Karzai: Japan Will Have Access to Afghan Resources
Afghan President Hamid Karzai visited Japan a few days ago, visiting the Hiroshima Peace Memorial and meeting with Japanese leaders, who were no doubt pleased to hear that Karzai thinks Japan should have first dibs on some of Afghanistan’s mineral resources:
Afghan President Hamid Karzai prepared to wrap up a five-day visit to Japan on Sunday after pledging the host nation would be granted priority to explore and extract untapped mineral resources recently valued at more than $1 trillion.
Karzai said the leg up in mineral exploration would be granted in return for the aid Japan has given his nation.
Japan is giving billions of dollars in aid to Afghanistan, something that Karzai and the members of his incredibly corrupt government probably appreciate greatly.
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Categories: General Japan
22 Japanese Theaters Plan to Screen “The Cove”
After weeks of international media coverage that implied that pressure from right-wing groups in Japan was “censoring” the Japanese release of “The Cove,” it has been announced that quite a few theaters plan to go ahead and screen the film. This clip from TBS news puts the number at 22 theaters:
The clip shows some footage of right wing sound trucks protesting in front of a theater in Yokohama that will be screening the documentary. The narrator notes that the protest groups “claim to be” political organizations (「政治結社」を名乗る団体).
Unplugged Inc. said the film would be shown at six movie theatres from July 3 in major Japanese cities including Tokyo, with 16 other cinemas following suit.
It will be the first commercial screenings of the film at Japanese movie theatres, though the distributor has already carried out a one-time show at promotion events and an online screening.
“We will consider measures to deal with expected protests and try to avoid putting strain on the theatres,” Unplugged representative Takeshi Kato said.
The Yomiuri, Japan’s biggest newspaper, ran an editorial denouncing the right wing protesters. The Mainichi, the Asahi, and other papers have taken similar stances. The new theaters that have decided to screen the film in Tokyo may be doing so out of a desire to promote freedom of expression, but I’m guessing that the large amount of Japanese media coverage about the film has also convinced some of them that a lot of people will want to buy tickets to the film after reading about the controversy in newspapers.
The New York Times, which had described the situation surrounding the Japanese release of “The Cove” as a “stark example as well of how public debate on topics deemed delicate here can be easily muffled by a small minority,” has now run a much smaller article noting the new development.
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Categories: Films
Interesting Places to Watch the World Cup
FTV shows some interesting places in Tokyo where people watched Saturday night’s Japan/Netherlands World Cup:
Shown in the clip are a maid cafe in Akihabara, a pachinko parlor, and a public bath house. There is also some footage of excited fans getting rowdy in front of Shibuya Station. Police officers felt the need to put the Hachiko statue under heavy guard, possibly as a means to prevent drunk people from trying to climb up on it.
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Categories: Odd / Strange
Driver Smashes Car Into Convenience Store
A video clip of a recent accident involving a car that smashed plowed straight into a convenience store in Japan:
Luckily, nobody was hurt in the accident. The driver was a woman who said she really had to use the toilet and was in such a state that she screwed up and hit the accelerator instead of the breaks.
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Categories: Odd / Strange
“Cool Biz” Gone Mad: Local Government Bans Beards
The city of Isesaki in Gunma prefecture is defending its decision to ban beards among its employees as part of a “Cool Biz” energy-saving campaign:
A spokesman for Isesaki, a city in northeastern Japan with a population of about 200,000, said there had been no complaints from employees since the ban was introduced last month.
“The ban on beards is just one part of the ‘Cool Biz’ campaign,” Mamoru Hasegawa said, referring to a government initiative that aims to cut use of air-conditioning use by encouraging civil servants to forego jackets and ties in summer.
A human rights lawyer in Gunma prefecture, where Isesaki is located, has criticised the ban as violating personal freedom.
As you can see from the image at the top of this post, both Sky News and Reuters made interesting photograph choices for their articles. I guess they don’t have many file photos of younger Japanese men with relatively normal-looking beards.
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Categories: Odd / Strange
Bobby Fischer’s Thoughts About Japanese Prison
A clip of the late Bobby Fischer discussing his experiences while detained in a Japanese immigration facility’s prison area [contains a crazy homophobic rant about how most Japanese men are "queer"]:
[hat tip to Japanjin]
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Categories: Anti-Japan, Celebrity News