Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on March 2011

Oh Deer

• Several deer have inexplicably taken to chewing on a metal chain at a temple in Nara, prompting one tourist to ask, “Are they suffering from an iron deficiency?”
• Staff at an aquarium in Oita were wondering why a sloth named Santa was not interested in mating with a female sloth at the facility—until they discovered that Santa was also a female.
• Gogo, a 6-year-old male polar bear at Osaka’s Tennoji Zoo, is being set up with Baffin, a 19-year-old female polar bear from the Hamamatsu City Zoo. Sure hope Gogo goes for older women.
• The aptly named pro wrestler Rongai “Hopeless Case” Nosawa was arrested in Sendai after driving off in a taxi while drunk. The frightened cabbie had bailed out after Nosawa berated him for being unable to find the wrestler’s hotel.
• A 15-year-old Saitama boy was arrested after trying to stab a female classmate, later telling the cops, “I confessed my love in an email, but she rejected me. I was going to kill her and then myself.”

Nothing like a Good Ol’ Scam

• A Fukuoka man arrested for extorting money by causing traffic accidents and pretending to be a victim fessed up that he had pulled the stunt about 100 times.
• Meanwhile, an accountant and a musician were accused of swindling some ¥15 million from 83-year-old actress Mariko Miyagi, who also serves as the director of a school for disabled children in Shizuoka. Police figure the real damage could run up to ¥500 million, however.
• It was alleged in court that kabuki actor Ebizo Ichikawa got the crap kicked out of him in November after he head-butted an ex-bosozoku motorcycle gang leader and tried to make him drink booze from an ashtray.
• In the wake of the latest bout-rigging scandal, an NHK-affiliated publisher announced that it will stop producing the bi-monthly sumo magazine Ozumo Chukei.

Skeletons in the Closet

• Government officials have ordered that the former site of a Tokyo “medical school” linked to the infamous Unit 731 be dug up for examination after a former nurse said she helped bury body parts there as American forces moved in at the end of World War II.
• A Japanese man in his 20s was reported among the 12 victims when a tourist boat sank in Vietnam’s Halong Bay.
• It was reported that cables uncovered by WikiLeaks describe how Japan has established a secret CIA-like intelligence-gathering unit “to spy on China and North Korea and gather information to prevent a terrorist attack.”
• Tokyo police have busted a ring of Chinese thieves who targeted luxury hotel rooms in the city. At least 20 hotels in Tokyo reported break-ins since December.

Keeping it in the Family

• A 19-year-old man was arrested after menacingly waving a box-cutter at passersby at Shinjuku station. All this happened five days after the guy’s 15-year-old brother posted a message online saying he was going on a stabbing spree at the same place.
• A 70-year-old man was arrested in Chiba after strangling his 92-year-old mom to death at a cemetery. “I believed I was indebted to my family because I felt my mother was giving trouble to [our relatives],” he told investigators.
• See if you can follow us on this one: the Supreme Court has ruled that grandchildren cannot inherit their grandparents’ assets “if their parents, who were supposed to inherit them according to the ancestors’ will, died earlier than the grandparents.”
• An official from automaker Toyota has proposed installing some 250,000km of cycling lanes across Japan over the next five years to cut down on car accidents involving cyclists.
• The government plans to revise the Basic Law for Persons with Disabilities to require cops “to show greater consideration to handicapped suspects when questioning them.”
• The head of a Buddhist sect who failed to report about ¥200 million in personal income from composing calligraphy for art dealers said he didn’t realize he was doing anything wrong.

Technically Speaking

Illustration by Shane Busato

• Japanese researchers have come up with an X-ray photography system that’s “1,000 times more sensitive than conventional equipment.” The researchers hope the system will be able to help detect cancer and other diseases at early stages.
• A joint project involving Chiba University and researchers from France and Germany has managed to create the world’s smallest magnetic sensor. The new device is one-hundredth the size of regular sensors but ten times as sensitive.
• The mayor of the City of Osaka and the governor of Osaka Prefecture are in a debate over a refusal to debate through Twitter. Mayor Kunio Hiramitsu wants no part of it, while Gov. Toru Hashimoto is all set to tweet away.
• Koichi Wakata, a 47-year-old Japanese astronaut, was named head of the International Space Station for the ISS’s 39th expedition.
• The Keio line is joining the JR Saikyo line in using security cameras to try to cut down on onboard molesters.
• A pair of Japanese stem-cell researchers are in line to pick up Israel’s Wolf Prize of medicine.
• It is hoped that an artificial reef made from ceramic tiles and bamboo will attract fish off the coast of Awaji in Hyogo Prefecture.

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

• Officials in Miyakonojo in Miyazaki Prefecture ordered residents to evacuate due to threats of a mudslide from ash that had built up following the eruption of nearby Mt. Shinmoe.
• Russian authorities in Sakhalin admitted they shot a flare at a boat near a group of islands claimed by Japan.
• A recently declassified document has revealed that in 1969, the US demanded Japan pay $650 million to finance costs related to the 1972 reversion of Okinawa to Japan from US control.
• A Chinese man and his wife were arrested at Narita Airport with 7kg of stimulants worth about ¥630 million. The drugs were hidden in boxes of powdered milk.

Compiled from reports by Japan Today, The International Herald Tribune/Asahi Shimbun, The Daily Yomiuri, The Japan Times, Mainichi Daily News, The Associated Press, AFP, CNN, Reuters and Kyodo