Archive for January, 2011

Misleading Data About Gun Control on Japanese TV

A FTV news/entertainment program asks a few foreigners in Japan what they think about gun control laws and the latest mass shooting in America:

One American says there is practically no restrictions on firearm ownership in the United States. In contrast to America, FTV presents the example of Australia, where the 1996 Port Arthur Massacre led to tighter gun control laws in that country. The graph of “deaths from firearms crimes” seems to show that there has been a huge drop since new restrictions were put in place.

However, a look at the real statistics shows that FTV’s graph is terribly misleading:

As you can see, the FTV report did not report that the vast majority of these “crime” deaths were actually suicides, and the large drop in gun deaths also has a lot to do with a drop in suicides by firearms. The drop in firearms suicides seems to be part of a general trend that began several years before 1996.

While there is a case to be made that Australian gun control laws have caused the reduction of deaths, the correlation has not been conclusively proven. It should also be noted that there has not been much of a significant drop in the rate of assault, armed robbery, or homicide.

It’s a definite possibility that new gun control laws probably did have an effect on reducing gun crime in Australia, but when reporting on such an issue, it is very important not to draw conclusions without proper evidence to back them up.

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Facebook in Japan

According to NTV, facebook is finally starting to get recognized by Japanese people, thanks to the film “Social Network.”

In Japan, Facebook seems to have been known and used by only those who came back from studying or working overseas.

Among Social Networking Services (SNS), mixi is most popular in Japan.
While around 5 hundred million people in the world use Facebook, Facebook users in Japan are 10% of mixi users.

The big difference between Facebook and mixi is using one’s real name to register.

As a Japanese person, I understand how other Japanese feel insecure and uneasy about revealing their real names online. That’s our web culture. Most of the SNS users prefer using nicknames in Japan to protect privacy. I’ve been skeptical about whether Japanese people like to use facebook.

Twitter, on the other hand, is more casual. It does not always recommend registrations with real name. I can easily imagine it was easily accepted by the Japanese and it was adjustable to Japanese internet culture.

It was a surprise to me that Facebook was not even known by most of the Japanese yet.

It’s possible Japanese companies and business owners like to make use of Facebook from now on, but when it comes to individuals, I still doubt that. Taking advantage of anonymousness by nickname, some people could be really nasty and repeat mental abuse online. This has threatened us and so everyone started to feel scared and undefended about revealing real name, face, voice or anything online that could specify identity in a real life. I think it’s like a vicious circle. As for me, even if I write a blog in English, I am Japanese after all. My comfort zone was protected by using a nickname.

What do you think about this difference?

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Japanese Transformer Costumes

Unfortunately, their act wasn’t complete enough for the Kasou Taishou competition, so they failed to get a passing score. They started out strong, but the whole thing seemed to end way to quickly and didn’t have the kind of clever twists that judges tend to enjoy.

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Bizarre Cereal Bar Commercial

This Ippon Manzoku Bar commercial is kind of weird:

But some remixing from a Japanese netizen has transformed it into something gloriously weird:

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Jumbo Tea Ceremony

The image above has not been photoshopped. It’s a screen capture from a video of a strange type of ceremony held at Saidaiji temple in Nara:

Established in 765 A.D, Saidaiji Temple literally means the Great Western Temple of Nara Heijo-kyo, which was the Capital at that time. “”Ochamori”" is a popular but unique tea ceremony practiced at Saidaiji Temple. Visitors are served powdered green tea in an extra large tea bowl more than 30cm in diameter. The bowl is too large to taste from without the help of the people next to you and the sight provokes a laugh for everyone.

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Pre-WWII Japanese Animation

We found this reel among my grandfather’s things after he died. Buzz Wagner was born and raised in Kariuzawa, Japan. He lived there in the 20′s and 30′s and came back to the states just before the War. His father was a missionary and a film nut. We’ve got some great footage from his life that I am currently assembling into a documentary. This animation must have been something my great grandfather picked up along the way.

However, we don’t have a clue what this is from or who created it. If anyone has any information about this film, please get in contact with me. Thanks!!

Subtitles graciously provided by Jon Nilsen

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