Paper Folding Project: U.S. Presidential Candidates
NYC-based designer Adi Marom, who studied at the University of Tokyo, writes to inform us of a website she has created where users can download PDF templates for paper finger-puppets of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, & John McCain. Users from all around the world, including Japan, have been sending in photos of their completed finger puppets, which Marom uploads to a special Flickr gallery.
Oh, and since I don’t want to make two posts in one day about the U.S. elections, here’s a weird video from Youtuber Undochu showing some people in Obama City, Fukui Prefecture, doing an ‘Obama Dance’ of some sort:
Categories: Politics
Mentally Ill Japanese Man Stabs Author Rupert Sheldrake
BoingBoing has reported that Rupert Sheldrake, a British author famous for his views on human consciousness, was stabbed in the leg the other day while giving a lecture. The dagger was stabbed into Sheldrake’s leg by a mentally ill Japanese man:
My attacker was Japanese, and had arrived from Japan only a few days beforehand. He had spoken to me the day before my lecture, telling me he was hearing voices. He was obviously in distress. I later learned that he had told several other people about the voices, and some had tried to help him.
But no one anticipated that he would turn violent, and neither I, nor anyone else I know of, had any premonition of it. Although the report in USA Today said that he was “disturbed” by my lecture, which was on the extended mind, this was misleading; he was disturbed anyway. In any case, his English was probably too poor to understand much of what I said. The fact that I was speaking in the final session of the conference may have had more to do with it – if he was going to do something spectacular, this was his last chance.
After stabbing me, he was rapidly brought to the floor by an Australian rugby player, and was held down by several men until the police led him away in handcuffs. While on the ground, he apparently said that the voices had told him to attack me. He is now in Santa Fe jail awaiting trial. I feel no anger towards him, but am pleased that he is locked away and unable to harm anyone else.
[Hat tip to VonSkippy]
Categories: General Japan
Japan Asks U.S. Military To Report On AWOL Service Members
The U.S. sailor who killed Japanese taxi driver in Yokosuka was absent without leave when the crime took place last month, so Japanese authorities are now asking the U.S. military to provide them with information on other service members who go AWOL:
Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura told reporters at the Prime Minister’s Official Residence that Tokyo “would like to create a system under which (U.S.) deserters are immediately reported to us.”
Komura said discussions have already begun within the Japan-U.S. Joint Committee and that he expected an agreement on the matter soon.
Currently, the U.S. military is under no obligation to inform Japanese authorities about U.S. personnel who go on unauthorized absence or desert their positions in Japan.
Japanese police learned about the absence of U.S. Navy sailor Olatunbosun Ugbogu only after taxi driver Masaaki Takahashi, 61, was stabbed to death March 19 in a residential area near Yokosuka Naval Base.
Ugbogu went missing from his ship on March 8. U.S. authorities handed him over to Japanese police Thursday in connection with Takahashi’s slaying.
{democracy:202}
Categories: Foreigners in Japan
U.S. Sailor Admits To Killing
The press is reporting that the U.S. sailor suspected of murdering a taxi driver in Yokosuka has made a confession:
A U.S. Navy serviceman has admitted to fatally stabbing a taxi driver on March 19 near the Yokosuka Naval Base and could be handed over to Japanese authorities soon, police sources said Wednesday.
Kanagawa prefectural police plan to obtain an arrest warrant for the 22-year-old sailor, who has been in the custody of the U.S. Navy.
The Navy allowed Japanese investigators to question the sailor, a Nigerian national, at Yokosuka Naval Base on Wednesday morning for the first time.
His confession to Japanese police followed an earlier one made to Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) investigators, the sources said.
The sailor had earlier denied that he killed 61-year-old taxi driver Masaaki Takahashi, although the sailor’s credit card was found on the floor of the slain cabby’s vehicle.
Update: Just saw on N-H-K news that the sailor had tried to pay for the taxi fare with his credit card. The credit card was rejected, which may have led to an argument and the subsequent stabbing of the taxi driver.
Categories: Foreigners in Japan
