Dec 10, 2009

December 10, 2009

Dec 10, 2009

Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on December 2009 Dept. of good ideas The presiding judge of a murder trial in Tokushima decided not to show citizen jurors a photo of the victim’s “headless, limbless torso” lest it alarm them. The National Diet Library announced that it will buy some 50,000 digital recordings made from vintage 78rpm […]

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Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on December 2009

Dept. of good ideas
  • The presiding judge of a murder trial in Tokushima decided not to show citizen jurors a photo of the victim’s “headless, limbless torso” lest it alarm them.
  • The National Diet Library announced that it will buy some 50,000 digital recordings made from vintage 78rpm records, leading one historian to comment that the purchase “will shed new light on the history of records.”
  • The manager of a nail salon in Kanazawa has begun a program called Angel Smile that offers discounts at area shops to “people working in the medical, nursing and other welfare fields.”
  • A New York-based designer has teamed up with traditional lacquerware artisans in Ishikawa Prefecture to produce what is believed to be the world’s first urushi chess sets. The designer, Alexander Gelman, said he wanted the craftsmen “to work with an object that is a little more familiar to me and completely unfamiliar to them.”
Rock bottom
  • A 44-year-old executive at a Tokyo publishing company was busted for embezzling ¥900 million over an eight-year period, allegedly to fuel his mania for betting on horse races. The man is said to have spent a total of ¥3.5 billion on the ponies, but when arrested he had “less than ¥10,000 left.”
  • A 62-year-old nutjob in Fukushima who calls himself a “shaman” has been arrested for slashing one of his female followers with a samurai sword.
  • Illustration by Eparama Tuibenau

    Illustration by Eparama Tuibenau

    It was reported that the Aomori prefectural government is shelling out about ¥100 million a year to cover the costs of an international school for children of foreign technicians who work at local nuclear power plants. The school has just seven students.
  • Approximately 200 Lawson conbini outlets were hit by a glitch in a credit card reader that wound up costing 1,200 customers some ¥1.47 million.
Sic Transit
  • A female passenger suffered “burned feet” and three others were injured when a Tokyo Metro maintenance worker dropped a three-liter bottle of industrial hydrochloric acid on a Ginza line train in Nihombashi station.
  • The Consumer Affairs Agency announced that 31 kids around the country have been injured after getting their fingers caught in Maclaren baby strollers, including a little girl in Chiba who lost a fingernail.
  • It was reported that greenhouse gas emissions from cars in Japan have increased 41.6 percent since 1990.
  • A 78-year-old Nepali grandfather became the oldest person to scale Mt. Everest, displacing Japanese climber Yuichiro Miura, who made the ascent last May at the age of 75.
  • Miura then vowed to become the first person in his 80s to summit the world’s highest mountain.
  • The Metropolitan Police Department has started a trial program involving coin-operated parking meters for motorcycles in Omotesando.
Here and there
  • An NPA white paper revealed that 14 “random” acts of violence took place nationwide in 2008, compared to just three in 2004.
  • China’s foreign minister visited Tokyo and said he hoped for a swift end to the dispute with Japan over gas fields in the East China Sea.
  • The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare estimated that as many as 290,000 recently laid-off workers could “require support over the New Year’s period.”
  • The health ministers of Japan, South Korea and China got together and signed an agreement on food safety that is said to be the first of its kind.
  • Thousands of people lined up to purchase tickets for Japan’s massive year-end lottery. Seventy winners will receive a ¥200 million first prize, 140 will get a ¥100 million second prize, and 7,000 lucky duckies will win ¥1 million “Cheerful in 2010” prizes.
  • Grocery stores around the nation reported that, for the 11th consecutive month, they suffered a drop in sales.
Whatever floats your boat
  • It was reported that among the items being attached to keitai in the current mania for dekoden (decorated cellphones) are “picture stickers depicting rustic scenery” and “mock confectionary created out of resin.”
  • The transport ministry said it’s seeking a 15 percent reduction in CO2 emissions from ocean-going ships around the world by the year 2020, and a 50 percent reduction by 2050.
  • Japan and the US said they were nearing an “aviation liberalization pact” that would allow airlines—not governments—to make decisions about routes and flights.
  • Sentence of the Week™: “A metal drum filled with a waste liquid exploded at the premises of a drugmaker, sending it flying through the air for about 120 meters over Shinkansen tracks before landing in a parking lot near a JR station in Minami Ward, Kyoto, on Monday, but no injuries were reported, police said.” (via the Daily Yomiuri Online).
News from the lab
  • Researchers at Kanazawa University have developed a screening test for gastrointestinal cancer that has a success rate of 90 percent, compared to just 40 percent for the current test.
  • Scientists at Ryukoku University in Kyoto have restored “one of the few surviving maps of the world as known in the early 15th century,” thanks in part to a camera that has a resolution of more than 350 million pixels.
  • Renowned British medical journal The Lancet retracted a paper it had published in 2003 by a Japanese team after researchers in Germany questioned their methods. The physician who headed up the original study, which had to do with the effectiveness of drugs in treating kidney disorders, admitted that he “selected patients expected to react positively to the combined medication in advance.”
  • The fisheries ministry said it has logged some 25,000 reports of damage caused by this year’s unusually large infestation of Nomura’s jellyfish, which can grow to 2m in length and a weight of more than 200kg.

Compiled from reports by the BBC, Japan Today, The Japan Times, International Herald Tribune/The Asahi Shimbun, The Mainichi Daily News, Tokyo Reporter, The Daily Yomiuri, AP and Kyodo