Archive for July, 2010

OMG It’s Ichiro!!!

Jay Onrait of Sportscenter provides some amusing narration for video of a short encounter between a Ichiro Suzuki and a baseball fan:

—

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

2010 Upper House Election

It’s election day for the 2010 Upper House Election. For some information on what’s at stake in this election, check out this article by Michael Cucek, takes a look back at the constantly shifting and ultimately frustrating assertions of what tomorrow’s elections are supposed to achieve:

On Sunday, a respectable share of Japan’s 104 million voters will walk to their local elementary schools or public meeting halls to cast their ballots in the country’s House of Councillors election. Yet opinion polls show that with just a day to go, nearly a third of these potential voters have yet to decide who they’ll be voting for.

Such uncertainty so close to an election would be troubling if it reflected a volatile national character or even an array of choices so dispiriting that many voters have difficulty caring. However, the failure of 3 out of 10 Japanese voters to have made up their minds is down to one simple fact—the election has no meaning, or at least its meaning has changed so many times over the past few months and weeks that a reasonable person could well be asking what they’re actually voting for.

Read the rest here.

Also, be sure to keep an eye on Trans-Pacific Radio. They’ll be doing a live election results webcast tonight.

—

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

Somersault Cats

It’s Saturday, so here are a few videos of somersaulting cats in Japan (the first cat was featured on ATV’s “Nani Kore” program, but there seems to be a lot of similar cats on YouTube):





—

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

Korean Ultra-nationalist Attacks Japanese Ambassador

Earlier this week, a Korean ultra-nationalist attacked the Japanese ambassador in Seoul:

Japanese Ambassador Toshinori Shigeie managed to avoid a piece of cement thrown at him during a speech in Seoul Wednesday, but his interpreter was injured.

Mayumi Horie, third secretary of the Japanese Embassy, was hurt and didn’t come in today, one of the Korean staff members at the embassy told The Korea Times over the phone Thursday. She sustained light injuries.

Police sought an arrest warrant for the offender, Kim Ki-jong.

The incident occurred when Shigeie was giving a speech during the Korea-Japan Future Forum held at the Korea Press Center in central Seoul.

According to YTN, a 24-hour cable news channel, Kim, a member of an advocacy group for Dokdo Islets in the East Sea, walked up to the ambassador and threw a piece of cement at him.

The man had apparently been outraged because the Japanese embassy ignored his crazy protest letters. It is unclear why a known ultra-nationalist was allowed into a serious-sounding event like the Korea-Japan Future Forum.

The attack has compared himself to An Jung-geun, a pro-independence “activist” who is considered a hero because he gunned down of a former Japanese Prime Minister in 1909. [The above screen shots are from a 2004 Korean movie that celebrates his heroic achievement.]

The South Korean government has expressed “regret” over the incident, and the media also seems to be condemning the attack. Here’s an excerpt from an editorial in the Dong-a Ilbo newspaper:

After the attack, Kim shouted to the crowd, “If you are Koreans, kill this bastard.” Upon his arrest, he said, “I wanted to kill him and go down in history like (pro-independence fighter) An Jung-geun.” Such an extreme attempt, however, cannot be seen as a patriotic act. Despite historical disputes with Japan that remain unresolved, the two countries have established official ties and grown closer as neighbors diplomatically and economically. Mentioning An by incorrectly comparing the situation of today with that of the final years of Korea’s Joseon Dynasty debases the martyr’s dignity.

Note: The Japanese government’s official stance on the Dokdo/Takeshima issue is to seek a peaceful solution by submitting the territorial dispute to the International Court of Justice.

—

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

North Korean Refugees Stuck at Japanese Embassy in China

The Asahi Shimbun is reporting that a group of North Korean refugees have been stuck at the Japanese Embassy in Beijing since 2008 because the Chinese government refuses to grant them permission to go to Japan:

The Japanese newspaper reports that the Chinese administration is not allowing them to head for their home country [they are former Zainichi Koreans]. Only one, a pregnant woman in need of surgery, was allowed to go to Japan in July of last year.

The Chinese administration has reportedly requested a promise from Japan, “We will not protect defectors anymore,” but the Japanese administration has refused.

Chinese officials apparently explained, “Once China allows refugees to leave China, the number of North Koreans will increase in Chinese society,” and added, “Protection of North Koreans in diplomatic buildings as well as outside them is against Chinese law.”

The Japanese administration protects those with the right to live in Japan under Japanese immigration laws. In cases where North Koreans have difficulties reaching Japanese diplomatic buildings, Japanese diplomats contact them in other places and try to protect them in situ.

Japan passed the North Korean Human Rights Law in 2006. According to the law, Japan has allowed some 100 North Koreans to enter Japan to date.

The refugees who are in the Japanese embassy compound should probably consider themselves lucky. As the photo at the top of this post shows, Chinese guards patrol around the entrances of foreign embassies in Beijing and do their best to prevent North Koreans from gaining freedom. Many people have failed their attempts and been detained by Chinese authorities. When that happens, they are forced to return to North Korea to face execution or years of hard labor in the gulags. Knowing this, the Japanese government will probably continue to protect the refugees until it can find a way to get them to Japan.

The Koreans at the Japanese embassy are either former residents of Japan or descendants of Koreans who were residents of Japan. During the 1960′s and 70′s, about 90,000 Korean residents of Japan immigrated to North Korea as part of a “return home” movement encouraged by Pyongyang (and the Japanese government). Soon after getting off the boats, many of them realized that all the things they have been told about North Korea being a socialist paradise were a horrible lies. In recent years, some have tried to flee and return to Japan via embassies and consulates in China and Southeast Asia.

If you want to read more about the Zainichi Koreans who immigrated to North Korea, I recommend that you check out Tessa Morris-Suzuki’s Exodus to North Korea: Shadows from Japan’s Cold War. Another good book is The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag, which is written by a man whose parents and grandparents were Zainichi Koreans who deeply regretted their decision to leave Japan.

—

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

Mobile Gaming Pirates

Badass pirates meet on the high sees to exchange fire via Mobage:

—

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