Archive for September, 2011

SMAP Concert in Beijing: Thanks, China!

Japanese pop group SMAP visited Beijing the other day, putting on a concert to thank China for all the aid they sent after the March 11th earthquake and tsunami:

Here is a quotation from a Xinhua article about the event. The Chinese state press seems to be taking a very positive view:

The Japanese idol group has been active for nearly 20 years after the release of their first CD in 1991, and are among the most famous Japanese artists in China.

Under the theme “Come on, Japan. Thank you, China. Asia is a united home,” the performance is an expression of gratitude for China’s assistance after the 9.0-magnitude earthquake and ensuing tsunami hit Japan on March 11, according to Kimura Takuya, a SMAP member.

“Thank you, China. Thank you all for offering hands in the Japan earthquake that occurred on March 11,” Kimura Takuya said during the performance, standing still on the stage amid wafting music with video clips of the disaster appearing on a giant screen.

SMAP originally planned to hold a concert in China in late 2010, but they were forced to cancel after a wave of anti-Japanese hate swept over the country following the arrest of a Chinese trawler captain who rammed two Japanese coast guard patrol boats. It’s great that the situation has improved enough to allow this concert to take place.

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Bears Menace Tsunami Survivors

The Yomiuri reports that tsunami survivors in Iwate prefecture have sighted bears near their temporary houses:

The town’s local social welfare council, which consults residents of temporary housing facilities, has handled about 30 bear-related incidents since mid-August, with residents making such comments as “I saw a bear,” “There’s bear dung and footprints,” and “Some neighbors saw bears and now I’m scared.”

At temporary housing in Kamaishi, which is next to Otsuchicho, there were four reports of bear sightings in July and August, while a garbage collection site at a temporary housing facility in the town is believed to have been ransacked by a bear in July.

Because most low-lying land in Otsuchicho was inundated by the tsunami, the only option was to set up temporary housing units in mountainous areas near bear habitats, according to one town official.

“The bears are probably attracted to the garbage,” said Prof. Toshiki Aoi of Iwate University, who is familiar with the behavioral habits of Asiatic black bears.

So far, there have been no reported bear attacks. Residents are being encouraged to be vigilant and secure trash containers.

There’s no video of these bears, but here’s a video from last year, showing a bear hunt that took place in an another area of Iwate (Morioka):

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Video: Right Wingers Cheer as Cops Arrest Anti-Nuclear Protester

A video clip of an anti-nuclear protester being arrested by Japanese police has received many views on YouTube. Here is a high quality version of the clip [turn on captions for English subtitles]

The clip was apparently filmed during a demonstration that took place in Tokyo on September 11th. As anti-nuclear people marched, a small group of Zaitokukai right wingers held a protest against the anti-nuclear protest. (In other video clips, we can see that police erected a barrier between the two opposing sides, and officers were trying to prevent any physical contact between them.)

We are shown the aftermath of a confrontation between the two sides. Police are restraining and then arresting two protesters in faux radiation suits. All the while, the Zaitokukai members are shouting encouragement, even telling the police to “shoot the criminals.” According to the video uploader (a member of the anti-nuclear camp), it is an “unlawful arrest” of “innocent nonviolent protestors.”

It is alleged that the two protesters were physically attacked:

The French protestor and his Japanese wife were reportedly kicked in the stomach by the hate-group while they were being restrained by the police, yet the police did nothing.

Unfortunately, the video only shows what happened after the alleged kicking, so we can’t be sure if it actually happened. Nor is is possible to confirm that police saw the kicking and decided to do nothing about it.

Instead, we have footage of the two protesters physically resisting as police try to make them move away from the Zaitokukai extremists. The taller protester, who is presumably the Frenchman, is trying to push his way through the police. He wants to force his way towards the Zaitokukai group, and police are trying to make him to rejoin the other anti-nuclear demonstrators.

After some pushing and shoving, they finally seem to give up and begin to walk away. A few pedestrians obscure the camera shot, and when we can see the protesters again, they are being forced to the ground and the Frenchman is arrested. He is taken away, but his wife stays in the street, being physically restrained by police officers while she shouts questions about why they arrested an anti-nuclear protester.

The uploader of the video believes that the police should be arresting the people who were shouting threatening words:

They are shouting abusive language with megaphones at a nonviolent French anti-nuclear protestor and his Japanese wife, and encouraging the police to “shoot and kill” them. These two nonviolent protestors actually get arrested by the Japanese police, while this abusive, extremist hate-group shouting abusive and threatening language with megaphones in a threatening manner is not even as much touched by the police. They walk free, while the innocent nonviolent protestors are arrested by the police.

The uploader believes that the rightists’ shouts encouraging the police to “shoot the criminals” or “throw the criminals into the nuclear reactor” should be considered illegal threats:

Threats and intimidation are illegal under the Japanese law, Article 222.

第222条

1. 生命、身体、自由、名誉又は財産に対し害を加える旨を告知して人を脅迫した者は、2年以下の懲役又は30万円以下の罰金に処する。
2. 親族の生命、身体、自由、名誉又は財産に対し害を加える旨を告知して人を脅迫した者も、前項と同様とする。

A person announcing or threatening to kill a person could be fined for under 2 years in prison time or under 300,000 yen in fines. Yet there is no news that the people who were threatening to kill the protestors have been arrested by the police.

The uploader claims that the police don’t arrest the Zaitokukai members because they are corrupt and sympathize with their extreme fascist views:

CORRUPTION IN JAPAN is very real and the ultranationalist-friendly Japanese police tend to side with such extremists and ultranationalists. Innocent people are arrested for seemingly no reason other than for ideological biases, while the real violent hate-criminals are let go and ignored by the police.

FOREIGNERS THINKING OF VISITING JAPAN should be vigilant, lest they receive violent threats, harrassments and treatments from violent hate-groups such as this group that are not targeted by the police and possibly get arrested for no reason by the corrupt Japanese police.

WE HAVE THE RIGHT to peacefully protest and peacefully co-exist whereever we live without being harrased and violently threatened by extremist hate-groups, especially in democratic, developed nations such as Japan.

As far as I am aware, the only cases of Zaitokukai or right-winger violence against foreigners have taken place when foreigners have tried to confront and argue with the rightists. There have been no attacks on tourists. Although complaints about police treatment of foreigners tend to come up from time to time, random unjustified arrests of tourists have not taken place.

As is always the case with Zaitokukai demonstrations, they are shouting really disgusting and ugly things. They are indeed a hate group, and their speech is hateful. But should they be arrested for expressing their views?

In some countries, there are strictly-enforced laws against hate speech, incitement to violence, and threatening language. Japan, like the United States, seems to have gone down a different road, one that places greater importance on free speech and free expression. This means that fascists, racists, history-deniers, and religious extremists are allowed to say extremely ugly things in public.

If the Zaitokukai demonstrators had kicked the woman, I think she should definitely demand that assault charges be filed against the attackers. However, as someone who believes in American-style protections of freedom of speech, I don’t think that anyone should be arrested for shouting the ugly phrases that were recorded in this YouTube video.

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Japanese Commercial Addresses Radiation Concerns: Our Mushrooms Are Safe!

The Yukiguni Maitake company has started airing commercials that inform consumers about its strict in-house safety tests, the results of which can be easily found on its website:

Singer Hiromi Go has been hired as a spokesman for the new advertising campaign. In the video, we are shown a clip of the TV commercial and a demonstration of how to check radiation test results.

Because mushrooms are particularly vulnerable to environmental pollution, the company has been conducting strict safety testing for years. The recent nuclear accident in Fukushima has heightened public fears about food contamination, so the company is conducting radiation tests on every “lot” of mushrooms that it ships and is making the test result data accessible on its homepage.

Every package of Yukiguni Maitake mushrooms has the following label:

Using a mobile phone, anyone can access safety testing data by reading the QR code. Alternatively, they can go to the company’s homepage and enter the lot number or the production date printed on the label (found in the red box in the example pic).

Downloadable data includes the amount of radioactive cesium detected, as well as the test results for a large number of other potentially dangerous substances, such as pesticides and heavy metals.

The ability to scan a package and see its radiation data before buying it is a stroke of marketing brilliance. Even if other companies are selling mushrooms from areas that have passed government mandated radiation tests, worried consumers will probably feel more comfortable buying Yukiguni’s products.

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Sunflowers Fail to Decontaminate Radioactive Soil

Several months ago, optimistic news stories appeared about how people were planning to plant thousands of sunflowers in an effort to decontaminate areas around the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant:

Fifty kilometres away from the plant site the Buddhist Joenji temple. There, chief monk Koyu Abe and a team of 100 volunteers began growing and distributing sunflowers, hoping to both lift spirits and lighten the radiation’s impact.

“We plant sunflowers, field mustard, amaranthus and cockscomb, which are all believed to absorb radiation,” said the monk. “So far we have grown at least 200,000 flowers (at this temple) and distributed many more seeds. At least 8 million sunflowers blooming in Fukushima originated from here.”

Scientists are currently testing the effectiveness of sunflowers used to battle radiation.

Results from testing are now becoming available, and, unfortunately, it seems that sunflowers are not a very good option:

The sunflowers that the ministry had planted in Iitate in May had absorbed around 52 becquerels of cesium per kilogram, according to the ministry. Even if sunflowers worth 10 kilograms were grown per square meter of farmland, only about 1/2000th of cesium in the soil could be absorbed, the ministry said.

The topsoil removal method, on the other hand, proved to be highly effective, with radioactive cesium in the soil plunging from 10,370 becquerels to 2,599 becquerels per kilogram after three to four centimeters of the topsoil was scraped off.

The method becomes even more effective when the topsoil is hardened by pharmacological agents before being removed, or when the topsoil was taken away all together with grass roots. Both methods could reduce levels of cesium by 82 to 97 percent.

While the topsoil removal method seems to be extremely effective, it will be quite difficult to implement. Digging up that much land will require a lot of labor, and authorities will have to find some place to store tons of contaminated dirt.

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Repairman Steals Cash From Yasukuni Ticket Vending Machine

A vending machine repairman has been arrested for stealing cash from the machine that sells tickets for the Yushukan, the war museum at Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine.

The man came to the museum on June 9th to perform maintenance on the machines. He tried to steal 39,000 yen, but his crime was discovered and he has now been charged with theft.

The man allegedly used his professional knowledge to reset the machines so that the number of tickets sold matched with the amount of money that remained inside after the theft. It was a clever scheme, but he was caught because he got too greedy. The Yasukuni Shrine recently began to notice that museum ticket sales seemed a lot lower than usual, and they soon realized that the vending machine repairman was conducting a suspiciously high number of maintenance checks on the ticket machines.

When questioned by police, the main admitted that he’d been stealing money from vending machines over the course of several years. The stolen cash probably added up to the equivalent of thousands of dollars.

The man’s crimes do not appear to have been politically motivated.

Among the Japanese media, Sankei Sports deserves special recognition for its eye-catching headline: “34-year-old man steals money from spirits of the war dead” [３４歳男「英霊」から金盗む].

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