Tag: Random Japan

AND THE WINNER IS…

A Japanese director named Takahisa Zeze won an Innovation Award at the Montreal World Film Festival and captivated the crowd when he started his acceptance speech with the words, “I am Japanese. Are you doing good?”

Another attending Japanese filmmaker in Montreal, Masato Harada, was doing pretty well as his movie Chronicle of My Mother took the Special Grand Prix.

In the wake of entertainer Shinsuke Shimada’s abrupt retirement from his TV career over ties to the yakuza, one top police official noted in The Yomiuri Shimbun, “It seems many showbiz types’ first interaction with crime groups comes when they ask the gangs to solve problems for them, such as collecting unpaid appearance fees or breaking off relationships with members of the opposite sex.”

Former Japan soccer coach Zico has a new gig after the Brazilian legend was named coach of Iraq’s national team.

Meanwhile, the unfortunately named Dunga, another former Brazilian soccer star who, like Zico, once played in the J. League, was also reported to be getting a new job.

Dunga was set to take the helm of a club team in Qatar.

YEAH, THAT’LL HAPPEN

The former director of the US government’s Japan Affairs Office demanded that Kyodo News retract an article that quoted him as saying the Japanese are “masters of manipulation and extortion.”

The agriculture ministry said Japan will seek UNESCO World Heritage status for kaiseki cuisine.

The government is considering an across-the-board pay cut of 5-10 percent for nationally elected politicians. The scheme would net ¥290 billion, to be used for disaster relief.

Headline of the Week: “Mosses and Sea Slugs Offer Comfort in Difficult Times” (via The Asahi Shimbun)

BAD MEDICINE

An investigation was launched after it came to light that a man who claimed to be a doctor from a Canadian hospital treated some 250 people in quake-ravaged Miyagi Prefecture without a proper license.

A drug used to treat blood clots killed five people in Japan after causing some nasty side-effects in over 80 patients since March, the Health Ministry said.

Ryohei Yamanaka, 23, a flyhalf for Japan’s national rugby team, accepted a two-year doping ban from the sport’s governing body while continuing to claim his positive test was a result of a cream he used to try to grow a mustache. Yeah right, likely story …

It took 21 reprints, but a million copies were finally printed of an inspirational book by Japan soccer captain Makoto Hasebe called Kokoro o Totonoeru (Maintaining Peace of Mind).

Now this really is amazing. A transparent maze has been set up by Yoko Ono at Yokohama Triennale 2011, an international exhibition of modern art. At the center of the maze is a telephone, which sometimes rings. Lucky visitors who pick up the phone get to hear the voice of Yoko Ono. Hmmm … would that be considered reward or punishment?

A two-year-old boy escaped with a few minor scrapes after falling between a train platform and a stopped Nozomi bullet train onto the tracks at Nagoya Station. A quick-thinker hit the emergency switch and cut power before the train could leave.

Visually impaired people in Japan are apparently “suffering damage to their white canes … due to collisions with cyclists.”

SIC TRANSIT

ANA unveiled a passenger jet festooned with images of the Pokemon character Pikachu at Sendai Airport. The aircraft, dubbed the “Peace Jet,” is intended as a pick-me-up to the victims of the March 11 disaster.

Authorities in Thailand deported a Japanese man who is accused of bilking an insurance company out of ¥11 million in an arson scheme in Sapporo.

JR West was ordered to pay ¥6.2 million in compensation to 61 employees for “psychological distress” caused during a disciplinary program. The staff were forced to “clean toilets and cut weeds” as punishment for bad behavior.

A visually impaired man from Yokohama was killed after being hit by a Den-en-toshi line train at Tsukushino station in Machida. The man, who was seen “walking unsteadily” before the accident, fell onto the tracks and was trying to climb back up when he was pinned between the train and the platform.

Police from Hokkaido raided the offices of an aviation school in Miyazaki in connection with the crash of a light plane that killed two people and injured a third during a training session in Obihiro.

ON THE ROAD

A homeless man who racked up a ¥180,000 taxi fare from Tokyo to Osaka was arrested after revealing that he only had ¥6,000 to his name.

The National Police Agency sent a team of six judo instructors to teach martial arts to Afghan police officers at a training center in Turkey.

A 24-year-old Tochigi man was arrested for stealing 18 pairs of underwear from the home of a female high school student.

It was reported that mosquito nets made by Sumitomo Chemical Co. are partly responsible for the recent drastic decline in malaria deaths worldwide.

CAN’T SAY WE BLAME THEM

Barbecued beef restaurants in Japan found sales were down after reports surfaced that caesium-laced beef had been distributed across the country.

Bombastic Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara said a new power plant will be built in Tokyo “with the electricity generation capacity of at least 1 million kilowatts,” but he refused to provide any details.

PM Naoto Kan came under fire from members of his own Cabinet for “advocating a society free of nuclear power in the aftermath of the crisis in Fukushima.” That’s news to us, claimed members of his cabinet.

South Korea voiced “strong regret and disappointment” over Japan’s month-long ban on its diplomats flying Korean Air. The ban was put in effect to protest a special flight by the airline above some disputed islets.

Yukari Miyamae, a 61-year-old Japanese-American female, has achieved a cult-like following after being arrested for grabbing the boob of an airport security agent in Phoenix and, according to the police report, “squeezing and twisting it with both hands without the victim’s permission.”

Meanwhile, a Facebook page dedicated to acquitting Miyamae of the sexual abuse charges apparently drew over 1,000 supporters, “with some calling her a hero.”

BREAKTHROUGHS

Tohoku University Hospital will begin testing a drug that may delay the progression of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

Researchers from three Japanese universities published a paper in the British journal Nature that “revealed the three-dimensional structure of the central part of human chromosomes.” The finding could help scientists better understand Down’s syndrome and cancer.

It was announced that a 4,300-year-old pottery shard unearthed in Aomori in 1993 may contain the “oldest depiction of a shaman on an artifact uncovered in Japan.”

The University of Tokyo asked the education ministry if it would be OK to begin the academic year in the fall, just like schools overseas.

Leading Japanese e-tailer Rakuten announced that it will open an online shop for electronic books early next month. Panasonic will provide the tablet device for the service.

DIAMOND DUST

Sho Darvish, the younger brother of Nippon Ham Fighters ace Yu Darvish, was arrested twice in June-once for marijuana possession and again for assaulting a 19-year-old woman. So much for weed mellowing you out…

Seattle Mariner Ichiro Suzuki saw his string of ten straight MLB All-Star Game appearances come to an end when he finished seventh in fan voting among American League outfielders. He still picked up over 2.5 million votes.

A renegade cat delayed a BayStars vs. Hiroshima Carp ballgame at Yokohama Stadium when it got on the field and had to be chased off by security.

Golfer Tiger Woods may have philandered away millions in endorsement contacts in the U.S. but he’s still big in Japan. Woods is the new face of Kowa, a Japanese muscle balm.

The heat is on once again and the Japan Football Association has decided to allow sports drinks, as well as your standard water, on the sidelines at soccer games to prevent heatstroke. Some stadiums, however, have a water-only policy in effect, worried that a little Pocari Sweat might kill the grass.

A 17-year-old boy scout with Japanese roots from Utah delivered soccer balls, uniforms and whistles to students affected by the March 11 earthquake/tsunami. Perhaps more suited to Sudan than Japan, but a good deed nonetheless.

GOING DIGITAL

A communications ministry survey revealed that, for the first time in 29 years, the number of landline phone subscriptions fell below 40 million.

At the same time, the “penetration rate” of mobile phones in Japan has reached 96.8 percent.

It was reported that the communications ministry has set up 160 temporary call centers in 44 prefectures around the country to help people deal with the changeover from analog to digital terrestrial TV broadcasting, scheduled for July 24.

Meanwhile, sales of flat-panel TVs are skyrocketing ahead of the changeover. Stores are reporting sales 250 percent higher than a year ago.

Other hot items this summer include electric fans, whose sales have jumped 4.5-fold compared to last year.

GOTTA BOUNCE

After winning 10 straight national trampoline championships, 27-year-old Haruka Hirota decided to retire from the sport due to a rule change regarding how much time the athletes spend in the air.

Former Livedoor boss Takafumi Horie decided to go out in style, sporting a Mohawk haircut and wearing a T-shirt bearing the phrase “Go To Jail” as he began his prison sentence for fraud.

Forty-year-old tennis queen Kimiko Date Krumm gave Venus Williams a run for her money at Wimbledon, before finally bowing out 6-7 (6), 6-3, 8-6 in nearly three hours in the second round.

In Sapporo, four “Super Grandmas” aged between 75 and 88 set a world record in the 400-meter medley for swimmers with a combined age between 320 and 359 years. Their combined age was 322 years and they shaved a full 40 seconds off the record.

Doara, the popular mascot of the Chunichi Dragons baseball club, was sent down to the minor leagues to work on his flips after a few mishaps.

Yoshie Soma, a 69-year-old special adviser to the president of Kobe University, was named one of the “most distinguished women in chemistry and chemical engineering in the world” by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. She discovered a copper carbonyl catalyst in the 1960s that has been used in paint for cars and the bottom of ships.

BREAK OUT THE PARTY HATS

A Guinness World Record was set in Toyama when 1,566 people got together to play a game of tag.

JAXA’s unmanned probe Hayabusa, which spent five years collecting samples from a space rock named Itokawa, has been certified by Guinness “as the first spacecraft to have brought back materials from an asteroid.”

Meanwhile, a team of researchers from Tohoku University and NEC Corp announced that they have developed the world’s first “large-scale integrated circuit that requires no standby power.”

Last year was the first time since 2001 that the number of suicides in Japan fell below 32,000, according to the National Police Agency.

People in their 70s killed themselves at a lower rate in 2010 compared to a year ago, but folks in their 20s and 30s committed suicide more frequently.

Former Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso joined Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in Beijing to kick off the inaugural Japanese Film and TV Week, which aims to “promote cultural exchanges between young people from the two countries.”

According to London-based human resources firm ECA, Tokyo is the most expensive city in the world for expats, followed by Oslo, Nagoya, Stavanger (Norway), Yokohama, Zurich, Luanda (Angola), Kobe and Bern.

The Japanese, apparently, have not been drowning their sorrows in booze following the March 11 quake: beer shipments in May were the lowest on record.

The Japan Sumo Association agreed to “provisionally pay a salary” to a wrestler named Sokokurai, who was implicated in the recent bout-fixing scandal. The thing we really like about this story is that the Chinese wrestler’s original name is Enhetubuxin.

SAY WHAT?

Dr. Satoshi Kanazawa from the London School of Economics’ management department took a lot of heat-as one might expect-for claiming in an article he wrote for Psychology Today that black women were “far less attractive” than women of other races. Guess he won’t be getting much action in Africa.

A disgruntled job-seeker in Nagoya was arrested after he hit the emergency button at a railway crossing. “My search for a job wasn’t going well, and I was irritated,” police quoted the 24-year-old as saying.

Former Yomiuri Giants pitcher Masumi Kuwata finished dead last in a low-level pro golf tournament he entered. His scorecard included a 93 and an 87. Ouch!

Despite ending up 36 over par for the tourney, Kuwata did not three-putt any holes. Go figure.

Another chucker, ex-MLB pitcher Chan-ho Park, was sent to the minor leagues by the Orix Buffaloes and was told to “stop fooling around” and get serious. The 37-year-old South Korean is in his first-and likely last-season here.