June 2, 2011

June 2, 2011

June 2, 2011

This week's required reading

By

Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on June 2011

High-tech japan

  • The justice ministry is considering a plan to keep tabs on furloughed prisoners using “GPS-equipped cellphones and […] small devices attached to the wrist or ankle.”
  • Good times for keitai companies: NTT Docomo, KDDI and SoftBank all logged increases in their net profits and operating profits in fiscal 2010.
  • Meanwhile, NTT Docomo announced a tie-up with Twitter that will allow tweets to show up in iMode search results.
  • Japan and 20 other nations have adopted the Nagoya Protocol, which is “is aimed at setting rules for the use of genetic resources.”
  • Japan expressed its displeasure to Russia over a visit by Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov to the disputed northern islands last month.
  • Satoshi Furukawa, a 47-year-old former surgeon from Tokyo, will begin a five-and-a-half-month stint on the International Space Station this week.

Gee, thanks for that

  • At a press conference in New Jersey, the Dalai Lama told the Japanese people that they should move beyond “worry and hopelessness. [The] tragedy already happened. Look forward.”
  • Aloha shirts, jeans and sandals are some of the clothes approved for public employees to wear at the office during the government’s “Super Cool Biz” energy-conserving effort for summer.
  • Sentence of the Week: “A Tokyo police officer has been suspended for three months for repeated violent and exploitive acts against subordinates, including breaking one officer’s finger, all in the name of officer training.” (via The Mainichi Daily News)
  • For the first time, major news agencies in Japan, South Korea and China collaborated on coverage during a meeting of the countries’ leaders in Tokyo last month.
  • A 58-year-old Japanese man became the third climber to die on Mt. Everest this season. Takashi Ozaki, from Mie Prefecture, made it all the way up to 250 meters from the summit before his death.
  • A 12-year-old girl from Kobe took first prize in the under-13 category at the prestigious International Miroslaw Lawrynowicz Young Violinist Meeting in Plock, Poland.
  • About 300 people attended a memorial ceremony for the 20th anniversary of a train collision that killed 42 and injured more than 600 in Shiga Prefecture.

Trash ‘n’ cash

  • The firm that operates the Sukiya beef-bowl chain has become the country’s most profitable fast-food company.
  • At the same time, McDonald’s Japan announced that its sales in fiscal 2010 dropped 10.6 percent from a year earlier. Don’t feel too bad for McD’s, though: the company still raked in ¥323.7 billion.
  • The Japanese Red Cross said it was able to make donations more quickly to people affected by the Kobe earthquake in 1995 compared to the March 11 quake because, this time around, “functions of local municipal governments were destroyed […] leaving it difficult to identify recipients.”
  • A Cabinet Office survey revealed that “¥3 million is the point where men decide their assets are sufficient to trade in their Seven-Eleven lifestyles for a wife.”
  • It was announced that a 10-year-old boy with Down syndrome will appear in the TBS series Umareru, which concerns a 51-year-old woman who becomes a new mom.

Up, up and away (to Mongolia)

Phil Couzens

  • Disgraced former sumo champion Asashoryu announced that he will run for political office in his native Mongolia.

  • Japan’s ANA and Mongolia’s Eznis Airways announced a tie-up that will “aid long-term development of air transportation between the two countries.”
  • It was also reported that more passengers flew on ANA than JAL last year for the first time since 2002.
  • The labor ministry reported that “the number of newly employed people with mental disorders jumped 33.2 percent to 14,555.”
  • There will be 10,800 prizes worth ¥1 million in Japan’s new “Dream Jumbo” lottery, to be drawn on June 14. First prize is a cool ¥200 million.
  • According to the World Health Organization, Japanese women are—once again—the world’s longest-lived persons. Their life expectancy is 86 years.
  • Japanese men tied for second place on the life-expectancy list with Iceland, Australia, Switzerland and Israel (80 years), trailing only San Marino’s 82.
  • However, the WHO warned: “Unless the Japanese control their smoking epidemic, they will likely be overtaken by Australia.”
  • A knife-wielding assailant robbed a pachinko parlor employee of ¥1.6 million in Osaka. Police are on the lookout for a man wearing “a cap, a white flu mask, glasses, a white shirt and black trousers.”
  • A lawsuit filed by 14 Muslims claims they “were forced to leave their jobs and live apart from their families” after antiterrorism documents compiled by the MPD were leaked onto the internet.
  • It was reported that residents near the Futenma air base in Okinawa are concerned about the US military’s decision to replace its fleet of CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters with “accident-prone” MV-22 Ospreys.
  • Kobe Steel said it has invested a whopping ¥4 billion in a Chinese company that specializes in manufacturing “large processed gas compressors,” whatever the heck those are.
  • Cops busted a high-ranking official of the Japan Housing Finance Agency for receiving ¥2 million worth of bribes from a Tokyo financial firm.
  • Bottom Story of the Week: “Gift of Gloves Reignites Dreams” (via The Daily Yomiuri)

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