Archive for October, 2010

Girls Generation: The First Non-Japanese Girl Band to Have a Top 3 Single Since 1980

A news report notes that South Korean pop group Girls Generation has become the first female non-Japanese music group to get a top 3 single on the Oricon ranking charts since 1980:

Other foreign groups have broken into the top 10, but the last time anyone got into the top 3 was the Nolans’ “I’m In the Mood for Dancing.”

Their 3rd place single, the “Gee”(see music video below), is their second Japanese language single. Their earlier Japanese language single, “Genie,” also had a good debut on the Oricon charts: 4th place.

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Is the Japanese Media Ignoring Afghanistan?

Japanese freelance journalist Kosuke Tsuneoka was released last month after spending 5 months of captivity in Afghanistan. Disappointed by the lack of Japanese media coverage about the Afghanistan War, he has started speaking out about what he considers a media “blackout” that is taking place in Japan:

According to Tsuneoka, the foreign ministry told its attached press club not to cover him. The Japanese government provides the current administration of Afghan President Hamid Karzai with aid, and Tsuneoka’s story might make people question the wisdom of such aid, since, as he told Kinyobi, the civilians living in those parts of Afghanistan controlled by the Karzai government hate the authorities, and they hate Karzai’s American enablers even more.

“Last year, the people were happy when it was said that Karzai and the Taliban might negotiate,” Tsuneoka says in the interview. Those positive feelings faded when the Taliban gave up on peace overtures after the United States announced increased troop levels last December.

Kinyobi’s editor says that Tsuneoka is the only Japanese journalist bringing back these kinds of stories from Afghanistan and that the media here is effectively ignoring them. But the media is ignoring Afghanistan in general, and the neglect has less to do with government interference than with an overriding mentality whose priorities are closer to home.

Read the rest of the article here.

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Disabled People Rally in Tokyo

About 10,000 people rallied in Tokyo the other day to call for improved government services for the disabled:

The participants gathered from across the nation at the Hibiya Open-Air Concert Hall in Chiyoda Ward before taking to the streets calling for measures to replace the notorious Services and Support for Persons with Disabilities Act, which was criticized for increasing the financial burden on the disabled.

[...]

“We want every disabled person to be assured of the right to live in their local community without discrimination,” a visually-impaired participant said as a representative of the attendants.

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“Bamboo Samurai” Bicyclist Hit By SUV

A black 2006 Nissan Xterra driven by 35-year-old Heather B. Dailey hit 33-year-old Takashi Matsumoto of Tokyo, Japan. He was knocked into a ditch area and sustained a mild concussion. Both vehicles were traveling eastbound.

Matsumoto was taken by Johnson County Ambulance to Carbondale Memorial Hospital.

You can check out his blog (which hasn’t been updated since the accident) at http://bamboo-bike-ustrip.blogspot.com/.

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Chinese Tantrums Continue: Wen Will Not Meet Kan

A planned meeting between Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was canceled by the Chinese side because Japan allegedly “ruined the atmosphere” for any talks between the leaders:

Foreign ministers from Japan and China had met earlier in the day on the sidelines of an Asian regional summit in an attempt to mend fences over the dispute, which plunged diplomatic relations to their lowest point in five years. The two sides were seeking to lay the foundation for talks between Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan.

But Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Hu Zhengyue told reporters that Japan was making untrue statements to the media and turning the contested islands — called Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan — into a “hot topic.”

“Japan spread groundless distortions. … They want to make the Diaoyu islands a hot-topic issue,” he said. “The Japanese side should take responsibility for ruining the atmosphere for leaders of the two countries.”

China’s tantrum seems to have taken place because the Japanese “lied” to the media about the resumption of talks about joint oil exploration around the Senkakus and because the Chinese were offended by the straightforward statements made to the media by Foreign Minister Okada and Secretary of State Clinton.

You can read some humorous reactions from 2-channelers over at Itai News. Because a news bulletin about the cancellation was put on the screen during the broadcast of a Harry Potter movie, some are complaining that it “ruined the atmosphere” of the film.

There has been a ton of other interesting news stories about Japan-China relations over the last week. Here are links to a few of them:

• More anti-Japanese protests took place in China over the past week. Japanese media reports make it sound like Chinese police were very quick in breaking up and forcing an end to several protest marches.
• Some news reports have tried to highlight the fact that there were a few anti-government signs at anti-Japanese protests held in China.
• Chinese police seized a woman from her house in the middle of the night after she tweeted her intention to bring a banner congratulating Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo to an anti-Japanese protest. She was released after being detained for 17 hours.
• During the boat captain crisis, China had told a group of Japanese students that they were no longer invited to attend the Shanghai Expo. They were finally re-invited and allowed to visit the pavilions a couple days ago, but as this ATV video shows, the Chinese told the students that they were not allowed to speak to the press and Chinese aggressively tried to block news cameras from filming any of the students:
• The boat collision tape will be shown to a very small number of Upper House members on Monday. No word yet on when, if ever, the public will get to see it.
• An angry nationalist has sent containers of “suspicious liquid” to the Chinese embassy and consulates in Japan.
• Japanese athletes have been warned to keep a very low profile when attending next month’s Asian Games in China.
• China has once again sent patrol boats to the area near the Senkakus.

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Mega Matsutake Mushroom

ATV news shows us a gigantic matsutake mushroom that was found recently in Yamagata prefecture:

The 30-centimeter-long mushroom was apparently sold to as part of a set of two matsutake for 30,000 yen.

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