Archive for November, 2010

No Chinese Smiles for Japan at APEC

• An informal poll of 100 foreign journalists assigned to cover the summit found that 37 of them consider China to be the world’s most influential country, beating out the 30 votes that the United States received.
• At these kinds of summits, it is customary for the First Lady of the host country to take the First Ladies of other countries on mini friendship tours. It looks like most of the First Ladies were participating, but Hu Jintao’s wife was not there. Instead, she went on a private tour of a museum and did some shopping.
• Japan had hoped to arrange a formal meeting between Prime Minister Kan and President Hu Jintao, but when Kan’s official schedule was announced, it contained no meeting with Hu. The Chinese side refused to schedule the meeting. Then, at the last minute, China decided it would allow Japan the honor of meeting with its glorious President. To fit in the meeting, Kan was forced to reschedule a meeting with the President of Russia. At most of the meetings that day, leaders smiled for the news cameras. Hu did not smile when he met Kan.

The NTV reporters note that their latest poll numbers show that public approval of the Kan administration has fallen to 29.4%, a drop of about 18 points since last month. Nearly 75% of respondents had a negative view of Kan’s foreign policy achievements.

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Overwhelming Public Support for Release of Senkaku Collision Video

As the Japanese police continue to question the coast guard officer who leaked the Senkaku boat collision footage to YouTube, polls are showing that the vast majority of Japanese people do not consider the video to be a secret and support the full official release of all footage related to the incident:

A survey of 1,000 people by Kyodo News found 88.4 percent of them think the government should release the video against 7.8 percent who said there was no need for the official disclosure, the news agency said late Saturday.

The poll was taken on Friday and Saturday after a coastguard who said he leaked the footage on the video sharing site YouTube was questioned by police.

Police have interviewed him since he admitted on Wednesday to leaking the video showing the high-seas collisions between a Chinese trawler and Japanese coastguard vessels near disputed islands called Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese.

The coastguard has defended his actions, saying people have a right to see the video, according to an earlier report by the Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation, which interviewed him before he confessed the leak to his boss.

Investigators are trying to establish evidence that he broke the national public service act, which requires government employees to keep confidential information they obtain through their work.

The Kyodo survey found 81.1 percent of respondents did not think the video was confidential government material, against 13.2 percent who said it was.

A survey conducted by NTV found similar numbers:

58% do not consider the leak of the video to be a problem and 80% think that the Kan administration should go ahead and officially release all of the footage.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Japanese police may decide early this week about whether or not the coast guard officer will be arrested and charged with a crime.

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
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Palm Top Theater – iPhone in 3D

i3DG is a playful analog extension to an iPhone or an iPodTouch, converting its 2D display into a layered 3D view. Using the old technique of placing a half-silvered mirror at a 45-degree angle in front of an image, in a new context, the project extends upon 3D displays and iPhones. As a peripheral gadget, i3DG can support a wide range of different applications, from 3D videos and animations to accelerometer-based games.

i3DG is invented by Jitsuro Mase, a media artist, and produced by DIRECTIONS, Inc, a Japanese media production company. It has won a prize of an international competition, Ars Electronica Festival 2010 Honorary Mention.

This groundbreaking device lets you enjoy 3D movies right in the palm of your hand without 3D glasses or other gear. Both production and playback of the visuals do not require special technology or equipment, such as shooting imagery with 2 cameras or using complicated CG technique for image production.

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Box of Apples Sold For 1 Million Yen

On the 13th, a box of 28 Esashi Apples was sold at auction in Iwate Prefecture for 1 million yen (12,130 USD):

That’s over 400 dollars per apple. Of course, these types of apples are not normally sold for such an outrageous price. It was the first auction of the season for these apples, and the winner paid for the prestige of being able to claim ownership of the very first box sold.

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Japanese Aerial Surveillance Drone

Unlike winged surveillance drones, this drone has the ability to hover in place and easily move vertically. It is equipped with powerful cameras to take images of a battlefield or disaster site. It is a short range drone, only capable of flying for about thirty minutes.

[via Engadget]

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

Hiroo Onoda: The Soldier Who Would Not Surrender

Australia’s “Lateline” recently aired a special report about Hiroo Onoda, the Japanese soldier who refused to surrender when World War II ended and kept fighting on in the jungles of the Philippines until 1974:

You can read the full story of his jungle life in his autobiography, No Surrender: My Thirty-Year War.

Here are a couple Japanese language videos about Onoda:

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• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)