Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on April 2014

WHAT’S THE JAPANESE FOR “CHUTZPAH”?

• A Kagoshima man who bought a PC that had been previously owned by a labor union insisted that the union pay him ¥8 million to “buy back personal information stored in the computer.”
• Tokyo police busted an illegal gambling ring being run out of a condo in Shibuya that also serves as the residence of the ambassador from Ghana.
• Officials at the Don Quijote retail chain have sued the promotion agency that manages J-pop megagroup AKB48.
• The lawsuit claims the management company screwed Don Quijote out of an exclusive licensing deal by letting a pachinko parlor use machines featuring likenesses of the group’s members.

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK

OFF THE RAILS

• Although the maglev railway line under construction between Tokyo and Nagoya won’t be completed until 2027, authorities at JR Tokai are offering train enthusiasts the chance to take a ride on a 43km stretch of track in Yamanashi.
• Officials at the National Police Agency say 5,152 people died in traffic accidents in Japan in 2013—the lowest figure on record.
• Brazil’s fair trade commission is investigating Mitsui & Co and 17 other companies on suspicion of bid-rigging on railway projects.
• Weather officials in the Hokkaido port city of Nemuro say 115 centimeters of snow fell there on March 20—the most ever for the first day of spring.

SKYBORNE SAYONARA

• The last Boeing 747 operated by a Japanese airline took to the skies for the final time, on an ANA flight from Naha to Tokyo.
• One of the passengers onboard was a woman who had flown on ANA’s inaugural 747 flight, way back in 1979.
• On hand for the takeoff in Okinawa was Shigeyuki Ochi, who developed the video technology that allows passengers to keep track of the plane’s in-flight progress. Ochi’s efforts are credited with jump-starting Japan’s camcorder industry, which went on to dominate the world in the ’80s and ’90s.
• During the peak period of the mid-’90s, a total of 120 of the jumbo jets were operated by domestic carriers.

SAY WHAT?!?

• Researchers at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development say Japanese students are third-best in the world at “creative problem solving.”
• As part of a proposed free-trade deal between Japan and the EU, officials in Tokyo have vowed to remove all tariffs on imported wine.
• The Lawson conbini chain put on sale an “ideal pastry” dreamed up by sixth-graders at an elementary school in Aichi.
• Bottom Story of the Week: “Oriental White Stork Flies to South Korea” (via The Yomiuri Shimbun)