Pet Capybara
“Shimura Zoo” gives child actress Mana Ashida the chance to see what it would be like to have a pet capybara:
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Categories: Animal Videos
Chinese Premier Refuses to Stand Next to Japanese Prime Minister at Photo Op
NTV’s “Bankisha” produces a photo that pretty much sums up recent Chinese diplomacy towards Japan:
In Saturday’s group photo marking the end of the East Asia-ASEAN Summit in Hanoi, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was apparently supposed to stand between Prime Minister Naoto Kan of Japan and Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung of Vietnam. Wen , having no desire to stand next to Kan, forced his way onto the other side of Nguyen. For a while, there was an awkward gap between Kan and the Vietnamese leader. (Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard stepped in and filled the gap.)
As noted in an earlier post, the Chinese had a tantrum over Japan’s “ruining the atmosphere” of the summit and announced a last-minute cancellation of a formal meeting between Kan and Wen that was supposed to take place in Friday. The next morning, the Chinese “spontaneously” decided to grant Kan a measly 10-minute informal talk with Wen.
On Sunday, the Yomiuri ran an editorial about how “China’s erratic moves make relations difficult“:
We cannot help but say these are extremely poor reasons for canceling summit diplomacy. The impression is inescapable that China avoided the meeting by citing reasons that cannot be reasons, one after another, for fear of a backlash from hard-liners in China.
China’s rejection of the latest proposed summit meeting has only strengthened the impression that the country is difficult to deal with.
China accepted the informal meeting that finally did occur, though it was a mere 10 minutes, apparently because Beijing is concerned that it would become isolated internationally if its continued rejection of an official summit meeting fed the perception that China is alien to the rest of world.
Chinese President Hu Jintao will visit Japan in mid-November to attend the meeting of the leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.
China must not repeat this kind of behavior. We hope Beijing will accept an official summit meeting and tangibly demonstrate “mutually beneficial” relations by resuming negotiations for a treaty on development of the natural gas fields in the East China Sea, which it unilaterally suspended, and normalizing its rare earths exports to Japan.
It is essential for Japan to maintain its stance to accept a dialogue with China any time and calmly respond to the situation.
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Categories: Anti-Japan
Trespassing Fishermen Don’t Care About Safety Rules
In the port of Niigata, there is a concrete breakwater that extends 3.5 kilometers into the Sea of Japan. It offers better fishing opportunities than the average dock, but it’s position is quite dangerous. High winds and big waves crash against the breakwater, and people have been washed over the side and killed. Because of safety concerns, authorities built a fence that is intended to keep people from walking out onto the breakwater.
However, as this report shows, there are lots of fishermen who value good fishing over personal safety. They ignore the “no trespassing” signs and climb over the fence:
Many of them even bring bicycles under or over the fence. They don’t seem to care when news cameras are around, and can get quite angry when confronted about their behavior. One man rages at a reporter, saying that his taxes helped pay for the breakwater, and that hundreds of other people also go fishing on the breakwater.
If you search on Google, you can easily find webpages maintained by fishing fans sharing their experiences and offering advice on the best times to go fishing on the breakwater.
The Niigata government has made the fence taller, but that proved to be pointless. It just makes the task of climbing over the fence take a few seconds longer. They have also tried opening up a shorter breakwater to the public and providing safety vests in that area, but a lot of the trespassers seem to prefer the longer breakwater. Quite a few of them shamelessly climb over the fence while ignoring staff who are pleading for them to go over to the safer fishing area.
My proposed solution: impose a 50,000 yen fine on anyone who trespasses on the longer breakwater. Regularly send police to the area so they can issue tickets. If it doesn’t stop all of the illegal fishers, the hefty fines should at least help raise some money for government programs that might help less stupid people.
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Categories: General Japan
Mouse Trap Commercial
Buggy-eyed CG mice meet their doom in this trap commercial:
Other products by the same manufacturer have use a cute cartoon mouse that is expressing his dread at being captured:
If I was shopping for a product that would help bring about the demise of an animal, I probably wouldn’t want the package or advertising to show a cute mouse character, but I suppose that somebody who wants to rid their house of an infestation won’t be so picky about packaging.
According to Wikipedia, sticky glue traps are thought to be non-lethal by some people, but animal rights groups find them to be inhumane:
Animals can be released from the glue by applying vegetable oil and gently working the animal free. This is deemed a compassionate rescue rather than a design feature of glue traps. Most animals trapped by these devices sustain severe injuries including severed limbs and torn skin caused during their attempts to escape. These types of traps are effective and non-toxic to humans.
Death is much slower than with the traditional type trap, which has prompted animal activists and welfare organisations such as PETA and the RSPCA to oppose the use of glue traps. Trapped mice eventually die from exposure, dehydration, starvation, suffocation, or predation, or are killed by people when the trap is checked. In some jurisdictions the use of glue traps is regulated: Victoria, Australia use of glue traps is restricted to commercial pest control operators and they must be used in accordance with conditions set by the Minister for Agriculture. Other jurisdictions have banned their use entirely; in Ireland it is illegal to import, possess, sell or offer for sale unauthorized traps, including glue traps. This law, the Wildlife (Amendment) Act was passed in 2000.
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Categories: General Japan
Foreign Students Grew Marijuana on University Campus
A Tunisian student and a Colombian student at Kochi University have been arrested after police discovered that they had been growing large quantities of Marijuana. Here’s a FTV news report about their arrest:
The Tunisian was a student at Ehime University’s United Graduate School of Agricultural Sciences, so I guess he knew a bit about growing crops. In addition to a few plants on the balcony of their apartment, they also had planted some in a corner of the campus of nearby Kochi University. Both students said that they were growing the plants for their own personal use.
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Categories: Foreigners in Japan