| Feb 04 | Japanese city takes on its gangsters |
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| Feb 04 | Cellphone taps resulted in 22 arrests last year |
| Police wiretapped mobile phones in 10 investigations last year and the eavesdropping led to the arrest of 22 people, a Justice Ministry report to the Diet showed Friday. The 10 investigations involved narcotics trafficking, underworld-conspired murder and gun possession, three of the four areas in which courts issue wiretapping warrants. All 22 arrests involved drug-trafficking cases, according to the report. The police obtained warrants for each instance of cellphone-tapping, allowing them to listen to conversations and read text messages. (Japan Times) |
| Feb 03 | Manabu Miyazaki among those opposing anti-yakuza legislation |
| On October 5, the National Police Agency announced a revision to the Anti-Organized Crime Law to be submitted to the ordinary session of the Diet. The initiative follows anti-gang ordinances adopted by all prefectures and administrative divisions last October. In spite of attempting to reduce criminal activities, the moves are not without their critics, reports Nikkan Gendai (Jan. 28). At a January 24 meeting broadcast on video sharing site Niko Niko Douga (see link below), a panel of writers and journalists, including Makoto Sataka, Manabu Miyazaki, Soichiro Tahara, and Takashi Tsujii, voiced displeasure with the measures, which are intended to discourage ordinary citizens from fostering the activities of yakuza groups. Since its institution in October, the prefectural legislation has been called "overkill," with critics calling it a violation of basic human rights. (Tokyo Reporter) |
| Feb 03 | Japanese archaeologists find pottery with ogre's face |
| A team of Japanese archaeologists has found a piece of pottery painted with the face of ogre which dates back to the 12th century in Nara Prefecture in western Japan. The earthenware was excavated from a well built in the early 12th century at Shindo Remains in Kashihara City, Nara Prefecture, where once Japan's capital was located, Japan's Nippon Hoso Kyokai (NHK) public broadcaster reported Friday. The excavation team said that the pottery is round shape with about 10 centimeters in diameter, noting that a face of ogre was drawn on its surface in ink. In particular, the team stressed, bold lines are clearly shown for his eyes, eyebrows and tusks from his mouth, making the face quite humorous and impressive. (People's Daily) |
| Feb 03 | Retired police chief, 74, arrested after paying two 16-year-old girls for sex |
| A 74-year-old retired police chief has been arrested on suspicion of paying two 16-year-old girls for sex in Sapporo, a Hokkaido police spokesman said Thursday. Keiji Kato, who retired 15 years ago from the Hokkaido force, was arrested Wednesday for allegedly paying ¥6,000 each to the two high school girls to engage in sexual acts simultaneously in a Sapporo hotel Nov. 19 in violation of the law banning child prostitution, the spokesman said. Kato, who lives in Sapporo, also allegedly paid one of the two girls for sex at another hotel in the city on Dec. 3, the spokesman said. The police quoted Kato as saying, "I didn't know they were minors." (Japan Times) |
| Feb 03 | Psych test for teen stabbing suspect |
| A 17-year-old boy arrested on suspicion of stabbing two girls in Saitama and Chiba prefectures will undergo a psychiatric examination after telling police he wanted to kill a person because killing animals wasn't satisfying, according to prosecutors. The Saitama District Public Prosecutor's Office wants to determine the boy's state of mind at the time of the stabbings and whether he is mentally competent. The tests will be conducted through May 7, the prosecutors said. The boy was arrested Dec. 5 and sent to prosecutors following the stabbing of a 15-year-old girl in Misato, Saitama Prefecture, on Nov. 18 and an 8-year-old girl in Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture, on Dec. 1. (Japan Times) |
| Feb 03 | Top court nixes Monju suicide suit |
| The Supreme Court has rejected a damages suit filed by the family of an official who committed suicide in 1996 after being involved in a partial coverup of a coolant leak at the Monju prototype fast-breeder reactor in Fukui Prefecture, according to judicial sources. In its decision made Tuesday, the Supreme Court upheld rulings in lower courts that found the now-defunct Power Reactor and Nuclear Fuel Development Corp. could not predict the suicide of the 49-year-old deputy administration department chief, the sources said. (Japan Times) |
| Feb 03 | 500 vehicles stranded by snow in Aomori Pref. |
 More than 500 vehicles were stranded on a section of National Highway Route 279 in Yokohama, Aomori Prefecture, on Wednesday night after a large truck and a bus skidded and became stuck on the road due to a blizzard, according to police.
Early Thursday, Aomori Gov. Shingo Mimura asked the head of the Marine Self-Defense Force's Ominato District Headquarters to send a disaster relief team to the town.
According to the Aomori prefectural government, 250 drivers caught in the gridlock abandoned their vehicles and spent the night at eight public facilities nearby, including an assembly hall and a primary school, opened as temporary shelters by the Yokohama town government and the neighboring city of Mutsu. (Yomiuri  ) |
| Feb 02 | Snow paralyzes northern Japan; 3 die in avalanche |
 An avalanche has killed three bathers at a hot spring in northern Japan, where heavy snow also has paralyzed traffic and forced schools to close.
The deadly avalanche hit Thursday in Akita.
Officials say snowstorms have battered coastal cities along the Sea of Japan and large parts of northern Japan since late last year. Some areas have received more than twice as much snow as normal.
The snow has played a role in 56 deaths, and more than 750 injuries, since November. Most of those killed fell from rooftops while shoveling snow. (AP ) |
| Feb 02 | Democratic Party of Japan's Yasuko Komiyama loses civil suit in lottery-ticket scam |
| On January 12, the Tokyo District Court ruled against Democratic Party of Japan diet member Yasuko Komiyama in a lottery-ticket fraud scheme masterminded by her brother, reports Shukan Asahi Geino (Feb. 2). The ruling requires the 46-year-old lawmaker and the other defendants, including her brother, Kenji Hashimoto, 41, her mother, and lottery-ticket sales firm New Lottery Service, to pay 15 million yen and accrued interest over a five-year period to the victim. In June 2010, Hashimoto, was arrested for allegedly defrauding the 45-year-old plaintiff, a resident of Tokyo, out of 4 million yen in a fictitious transfer of rights to lottery-ticket sales booths. Hashimoto is still on trial. (Tokyo Reporter) |
| Feb 02 | The games that changed Japan |
 The first arcades in Japan weren't video arcades, and they weren't even in game centres. In the decades following the second world war, gamers played electro-magnetic games in bowling alleys and on department store rooftops. Families would take shopping breaks, playing carnival-style shooting games or riding rinky-dink kiddy trains. Gradually, early analogue arcade games began popping up - driving games in which the road was on a rotating belt, and players had to steer a small car through obstacles. Companies like Namco and Sega started joining in, releasing magnet-powered cabinets that were the forerunners of the modern arcade game.
In 1978, everything changed as Space Invaders enthralled the country - and the rest of the western world - spawning a slew of arcades and players dedicated solely to the new game. The game's release came just as Star Wars was hitting Japanese cinemas - and the timing could not have been better. (guardian.co.uk) |
| Feb 02 | Privacy and Net cafes - a tale of two cities |
| Kazushi Takahashi, a 22-year-old student in Tokyo, likes the privacy provided by closed individual rooms in Internet cafes, where he can surf the Web, play online games and read manga. "I wouldn't be able to relax if people peek in a room I am in," he said. What Takahashi doesn't know is that since last April people like him in Osaka and a few other prefectures don't have the privacy he enjoys in Tokyo's Internet cafes. Privacy is out of reach for Osaka Internet cafe fans because operators had to make the rooms viewable from the outside, for example by changing door materials from wood to transparent acrylic or altering the doors so they can't be closed. (Japan Times) |
| Feb 02 | Hamamatsu new 'gyoza' capital |
 Boasting dozens of restaurants and shops and the highest household consumption rate of "gyoza," Utsunomiya, the capital of Tochigi Prefecture, has long been regarded as the capital of the Chinese dumpling as well.
News photo
Pot stickers: "Gyoza" dumplings are arranged for a photo Wednesday at a restaurant in Minato Ward, Tokyo. YOSHIAKI MIURA
But no longer.
For the first time in 16 years, the city lost its No. 1 ranking in gyoza consumption, beaten out by Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, according to a recent survey of household spending released Tuesday by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.
Last year, Utsunomiya households spent on average just ¥3,737 on the dumplings, down 40 percent from a record high ¥6,133 in 2010. Meanwhile, households in Hamamatsu spent ¥4,313, down 10 percent from ¥4,754 in 2010.
(Japan Times ) |
| Feb 02 | Darvish's brother guilty of assault |
 The Osaka District Court on Wednesday sentenced the younger brother of new Texas Rangers pitcher Yu Darvish to a suspended one-year prison term for assaulting a female friend.
Sho Darvish, 22, repeatedly slapped the woman in the face and tried to choke her Jan. 25 last year in Kawachinagano, Osaka Prefecture, the court said.
Presiding Judge Hidetake Koga said the defendant assaulted the woman after becoming angry over her association with some of her friends. "The attack was persistent and malicious," he said. (Japan Times ) |
| Feb 01 | Japanese emperor to undergo heart test |
 Japan's ageing Emperor Akihito is to undergo another heart exam next week, a palace official said Wednesday, amid increasing worries about the monarch's health.
The angiogram of his coronary arteries, scheduled for February 11, comes after Akihito's electrocardiogram showed a restricted blood flow to his heart.
The 78-year-old emperor went through the same test a year ago at the University of Tokyo hospital, which found his arteries were narrowing, leading to his being placed on medication, according to the palace official.
In November, Akihito was hospitalised for 19 days for mild pneumonia. (mysinchew.com ) |
| Feb 01 | Hello Kitty's citizenship controversy: Is she British or Japanese? |
 Hello Kitty is beloved all around the world, but nowhere is she more revered, celebrated, and protected than in Japan. In fact, she was named Tourism Ambassador to China and Hong Kong by Japan's tourism ministry in 2008. However, the Atlantic Wire reports, the publication of Hello Kitty's Guide to Japan in English and Japanese has been stirring up a bit of drama, bringing Kitty's nationality and essentially her entire history in question.
Her official biography on the Sanrio website explains that she lives in London with her parents and twin sister, Mimmy. We are given her birth date, but it's unclear whether she was born in London or just moved there at some point in time.
(Time) |
| Feb 01 | Writer talks of 'underground reality' of Japan's foreigners in new book |
| The myth that Japan is a homogenous society lost its veracity long ago. With the growth of globalization, the sight of foreigners living and working in Japan is certainly no longer a rare occurrence. However, how much do we know about the real lives of Japan's foreigners? This is the question that Kota Ishii, a spirited non-fiction writer, raises in his new book, "Nippon ikoku kiko -- zainichi gaikokujin no kane, seiai, shi" (Journey through foreign Japan: The money, love, sex and death of foreigners in Japan). The book introduces a South Korean who has conquered the Japanese sex industry by undercutting prices; an Israeli man with an expired visa who pays a Japanese woman to marry him to obtain Japanese nationality; Chinese who flee from the country after obtaining citizenship, and many other examples that portray the reality of "underground" foreign communities in Japan. (Mainichi) |
| Feb 01 | Mother held in daughter's slaying |
| A 37-year-old woman has been arrested on suspicion of stabbing her 12-year-old daughter to death at their home in Higashiosaka, Osaka Prefecture, police said. The slaying occurred Monday after the police had warned a local child counseling center Friday that the mother may have been neglecting her three children. The woman, whose name is being withheld pending investigation of her mental status, claimed her daughter had "stabbed herself," the police said. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 31 | Japan population to shrink by one-third by 2060 |
 Japan's population of 128 million will shrink by one-third and seniors will account for 40 percent of people by 2060, placing a greater burden on a smaller working-age population to support the social security and tax systems.
The grim estimate of how rapid aging will shrink Japan's population was released Monday by the Health and Welfare Ministry.
In year 2060, Japan will have 87 million people. The number of people 65 or older will nearly double to 40 percent, while the national work force of people between ages 15 and 65 will shrink to about half of the total population, according to the estimate, made by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research. (AP ) |
| Jan 30 | Tokyo cops seize uncensored 3D porn DVDs in Internet-sale crackdown |
| Tokyo Metropolitan Police officers on Saturday raided an apartment building in Nerima Ward being used for the sale of uncensored adult video DVDs, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Jan. 30). Officers from the TMD's peace preservation division took Yuji Takada, 40, and Koji Koike, 37, into custody for selling uncensored DVDs through three Web sites, including Ero Step and seized approximately 60,000 discs, 21 of which were 3D Blu-ray discs. The Mainichi Shimbun calls the confiscation of such Blu-ray discs to be a nationwide first. (Tokyo Reporter) |
| Jan 30 | Fukushima pets in no-go zone face harsh winter |
 Dogs and cats that were abandoned in the Fukushima exclusion zone after last year's nuclear crisis have had to survive high radiation and a lack of food, and they are now struggling with the region's freezing winter weather.
"If left alone, tens of them will die everyday. Unlike well-fed animals that can keep themselves warm with their own body fat, starving ones will just shrivel up and die," said Yasunori Hoso, who runs a shelter for about 350 dogs and cats rescued from the 20-km evacuation zone around the crippled nuclear plant.
The government let animal welfare groups enter the evacuation zone temporarily in December to rescue surviving pets before the severe winter weather set in, but Hoso said there were still many more dogs and cats left in the area. (Reuters ) |
| Jan 30 | Shotgun swiped with car in Chiba |
| A car with a loaded shotgun and a box with about 40 shells was stolen early Sunday morning in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture, police said the same day. A 67-year-old man phoned police around 4:40 a.m. to report that both his car and the shotgun were missing. Police said the man, a registered hunter, put the shotgun and ammunition in the car at around 10 p.m. on Saturday in preparation for a hunting trip. He covered the gun with a cloth and locked the car before returning to his house. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 30 | Air Force sergeant pleads guilty in murder |
| A U.S. airman in Japan pleaded guilty Monday to plotting with the wife of a service member to kill her husband and then slitting the man's throat. U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Nicholas Cron, 26, of the 733rd Air Mobility Squadron at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy to commit murder, premeditated murder and obstruction of justice in the 2011 death of Tech. Sgt. Curtis Eccleston, 30, Stars and Stripes reported. The plea came during the opening day of Cron's court-martial in the fatal stabbing, which occurred in an off-base apartment. (UPI) |
| Jan 29 | Quake efforts blamed for rise in snow mishaps |
| This winter's heavier snowfall has seen more than 500 people across seven prefectures die or become injured in snow-related accidents, including cases in which they had been trying to remove snow, it has been learned. People are trying to remove snow themselves using shovels and other tools because of delays in municipal-led snow removal. The delays have been caused by a shortage of dump trucks--many of which are being used in areas affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake for reconstruction work--to transport snow. According to data compiled by the Akita, Aomori, Ishikawa, Nagano, Niigata, Toyama and Yamagata prefectural governments, the death toll from such snow-related accidents had reached 31 as of Wednesday, while 479 people had sustained injuries. In Nagaoka City, Niigata Prefecture, 10 workers fell at a construction site while clearing snow on Thursday, six of them sustaining injuries. (Yomiuri) |
| Jan 29 | Talent agency's charity to provide billions for pandas |
| A charity established by a talent agency to support reconstruction in the northeast expects to shoulder several billion yen of the cost of leasing giant pandas from China for a zoo in Sendai. Singer Masahiko Kondo, 47, who represents the Marching J charity set up by Johnny & Associates Inc., said it will cover the expenses estimated for the initial five-year period. "We want to bring back smiles to as many children as possible," Kondo said. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has expressed a willingness to lease two giant pandas to the Sendai zoo in an effort to brighten the lives of children in Tohoku. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 29 | Kawauchi govt heading home / Village 1st to return among those forced out by Fukushima N-crisis |
| The government of a village forced to relocate due to the Fukushima nuclear crisis will return to the village in April, it has been learned, a move it hopes also will encourage residents to come back. The village of Kawauchi in Fukushima Prefecture will be the first of the nine town and village governments that evacuated their offices to return to its original municipality. The village functions were moved to Koriyama City in the prefecture because a section of Kawauchi fell inside the government-designated no-entry zone around the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant, and the rest was named an emergency evacuation preparation area. (Yomiuri) |
| Jan 28 | 1 killed, 21 injured in vehicle collision in SW Japan |
 One person was killed and 21 others were injured in a collision involving a truck of Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force and a tourist bus Saturday morning in Kumamato Prefecture in southwestern Japan, local press reported.
The accident occurred at around 8:35 a.m. local time when the truck and the bus carrying some 40 passengers collided inside a tunnel on the Kyushu Expressway near the city of Yatsushiro, the report said, adding that a 39-year-old tour conductor on the bus was killed and 21 passengers were injured, one of them seriously..
The accident happened when the GSDF truck changed lanes and hit the bus which was in the overtaking lane. (CRIENGLISH.com ) |
| Jan 28 | Eagles' star pitcher to wed celebrity |
| Rakuten Eagles pitcher Masahiro Tanaka is set to tie the knot with TV celebrity and singer Mai Satoda. The Sendai-based baseball team announced Thursday that 23-year-old Tanaka and Satoda, 27, plan to submit marriage papers in late March before the professional baseball season starts. "I would like to excel in my career so that my most important person can live her life in comfort and smiles," Tanaka, who won the 2011 Sawamura Award for outstanding pitching, said. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 27 | Chinese man charged for Japan embassy attack in S Korea |
 Prosecutors in South Korea have charged a Chinese man with attempted arson for hurling Molotov cocktails at the Japanese embassy in Seoul.
The 38-year-old from Guangzhou in southern China was identified only by his family name, Liu.
He told officials that his grandmother was forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese army during World War II.
He allegedly threw four petrol bombs that left burn marks on the embassy's outer wall earlier this month.
According to South Korean media, he has been in police custody since 8 January.
He reportedly entered South Korea on a tourist visa on 26 December 2011 via Japan. He also claimed to be responsible for an arson attack at the Yasukuni shrine last month. (BBC ) |
| Jan 27 | Chinese hooker club busted in Shibuya |
| Tokyo Metropolitan Police on Tuesday arrested the manager and three employees of a club in the Shibuya entertainment area for violating the Anti-Prostitution Law, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Jan. 27). Officers from the peace preservation division of the TMD took club manager Hiraki Sasaki, 63, into custody for offering customers sexual services from Chinese women inside a one-room apartment split into four sections by curtains. TV Asahi reports that Sasaki has denied the allegations. "This is not prostitution," said the suspect, who relied on a 29-year-old street tout to solicit customers. (Tokyo Reporter) |
| Jan 27 | Nishi Azabu celebrity playpen target of Tokyo police gang probe |
| Coinciding with the enactment of anti-organized crime legislation last year, Tokyo Metropolitan Police have been focusing multiple investigations on a lavish club in upscale Nishi Azabu frequented by show biz personalities, reports Shukan Post (Feb. 3). The club is owned by the former president of a real estate company that went bankrupt with liabilities of 10 billion yen. He has been arrested for tax evasion, and the club seized. The Tokyo District Court ruled that the property is to be put up for auction. "The club as well as the owner's residence are inside the same apartment building," a person involved in the investigation tells the tabloid. "There are nine apartments in the building, and eight are intended for auction. After the ruling, a friend of the owner filed a preliminary claim for ownership of the other unit. So it has become impossible to auction the whole building." (Tokyo Reporter) |
| Jan 27 | Fukushima's animals abandoned and left to die |
When you stand in the center of Japan's exclusion zone, there is absolute silence. The exclusion zone is the 20-kilometer (12-mile) radius around the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, an area of high radiation contamination.
On March 12, the day after the quake and tsunami hit, 78,000 people were evacuated out of this area, believing they would return within a few days. As such, thousands of people left with their dogs tied up in the backyard, cats in their houses and livestock penned in barns.
Nearly a year later, animal carcasses litter the region.
Cows and pigs starved to death, their bones still in pens. Dogs dropped dead with disease. A cat skull sits on a neighborhood road.
This is perhaps an inevitable outcome to a nuclear emergency, but animal rights activists call it an outrage. (CNN) |
| Jan 27 | Japanese man fakes own death with brother's body |
| A Japanese man managed to fake his own death by claiming his late brother's body was his own, according to police. Even while Tsukasa Oizumi's older sibling was alive, he used to use his driving licence to get around the fact that his own had been revoked for repeated traffic offences, according to Japan's Mainichi daily. When the brother fell ill and died aged 56 in 2008 Mr Oizumi decided to take over his identity completely. He told authorities that the corpse was his own, and even the doctor who dealt with the brother's demise did not suspect anything, according to the Asahi Shimbun newspaper. The body was cremated, as is normal in Japan. Mr Oizumi, now 58, went on to claim social security benefits in his brother's name for caring for their elderly mother at home, it added. (telegraph.co.uk) |
| Jan 27 | Doctor, wife jailed for buying illegally harvested kidney |
 A Tokyo doctor was sentenced Thursday to three years in prison for purchasing an illegally harvested kidney, and his wife was jailed for 30 months over her involvement.
The Tokyo District Court found Toshinobu Horiuchi, 56, and his 48-year-old wife, Noriko, guilty of purchasing the kidney in violation of the organ transplant law.
The court said Horiuchi, facing kidney failure, in July 2010 paid ¥8 million to an intermediary in exchange for a kidney from a 21-year-old unemployed ma, whom the doctor technically adopted to ensure the transplant met the legal criteria of being among relatives. (Japan Times ) |
| Jan 26 | Hot springs stay turns into Cupid default swap |
| "My boyfriend and his close buddy Kazuo, and Kazuo's girlfriend and I made plans to take a trip to a hot springs. But when I got out of the bath, Kazuo made a grab for me. This may seem unbelievable, but it seems the two guys conspired right from the get-go to swap partners. I thought that was really a sordid thing to do." Thus begins the latest escapade in feminist erotic fantasies, excerpted from the women's magazine Ai no Taiken Special Deluxe, as introduced in Shukan Bunshun (Jan. 26). "But as he began groping me..." (Tokyo Reporter) |
| Jan 26 | U.S. may extradite drug suspect / Case of American wanted in Kanagawa Pref. would be a legal milestone |
| A U.S. district court ruled in spring last year that a 30-year-old American former serviceman for whom the Kanagawa prefectural police have an arrest warrant for trafficking drugs must be extradited to Japan based on a treaty between the two countries, it has been learned. The extradition has not yet been carried out because defense lawyers for the former serviceman, who was stationed at the U.S. military base in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, filed an appeal against the ruling by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida. If the appeal is rejected, his case would be the first in which a U.S. citizen has been handed over to Japan in line with the Treaty on Extradition between Japan and the United States, sources said. (Yomiuri) |
| Jan 26 | Shibuya style with an Akihabara twist? |
 Shibuya-kei was one of the defining features of the music and fashion scenes of the 1990s, and it helped spawn the idea of "Cool Japan."
The genre's sound was eclectic and openly embraced Western musical influences such as '60s lounge music, bossa nova, French pop and British guitar-pop, then coupled that mix with dance-music tenets and sampling technology. Flag-bearers for the movement include Pizzicato Five, Fantastic Plastic Machine and Flipper's Guitar.
Shibuya-kei also represented a rare conjunction of commercial and artistic success, with independent artists having a real impact on mainstream music. In fact, some of these acts arguably set the scene for a flirtation between major Japanese labels and indie musicians that saw new-wave revivalists like Polysics sign to Sony and U.K.- U.S.-rock-influenced groups like Supercar and Number Girl define the subsequent decade in Japanese alternative music. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 26 | Cooking becomes popular among male retirees |
| Men from the generation that worked hard to turn Japan into an economic powerhouse are increasingly turning to cooking classes as a retirement activity, even though housework was considered strictly women's work back in their day. Some male retirees sign up for cooking classes to maintain social contact, while others simply want to prepare meals for their families - something they lacked the time to do during their workaholic lives. At a cooking class held for men only in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo, one recent weekday morning, most of the 23 participants were retirees. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 25 | Tokyo cops seize 100,000 uncensored porn DVDs in Kabukicho raid |
| Tokyo Metropolitan Police officers on Sunday raided three shops for the sale of uncensored adult video DVDs inside a building in the Kabukicho entertainment district, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Jan. 24). Officers from the TMD's peace preservation division took six employees (including, according to TV Asahi, 44-year-old manager Taro Takimoto) into custody during a search of three stores and two warehouses involved in the sale of uncensored and electromagnetically copied DVDs. Officers also seized approximately 100,800 discs and nine copying machines. (Tokyo Reporter) |
| Jan 25 | The beginner's guide to Japanese drama |
 Often the key that opens the door to otaku culture is anime. Anime is a pervasive medium, and even those outside the fandom of Japanese culture and media can recognize the hallmarks of anime at fan conventions - DragonBall Z or Bleach costumes are ever-present. (We saw a cute InuYasha at last year's Dragon*Con. His brother Sesshomaru was also milling about.)
Some fans remain firmly rooted in their love of anime for years. But more and more in America, otakus are discovering a form of Japanese television because of its sheer wackiness and anime-like humor. It's called J-drama (Japanese drama,) and it inspires obsessive dedication.
J-dramas are daily or weekly broadcasts that make up a great deal of Japanese television programming. These are comparable to sitcoms and dramas that run in America, but they have their own distinct flavor. J-drama incorporates many different genres, from medical dramas to romantic dramas, and frequently feature Japan's most prominent stars in key roles. (CNN ) |
| Jan 25 | Tokyo wakes up to snow, traffic snarl |
 Snow fell in and around Tokyo from Monday night through early Tuesday and stuck for the first time this season, disrupting rail and road traffic and causing people to injure themselves in falls.
As of 10 a.m., 53 people had been taken to hospitals by ambulance in Tokyo, the fire department said.
East Japan Railway Co. temporarily suspended some services on the Hachiko Line linking Hachioji in western Tokyo with the city of Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture, as ice-covered wires failed to transmit electricity to trains at Hachioji Station.
Trains on the Togane Line in Chiba Prefecture came to a halt due to pantograph problems, while those on the Keiyo Line that links the Tokyo terminal station with the city of Chiba were suspended due to switch point troubles at a rail yard in Chiba. (Japan Times ) |
| Jan 24 | Hostess club managers, gang members arrested in prostitution of Thai female in Gunma |
| Tokyo Metropolitan Police announced on Monday the arrest of the managers of a hostess club and two members of the Matsuba-kai organized crime group for the alleged prostitution of a Thai female in the Ikaho hot springs area of Gunma Prefecture, reports the Sankei Shimbun (Jan. 23). Kenichi Ando, 31, and his wife, both managers of bar Snack Yume, located in Shibukawa City, and gang members Jiro Sato, 43, and Toshio Onosato, 33, were taken into custody by officers from the peace preservation division of the TMD for violating the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act regarding the employment of a Thai female. (Tokyo Reporter) |
| Jan 24 | Is this Japan's favourite western cosplayer? Maybe! |
 Whenever Japanese bulletin boards discover bad Western cosplay, forum users begin piling on the bad cosplay photos, saying foreigners just cannot cosplay. (This is incorrect.) But then, inevitably, somebody usually pulls out a Maridah photo, pointing out that some of the best cosplay ever is not Japanese.
Who's Maridah? She just might be Japan's favourite Western cosplayer.
While she's not yet a "name" cosplayer in Japan yet like Ushijima Good Meat, California-based Maridah is so popular in Japan perhaps because she specialises in the character Saber from the Fate/stay series. It's not a character widely known in the West, and the attention she lavishes on Saber makes Maridah unusual. It also doesn't hurt that she is Saber's spitting image. (Kotaku ) |
| Jan 24 | Brothers reunited in Japan after 6 decades apart |
 They no longer speak the same language, but two brothers separated nearly 60 years each think the other hasn't changed a bit.
Japanese-American Minoru Ohye celebrate his 86th birthday Monday with his only brother after traveling to Japan for a reunion with him.
The brothers were born in Sacramento, California, but were separated as children after their father died in a fishing accident. They were sent to live with relatives in Japan and ended up in different homes.
The reunited brothers hugged in a hotel room and exchanged gifts of California chocolate and Japanese sake. The American brother wore his trademark baseball cap and jeans. The Japanese bother wore a suit and tie.
But the same bright eyes and square jaws were a dead giveaway that they were brothers. They both loved golf and had back pains. They thought the other hadn't changed a bit. (AP) |
| Jan 24 | Base worker admits traffic death guilt |
| A civilian employee of the U.S. Air Force in Okinawa indicted over a fatal vehicle collision last January pleaded guilty Monday at the opening of his trial, which is a first under a new bilateral arrangement on the handling of personnel at U.S. bases. The Naha District Public Prosecutor's Office indicted Rufus James Ramsey III in November after the United States and Japan agreed to change the operational implementation of the Status of Forces Agreement, which governs the handling of U.S. service personnel in Japan, to conditionally grant Japan jurisdiction over crimes involving nonmilitary personnel at U.S. bases. (Japan Times) |
| Jan 23 | Japanese filmmakers tackle the 3/11 tragedy |
 "If one was to be poisoned by radiation, if he or she did so out of their own will and conviction I believe it to be perfectly fine. But you can't force that onto the children. The children, you must distance them from the poisoned areas."
So says Koide Hiroaki, Associate Professor at Kyoto University's Nuclear Test Facility and a prominent anti-nuclear campaigner, in the documentary Friends After 3.11, which will have its international premiere at next month's Berlin International Film Festival.
Also being unveiled at the festival are two other Japanese films dealing with the March 11, 2011 meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power station and ensuing tsunami.
Funahashi Atsushi's Nuclear Nation: The Fukushima Refugees Story, will have its world premiere in Berlin. Produced by Documentary Japan, it's described as a portrait of a mayor without a town who tries desperately to keep together a community scattered across various emergency shelters in the Tokyo suburbs. In the process, he questions old certainties. (sbs.com.au) |
| Jan 23 | Kanae Kijima enters Saitama court for 'black widow' murder trial |
| "I know this sounds rude but my son (Yoshiyuki Oide) said it's acceptable because you can get fed up with a beautiful lady in three days but you can also get used to an ugly one in three days." The mother was referring to her son's relationship with Kanae Kijima, 37, who, reports weekly tabloid Shukan Jitsuwa (Feb. 2), is on trial at Saitama District Court for the murder of three men she met through matchmaking sites, including Oide. The body of Oide, a 41-year-old company employee from Tokyo's Chiyoda Ward, and a charcoal burner were discovered inside a rented car in Fujimi, Saitama Prefecture on August 6, 2009. (Tokyo Reporter) |
| Jan 23 | China, Japan celebrate Lunar New Year |
 Celebrations rang out in Beijing and Tokyo on Sunday night to mark the start of the lunar new year.
In Beijing, fireworks exploded into the sky to celebrate the year of the dragon, which begins on Monday.
The dragon is believed to be a powerful, mythical creature that symbolises good luck in many Asian countries.
"I'm so happy to see in the New Year this way. It's so much fun to set off fireworks with friends and family. I feel so happy to see the explosions, and I don't have a care in the world," said local resident, Anna Du.
Traditionally, fireworks are believed to have been first set off to scare off a man-eating monster, and they have now become an indispensable feature of the nationwide celebrations. (citytv.com ) |
| Jan 23 | Rightist rams car into SDP's head office |
 A 41-year-old man was arrested Sunday morning for ramming his car several times into the shuttered entrance of the headquarters of the Social Democratic Party in Tokyo, police said.
Takuya Ueno, who says he is a rightist, was apprehended on the spot by police officers alerted by a guard. No one was injured.
Investigators quoted the man as saying he would explain his motives later.
The small opposition party supports the Constitution's pacifist stance and opposes nuclear power.
(Japan Times ) |
| Jan 22 | Ginza blues: Sister, can you spare a hostess? |
| "Tonight we're having a shinnen-kai (first party of the New Year), and we haven't got enough gals to go around. Would you mind lending us Rei-chan and Tomo-chan?" "Tonight is quiet here, so no problem. Tell you what: take three and I'll send them over." The above exchange, relates Shukan Shincho (Jan. 26), took place not long ago between two bar "mamas" while getting their hair done at a beauty salon in Ginza 7-chome. Business at the clubs slumped badly following last March's earthquake and tsunami. To deal with any shortfalls, the mamas have come up with a system of hostess rental. (Tokyo Reporter) |