Tag: Japan

ALL BETS ARE ON

Japan led all countries in the total amount of money bet on horse racing in 2008, with just under ¥2 trillion wagered on the ponies. Britain was second, according to a study produced for the British Horseracing Authority by the Sports Business Group at Deloitte.

A British man who used a computer program to win ¥16 billion betting on horse races in Japan fled the country and dodged a huge tax bill. Former colleagues told the tax authorities that the man, who was president of a data analyzing company called UPRO, is now dead.

Japan Times sports editor Jack Gallagher took the gloves off when writing about Tokyo’s failed bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. Among the comments directed at Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara was this gem: “Putting a narcissist in charge of trying to secure a global event like the Olympics was nothing short of off the wall.” Ouch!

A survivor of the nuclear bombing of Nagasaki hit a nerve during a talk he was giving at Rome’s city hall. The lecture by 78-year-old Hiroshi Nishioka so moved his audience that they decided to name a road in the Italian capital Hiroshima Nagasaki Street.

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 As many of you know, I have this, uh, background with and in Japan.  I sort of talk about it here and there, but rarely shout about it.  I did a few weeks ago here, when I notified all that I’ve organized a group trip to Kyoto for this coming April and today, I’m doing it again by telling you about the new post/story I’ve put up on my blog, LetsJapan.Wordpress.Com

 It’s a spooky story of which I speak/blog, to wit Creepy Japan:  Happy Halloween Week:

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 For the unacquainted, you’ll get a little background, a taste, of the bizarre and spooky that goes way back in Japanese history (theater and art, too).  And, if you like, you can see some old and new Uncanny Things I’ve stumbled upon there.

 Enjoy.

 Mu . . .

Oops

   *  A conman has convinced the owners of at least ten Tokyo-area restaurants to buy Yomiuri Giants tickets at inflated prices in return for arranging large parties at their eateries. Needless to say, the parties never happened.

   * The Ministry of Defense revealed that 67 percent of personnel transported by Air Self-Defense Forces planes in Iraq were US servicemen, contradicting an LDP claim that the missions were “aimed at extending humanitarian support.”

   * Two men in Osaka whose “umbrellas brushed against each other” during the morning commute got into an altercation, and one of them was stabbed.

   * A study by a cancer center in Nagoya found that postmenopausal women who drink more than 1.26 liters of sake per week are nearly twice as likely to develop breast cancer as their teetotaling counterparts.

   * The Tokyo District Court ordered a condominium developer to pay a 48-year-old Kanagawa woman ¥36.6 million in compensation after she developed sick building syndrome while living in one of its units.

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK

Lawmakers who won a seat in the recent national elections earned ¥2.3 million for working just two days in August, thanks to a law that “guarantees full monthly remuneration to Diet members even if they are in office for a single day.”

It was revealed that the newly launched Consumer Affairs Agency pays a monthly rent of ¥800 million for its offices in Nagatacho-¥300 million more than it would have paid at another building in Bunkyo-ku that the agency had been considering.

Electronics giant Sharp has teamed up with the National Institute of Informatics to develop an infrared system that will “prevent pirates from recording films at movie theaters.”

Concerned by the number of patients hospitalized for schizophrenia compared to other industrial nations, Japan’s health ministry has announced a plan for slashing the figure by the year 2014.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications reported that, for the first time ever, more than a quarter of Japanese women are aged 65 or older.

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    O.K., there’s a confluence of a few things here.  First of all, it’s been a while, so I hope that y’all will be all “Prodigal Son” about me and such.  My fingers are crossed on that.  Second, many of you know, some of you don’t, Mu = BenGoshi (over at Orange) and BenGoshi = Mu (here).  Nothing scandalous.  Just when I signed up here a year and a half ago I wanted a sort of “clean slate” with my writings and opinions.  I still do.  So that’s “self-outing” No. 1.  Third, yesterday I put up a diary on Orange (which is pretty much re-done below for y’all, but this D’Dharma one’s better.  Really.) wherein I gave out an email address, but told all readers that I didn’t want to provide or link directly to personal information, as I wanted to keep some semblance of anonymity.  Well, some nimrod thought it’d be cute to google me up and post that info in the diary thread.  Eventually I think that Meteor Blades wiped all that, but I can still view the hidden threads so I’m not really sure.  Anyway, that’s all to say that I was “outed” on Orange yesterday, but am really, really sure no one here would do that, for which I thank you in advance.  

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    Now for the fun stuff (again, many of you who do Orange saw this yesterday.  Consider it a “cross post” . . . with some minor updates).

     I’ve put together two (2) small group trips for Japan, for this coming spring and I’m inviting anyone interested in going to contact me via:   [email protected]

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     ^{Priests at Kurodani Temple, just after morning Sutras.  Kyoto.  2007.}

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     ^{Yasaka Pagoda.  Kyoto.  2008}

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 Please follow me below the fold and, note:  all photos are mine.

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BAD IDEA

A traveling exhibition of cartoons from Japan depicting “the horrors of war” made a stop at the Nanking Massacre Memorial Hall in China.

It was a hard day’s night for some Tokyo record store workers: to accommodate brisk sales of all 14 digitally remastered Beatles albums, some shops opened at midnight.

Two doctors in Nara, including one who had previously been arrested for defrauding the national health insurance system, performed unnecessary surgery on a patient’s liver, resulting in the man’s death.

Lee Myung Bak, the president of South Korea, said he hoped Emperor Akihito would visit his country next year to mark the 100th anniversary of Japan’s annexation of the Korean Peninsula.

It was reported that then-US President Gerald Ford was pondering a trip to Hiroshima in 1974, but the plans were scrapped for fear of ruffling feathers in Japan. No sitting American president has ever visited either Hiroshima or Nagasaki.

Money troubles

   *  Police in Osaka and Kobe are warning cashiers to be on guard against con men who claim to be collectors of rare Japanese bank-notes, but who then use sleight of hand to make off with wads of cash. Cops say that ¥1.22 million has been stolen in such ruses.

   * The driver of a cash transport vehicle in Fukuoka told a fellow worker to get out of the truck because there was a mechanical problem, and then drove off with an estimated ¥72 million.

   * Sentence of the Week™: “A 60-year-old woman has been swindled out of ¥1.98 million by a man who pretended to be her flu-stricken son and asked her to pay off his debts because he was too unwell to move, the police said.” (via The Daily Yomiuri)

   * A Panasonic factory in Shiga Prefecture was busted for employing some three dozen illegal Chinese laborers.

   * A Kanagawa-based alcoholism research center found that 60 percent of homeless people around Ikebukuro station are suffering from some kind of mental disorder.

   * It was reported that the Yamaguchi-gumi crime syndicate is forcing members to take an exam on the ins and outs of the revised Anti-Organized Crime Law, out of fear that non-compliance will lead to costly lawsuits.

CAN’T WIN ‘EM ALL

# It was reported that of the four cities bidding to host the 2016 Olympics, Tokyo had the lowest public support, at 72 percent. Ninety-three percent of Spaniards back Madrid’s bid and Chicago enjoys 92 percent support from US residents.

# The head of the Japan Football Association slammed Urawa Reds manager Volker Finke after the coach publicly criticized one of his players for not taking a dive in the penalty area.

# As part of their efforts to be known as the sanma capital of Japan, officials from Ofunato in Tohoku plan to hand out 3,333 dishes of the grilled fish at Tokyo Tower on September 27.

# A politician in Kyushu helped a yakuza gang purchase and erect a 3m-tall stone monument in honor of their comrades who were killed in a fight with a rival gang.

# After being chosen from nearly 550 hopefuls, Yasuo Kai and his bride Emi celebrated their wedding in front of the 18m-tall Gundam statue in Odaiba.

# It was reported that the National Police Agency is mulling whether to install security cameras on trains in the hopes of catching gropers in the act.

# Kaoru Hasuike, a Japanese abductee who spent over 20 years in North Korea, won an award for a book he wrote about a visit he made to South Korea.

SIC TRANSIT

   * A 27-year-old JR West train driver in Shiga Prefecture “released his hands from the brake handle for about seven seconds” so that he could snap photos of a pair of women sitting behind him-while his train was traveling at 120kph. The man said he took the pics because the women were “very attractive.”

   * A group of 40 junior high and high school students on their way to class in Kyoto’s Sakyo Ward were attacked by a swarm of “angry” wasps.

   * A German railway operator is deciding whether to seek compensation from a Japanese tourist who chained a piece of luggage to a train station bench before going sightseeing in Hamburg. The suspicious bag caused officials to evacuate the station, resulting in the cancellation of two trains and the delay of another 40.

   * The Japanese government is demanding an explanation from China after a Chinese ship was spotted “conducting activities” in the Shirakaba gas field in the East China Sea.

   * Tokyo subways temporarily halted service last month after an early-warning system predicted a strong earthquake would strike the city. Meteorological Agency officials were forced to apologize when the quake turned out to be much weaker than expected.

On Sunday August 30  voters in Japan did something that most thought would never take place a change of government. Unlike previous times one Liberal Democratic Party leader wasn’t replacing another. In a complete about face voters took a huge leap of faith and voted in the opposition Democratic Party of Japan led by Yukio Hatayama.  

In what Americans call party platforms (manifestos in Japan) the Democrats laid out what they hoped to achieve if elected.  One plank of the platform stood  out: Bureaucratic reform. Unlike America lawmakers don’t have large staffs which include experts in several fields of the members interest. Because of this elected officials have become overly dependent upon carrier bureaucrats for any research  or relevant information needed when crafting legislation. Given this the final bill will mirror not the original ideas put forth by its sponsor but those of the bureaucrat providing the information because its their job to promote policies of the ministry which employees them rather than those of the government in power.

Additionally there are few independent think tanks in Tokyo able to provide a further layer of expertise unlike Washington which has hundreds of them reflecting the ideas of the political landscape.  

The Democratic Party of Japan could achieve the changes in the current system if the choose to be bold.

First they could have civil service reform enacted through legislation which would if done right keep the ministries independent but allow for parliamentary oversight which doesn’t really exist at this time. Once a person joins the civil service they should no longer be allowed promotions based on seniority rather than merit.

Second they should increase the size of the members staffs so that one: They will have access to their own experts and two they can lose their reliance upon the bureaucracy.

While these are simple ideas the fact remains that this is still Japan and change here usually comes at a glacial pace no matter which party controls the Diet.