Tatsuya Ichihashi was finally arrested at a ferry port in Osaka. An alert traveler at the port contacted authorities to tell them a person matching Ichihashi’s description was preparing to take a ferry bound for Okinawa. When police arrived on the scene, he admitted who he was without a struggle. Ichihashi had been on the…
A former teacher at Takeda Prefectural High School in Takeda City, Oita Prefecture kicked a student at a kendo team practice in August this year. The boy died as a result of the injuries. The original investigation by police in Takeda City determined that the boy died as a result of heat exhaustion during a…
A former truck driver who was promoted to a low level management position at the Sagawa Express package delivery company committed suicide recently. His wife is accusing Sagawa of bullying and power harassment which resulted in his suicide. After being promoted, the 42 year old man began working from before 6am until after 10:30pm every…
In a previous post I wrote about six Kyoto University of Education students who raped a girl at a party in February. The university never reported the incident to police until June. There were some pretty outrageous moral violations by the school, such things as refusing to report the incident to authorities, and the fact…
On January 21 this year, during a free study period at a junior high school in Ibaraki Prefecture, a teacher (and head of the grade level) walked into a classroom to yell at two kids for going home too late the previous day. The two students were in their third year and had just returned…
Most of the government agencies in Japan are creating Youtube channels. The cynical side of me wants to add, “so they can pretend that they are reaching out to and receiving the approval of the people”, but I’ll refrain. So here’s the top video from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries. … and let…
Another pop execution in Japan where the usual modus operandi is to execute first and notify the media later. The next of kin for the executed is also notified AFTER the execution and asked to come and take care of the remains and any funeral rites involved. Japan executed 15 in 2008, and has come…
The trial for the Junichi Yamamoto (formerly Tokitsukaze), head of the Sumo stable that ordered the “discipline” that resulted in the death of sixteen year old Sumo wrestler Takashi Saito is yet to be held. The three senior member of the stable that carried out the beatings that caused the death have been sentenced to…
First of all, full disclosure.I did my driver’s license in Hyogo Prefecture… I got it on the third try. First I’ll start off by telling you exactly how I failed the first two times. Very simple actually… Failure One: I ran a stop sign… Sounds kind of stupid, but it took me this experience to…