China Releases Three Detained Japanese: One “Intruder” Remains in Custody
China has released three of the four Fujita employees it detained for filming in a “restricted area”:
The Japanese employer of the four men – a Tokyo-based construction company – said they had been preparing a bid to dispose of chemical weapons left in China by invading Japanese forces at the end of WWII.
The three Japanese nationals released on Thursday admitted to violating Chinese law, Xinhua news agency said.
Japan’s media identified the fourth man as 57-year-old Sadamu Takahashi.
A government spokesman said it was not clear why the men had been detained and that China had been asked for a detailed account of the incident.
The four men had been detained at the height of tensions between Japan and China over the arrest of a Chinese trawler captain who rammed two Japanese coast guard vessels near the Senkaku Islands. Fears for their safety had been one of the major factors that convinced Japanese authorities to release the Chinese captain without pressing any charges.
The forth man, who was apparently the guy who had been holding the camera and doing the actual filming, is still being held. It is still possible that he could be charged with espionage. If that happens, he would face the chance of being executed:
“Things change if the authorities judge them to be spies. If the espionage they were involved in is considered to be minor, the punishment would be imprisonment for up to five years. However, if the spy operation is concluded to pose a serious threat to national security, penalties include imprisonment for an indefinite period or the death penalty,” Wang said
So the bad state of relations between Japan and China continues, with China still holding on to one of its human bargaining chip.
Related Video: PBS News discusses the recent dispute in the context of China’s new assertive and aggressive foreign policy.
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Categories: Anti-Japan
Police Raid Society for Preservation of Japanese Art Swords
Japanese police raided the headquarters of the Society for Preservation of Japanese Art Swords [Nihon Bijutsu Token Hozon Kyokai (NBTHK)] and several related offices yesterday, seizing about 400 swords that had not been properly registered:
The society voluntarily submitted the swords, excluding severely damaged ones, after finding 592 mostly rusty swords without registration cards in February and March 2009. The society, under control of the Cultural Affairs Agency, was created in 1948 to preserve Japanese swords as cultural properties after Allied Occupation forces confiscated swords following the end of World War II. It appraises swords, gives guidance on traditional sword-making and runs a sword museum.
Under the Sword and Firearm Control Law, owners are required to have their swords registered as art objects at prefectural boards of education.
The museum operated by the society was also closed for the time being. It is a popular destination for foreign tourists, and as you can see in the news report from ATV, a few were very disappointed to show up at the museum and be told they could not enter.
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Categories: General Japan
Do You Like Japanese Curry?
According to NTV, foreigners like Japanese curry. How about you?
It seems that Coco Ichibanya made them fall in love with Japanese curry.
Take Coco Ichibanya curry house in Yokosuka near U.S. military base, for example, 70-80% of the customers are foreigners. They have increased more than 40 branches worldwide, and they are planning to build more branches to meet high demand.
Japanese curry is so popular today that it’s even featured in some local magazines in New York City. Three years ago, Go!Go!CURRY opened as first Japanese curry restaurant in NYC, creating the trend. Go!Go!CURRY is still very popular, with many customers inside the restaurant. When they opened 3 years ago, most of their customers were Japanese people, however 80% of their customers are now Americans.
It’s not only Japanese curry restaurants that attract Americans but some grocery stores in NYC sell Japanese curry roux.
Unlike Indian curry, Japanese curry has vegetables and meat inside and the soup is very thick because it contains flour. Also, Japanese curry is very cheap for its volume. A price of USD7.50 for a Katsu curry (curry & rice with deep fried pork) sounded reasonable to many of the New Yorkers!
What do you think about Japanese curry? Do you like it or not? Do you also think it’s very reasonably priced? Well, I think it’s quite reasonable, too!
Do you like Japanese curry?
Contributor Bio: Kirin is a Japanese woman spending her life so far somewhere around Tokyo. She now works from home and is also spreading Japanese kawaii culture and etc. through her popular blog, Tokyo Kawaii,etc.
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Categories: Japanese Food
Replicating Ramen Restaurant Flavor: How Home-cooking Ramen is Made
According to N-H-K’s Cool Japan, ramen soup that is designed to eat at home is made like this:
I like to eat out at authentic ramen restaurants, but I also like to try out home-cooked ramen like these. I hardly enjoy eating cup noodle.
I can see that home-cooked ramen contains much artificial flavoring, but it doesn’t mean that the ramen from ramen restaurants use 100% natural ingredients. I personally like thin wavy noodle more than thick noodle or straight noodle. How about you?
I know slurping is not polite when we eat it, but I think that definitely makes ramen taste better! I’d refrain from slurping if I were to eat ramen in front of foreigners in foreign countries where slurping is considered bad manner. But in Japan or Japanese restaurants overseas, I don’t want to give it up!
Contributor Bio: Kirin is a Japanese woman spending her life so far somewhere around Tokyo. She now works from home and is also spreading Japanese kawaii culture and etc. through her popular blog, Tokyo Kawaii,etc.
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Categories: Japanese Food
Curved House in Japan
ATV reporters Sahel Rosa & Andrew check out a house with a very unique curved interior:
The house is crammed between other buildings and does not get much sunlight. The walls have been curved to make the most of the available light and make a narrow space look a little bigger.
There is also a loft area that is kind of hard to climb up into, but rather large once you’ve entered it. It’s not being used for anything right now, but the owner plans to make it into a bedroom for his kid.
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Categories: Odd / Strange
Kim Jong-il Mask
Just wanted to share this silly little clip. Japan’s NTV opened its news coverage about Kim Jong-un’s promotion with this footage of South Koreans wearing masks and mocking the Dear Leader & son:
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Categories: Japanese TV