Archive for August, 2010

Cross-dressing Chinese Otaku

Japan’s TBS news visits a gathering of otaku in China to report on how there is now a “boom” in the number of male fans who dress up like female anime and manga characters:

The cross-dressers were apparently influenced by television shows about otaku who do the same kind of thing in Japan. The publication of a Chinese cross-dressing cosplay manual is cited as evidence of this being a trend. It is also mentioned that a lot of Chinese netizens have criticized the weird activities of these otaku.

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Remembering Justice Radhabinod Pal

“Guilty,” pronounced one judge after another, until a voice thundered, “Not Guilty!”
The disbelieving gasps came first and then came the shocked silence and one could hear a needle drop. That voice of dissent belonged to Justice Radha Binod Pal ( 1886 – 1967). A grateful Japan has not forgotten this famous Judge.

Radha Binod Pal believed that the Tokyo Trial was incapable of passing a just sentence. According to him, the trial was about the moral subjugation of the vanquished by the victorious and such proceedings, even if clothed in the garb of law, resulted in only placating those still hungering for vengeance.

With his lone dissenting voice, he referred to the trial as a “sham employment of the legal process for the satisfaction of a thirst for revenge.” While he fully acknowledged Japan’s war atrocities — including the Nanjing massacre of 1931 — he said they were covered in the class B and C class C trials, and not in this War Criminal Trial which is known as Class A.

Read the rest here.

(Justice Pal is treated as a hero by Japanese nationalists, and anyone who has visited Yasukuni Shrine has probably seen the above-pictured memorial near its Yushukan museum.)

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Tokyo Diamond Heist Suspect Returns to Japan

According to the MPD, Hadziahmetovic and an accomplice stole jewelry worth about 284 million yen, including a diamond tiara valued at 200 million yen, from a shop in Ginza on June 14, 2007. The MPD has arrested Hadziahmetovic on suspicion of robbery and injurious assault.

Hadziahmetovic was first arrested in Cyprus in March 2009 when he tried to leave the country for Lebanon. He was later extradited to Spain over a separate robbery in that country. Spanish authorities handed him over to an MPD officer on board an airplane bound to France, after taking him to the airport from prison.

According to police investigators, the Pink Panther group has freed members from jail on five occasions from 2004 through 2008, including one in France in which a senior member of the group escaped after men believed to be Pink Panther members shot at the jail with machine guns.

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European Right-wingers Visit Yasukuni

Here’s a somewhat odd display of international right-wing solidarity:

French National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen and other European nationalist party representatives visited the Yasukuni war shrine in Tokyo today to pay respect to Japanese who died in World War II.

Le Pen joined British National Party member Adam Walker and the other European and Japanese nationalists at the shrine, Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi, a member of the Japanese right- wing group Issuikai, said by phone. Yasukuni honors Japan’s war dead including convicted war criminals.

The group of about 20 attended the shrine for about 90 minutes today, said Yamaguchi of Issuikai, which invited the European representatives. The visit took place a day before the 65th anniversary of Japan’s surrender in World War II.

According to the Guardian, a variety of European right-wing politicians are in Japan to attend a week-long conference on “The Future of Nationalist Movements.”

Here’s a little quote from Jean-Marie Le Pen of Front National and Adam Walker of the BNP:

“What counts is the will that we had to honour those who have fallen for defending their country, whether they are Japanese, or any soldiers of the world, we have the same respect for them,” he told reporters.

When asked about the visit earlier, the 82-year-old earlier responded: “If we talk about war criminals, aren’t those who bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki also war criminals?”

Mr Walker said he was there to honour “heroes that have died for their country”.

For a left-wing perspective of this story, check out David McNeill’s article in the Independent.

Some video clips:

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Tokyo Monkey Captured

According to police, the male Japanese monkey strayed into the three-story storehouse on the premises of a private residence at around 2 p.m. on Aug. 13. Following a report from the Metropolitan Police Department, a worker from Ueno Zoological Gardens caught the animal using a tranquilizer gun.

About 200 people living in the area flocked to the site to see the incident.

The monkey is being held at the Ueno Zoo for now, but will eventually be returned to the mountains from whence it probably came.

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How the Japanese Self-Defense Forces Build Bridges

The pontoon bridge shown in the video took about 2 hours to build. Because it was part of a public demonstration, regular people were allowed to watch and walk across the bridge when it was completed.

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