This is an update to the story I mentioned in a previous blog post about the Sumo murder case. The stable master Junichi Yamamoto (formerly known by his Sumo name Tokitsukaze) andYuichiro Izuka, Masanori Fujii, and Masakazu Kimura, the three other Sumo wrestlers involved in the assault which resulted in the death of 17 year […]
Sumo murder case update Read More »
For non-specific reasons, the family of the girl that was the alleged victim of rape by the Okinawan marine has dropped the charges. The family cited reasons such as wanting to maintain privacy, and not wanting to go through the trouble of pursuing the case as reasons for dropping the charges. It may be that
Charges Dropped Against Okinawa Rape Suspect Hardnott Read More »
This is according to an online poll by Japan’s national broadcasting station NHK to determine Japan’s top 100 sports moments. Link is here (Japanese). 1. Shizuka Arakawa wins the gold medal at the Torino Olympics by doing the “Ina Bauer” move. (1539 votes) 2. Waseda Jitsugyo High School defeats Komadai Tomakomai 4-3 for the National
Japan’s Top 10 Greatest Sports Moments Read More »
The headline reads “Group with Google and others building cross-Pacific Broadband cable”. The important point though is who the “others are” in this case. One “other” is Bharti Airtel Limited, an Indian integrated telecom services provider. Others are various asian communications and mobile products companies… however one of the group which calls itself “Unity”… is
More Google in Japan news Read More »
This just in on the Googlemania blog (a blog in Japanese about google products and services). They say you can send smileys or little pictures to Gmail and it will show up. They say the same can be done with Willcom. I just tested it out with my phone and gmail and it works fine!!!
Au Cell phone can send smileys to Gmail Read More »
I don’t want to get all sociological and everything, but I’d like to stress the word REPORTED. REPORTED I urge people who read news about Japan’s low crime rate to keep in mind that this is the number of cases reported and filed officially. There are many cases that go unreported for various reasons, as
Record 300 reported child abuse cases in Japan in 2007 Read More »
Teacher threatens to force schoolgirl to strip for using mobile phone in class Not that a high school girl would be better, but the schoolgirl mentioned in the article is a junior high school student… in Japan that means from 7th grade to 9th grade. I doubt that I’ll be able to follow up on
Teacher Threatens to Force Junior High School girl to Strip Read More »
There are nowhere near as many guns in Japan as in the U.S., however they don’t not exist. (That sentence is dedicated to all the grammarians in the audience.) There has been an increase in gun stories in the news lately and several shootings this past year. As far as I remember all the shooters
Here’s your background reading. For most people, I guess there’s no controversy, it seems to be a battle between the governors teamed up with one political party against the party in charge. The governor’s taking on the central government is a bit unique because you often see the same kind of friction between the federal
Japan Gasoline Tax / Road Levy Controversy Read More »
Sorry, don’t have a current English language link for this one. Here’s one from about a year ago which discusses the case…. Publisher, “Uplink” and it’s president Takashi Asai waged the battle and took it to the highest court in Japan. In 1999, Asai brought his company’s reproduction of Mapplethorpe’s collection with him to the
Robert Mapplethorpe Photos No Longer Banned in Japan Read More »
This year’s festival had the biggest turn out because of the poster controversy. The guy who got the bag, having a beard and especially hairy body, seems to have grossed out some people with his body and facial expression. One train station refused to put up the poster (depicting the moment a winner secured one
The Naked Festival and the Chest Hair Guy Read More »
A bad elementary school teacher was arrested for trying to take a photo up the skirt of a high school girl. Does this kind of thing happen in the US? If one of my friends did something like this I’d be mostly grossed out and completely finished with the friendship. Don’t make me count this!
Bad teacher arrested for upskirt photo Read More »