Ichiro Ozawa, the man who is said to hold the real power within Japan’s ruling Democratic party, has said he favors passing a law to grant voting rights to foreigners with permanent residency:

Meeting at the DPJ headquarters in Tokyo, Ozawa told Lee, elder brother of President Lee Myung Bak and head of the South Korea-Japan parliamentarians union, that he is for the idea of granting such rights to permanent residents of Japan, including South Koreans.

“I want it to take form somehow during the regular Diet session,” Ozawa was quoted as saying, in remarks that suggest his intention to compile the opinions of DPJ members on the matter during the next ordinary session.

DPJ House of Councillors member Yoshihiro Kawakami, who took part in the meeting, told Kyodo News he believes the DPJ-led government would submit a bill aimed at giving permanent foreign residents the right to vote in elections for local government heads and assembly members to the regular Diet session.

While I think that it’s nice to give some local voting rights to foreigners who have come to Japan and received permanent residency, I think it is a bad idea to extend voting rights to Japanese-born Korean special permanent residents. Such a policy only encourages their position as perpetual non-citizens and discourages them from taking Japanese citizenship.

Wouldn’t it be better if the Japanese government streamlined the process by which they could naturalize and become full-fledged citizens of this country?

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Simon Scaraffiotti of The Observers reports on an “original” work of Chinese animation that copied scenes from a Japanese work:

Same set, same features, same hairstyles – manga fans were not fooled. Several scenes from the 52-episode cartoon were copied directly from “Byousoku” (Five Centimetres per Second), a popular Japanese animated film by Makoto Shinkai released in 2007.

CCTV, China’ state-owned television network, says it was not aware that the production violated copyright. China’s propaganda department, which co-produced the cartoon, had billed it as an educational programme. “Soul’s Window” was supposed to teach children a lesson in ethics.

Replying to the accusations, the cartoon’s producer, Lanhai, recognised that roughly 1 percent of the 2,500 scenes mirrored parts of “Byousoku” and offered an apology. The company said it would launch an inquiry in order to “identify those responsible and draw lessons from this case”.

More screen capture comparisons can be found here.

[hat tip to 空]

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Asahi TV news uses computer graphics to add some flavor to its coverage of the bear that attacked and mauled 9 people at a highway rest stop on Saturday:

It looks like it might have been created by the same graphics team that made their crude CG recreation of the cross-dressing loan applicant. It might have been better if they tried using some toys instead, or maybe relying on their cartoonist?

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Since most Japanese place names are written the same in Japanese and Chinese, one occasionally comes across Chinese links when running kanji search queries through Google News.

While searching for news stories about Taiji, the Japanese town that is being targeting by animal rights activists because of its dolphin hunt, I found the following tasteful cartoon in the Jiangmen Ribao newspaper.

I can’t read Chinese, but I’m guessing that the dolphin blood splattering all over the Japanese national flag is an indication that the article depicts Japan in a negative light.
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While we’re on the topic of Taiji, here are two links that share some news:

• Link 1: A Chunichi Shimbun article (in Japanese) sadly recalling that one year has passed since the death of Ku, Nagoya Aquarium’s beloved orca. The article says that Ku originally came from the Taiji Aquarium, which means he was probably captured after being driven into the town’s infamous cove.
• Link 2: CBS News and the Associated Press provide some PR for “The Cove” by playing up claims that its director is risking arrest by attending a screening of the film in Japan.

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Last month, Noriko Sakai’s vacation home was tagged by a graffiti artist. Now it has been gutted by fire:

A vacation home of scandal-tainted actress Noriko Sakai and her husband in Katsuura, Chiba Prefecture, was gutted by a fire early Sunday but no one was injured, police said.

Since three fires have been reported in two neighboring cities since Saturday evening, the police said they suspect arson.

The house may have been damaged beyond repair, but it will live on in the archival footage that Japanese news programs will no doubt replay hundreds of times between now and Noriko’s trial.

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A TV Asahi news piece from 2006 about Eddie, an American in Tokyo who dreams of becoming a lawyer in Japan and living in an expensive apartment in the Roppongi Hills complex:

Eddie was living in an old public bath that had been converted into a Sakura House group living space. The wall of his room was covered with Japanese flags (including an imperial chrysanthemum flag) and photos of Aya Ueto (his ideal woman). To prepare for his dream of becoming a lawyer, he was reading weekly tabloid magazines for Japanese language practice.

Eddie, who uploaded this video himself to YouTube, provided the following description:

“When we went to the onsen, they promised me that they would only film me from the waist up, but they turned out to be a bunch of liars as i was practically naked in the first shot of the whole interview. The whole process was really awkward since my Japanese was great and the TV crew spoke no english. I had also just gotten back from America the night before so I was exhausted from jetlag. It is easily my most embarrassing moment (many kids came up to me the next day at school saying they’d seen me naked, and one of my bosses at the law firm I used to work at saw it by chance while in the hospital) So more or less I appeared naked and acting like a total douche clown on the Japanese equivalent of NBC Nightly News. “

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Ever since I’d heard about Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama’s 1988 single “Take HEART – Fly, Dove of Peace,” I’ve been looking for a good copy of it. Here’s a YouTube video containing about a minute of the song:

“I never imagined that there would be a day when this tune would come into the spotlight,” said Teruaki Asanuma, a 65-year-old dentist in the Hokkaido city of Muroran who wrote the song at Hatoyama’s request.

Hatoyama had wanted Asanuma to write a tune featuring a Japanese-dance rhythm, but Asanuma said he recommended a more pop-oriented record reflective of the “urban atmosphere” Hatoyama had created.

Only a short recording session was required, Asanuma recalled, adding that he thought Hatoyama was “quite accustomed to singing.”

The title of the song plays on the similarity in sound between “hato” (dove), the first part of Hatoyama’s surname, and “heart,” according to Asanuma.

“Now I hope he will help to guide everyone to happiness as suggested in the lyrics of the song,” he said.

And here’s a video clip of it being played at a party held by Hatoyama supporters:

Does anybody know where one can find a longer and better quality copy of the song?

Because of its limited release, it’s become a rare collector’s item. One vinyl record recently sold for 35,000 yen in an online auction.

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When Taro Aso stepped down as Prime Minister last week, a small crowd of fans gathered along the street to express their thanks as his motorcade drove by:

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The last Cup Noodle commercial had Takuya Kimura walking through redwood forests. Now he’s in India for a Bollywood-style musical promotion of Cup Noodle’s curry flavor:

The song lyrics consist of Kimutaku repeatedly announcing the existence of corocha curry Cup Noodle. The woman interrupts him to suggest that he say it tastes good, since it is a commercial. Kimutaku replies by expressing supreme confidence in only having to say that it’s corocha curry Cup Noodle.

[Note: The "coro cha" he keeps singing about are little cubes of meat.]

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A really impressive work of shadow puppetry from some Japanese performers:

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An interesting video report looking at a sewage treatment plant in Tokyo, hosted by Stuart, the Australian who was yelling about whales in the TV debate I posted about yesterday:

[found via his YouTube channel]

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The Ueno Royal Museum is currently hosting an exhibition of Chinese government-owned Tibetan artifacts, and “Free Tibet” activists are not happy about it. Here’s a video from a protest held yesterday:

The exhibition, “Tibet: Treasure from the Roof of the World,” has been traveling throughout the world since 2004 and now it has been exhibiting in Japan. This exhibition does not present the accurate modern history and culture of Tibet. Our aim is to let the world know that this exhibition is a collection of stolen treasure that is organized by the Chinese govenment who has been trying to justify the Chinese rule in Tibet.

The activists wanted the exhibit to include information about the Chinese conquest and occupation of Tibet, but their request was rejected. Exhibition committee representative Taisuke Tsurumaki told activists that, “There is no such a thing as ‘Tibetan person.’ There is a Tibetan tribe (in China).”

[via FG]

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