Archive for August, 2010

Move the US Bases to….Korea?

The South Korean media has reported that President Lee Myung-bak supposedly told Barack Obama that he could count on Korea as a last resort relocation option if no US/Japan deal could be worked out over the future of Marine Corps Air Station Futenma:

Citing anonymous sources, the monthly Bungeishunju reported in the September edition that Lee, during his talks with U.S. President Barack Obama in Toronto, Canada in June, expressed his intention to allow the U.S. to build an alternative airbase in South Korea if the U.S.-Japan alliance is troubled further due to their disputes over the Futenma base.

“The article is not worth commenting on,” Hong Sang-pyo, senior presidential secretary for public relations, said in a statement. “It’s just complete fiction.”

If such a thing was actually said to Obama, it was probably just meant to be some kind words rather than a serious offer.

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

Japanese Bra Makes Breasts Look Smaller

According to this news report, polls showed that 10% of Japanese women wanted bras that actually made their breasts look smaller, so a company has created a bra that does just that:

For some women, large breasts make them feel fat. Others feel like they can’t comfortably wear certain shirts and tops. One woman interviewed said that she can’t wear some t-shirts because the images on the shirt will appear stretched out.

Wacoal’s new CuCute bra helps flatten the overall appearance of a woman’s chest, making it a perfect product for women who don’t want their chests to stand out. Because their product has hit a niche that has pretty much gone unexploited, Wacoal says that the sales so far have been doubled their expectations.

Here is a before/after picture of how the CuCute Bra worked for actress Yumi Usui:

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

Autopsies for Only 10% of Suspicious Deaths

The Yomiuri reports that a mere 10% of suspicious deaths in Japan are followed-up with autopsies:

Japan’s autopsy rate is the lowest among advanced nations, compared with 100 percent in Finland and Sweden and 50 to 60 percent in Britain, the United States and Australia.

Chiba University Prof. Hirotaro Iwase, director of the Japanese Society of Legal Medicine, said people in other developed countries are aware of the public service role that forensic autopsies play in protecting bereaved families’ rights.

He also emphasized how determining the cause of death can lead to advances in medical research and treatment.

“It doesn’t mean people in these countries like autopsies,” said Iwase. “It depends on whether the government explains their importance for the sake of the deceased and their bereaved families and therefore gains public trust.”

In another article, it is noted that the current system of asking university hospitals to perform autopsies is would be hopelessly overloaded if authorities tried to increase the percentage beyond the current 10%:

Ten universities reported a single doctor having performed more than 100 autopsies last year. At Akita University in Akita, one doctor performed 284 autopsies.

The survey results suggest the current autopsy system, which depends heavily on universities’ resources, is close to exhaustion.

Japan is a pretty safe country, but it’s not unreasonable to expect that its incredibly low homicide rate may have something to do with its low autopsy rate.

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Edit: A Japan Times article provides a bit more information on this issue, clarifying that “suspicious deaths” are deaths that are deemed to have occurred due to “unnatural” or “unidentified” causes:

Autopsies are performed for the most part only when police suspect foul play, and around 90 percent of “unnatural deaths” are not subject to postmortem examination. Compounding the problem is a shortage of autopsy experts, and inadequate financial and material resources to support them.

This is in sharp contrast to other developed countries. In the United States, United Kingdom and Australia, for example, autopsies are conducted in about 40 percent to 50 percent of cases of unnatural death, and where coroners, who act as independent forensic examiners, decide if such scrutiny is necessary.

The term “unnatural death” is used in cases where the cause is not immediately clear. Police usually make the “unnatural death” determination by a visual inspection of the corpse, and send only “suspicious” cases to qualified universities for an autopsy.

The article also contains one concrete example of how Japan’s system failed to detect a murder. In the infamous case of the young sumo wrestler who was hazed and beaten to death by his superiors, Japanese police ignored the many bruises on the boy’s body and simply ruled it a “heart failure from unknown causes.” The victim’s parents demanded that the police order an autopsy in that case, and it was ultimately proven that a crime had taken place.

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

3-D Porn

Filmmakers in Hong Kong have hired Japanese AV idols and actors to star in the first ever 3-D pornographic film (local actors were considered “too conservative”):

Taking almost twice the time to shoot than conventional films and with a higher budget, more advanced equipment and elaborate lighting, the takeup of 3-D productions has been relatively slow in the porno industry despite early excitement at its promise.

“We have to change the lenses for a long time, the setting, lighting, we need more time than a normal movie,” said Japanese porn star Saori Hara after completing a scene.

You can watch an AFP video report about this story on YouTube.

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

Can the Self-Defense Forces Actually Defend Japan?

If a foreign bomber entered Japanese airspace, would Japan shoot it down? Not necessarily, according to this hypothetical example from Beat Takeshi’s “TV Tackle”:

In this example, a foreign bomber would enter Japanese airspace without announcing the purpose of its intrusion. If one were to strictly interpret the law, the Self-Defense Forces are not a military and do not have the right to “attack” someone who is violating Japanese territorial sovereignty. That means that a Japanese ASDF fighter would not be allowed to shoot down the intruder. The fighter could issue warning messages, and possibly even fire warning shots. Under such restrictions, there would be no way to stop the intruder from dropping bombs on a Japanese city. The SDF would presumably shoot down the bomber after the bombs fell, but any preemptive use of force against it might not be considered an act of self-defense. ASDF pilots who use deadly force against intruders could even be charged with murder if they killed any of the intruders.

Hopefully, the Japanese government has secret plans that would give the Self-Defense Forces the right to effectively respond to emergency situations such as the one shown in the video. Folks like former General Toshio Tamogami argue that Japan should revise its constitution to clearly turn the Self-Defense Forces into an official military with the right to defend Japan:

“Article 9 is wrong. . . . Article 9 should be abolished; any country unable to defend itself is odd.”

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Note: Back in 2001, the Japanese Coast Guard used deadly force against North Korean drug smuggling boat. In that case, the North Koreans had provoked the response by firing their weapons at the Japanese ship.

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

Julia Roberts in Japan

Julia Roberts in Tokyo to promote “Eat Pray Love”:

It was apparently the first time Roberts has ever visited Japan. According to the WSJ, Julia’s failure to visit Japan had led to some rumors:

In recent years, the actress’s absence from Japanese red carpets even manifested into a rumored theory that she does not like the country. Try searching for “Julia Roberts” in Japanese on the Internet: Google offers to fill in the rest of the search phrase with “hates Japan”. But such rumors could soon be dispelled by the actress’s current visit.

“It’s just my good fortune to finally find myself here in Tokyo with all of you nice people,” said Roberts when asked how it was arranged for her to finally come to Japan at a press conference Wednesday afternoon. To which one female journalist in the back cooed, “She’s so cute.”

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