28 July, 2011

July 28, 2011

28 July, 2011

This week's required reading

By

Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on July 2011

TO PROTECT AND SERVE

  • Police officers in Gifu admitted that they dealt with rowdy detainees by serving them tea spiked with “excessive doses of a hypnotic drug.”
  • The government was ordered to pay ¥80 million to the family of an Air Self-Defense Forces officer who committed suicide after his superior “abused him and gave him a huge amount of assignments.”
  • Police in Nagoya believe that a man arrested for robbing two Sukiya beef-bowl restaurants researched his crimes by consulting an online manual that offers tips for stealing from the fast food outlet.
  • While being investigated for insider trading, the former deputy head of the Agency for Natural Resources and Energy blamed the crimes on his wife.

UH-OH

  • A 36-year-old Japanese woman faces the death penalty in Indonesia for possessing more than 32 grams of marijuana. The additional fine of 10 billion rupiah ($1.2 million) is likely the least of her worries.
  • The labor ministry said that nearly 15 percent of men born in the late 1970s are working non-regular or temporary jobs.
  • The transportation ministry rebuked Mitsubishi Heavy Industries for failing to conduct proper checks of its airplane components… for the past 20 years.
  • Sentence of the Week: “Scientists have found a ‘superbug’ strain of gonorrhea in Japan that is resistant to all recommended antibiotics and say it could transform a once easily treatable infection into a global public health threat.” (via Reuters)

CATTLE CALL

  • The health ministry asked restaurants around the country to stop serving dishes with raw beef liver following the deaths of four customers at a yakiniku chain in April.
  • Officials in Tottori took the, ahem, bull by the horns and declared a total ban on serving and selling raw beef.
  • Don’t they have anything better to do? A team of researchers at Osaka University has “genetically engineered mice so that they sing like birds.”
  • Headline of the Week: “Beetle-Watching Facility Closed to Public by Nuclear Disaster Not Sure What to Do With Bugs” (via The Mainichi Daily News)

Foreign intrigue

  • The National Police Agency has determined that an attack on its homepage last September originated in China.
  • Meanwhile, it was reported that NEC Corp is in the process of installing 2,300 fingerprint identification terminals in China’s Anhui province. The devices will be used at facilities operated by the Anhui Province Public Safety Authority.
  • A Japanese woman fell to her death while hiking on the Bell Rock Trail in central Arizona.
  • Around the same time, a male tourist in Hawaii was stabbed after refusing to hand over money to a man who approached his car. His injuries were described as “non-life-threatening.”

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.

    Yeah, that’ll work

    • In a bid to increase the number of overseas visitors to Japan, the foreign ministry unveiled a promotional video featuring boy band Arashi “visiting tourist spots nationwide and striking the pose of a manekineko.” The video will be played on a monitor at Times Square and in more than 100 other countries.
    • Among the issues up for discussion at the first human rights meeting between Japan and Egypt, which took place in Cairo earlier this month: the Egyptian military’s mistreatment of female detainees during the recent anti-government demonstrations, and Japan’s discrimination against Muslims.
    • The government relaxed its ban on North Koreans entering Japan—kind of. Five sports officials from the hermit kingdom were granted visas to attend a meeting of the Olympic Council of Asia in Tokyo.
    • A 17-year-old Japanese high-school student in the US state of Connecticut earned a license to pilot a private plane.

    That’s all, folks!

    • Sony announced that it will cease production of its MD Walkman this fall. Since the device was introduced in 1992, about 22 million have been sold around the world.
    • The education ministry sent 96 Japanese high school English teachers to the US for six months as part of a new government-sponsored training program.
    • Toho announced that it will open a 12-screen, 2,500-seat cinema on the site of the former Shinjuku Koma Theater. The 31-story complex will also house a hotel.
    • The Maritime Self-Defense Forces has decided to extend its anti-piracy mission off Somalia for another year.

    Compiled from reports by AP, Japan Today, The Japan Times, The International Herald Tribune, The Asahi Shimbun, The Mainichi Daily News, Daily Yomiuri, AFP, Reuters and Kyodo