Random Japan

Enough of that

In response to the knifing rampage in Akihabara that left seven people dead and 10 others injured, game-maker Konami canceled a launch event for Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriot, which features “a grizzled commando who shoots and stabs his way through enemy lines.”

The Japan Patent Office will distribute a handbook to local governments and companies after it was revealed that the names of 19 of the country’s 47 prefectures have been registered as trademarks-in China.

A 38-year-old member of the Matsuba-kai yakuza organization who was gunned down on a street in Adachi-ku was also found to have been stabbed twice.

Doctors in Chiba removed a softball-size towel from a 49-year-old man’s stomach that had been left there in an operation 25 years before.

STATS

0.02

Percentage increase in Japan’s fertility rate in 2007, according to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry

¥3 million

Yearly tuition at Rote H, a new Tokyo cram school that “prepares high school students for entry into Harvard University”

2

Number of students enrolled at the school

¥171.9

Average price of a liter of gasoline in early June-the first time in history that the figure has topped ¥170, according to watchdog group Oil Information Center

95,000

Cartons of milk intended for public schools in Chiba whose expiration date was misprinted, forcing a recall

Official business

A 38-year-old Aichi Prefectural Government employee who was arrested for paying ¥5,000 to two 17-year-old girls to “perform indecent acts on them in a car” said, “I didn’t realize they were under 18.”

A 56-year-old former director of the Japan Figure Skating Instructor Association who was arrested for raping one of his 13-year-old skaters said, “I was drunk and don’t remember it.”

A 46-year-old CPA in Saitama was arrested for paying a 17-year-old girl ¥50,000 to-you guessed it-perform indecent acts on him.

The 72-year-old former head of the Tsuzuki Gakuen educational group was given a three-year suspended sentence for indecent assault for groping two female subordinates. One of the incidents lasted 20 minutes.

Gangsters Need Welfare Too

If you don’t pay me. I’ll scare you

Education Supervisor Doesn’t Need Facts

It didn’t happen because I say so

WaiWai is Dead

What is a person to do without WaiWai

Hey Isn’t That Your Wife?

Yes, and she isn’t wearing much

Dogman Doesn’t Take a Bite Out of Crime

The fish were hungry

It Came From Japan

Only the brave may look