Archive for May, 2010

Japanese Prada Employee Fired For Being Too Ugly?

France24 reports about Rina Bovrisse, an employee of Prada Japan who was fired after complaining to the head office after being asked to change her physical appearance to fit the company’s approved image:

« On September 29 I was called into a meeting room by the senior human resources manager who warned me that I needed to change my hairstyle, lose weight — I just didn’t have that Prada look », Rina told France 24.

« There was silence for a little while, and then I asked him, don’t you think that this is an inappropriate thing for a human resources manager to say? And he replied saying he had already fired a Miu Miu store manager because she had bad teeth ».

In a related story, Prada is also coming under fire for giving employees “bonuses” and then forcing them to spend the money on Prada products.

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Enjoy Our “Safe” Flight

Whoever translated this message for Japan Airlines seems to have not noticed that a literal translation of the Japanese results in a message that might leave English-speakers wondering if the flight they are about to take really is safe and comfortable:

[via Reddit]

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Dog Fashion Show

A clip of a pet expo held in Chiba prefecture over the Golden Week holiday:

The main focus is on the dogs that obsessed owners brought to show off. We are given a look at a dog fashion show that has some pretty elaborate costumes on display (one woman says she spent 70,000 yen on the kimono for her dog). A “Western style” cowboy pooch (shown at the top of this post) won the grand prize.

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Mukade (Japanese Giant Centipede)

Want to know more about Japanese giant centipedes? Check out this fine educational video created by YouTuber Softypapa (who has lots of other interesting videos about Japan):

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101 East – Okinawa: The Future of US Military Bases

Al Jazeera’s “101 East” takes an extended look at Hatoyama’s base relocation problems and the U.S. military presence in OKinawa:

The discussion with Japanese experts in the second half of the video is especially interesting. Nobody seems to have good things to say about Hatoyama.

Just be aware though, it contains a few errors:

• In describing the background, viewers are led to believe that Prime Minister Hatoyama promised to remove the U.S. “bases” from Okinawa. His promises actually only applied to the Futenma relocation plan.
• The narrator states that “another teenage rape by a U.S. Marine” occurred in 2008. Viewers are not told that Japanese authorities decided not to prosecute the Marine in question and that the alleged rape victim dropped the accusation against him.
• The Japanese being spoken by one environmenta activist doesn’t seem to match the English dubbing. He is describing his organization and what they do, while the English dubbing is about the threat posed by the base.
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Yukiko Miyake Takes a Fall for the DPJ

DPJ lawmaker Yukiko Miyake has created a bit of a storm last week after suddenly falling to the ground and apparently injuring herself after somebody next to her was shoved by opposition LDP lawmaker Akira Amari.

This YouTube clip has received over 1 million views since it was uploaded on May 12th:

NTV’s “Bankisha” has a clip of her showing up the next day at the Diet in a wheelchair, looking as if she has suffered some grave injury. When she tries to walk with crutches, she manages to fall over yet again!

Amari, whose initial shove apparently led to the chain reaction that caused her first injury is unapologetic. He says he did not shove her, and wonders why she leapt forward towards the flood when the shove had been sideways.

A lot of Japanese netizens seem to agree that her injury was either faked or exaggerated. A slow motion video of the initial fall seems to show a very strange delay between the actual push and her fall:

Miyake was elected last year as one of the “Ozawa Girls,” female candidates who were handpicked by DPJ leader Ichiro Ozawa because of their pretty-faces and name recognition. Her very dramatic injury is being seen as yet another cheap trick by Ozawa and his goons.

Like any big news event, it has spawned some internet parodies. Here is my favorite, a video that edits the opening the “Fist of the North Star,” casting Amari as a hero fighting against the evil DPJ:

Another version can be viewed here.

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