Dolphin Jumps Out of Aquarium Tank
For the past week or so, animal rights activists have been doing their best to spread this video of a dolphin jumping out of its tank in the middle of a July 4th show at the Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium:
The video was apparently filmed by an American tourist, who then sent the video to Ric O’Barry. It should come as no surprise that O’Barry and other radical animal rights activists are claiming that they are 100% certain of why the dolphin ended up outside of its tank:
“The habitat of that false killer whale is so unnatural it leaped out in desperation,” he said in a telephone interview from Florida. “It wanted to end it. Why does a person jump out of a building?”
Other people with the ability to read the minds of animals have claimed that the dolphin was “trying to escape” from the aquarium.
Meanwhile, the Japanese aquarium that “enslaves” the dolphins has said it was probably an accident:
Hideshi Teruya, who manages the dolphin section of Churaumi, said the dolphin suffered minor scratches and bruises on its head and fin but was fine, and had a healthy appetite for mackerel and squid almost as soon as it was returned to a tank.
“It was playing around and jumped out by accident from the momentum,” he told The Associated Press.
The age of the dolphin, a female named Kuru, which means “black” in Okinawan dialect, is unknown. It was captured about six years ago in the seas around Okinawa, Teruya said.
Teruya acknowledged that dolphins sometimes spring out and so he has placed mats around the tanks to prevent serious injury.
He denied the captivity was cruel, and said the tank was not overcrowded and followed general aquarium guidelines.
Most of the English language blog posts I’ve seen about this video are prime examples of the huge ideological rift between Western animal rights activists and Japanese people. Whereas dolphins are viewed as animals in Japan, these Westerners assume (without conclusive evidence to support their views) that dolphins are special gentle creatures with human-like intelligence. As a consequence, Japan is viewed as less civilized or even barbaric because it allows the “slaughter” and “slavery” of dolphins.
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Categories: Anti-Japan
Gopan Rice Bread Cooker
A video from Diginfo shows off the Gopan Rice Bread Cooker, a machine that transforms rice in to bread:
The GOPAN is basically used in the same way as regular bread making machines. First of all, 220g of washed rice, with water, salt, sugar, and shortening, is placed in the bread case. Next, gluten and dry yeast are placed in the automatic dispenser on top. Then, all you need to do is press the start button. A loaf of “rice bread” is ready in about four hours.
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Categories: Japanese Food, Technology
South Korea Punishes People For Ancestors’ Crimes
Most countries in the world do not punish people for crimes committed by their parents or grandparents. However, things are apparently different in South Korea, where the government is taking action to punish 168 descendants of people said to have helped the Japanese maintain colonial rule over the Korean peninsula. In some cases, the government will seize property from people because of events that took place over 100 years ago:
“This whole process has been very important to the government and people of the older generations, in particular, because there was a feeling that these people had not been punished for what they did to their homeland at that time,” Lee Seokwoo, a professor of law at Incheon’s Inha University, told The Daily Telegraph.
“And the amounts of land being seized are huge, showing just how much these people did profit from collaborating,” he said.
“The timing of the commission’s conclusion is also significant as this year marks the 100th anniversary of the annexation of the Korean Peninsula and this process is needed to remember those events,” he said.
[...]
The proceeds from the assets that have been confiscated will be distributed to the families of resistance fighters and to support projects commemorating the independence movement, the commission said.
“The efforts to hold pro-Japan collaborators accountable for their wrongdoings of the past should have been made earlier,” Kim Chang-kuk, chairman of the commission, said. “The commission’s activities leave a message for future generations that treacherous deeds must be disciplined, not bounded by time.”
That message, it would seem, is that anyone can face punishment if it is deemed that one of their ancestors did something bad 100 years ago. Also, those who were in a position to punish collaborators 60 years ago and deliberately decided not to are free of any responsibility for their actions.
The confiscation of property is part of a movement in South Korea that has included the publication of an official “Dictionary of Collaborators,” which limits the number of Koreans who significantly cooperated with Japan to 4,389 people (thus allowing everyone not related to those people to nationalistically pat themselves on the back and not have any feeling of having helped the Japanese).
Punishing people for the crimes of their ancestors:
While the South Korean government has spent the last few years launching official investigations into the “truth” about collaboration with Japan, it has also taken some actions to improve the status of a certain group of collaborators. In 2006, the a government commission cleared 83 of 148 Koreans convicted by the Allies of war crimes during World War II. The list of “innocent” people was mostly made up of prison guards who had been convicted of torturing and killing Allied POW’s.
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Categories: Anti-Japan
Haunted House (No Shoes Allowed)
A timid TV announcer takes a tour of a new haunted house at the Tokyo Dome City amusement park:
This haunted house has a somewhat unique policy: everyone must take off their shoes before entering. The house is built around the theme of a ghost with severed feet, so I guess not wearing shoes helps visitors feel more scared and vulnerable.
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Categories: General Japan
Flooding and Landslides in Japan
Heavy rain in Northern Kyushu and parts of Western Honshu have caused some pretty scary floods and landslides, as these video clips show:
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Categories: General Japan
Watch Sumo Live on the Internet
If you’re frustrated about the fact that the ongoing sumo tournament is not being televised in Japan because of a gambling scandal, you can view it online:
The Japan Sumo Association may be under fire over a scandal where several dozen sumo wrestlers were involved in baseball gambling believed to be linked to gangs, but it has something up its sleeve for you: live online streaming of the matches the state broadcaster isn’t broadcasting, for free.
The association actually began streaming matches on its site as long ago 1996. But in anticipation of heavier demand than usual, it beefed up its server capacity to 30 times usual levels in case of a surge. A handy foresight, given the site is being hit 10 times more than before N-H-K began its boycott of the Nagoya tournament, which began last Sunday.
If you’re unfamiliar with the scandal, here’s a short video report from Al Jazeera’s English language channel:
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Categories: General Japan