February 1, 2012

February 1, 2012

February 1, 2012

This week's required reading

By

Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on February 2012

Gotcha

  • A relative of one of the 107 people killed in a derailment on JR West’s Fukuchiyama line in 2005 noticed a train driver on the same line dozing off while behind the wheel last month.
  • The justice ministry asked YouTube to remove a nine-minute video that had been surreptitiously shot inside a prison in Kagoshima.
  • A 21-year-old tattoo artist and his acquaintance in Osaka were arrested for beating a Nepalese man to death in a street fight.
  • Police suspect yakuza involvement in an “unlawful contract scheme” related to the dispatch of a temporary worker to the Oi nuclear power plant in Fukui.

Oops!

  • Japan Post was ordered to stop using the name “Yu-Mail” as the result of a lawsuit by a Sapporo-based direct-mail company, which had trademarked the name in 2004. JP has some retooling to do—last year, it shipped 2.62 billion parcels under the Yu-Mail moniker.
  • Google Japan was forced to issue an apology after admitting that customers who purchased apps via the Google Checkout service had their personal data leaked to app developers.
  • A Ground Self-Defense Force helicopter took off in Mie without the crew realizing that a pair of “distress signal devices” had been set down on the aircraft’s exterior. The equipment fell off and crashed into a nearby dockyard, though no one was injured.
  • Sentence of the Week: “Japan’s science ministry provided data on the dispersal of radioactive materials to US forces a few days after the nuclear crisis erupted at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, far earlier than the disclosure of the information to the Japanese public, a ministry official said Monday.” (via Kyodo)

Thanks for the tip

  • Former DPJ bigwig Ichiro Ozawa, on trial for misappropriating political funds, told prosecutors that keeping ¥400-¥500 million in cash lying around “is not something that contradicts common sense.”
  • During a visit to Thailand, trade minister Yukio Edano advised local officials to “strengthen levees and implement other effective flood countermeasures before the rainy season.”
  • Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba visited Afghanistan and called for the government to boost efforts “to eradicate corruption, promote the rule of law and improve governance.”

And now for some good news…

  • The National Police Agency says that, for the first time in 30 years, fewer than 1.5 million crimes were committed in Japan in 2011. The overall tally was 1,480,826—a 6.6 percent drop from the year before.
  • The Japanese Society of Psychiatry and Neurology lowered the age at which teenagers can undergo treatment for gender identity disorder, from 18 to 15.
  • In what is being described as “the first successful fuel-cell electric vehicle” to be developed without the help of a major car company, students at Osaka Sangyo University unveiled a sporty two-seat EV with a top speed of 80kph.
  • Workers at the Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum unearthed the fossilized remains of a rhinoceros that lived about 18 million years ago. It’s thought to be the oldest such find in Japan.

Clever darlings

  • The woman accused of harboring Aum Shinrikyo fugitive Makoto Hirata for 17 years says she made up her pseudonym—Kyoko Yamaguchi—by combining the names of popular actress-singers Kyoko Koizumi and Momoe Yamaguchi.
  • A survey by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government found that 9 percent of expectant mothers failed to undergo pre-delivery health checks “because they didn’t realize they were pregnant.”
  • As part of efforts to prepare Tokyo for a major earthquake, JR East has stockpiled water bottles and blankets for 30,000 commuters, while Tokyo Metro is storing relief supplies for 100,000 others.
  • Two rare crested ibises injured on Sado Island recently are believed to have been attacked by falcons. The incidents are puzzling, as falcons normally only attack animals smaller than themselves.

By the numbers

  • A news agency poll found that 71.5 percent of Japanese “support the idea of allowing female members of the Imperial Family to keep their status after marriage and head their own family branches.”
  • Another poll found that 13.4 percent of Japanese own a smartphone, and that about one-third of those who don’t own one want one.
  • Ten companies from earthquake-hit areas in northeastern Japan were among the 1,300 exhibitors at the Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco last month.
  • TEPCO said it has no idea what caused a blackout in Edogawa-ku last month that affected 59,000 households.
  • The number of used cars sold in Japan in 2011 dropped, for the 11th consecutive year, to a record low of 3,774,015.

Not all smiles and sunshine

  • A 65-year-old Japanese man was fined $2,500 by a court in Hawaii for hitting a Delta Air Lines cabin attendant—twice—on a flight from Tokyo to Honolulu. The man was allowed to attend his son’s wedding in Waikiki, though.
  • Newly installed Justice Minister Toshio Ogawa said, “It isn’t in line with the spirit of the [capital punishment] law for the number of death row inmates to continue increasing without executions.”
  • The government announced that it will rewrite relevant laws to enable JAXA to become involved “in the use of space for security purposes.”
  • Meanwhile, a science ministry official said the space agency will begin studying the feasibility of a mission to Mars.

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