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This edition is going out a bit sooner than I originally planned.
There's been a lot going on recently so I thought it would be
good to fill you in. The site got a very nice write-up on the
BBC World's 'Click Online' website. If you don't believe me, you
can check it out at their site (unfortunately, they use asp pages
so I can't link directly to the review):
http://www.bbcworld.com/
Mark McBennett
Webmaster, Japan Zone
Contents
1. What's going on in Japan
2. True crimes
3. Just between you and me...
4. Sports news
5. Websites we like
6. Insert like a sword guard into anal duct
7. Japan Zone updates
8. I stiiiiiill haven't found what I'm looking for...
9. Unsubscribe
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1. What's going on in Japan
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The biggest news story of this month was the tragic June 8th stabbing
deaths of eight 6 and 7-year old school children at the Ikeda
Elementary School near Osaka. Another 13 children and two teachers
were injured in the attack by 37-year old Takuma Mamoru. It was
the worst mass-killing since the 1995 sarin gas attack by the
Aum Supreme Truth cult, in which 12 people were killed and thousands
more affected. Takuma claimed that he had taken a huge dose of
tranquilizers before the attack. He had a history of admissions
to mental hospitals and arrests and was due to appear at Osaka
presecutors' office on the day of the attack for his assault on
a hotel porter while working as a taxi driver. He also had money
problems and was in a dispute with the latest of his four ex-wives.
Police found dozens of legal books at his home, and other details
suggest that he may have been trying to fabricate an insanity
defense in advance. For more, see the link to the Time magazine
article below.
(Incidentally, the country's newspapers refer to how Takuma 'allegedly
attacked' these kids and his status as a 'suspect'. I don't feel
the need for such niceties)
In incidents perhaps related to the above:
- an 11-year old boy in Fukuoka told police on June 9th that a
man around 40 years old approached him and his friend while they
were playing in a park, and suddenly attacked them. It later turned
out that the boy had accidentally stabbed his friend while they
were playing with a kitchen knife.
- a woman of around 50 stabbed a teacher at a Tokyo kindergarten
yesterday (June 19th). I actually heard about this over the intercom
at my school which is only a couple of miles away. The woman was
said to be still on the loose and students were warned to watch
out on their way home. Note: this story was later found to be
a fabrication by the teacher. She stabbed herself and made up
the story after she had be reprimanded for inefficiency at work.
- several other reports appeared over the last few days about
hoaxes and actual knife-related cases as the media attention to
the case brings all the weirdos and copycats out into the open.
Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro is still riding the popularity
wave. The figures seem to only increase with time, boosted most
recently by his 'email magazine' - with over a million subscribers,
'Lionheart' is thought to be the most popular individual newsletter
in the world (I wonder how much he'd charge for an ad!). The 'meru-magu'
was one of several innovative ideas introduced by Takenaka Heizo,
who has the catchy title of State Minister in Charge of Economic,
Fiscal and Information Technology Policy. Takenaka, 50, is one
of the non-politician members of the Koizumi cabinet and was formerly
a professor at the prestigious Keio University. He is best known
as a man who avoids techno-babble and makes himself easily understood.
Still on the political front (and it still surprises me how much
politics has become part of the recent everyday culture), Foreign
Minister Tanaka Makiko has being trying to shake up the elitist
and secretive ministry and is being fought all the way by bureaucrats
and fellow politicians alike. She escaped the pressures and shady
goings-on for her second official trip abroad, to the US. She
met with President Bush who told her that "the United States wants
to join hands with Japan to address global warming issues". Uhm,
okay. She also had her first face to face meeting with US Secretary
of State Colin Powell, during which she eased any tensions that
existed on the missile defense plan issue (she is personally believed
to be against the plan), proposed that US Marine training be moved
from Okinawa to another prefecture and stated that while Japan
wouldn't ratify the Kyoto Protocol before the US, it was hoped
that the US would reconsider its withdrawal from the environmental
agreement. Tanaka walked in the footsteps of her father, the late
PM Tanaka Kakuei, and laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns
at Arlington National Cemetery. She also met with old friends
at the Philadelphia high school where she spent two years in the
early 1960's.
Taya Chikako, 55, a prosecutor with the Tokyo High Public Prosecutors
Office was chosen by the UN General Assembly as a judge on the
war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. She is the first
Japanese woman chosen for an international tribunal.
The Tokyo District Court ruled June 13th that surveillance of
the Aum Supreme Truth cult was constitutional, rejecting the cult's
demand that it be stopped. Despite calls for the cult to be banned
following the 1995 sarin attack and a variety of other murders
and crimes, authorities decided to avoid what they feared would
be seen as religious persecution. Meanwhile, no attempts are made
to remove huge banners such as in front of my local station saying
"Aum, Get Out!". Justified persecution, you could call it, but
this group shouldn't really be allowed to exist anymore.
The US navy plans to start salvage operations on the Japanese
ship Ehime Maru in August. The ship was sunk by a US submarine
off the coast of Hawaii in February. The plan is to move the ship
from its current 600m depth to shallower waters where they hope
to recover the bodies of the nine students and crew members who
have been missing since the accident.
The 8-storey former Sogo department store building in Yurakacho,
Tokyo was reopened on June 14th as a new branch of the Bic Camera
discount electronics store. The building is a local landmark due
to its slogan 'Meet me at Yurakucho'. The Sogo chain went bankrupt
last year.
Tokyo is still the most expensive city in the world. In 2000,
prices were 1.21 times those in London, its nearest 'rival', 1.22
times those in New York and 1.71 times Berlin's prices. A strong
yen and weak euro contributed to the price gaps.
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2. True crimes
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A former yakuza was arrested June 13th for arranging fake marriages
between Chinese women and homeless Japanese men. Kawano Shosuke
found the men in Ueno Park in Tokyo and provided them with cheap
lodgings. He took the men to China where women paid him about
3 million yen each so they could travel and work freely in Japan.
Kawano allegedly paid the men nothing.
25-year old Hoshino Katsumi was sentenced to life imprisonment
on June 14th for the drugging and rape of nine women in 1998 and
1999. He abandoned two of the women outdoors in December '98 and
they both died from hypothermia. Hoshino met the women through
a telephone message service and raped them in his car, in which
he was living at the time.
A spate of yakuza-related shootings over the last three months
is believed to have been started by internal disputes in the Kokusai-kai
syndicate. More than 40 members of the group battled each other
on the streets of Tokyo's upmarket Ginza district on the night
of June 15th. The situation came to a head on June 19th when 150
riot police confronted about 90 gangsters in Ginza who were believed
to be heading for a rival organization's office. After an hour-and-a-half
standoff, the gangsters dispersed.
A 25-year old beautician in Tokorozawa City, Saitama was mugged
in the early hours of June 20 by a man in his 50's who smacked
the woman a drove away with her handbag containing about 14,000
yen. The man was dresed in just white shorts and a yellow bra.
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3. Just between you and me...
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Not much scandal to report this time, I'm afraid. Former Olympic
badminton star Jinnai Kimiko and her live-in boyfriend, former
Nippon Ham Fighters pitcher Kaneishi Akihito, fought off an attack
by a knife-wielding burglar at their home last week. Jinnai sustained
cuts to her arms. The afternoon 'wide shows' marvelled at the
couples bravery.
Oricon CD single chart ranking
1. Kiseki no hajimari - V6
2. Porno Star - Sads
3. Lifetime Respect - Mikidozan
4. Point of no return - Chemistry
5. Message/Hitoribochi no haburashi - Tokio/Sakuraba Junichiro
Both V6 and Tokio are boy bands that belong to the omnipresent
Johnny's Jimusho agency. The Tokio single "Message" is the title
song of a popular drama "Tengoku ni ichiban chikai otoko" (the
nearset man to heaven). Hadn't heard of Mikidozan till I checked
the Oricon site. he seems to be a lightweight reggae type. Can't
tell you much about the rest except the Sads video does seem to
feature actual western porno actresses (can't say if they're stars),
flouncing around in the semi-nude and the group's lead singer
looks more like a rat than any human should.
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4. Sports News
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The Japanese national soccer team did well in the FIFA Confederations
Cup, losing only to world champions France in the final. Without
star midfielder Nakata Hidetoshi, Japan were out to improve on
their 5-0 drubbing to Les Bleus earlier in the year. Goalkeeper
Kawaguchi Yoshikatsu turned in another star performance but was
partly to blame for the only goal of the game. Not surprisingly,
he seemed the most dejected when the final whistle blew but the
1-0 scoreline was an honorable defeat. Japan's best soccer player
Nakata Hidetoshi bowed out of the above final and returned to
Italy for his club AS Roma's last couple of games of the season.
The decision was met with disgust by the national team manager
Frenchman Phillipe Troussier, who made thinly veiled comments
about business coming before national pride. Most Japanese on
the street seemed to sympathise with Nakata, however.
As it turned out, Nakata didn't make it off the bench for his
first match back and made only a token appear- ance in the June
10th 3-1 win over Parma, which brought AS Roma the Serie A title
for the first time in 18 years.
In Major League baseball, Ichiro's continuing strong performances
for the Seattle Mariners, and a little support from fans back
home, have put him at the top of the voting for the American League
All-Star team, with over 1.15 million votes so far. With the exception
of fellow Mariner Sasaki Kazuhiro, Japan's other exports to the
MLB are having a more mediocre season. But it seems that Shinjo
Tsuyoshi is appearing in a current commercial for the New York
Mets.
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5. Websites we like
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TIME Magazine Always includes features on Japan in its Asian edition.
Death Knell - school stabbing deaths
http://www.time.com/time/asia/news/magazine/0,9754,129949,00.html
Japan as the world sees it (dates back a couple of months)
http://www.time.com/time/asia/features/japan_view/
Japan Today
http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=home
Updated twice daily. You can have the latest news emailed to you.
Japan Reference
http://www.japanreference.com
An English-language directory site that lists thousands of Japan-related
sites. Well organized and pretty comprehensive.
ELT News: the site for English teachers in Japan
http://www.eltnews.com/
If you're an English teacher in Japan or one of the thousands
thinking about becoming one, this site is an invaluable resource.
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6. Insert like a sword guard into anal duct (!?)
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The following dodgy English was pinched from the entertaining
engrish.com site.
http://www.engrish.com/
1. On a blanket - NOT TO BE USED AS PROTECTION FROM A TORNADO.
2. On a shampoo - USE REPEATEDLY FOR SEVERE DAMAGE.
3. On a Japanese product used to relieve painful haemorrhoids
- LIE DOWN ON BED AND INSERT POSCOOL SLOWLY UP TO THE PROJECTED
PORTION LIKE A SWORD-GUARD INTO ANAL DUCT. WHILE INSERTING POSCOOL
FOR APPROXIMATELY 5 MINUTES, KEEP QUIET.
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7. Japan Zone updates
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Recently added content includes (yeah, well I've been busy):
A section on bonsai:
https://www.japan-zone.com/culture/bonsai.shtml
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8. I stiiiiiill haven't found what I'm looking for...
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The site has such a wide variety of content that there's most
probably lots you haven't seen. If ever you don't find what you're
looking for, let me know. It might be on the site somewhere or
I may be able to help you track it down. I've recently been able
to help out a guy looking for info on traditional Japanese weddings
and another couple of people trying to track down companies. The
following was not so easy. If it means anything to you, let me
know.
== I'm looking for a company name. I have some very old copper
or bronze items stamped 'made in japan' with t.k stamped on the
bottom in a triangle. Does this company still exist? ==
Another guy I contacted about a link exchange said he refused
on the grounds that my logo uses the Imperial army flag. Well
I suppose you could look at it that way, though that wasn't my
intention.
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9. Unsubscribe
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