February 17, 2011

February 17, 2011

February 17, 2011

This week's required reading

By

Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on February 2011

From the Foreign Desk

  • Tunisia’s ambassador to Japan, 66-year-old Noureddine Hached, resigned his post to show “common cause” with anti-government demonstrators who staged large-scale protests last month.
  • The Korean Football Association apologized to Japan after midfielder Ki Sung Yong dissed Japanese fans by imitating a monkey while celebrating a goal at last month’s Asian Cup semifinal in Doha. Japan got the best revenge, however, defeating South Korea on penalty kicks before beating Australia, 1-0, in the final.
  • Officials from the trade and transport ministries traveled to the Middle East with representatives from private-sector railways to “help turn Tokyo into a major player in the global infrastructure business.”
  • The foreign ministry agreed to give Bulgaria ¥50.6 million to “improve sound equipment at a musical and drama theater in [the northern city of] Veliko Tarnovo.”

Sneaky, Sneaky

  • A Chinese man who was arrested for violating the immigration control law is believed to have undergone “sophisticated surgery” on his fingertips to fool the scanning machines at Niigata Airport.
  • Police say a 28-year-old Fukuoka man posed as a scout for pop group AKB48 so he could lure a high school girl into a public restroom, where he fondled her.
  • The National Police Agency said that 385 cops around the country faced disciplinary action in 2010, which seems like a lot, but is far off the record of 546 set in 2000.
  • The government announced that it will give all citizens an IC card in June 2014 to help streamline the administration of tax and social security.

By the Numbers

  • Figures from the Japan Association of Travel Agents show that Japanese tourists have been staying away from China (due to the Senkaku Islands row), Thailand (political instability) and South Korea (shelling of Yeonpyeong Island).
  • On the bright side, visits to the US and Oceania are way up, thanks primarily to the strong yen.
  • It was reported that car owners around the country are ponying up as much as ¥1.5 million to convert their gasoline-powered vehicles to electric.
  • The government announced that it will fork over an additional US$11.7 million to the UN-led tribunal investigating genocide claims against former leaders of the Khmer Rouge.

Chowing Down

  • The Japan Food Service Association said that sales at restaurants around the nation rose by 0.5 percent in 2010.
  • Overall, the number of customers at restaurants around the country dropped, but sales per customer increased.
  • Thanks to discount promotions, sales at fast food restaurants increased 2.1 percent, but earnings at izakaya and family restaurants dropped.
  • A trio of Japanese food companies announced a joint effort to sell processed meats in Vietnam aimed at middle- and upper-class consumers. The firms hope to sell ¥300 million worth of goods by 2013.

We’re No. 1!

  • For the second consecutive year, Japan Airlines ranked first among the world’s 33 major carriers in terms of flights arriving on-time in 2010. Overall, about 90 percent of JAL flights showed up “no more than 15 minutes later than scheduled.”
  • During an inspection tour of farms in Ibaraki and Niigata, the head of China’s largest state-run agricultural company said “Chinese consumers have a good image of Japanese rice and beef.”
  • Power-assisted electric bicycles outsold motorcycles for the first time ever in 2010. More than 380,000 of the bikes were sold.
  • Some 1,500 US troops joined 4,500 Japanese soldiers in Kyushu for a massive war games exercise dubbed “Yama Sakura.”

Yikes!

Illustration by Eparama Tuibenau

  • Japan Airlines admitted that one of its jumbo jets had been in service for nearly three years despite the fact that its emergency slides were improperly installed.
  • A professor of international economics at Catholic University in Belgium told The New York Times that “Japan is a debt time bomb that is waiting to explode.”
  • An industry group said that demand for cement reached a 43-year low in 2010. Just in case you’re wondering, 41.77 million tons of the gray stuff was spread last year, which seems like a lot to us.
  • A 47-year-old Saitama man who was arrested for keeping the skeletal remains of his mom in their home for more than three years said he did it because “I didn’t want to be separated from her.”

Here & There

  • Conbini chain Family Mart has unveiled an overseas remittance service at 8,100 stores nationwide.
  • The government of Hokkaido will present a pair of red-crowned cranes to Taiwan “in an effort to breed the bird” outside its native habitat.
  • A recently completed exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum showcased “art, furniture and other objects” made by Japanese-Americans in World War II internment camps.
  • Pharmaceutical giant Takeda said it will require new college graduates to score 730 points or higher on the TOEIC to be considered for a job.
  • The communications ministry said it would assemble a 200,000-strong army of volunteers to fan out across the country to prepare citizens for the switch to terrestrial digital broadcasting in July.

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