Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on July 2010

You’re welcome. Now get the f**k out

• The US House of Representatives passed a resolution offering thanks to the people of Okinawa for their “broad support and understanding” in hosting American military bases on the islands.
• The governor of Chiba stirred up controversy by suggesting that casinos be built next to Narita Airport.
• Fast Retailing, the company that runs the mega-popular Uniqlo chain, announced that it would adopt English as its official managerial language.
• It was reported that watermelons from Tottori are selling for ¥30,000 apiece in Dubai.

What goes around comes around

• “Legendary” Toyota test driver Hiromu Naruse, 67, was killed while piloting a luxury Lexus sports car on a public road in Germany. No word on whether unintended acceleration was to blame.
• A court said that Hitachi must pay a former employee ¥63 million for an invention that enables the printing of “circuit patterns on semiconductor substrates.” The man had been seeking ¥600 million for his patent.
• Masamura Shokai, the company whose Masamura Gauge machine helped “usher in Japan’s postwar craze for pachinko,” went bankrupt with debts of ¥1.16 billion.
• After receiving a letter from the Pooh-Bahs at Louis Vuitton, a museum in Kobe removed artworks that were made with knock-offs of the famed luxury brand’s products.

Shane Busato

Your tax dollars at work

• A study group at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases released an announcement warning people not to kiss their pets, “citing a possible infectious disease caused by a bacterium in the mouths of animals.”
• The Supreme Court ruled that a Kyoto man whose house is near a funeral hall is not entitled to demand that a fence be built to shield him from viewing funeral processions. Two lower courts had ruled that the man’s daily life “had been greatly affected” by the sight of passing hearses.
• It was reported that the average summer bonus of government workers this year is a cool ¥577,500, up ¥4,000 from last year.
• Even Yukio Hatoyama, who stepped down as PM in June, managed to snag a ¥4.99 million bonus.
• At the same time, it was reported that “average income of Japanese lawmakers hit a record low of ¥22.23 million in 2009, down ¥2.6 million from the previous year.”
• Police in Osaka say that 48 Chinese illegally took up residence in the city in order to collect welfare benefits.
• It was revealed that Japan has entered talks to help India build 20 new nuclear power plants.

Yeah, but you should see our politicians

• According to the esteemed science journal Nature, Japan “has the world’s saddest scientists.”
• In rejecting a request by Japanese and South Korean scholars to disclose documents on diplomatic relations between the two countries in the ’50s and ’60s, the Tokyo High Court said that releasing the material might “affect ongoing diplomatic issues.”
• It was reported that an industry body called the Digital Comic Association is mulling legal action against 30 websites in the US and Europe for “offering unauthorized scanned images of Japanese comics.”
• Government officials in Chiba asked people around the nation to donate funds to install new artificial turf at the Chiba Lotte Marines’ home stadium. The tab? ¥500 million.

Mistakes were made

• A group of five junior high school students in Gifu tied a fellow student to a chair, stripped her naked, then shot a video of their handiwork, which they emailed to a bunch of friends. The principal acknowledged, “There was bullying.”
• JR East has installed platform screen doors at Ebisu station on the Yamanote line. It’s the first time such a protective device has been erected at a local JR train station, but it won’t be the last: the entire Yamanote line is scheduled to get the barriers by April 2018.
• A car that was reportedly trying to pass another on a two-lane road in Chiba collided with a school bus, killing the car’s driver and injuring six of the bus passengers.
• A similar accident occurred in southern Egypt, where a JTB tour bus filled with Japanese tourists was struck by a van, injuring 12 people.
• Smoke rising from the top of a Tozai line train caused a suspension of service and led to 140,000 commuters being delayed.

News from the animal kingdom

• It was reported that an aquarium in Fukushima is trying to drum up business by allowing visitors to catch fish and “eat them on the spot after [they] are cleaned.”
• An unusual tree frog that is colored blue, not green, was put on display at Nakagawa Aquatic Park in Tochigi. The critter was discovered by a local resident and is nicknamed Pyonta.
• Call it footy and mouth disease: organizers of a youth soccer tournament in Kagoshima barred teams from Miyazaki from competing due to concerns over the recent outbreak of foot and mouth disease.
• Zookeepers in Hyogo say that Japan’s oldest female Koala, which died late last month at age 21, led a “full life.”

Breakthroughs

• It was reported that, for the first time ever, “price levels in Yokohama… surpassed those of Tokyo’s 23 wards.”
• A Kyoto-based company has unveiled a “special copper sheet” that can power up a cellphone without the need for a traditional charger.
• Scientists at Keio University and UCLA have said they’ve developed a cancer test that uses saliva instead of “intrusive X-rays or blood tests.”
• A system for cultivating abalone in large volumes on dry land has been created by—of all things—a Tokyo-based precision-machinery company.
• It was reported that restaurant sales around the country nose-dived 17 percent in May.

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