Metropolis Japan

February 13, 2013

Female justice and other breaking news

Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on February 2013

POLICE BLOTTER

Authorities in Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture, have been baffled by a series of animal mutilations. Since last year, 16 dismembered cats and a number of decapitated pigeons have been found on city streets.
A Japanese businessman was sentenced to five-and-a-half years in prison for bilking former sumo grand champion Asashoryu out of ¥100 million in a bogus gold-buying scheme.
A 21-year-old employee of a nursing home in Hiroshima admitted setting fire to the futon of an 81-year-old resident, but denied that she intended to kill the woman.
Meanwhile, the operator of a nursing home in Chiba was handed a suspended sentence for negligence in a fire in 2009 that killed ten residents.

Workers in the US state of Washington removed more than 180kg of organic matter from a dock that washed up on a local beach after crossing the Pacific Ocean following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. The dock weighs about 185 tons.
The TMG is considering a plan to install emergency generators in all 66 parks and cemeteries used as evacuation centers in the city.
Scientists at a government earthquake research body say 16 seismic faults—not eight, as previously believed—have the potential to unleash magnitude-7 quakes in Kyushu.
A survey by the infrastructure ministry found that just 37 percent of large office buildings built before 1981 meet current earthquake-resistance standards.

Officials from the National Police Agency say that, for the first time in 15 years, fewer than 30,000 people killed themselves in Japan in 2012. The total number of suicides for the year was 27,766.
Tokyo led all prefectures with 2,760 suicides, while Tottori, with 130, had the least. In all, 38 prefectures saw their total number of suicides drop.
The number also decreased in areas hardest-hit by the March 11 disaster.
Officials note, however, that suicide rates for minors and people in their 20s and 30s have risen drastically in the past decade.

For the first time in history, at least one female justice will sit on all three benches that make up the Japanese Supreme Court. Each bench has five members.
On the other hand, the Association of Corporate Executives says women represent just 4.6 percent of upper-level managers at Japanese companies.
Officials at the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research announced that single-person households will make up a third of all Japanese households by 2015.
At the same time, nuclear families will account for just 23 percent of all households. That’s down from a high of more than 40 percent in the ’80s.

The NPA says 33 people around the country were arrested for voting improprieties in December’s general election—the lowest figure since current election laws were enacted in 1950.
An online survey by research group Macromill found that 75 percent of 20-year-olds “expect little from the country’s politics.”
In a breakthrough that could help endangered species, Japanese scientists have “artificially reproduce[ed] a kind of fish using surrogate parents from another related species.”
The Council for Cultural Affairs recommended two additions to Japan’s roster of important cultural assets: traditional hunting equipment from Akita and a tug-of-war event in Saga known as “Yobuko.”