Random Japan

HOLY SMOKES!

White ash and steam could be seen spewing from the sea when an underwater volcano known as Fukutokuoka no Ba erupted just north of Iwo Jima.

In Hiroshima, the municipal government announced plans to re-examine the effects of the radioactive “black rain” that fell on the city after the atomic bombing in 1945.

Over 240 babies took part in a traditional “crying sumo” tournament at a temple in Nagasaki. The little gaffers faced off two at a time, and the first one to bawl was declared the winner.

A 25-year-old unemployed man in Kanagawa Prefecture is in hot water-both with the cops and on the home front-after falsely claiming that he’d been mugged and robbed of over ¥400,000. He didn’t want his wife to find out that he had no money or job.

Believe it or not, police sent nearly 40 cop cars and 140 officers to track down the culprits in the alleged robbery mentioned above, perhaps because the bogus victim said the muggers were “two foreign-looking men.”

Eleven-year-old elementary school student Rina Fujisawa recently passed a qualifying exam to become the youngest-ever professional Go player.

STATS

85.6

Percent of Japanese who favor the death penalty, according to a Cabinet Office survey

10,000

Rough number of high school students in Japan without health insurance as of last September, according to the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare

1,981

International patent applications filed by Panasonic in 2009, the most by any company, according to the World Intellectual Property Organization

¥1.64 billion

Value of total assets of Japan PM Yukio Hatoyama, according to calculations by The Asahi Shimbun

HELL’S KITCHEN

It was revealed that Kanae Kijima, a 35-year-old woman arrested for murder and marriage scams, used her cooking abilities to lure potential victims, often referring them to her online cooking blog, “Kanae’s Kitchen.”

Land Minister Seiji Maehara revealed in a public service message on suicide prevention that his father took his own life when Maehara was in junior high school. “It took me 33 years before I could talk about his death,” he said.

A Waseda University professor found documents revealing that US forces ordered the censorship of mail sent to 21 people involved with World War II real-life house of horrors Unit 731.

In Nara, a hospital director and a doctor were arrested for professional negligence over a 2006 liver operation that resulted in the death of the 51-year-old patient.

A private detective hired by a man to seduce his wife as part of a “couple-busting” scheme was awaiting sentencing after falling in love with the woman, then strangling her to death when she dumped him upon discovering his shady ways.

A high school in Sendai waited four days before letting police know that a Chinese student had stabbed another student at one of its dormitories. The stabber, who was charged with attempted murder, claimed he wasn’t really trying to kill the guy, telling cops, “I didn’t go as far as to think it would be OK if he died.”

Carry A Bullet  

Go To Jail  

The Bicycle  

A Partner In Crime

Lawyers

Put Em All In Jail

Japanese women go gaga over Buddha boys

TOKYO

By Patrick W Galbraith

Next time your girlfriend wants to go see a statue of Buddha, be aware that she might have an ideal man on her mind. No, not you. Buddha.

The Japanese media is famous for creating categories to describe people and trends, like “soshoku danshi” (herbivore boys), who are more interested in hobbies than the opposite sex. Now, we have the “bosatsu danshi,” or Buddha boy.

The Buddha boy is not about loving the belly. Literally, a “bosatsu” is a Bodhisattva, or enlightened being, which in statuary form are often rather thin and intense-looking. A “bosatsu danshi” likewise “has a beautiful face, smooth skin, slim body, but is not too feminine. Theirs is an attractiveness and sensuality beyond mere sex and age.”

That description is from the Jan 20 issue of women’s magazine An-an, which provides real-life Buddha boy examples – actors Masaya Kikawada, Go Ayano and Yoshihiko Hosoda.

The trend has become a boon for “bosatsu” statues and the museums displaying them. This is part of a larger fad, too. Jun Miura, the man credited with coining the phrase “my boom” in Japanese, is also known for striking up new interest in “bosatsu,” particularly the god of chaos known as Ashura.

Bureaucratic wrangling still a way of life despite Hatoyama efforts



 

Power plant construction in Japan is subject to a special assessment procedure under the Electric Utilities Industry Law, apart from the usual Environmental Impact Assessments. This allows the involvement of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), which oversees the electric utilities industry, in the authorization of plant construction. Of the 13 industries subject to assessment, this is an exception given only to power plants.

The Hatoyama Cabinet is currently pushing forth with plans to revise the Environmental Impact Assessment Law, with the goal of implementing stricter assessment regulations on large scale development projects such as roads and power plants. The special treatment given to power plants, however, is expected to remain in place.