”

If some of his lewd acts took place after the cops let him go free in January, police have some serious questions to answer…

—

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

Sea Shepherd member arrested for illegally boarding Japanese ship

“I’m not interested in Japan. I’m not interested. I don’t care if everybody in Japan supports us or doesn’t support us.” – Paul Watson, president of Sea Shepherd

On Friday, a whaling ship returned to Japan carrying Pete Bethune, a member of the radical animal rights group Sea Shepherd. As soon as it reached the shore, a group of Japanese police officers and coast guard officials came aboard and arrested Bethune for illegally boarding the Japanese whaling ship on February 15th and trying to make a “citizen’s arrest” of the Japanese captain. Bethune, the captain of the high tech Sea Shepherd speedboat that placed itself in the path of a Japanese ship and was heavily damaged as a result, thought that the Japanese had deliberately tried to “murder” his crew.

Bethune’s arrest was a huge news story on Friday. Most of the networks sent reporters to the port to give live updates from the scene of his arrest and the building in which he was being held. There is very little sympathy in Japan for the violent and extreme activities of Sea Shepherd, so most of the reports were quite negative.

Here’s how FTV’s evening news reported the event:

In the clip, anchor Taro Kimura conducts a interview with Sea Shepherd leader Paul Watson via telephone. Kimura wants to know why Watson uses the word “hero” to refer to a man who threw toxic chemicals at Japanese whalers and illegally boarded a Japanese whaling ship. Watson laughs and Kimura and says he doesn’t care what Japanese people think [see quote at the top of this post].

In a section of Kimura’s conversation with Watson that didn’t make the final cut, Kimura asked why they oppose Japan eating whale when they eat other types of animal meat. Watson apparently denounced the eating of animal meat (he is a vegan). The Fuji Tv reporters smugly point out that Bethune has freely eaten quite a lot of meat while in captivity.

Kimura notes that CNN has just started reporting on Chinese people eating dog meat in a manner similar to their judgmental reporting on Japan’s eating of whales and dolphins. He thinks Japan needs to fight back against this kind of pressure, and that the trial of the Sea Shepherd member is an important means of doing so.

—

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

Tommy Lee Jones drinks canned coffee beneath the cherry blossoms

A behind-the-scenes look at the latest of Tommy Lee Jones’ Boss Coffee commercials (includes some comments from Jones):

Jones’ co-stars in the commercial are a group of over-35 athletes who exhibit : boxer Daisuke Naito, baseball player Takeshi Yamasaki, and sumo wrestler Kaiou. As the athletes buy fortunes from the shrine at which Jones is a priest, he comments on the cherry blossoms and the concept of shibutosa.

—

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

Are Princess Aiko’s problems at school a private matter?

One of the biggest news stories in Japan for the last couple weeks has been Princess Aiko’s absence from school due to anxiety about the behavior of other students:

She developed the symptoms “after confronting the wild behaviour of a few boys,” said Imperial Household Agency official Issei Nomura.

However, he denied that the boys had bullied her.

“The school is taking countermeasures. No particular child has been bullied. And so it is not a case of bullying,” he said.

The princess had not attended classes since Tuesday, according to an official at the Gakushuin primary school, the alma mater for most Japanese royals.

“Presumably, Her Highness Princess Aiko was reminded of a past event in which she was frightened by two boys running toward her highness,” said Motomasa Higashisono, the school’s executive director.

“The boys did not directly collided with Her Highness Aiko,” he said.

Princess Aiko has since returned to school, so the media can now look back at all of its coverage and ask whether such public attention was necessary in the first place.

In the above embedded video clip from FTV, 72% of parents surveyed believe it was unnecessary for Aiko’s school to hold a press conference announcing what had happened. Making a public spectacle out of Aiko’s situation will only deepen the rift between her and non-royal students and probably make her life more difficult.

The Mainichi now reports that the Imperial Household officials and Gakushuin School officials who talked to held press conferences about Aiko’s problems are now regretting their decision:

School officials said the Crown Prince had initially wanted to settle the matter in a peaceful manner. “So why did it end up being released at a press conference in a sensational way? It’s truly regrettable,” said one school official.

Motomasa Higashisono, a senior director of the Gakushuin School Corporation, is also regretful.

“The school authorities failed to be in close touch with the primary school and the aides to the Crown Prince’s household. I’m deeply ashamed because the matter has had an enormous impact on the children as a result,” he said.

Another source close to the agency said, “More thought should have been given to the matter as it affects the school and other children. Since the Crown Prince and the Crown Princess should have approved of the announcement, it may have been difficult for the grand master of the Crown Prince’s household alone to change the decision to release the matter, but we cannot deny that the announcement lacked discretion.”

—

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