Capybara Hot Spring at Zoo in Japan
The Saitama Children’s Zoo has set up an onsen to help its Capybaras cope with Japanese winter weather:
The bath measures 1.6 meters long by 1.2 meters wide and is 30 centimeters deep, with water tumbling in that the capybaras can sit under. Every day at 2 p.m., zoo keepers refill the bath with 40-degree water.
The soothing sight of the capybaras bending their necks back and relaxing or happily swimming around the bath is thought to have helped bring in around 50,000 more visitors to the park last financial year than the year before that, for a total of around 560,000 visitors.
At the end of October four babies were born, and they quickly joined their parents in loving the bath.
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Categories: Animal Videos
Google Earth Skydiving
Japanese guys go skydiving using Google Earth [part of the Demo Slam project]:
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Categories: Odd / Strange, Technology
Anti-Japan Newspaper Ad Parodies Miyazaki Film
ANN reports that a group called TckTckTck recently ran the following full page ad in the Financial Times:
Together with our partners at Avaaz, TckTckTck sponsored an advertisement in the Friday edition of the Financial Times identifying Japan as the main blocker of progress toward a fair, ambitious and binding climate treaty at UN climate talks concluding tomorrow.
The ad parodies an iconic poster for “Spirited Away”, the country’s all-time highest-grossing film and is being published in the international editions of the Financial Times, reaching a large readership around the world, including in Japan. 1000 copies of the newspaper are being distributed at the conference venues Cancun Messe and Moon Palace.
“Time is running out for negotiators in Cancun to agree a package of decisions that would give us a basis for a strong climate treaty next year in Durban, and Japan’s hard line position is putting the entire conference at risk”, said Paul Horsman, TckTckTck Campaign Director.
“Millions of people around the world are getting on with taking action on climate change. Japan needs to become part of this and help ensure the survival of people and ecosystems, while realising that a strong climate deal also benefits their own economic development. The country that gave birth to the Kyoto Protocol should not become the one that killed it”, added Horsman.
Sadly, their anger about who caused the death of Kyoto is woefully misplaced. Japan isn’t opposing an extension of the protocol because it doesn’t believe in reducing carbon emissions. It’s opposing the extension because the Kyoto Protocol is useless in its current form:
An extension of the Kyoto Protocol “does not serve our national interest nor does it rescue the globe from global warming,” foreign ministry official Shinsuke Sugiyama told reporters.
“Some criticized us as trying to destroy negotiations,” he said. “But I believe by the end our position has been better understood by the parties concerned and the people concerned, even if not 100 percent agreed.”
Japan argues that the treaty named after its ancient capital is unfair because it does not include 70 percent of the world’s emissions, with top polluters China and the United States absent.
The red dots in this graph represent countries that are not members of the Kyoto Protocol system:
Keeping the Protocol alive in its current form achieves nothing. The world’s top carbon emitters absolutely refuse to become members, and any cuts Japan and other countries agree to within the Kyoto system will meaninglessly small compared to the huge increases that will come out of countries like China.
Why waste money on ads that rip on Japan for wanting to replace the broken Kyoto system with a better agreement? If NGO’s believe something needs to be done about carbon emissions, they should work on getting a system in place that would requiring cuts from everyone, especially top emitters like China, the United States, India, and Brazil.
Note: The Cancun conference ended with a weak and general agreement that isn’t legally binding. The final decision on whether or not to continue the Kyoto system will be put off until next year.
[hat tip to Kela]
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Categories: Anti-Japan, Otaku & Anime
Tokyo Tries to Ban “Harmful” Anime & Manga
Creators and publishers of anime and manga are uniting in opposition to a proposed bill that would the sale ban publications that authorities deem “harmful” to youth:
Ten comics publishers, including industry powerhouses Kodansha, Shueisha, Shogakukan and Kadokawa, collectively announced on Friday that they are withdrawing from participation in the Tokyo Intl. Anime Fair, the biggest event of its kind in the toon biz.
Kadokawa earlier made an independent announcement that it was ankling the event, which is skedded for March 24-27, under the sponsorship of the Tokyo city government.
The publishers, which call themselves “Comic Ten Companies Association,” oppose a bill submitted to the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly on Nov. 29 that would tighten restrictions on so-called “excessive sexual depictions” in toons and comics sold to youths under the age of 18. Strongly supported by Tokyo governor Shintaro Ishihara, the bill, opponents claim, threatens freedom of expression.
“We strongly distrust the position of Governor Ishihara and (Tokyo) municipal authorities, which lacks respect for comics and animation creators,” the group said in a statement.
Earlier this month, Ishihara made some remarks in favor of the ban, letting everyone know that he is disgusted by the idea of allowing homosexuals to appear on TV:
“Anyone who claims it’s not harmful to children to draw manga that features the sex life of married couples and the such are idiots. Tell them, ‘You need to go cool your heads.’” Ishihara responded to the Tokyo Parent Teacher Association’s December 3 petition in support of the bill by saying, “It’s not just about children. We’ve got homosexuals casually appearing even on television. Japan has become far too untamed. I’ll go forward with [this bill] with a sense of mission in heart.”
One of the top-viewed videos on YouTube Japan today shows Ishihara angrily reacting to a reporter’s question about Kadokawa Publishing Co.’s announcement that it would not participate in the fair:
Ishihara says he doesn’t care, but he probably should. If the bill passes assembly votes on Monday and Wednesday, the next Tokyo International Anime Fair is going to be like a ghost town.
To watch a lengthy Japanese discussion about the problems with Tokyo’s proposed bill, check out this video.
Update: The bill has passed the first round of voting. It still needs to pass a second round of voting on Wednesday, but it doesn’t look like there is much standing in the way of that.
A post by Brian Ashcraft has clarified some of the details about the bill:
But today in Tokyo, the second version of the bill went up for a vote and passed by the assembly with a final vote on Wednesday. As blogger Dan Kanemitsu points out, the ordinance is not national legislation, and is not a ban per se, but penalizes companies that produce material that is harmful to those under 18 years-old. Unlike in the U.S., companies that produce the material — and not retailers — come under fire.
The bill also does not target material that is 18-years-old and up as that material is already inaccessible to minors.
What’s also worth nothing is that the Tokyo government already has the power to dictate what, as Kanemitsu writes, is “too sexually stimulating for minors OR too sadistic for minors OR too likely to cause criminal acts among minors OR cause suicide among minors as ‘harmful material’, and force such material to be treated as adult only material.”
Regarding the new bill, the Tokyo government explains (via The Mainichi Daily News), “only manga and animation that glorifies or exaggerates illegal sexual acts will be subject to the regulations, and freedom of expression will not be violated.” This new bill attempts to define what is obscene — vaguely. Kanemitsu believes this is one way Tokyo is attempting to control what people read and view.
More importantly, the bill is directed at video games, anime and manga, but does not encompass novels, films, TV and photographs. Mediums that use real-life images are exempt.
So, it is not a literal ban, but by punishing companies that publish material that falls within its vague definition of harmfulness, it will try to force those companies to practice self-censorship. Tokyo is a very big market, and even if the bill doesn’t cover the whole country, many companies will only be able to produce one version of a comic book or video game, so the “censored for Tokyo” standard could become the national standard.
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Categories: Discrimination, Otaku & Anime
Santa Train in Japan
N-H-K shows us a special Santa train that is running on Shiga Prefecture’s Shigaraki Kōgen Railway:
Inside the train, university students dressed in Santa costumes sing songs and hand out little presents to children.
The train will run twice a day until the 24th. Reservations are required. See this flier for details.
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Categories: General Japan
Japanese Politicians Inspect Senkaku Islands
It is the official position of the Japanese government that the Senkaku Islands are under the administration of the local government of Ishigaki. However, for years the central government has restricted access to the islands and their immediate area, apparently out of a desire to avoid stirring up anger in China. This policy has frustrated Japanese fishermen, who feel they should have a right to fish in Japanese territorial waters.
Back in October, the Ishigaki Municipial Assembly unanimously approved a measure calling for their local government to carry out an inspection of the islands. They apparently wanted to see if the national government would try to stop them, despite its own position that Senkaku Islands are officially under the administration of Ishigaki. Their inquiries about the planned inspection received not straight answers from the national government, so two members of the assembly were sent to visit the islands on Friday:
Nakama, 61, and Minosoko, 29, told reporters after arriving back at an Ishigaki Island port that they shot film footage during their trip. A shot of an islet and the surrounding sea, apparently taken from Minami Kojima, has been posted on Nakama’s blog.
They added local Coast Guard officials made an onboard inspection on their way back to Ishigaki Island. Two fishermen were also aboard the boat on a trip that began at the Ishigaki port 1 p.m. Thursday.
After the boat was anchored off Minami Kojima, the two assembly members swam about 30 meters to reach the shore shortly before 9 a.m. Friday and stayed on the islet for about 40 minutes. They recorded what they called the traces of things associated with Japanese people who once lived there.
Asked about the reason for their travel, Nakama and Minosoko said they felt they needed to do it because the central government made no reply and “appeared unenthusiastic” when they asked for permission.
The Chinese government, which has claimed the islands ever since oil was discovered in the are back in the 1970′s, protested what it considered a violation of its national sovereignty.
The Ishigaki Municipal Assembly looks like it might stir things up even more. There are reports that a “Senkaku Memorial Day” ordinance is under consideration. The day would fall on January 14th, the anniversary of Japan’s annexation of the islands.
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Categories: Politics