February 3, 2011

February 3, 2011

February 3, 2011

This week's required reading

By

Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on February 2011

Here & There

Illustration by Eparama Tuibenau

  • The Sanyo Hotel in Yamaguchi, which was a favorite of “Japanese royals and high-ranking government officials,” is being torn down. Among the foreign luminaries to have stayed at the century-old inn were Babe Ruth and Helen Keller.
  • It was reported that a salon in Nagoya is offering a vitamin-rich intravenous drip to salarymen “as a quick way to get rid of work-induced fatigue.”
  • A company in Kobe has perfected a method of transforming old clothes into a wood-like substance it calls Rifmo. According to the company president, “You can saw and hammer a nail into it just like ordinary wood.”
  • Sony and Victor announced that they had developed the world’s first “full high-definition digital video cameras capable of taking 3-D moving images.”

Japanese Behaving Badly

  • The head of a theater company in Kyoto who is known as “Japan’s foremost authority on Charlie Chaplin” was busted for punching a female member of the troupe in the face at his apartment.
  • Which is bad enough, but this is really low: a 65-year-old Tokyo investment counselor was arrested for scamming a group of elderly men and women out of money that he said would be used to build them a nursing home.
  • An Aichi man was arrested for selling one of his bank accounts and then using an internet banking service to steal deposits made by the new owner.
  • A study by the health ministry revealed that 25 percent of hiring managers at Japanese firms are “uncomfortable” with applicants who smoke.

News from the Animal Kingdom

  • Organizers of the popular Ageuma Shinji equestrian festival in Mie Prefecture have asked participants to avoid abusing horses during the event, especially “ignoring their broken bones and pouring water in their ears.”
  • A 15-year-old female spotted seal at a marine park in Kobe has been trained to hold her front flippers together and strike a pose as if she were praying.
  • The Japan Bear and Forest Society said it will use 3.5 metric tons of donated acorns to try and “prevent starving bears from coming down to residential areas.”
  • Rescue workers in Osaka spent 24 hours attempting to free a cat that got itself stuck in a decorative panel on an elevated expressway.

Foreign Intrigue

  • A high-ranking Russian government official said that resolving the sovereignty dispute with Japan over the Kuril Islands is “impossible for now.”
  • More than 1,000 photographs depicting life in Japan in the early Meiji period were found in the archives of the University of Bonn, Germany.
  • The foreign ministry said Japan would stand by its promise of doubling the amount of official development assistance it gives to African nations.
  • The Metropolitan Police Department has arrested 27 people for their roles in a human smuggling ring involving South Korean nationals being brought to Japan.

By the Numbers

  • For the second consecutive year, the number of murders and attempted murders in Japan—1,067—hit a postwar low in 2010.
  • Overall, the crime rate dropped 6.9 percent from 2009, the eighth straight year in which the number of crimes has declined.
  • A record 9,443,671 foreigners visited Japan last year, which was a 25 percent increase compared to 2009.
  • The number of first-time visitors, 7,919,678, also set a new record.

Official Business

  • Hiroshima Mayor Tadatoshi Akiba said he wouldn’t provide details about the city’s bid for the 2020 Olympics in the municipal circular because “nobody reads it.” The newsletter, which appears 28 times a year, has a circulation of 430,000 and costs the city ¥146 million to produce.
  • Special GPS-equipped keitai that can handle five calls simultaneously are being touted as the latest crime-busting tool of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Force.
  • Researchers at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology have discovered that low levels of serotonin can lead to feelings of impatience.
  • A resort in Niigata that is believed to be the “birthplace of skiing in Japan” celebrated its 100th anniversary.

Sic Transit

  • A 39-year-old Fukuoka man was arrested for stealing a patrol car and smashing it into three cars, then stealing a taxi and crashing it into three other vehicles.
  • It was revealed that police in Saga failed to report 1,033 car crashes resulting in death or serious injury because they didn’t want anyone to know that their “measures to prevent traffic accidents haven’t produced tangible results.”
  • A finance ministry advisory panel said the government should raise auto insurance premiums by 25-30 percent “to cope with rising benefit payments amid an increase in serious accidents.”
  • Meanwhile, the transport ministry will set a deadline for automakers to report recalls of their vehicles to the public.

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