Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on March 2010

You must be high

• A research group led by a professor of neurophysiology at the University of Tokyo claims to have identified a chemical in the brain that “creates effects similar to those of marijuana.” The scientists say their findings could eventually help people lose weight, which makes us wonder what they’ve been smoking.
• A new book called The Great Tokyo Air Raid: Records of Korean Victims, Part III is being described as the “first comprehensive study of the damage done to Korean residents in wartime Tokyo.” We suppose parts I and II were about the fun that the Koreans had during the war.
• The newly established Consumer Affairs Agency is mulling whether to cancel an information hotline that was intended to combat a rise in food mislabeling scandals. The agency said that most of the calls “were general consultations or complaints, such as being tricked into buying an expensive item.”
• It was revealed that the National Research Institute for Cultural Properties allowed a museum in Niigata to display 14 Buddhist statues designated as national treasures even though an earlier exhibit was riddled with “spiders and other bugs.”

Bastards

• The People’s New Party threatened to pull out of the ruling coalition with the Social Democratic Party and the DPJ if Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama goes through with plans to grant suffrage to foreign permanent residents.
• The transport ministry scolded Skymark Airlines for firing a pilot who refused to take off on a flight from Haneda to Fukuoka because the chief cabin attendant was sick and wouldn’t have been able to “deal with passengers in an emergency.”
• A 52-year-old professor at an unnamed Hiroshima university was canned for sexually assaulting a female student in a San Francisco hotel room during a “study trip” last year.
• 36-year-old former actor Yasuhiro Fuseishi was busted for organizing “an orgy ring based in some of Tokyo’s top hotels.”

Yeah, that’ll work

• It was reported that the operator of Kansai’s airport wants to change its nickname from “Kanku” to “KIX.”
• In a bid to lure overseas fans of Japanese subculture, the city of Kitakyushu is planning to build an “otaku complex” that will house a manga museum.
• Sony announced that it would release 46-inch and 40-inch versions of its 3D Bravia TVs in the US in June.
• At the same time, JVC said it would shutter its flat-TV manufacturing plant in Tijuana, Mexico, due to poor sales.

All Wired Up

• The National Police Agency (NPA) announced that Japan saw a 5.8 percent rise in cybercrimes last year compared to 2008.
• It was the ninth consecutive year that the number of such cases rose in Japan.
• A total of 6,690 crimes were reported, including 742 cases of child prostitution and 647 of child porn.
• The number of fraud cases, meanwhile, dropped 54 percent.
• The NPA said that 228 people announced their intention to kill themselves online, with two actually going through with it.
• A government-affiliated body called the Local Authorities Systems Development Center found that 193 city and prefectural computer servers “could easily be compromised by a cyber-attack.”

Sic Transit

Illustration by Eparama Tuibenau

• A brand new Series N700 shinkansen—Japan’s most state-of-the-art train—was knocked out of commission with a busted gearbox. JR West ordered inspections of all 632 trains with similar components.
• Numerous specimens of a 5m-long sea beast known as a giant oarfish have been spotted in coastal waters in the Sea of Japan. The fish are more commonly found in ocean areas with a depth of 200m-1,000m.
• In awarding damages against a transportation company whose truck killed a seeing-eye dog, a court in Nagoya said, “Guide dogs are not just walking aids for the visually-impaired and are distinctly different from walking sticks.”
• The latest obsession among train otaku is a yellow shinkansen that’s used to test the tracks between Tokyo and Kyushu. The train, dubbed Dr. Yellow, runs about once every ten days and is supposed to bring good luck to all those who see it.

Law & Order

• A 53-year-old Buddhist monk was busted for setting fire to his temple in Saitama in a bid to collect some ¥300 million in insurance money.
• Two cops in Nara’s anti-organized crime unit are suspected of receiving cash and gifts from gangsters in exchange for inside info about confidential investigations into yakuza operations.