Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on May 2011

SEE YA

Phil Couzens

• A Japanese man was sentenced to 16 years in prison for attempting to smuggle 6kg of hashish into Bali last November.
• A National Police Agency study found that autopsies were performed on only 11 percent of dead bodies last year, leading to worries that “many suspicious deaths have been left uninvestigated.”
• And you thought you were busy: in a four-day stretch earlier this month, Japanese Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto made official visits to Washington, Berlin, Dakar and Brussels.
• Headline of the Week: “Stranded Boat May be Left on Roof” (via The Daily Yomiuri)

FOREIGN INTRIGUE

• The defense ministry said that the number of sorties flown by the ASDF “to intercept foreign aircraft flying near Japanese airspace” surged by 29 percent in 2010.
• Ten Japanese tourists were injured when their sightseeing bus hit a wall in Seoul.
• After the Japanese Embassy in France lodged a complaint with a local TV station for airing a program that mocked the March 11 disaster, the network responded by saying that its show “criticizes anything and is not a news program.”
• The University of Arkansas-Fort Smith has set up a scholarship fund for “two Japanese students who want to study abroad but face financial difficulties because of the [March 11] disaster.”
• Three North Koreans who had been granted asylum at a Japanese consulate in northeastern China were given permission by Beijing to leave for Japan.
• Two mountain climbers died in an avalanche on Mt. Shirouma in Nagano Prefecture, but nine others escaped with their lives.
• During a visit to Tokyo, the Dalai Lama warned that a “cultural genocide is taking place” inside Tibet.
• A meeting of environment ministers from Japan, China and South Korea was held in Busan to discuss bird flu, yellow sandstorms and the need “to promote information-sharing” during extreme natural disasters.
• Talk about dumb luck: it is now believed that the hydrogen explosion at the no. 4 reactor of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant on March 15 might have helped prevent a meltdown “by causing a flow of water into the pool the rods are stored in.”
• The Japan Business Federation announced that 80 percent of its members plan to enact some type of energy-saving program to meet government power-consumption reduction targets by this summer.
• The government has also pitched in by extending its “Cool Biz” promotion for office workers to wear casual clothes by two months.

THE SPORTING LIFE

• Thanks to their performance at last month’s Meiji Cup in Tokyo, twin brothers Shinichi and Kenichi Yumoto will represent Japan at the World Wrestling Championships in Istanbul in September.
• Yomiuri Giants slugger Alex Ramirez broke Hideki Matsui’s team record by hitting in the no. 4 spot in the batting order for 416 consecutive games.
• A 32-year-old man who “was shirtless and screaming” died after ramming his car into a police station in Tochigi.
• The internal affairs ministry said that household spending dropped by a record 8.5 percent in March compared to the year before.
• The same survey revealed that spending on bottled water jumped by 260 percent.
• The Diet approved a law that will make it easier for Japanese people and companies to sue foreign corporations in Japan.
• In a move it says is “in line with its ongoing business realignment,” Panasonic will fire 40,000 workers worldwide by next year.
• Itochu Corp. has inked a ¥100 billion deal with a British consortium to “produce electricity from garbage in Tyne and Wear, England.”
• Meanwhile, major real estate corporation Sekisui House has bought 1,700 hectares of land for development near Seattle.

YOU’VE COME A LONG WAY, BABY

• After beating out hundreds of other hopefuls to earn a spot on the Oakland Raiders’ cheerleading squad, 22-year-old Kisato Nishimura said, “I would like Japanese people to know more about the NFL through dance.”
• A report by the Asian Development Bank and the International Labor Organization found that the lack of job opportunities for women in Asia was costing the region at least $42 billion annually.
• If Japan’s Fair Trade Commission approves the merger of Nippon Steel Corp. and Sumitomo Metal Industries, it will result in the creation of the world’s second-largest steelmaker.
• Mitsubishi says it has developed a forklift that is “the world’s first with a cabin that shields against radiation.”
• A Japanese IT industry group said that domestic shipments of new PCs have regained the levels they were at before the 2008 global financial crisis.
• Four Japanese were reportedly injured in an explosion at a café in Marrakesh, Morocco. Fourteen others were killed in the blast, 11 of them foreigners.
• Fifty-eight people were sickened and four died of E. coli poisoning after eating raw beef at a yakiniku chain in Toyama.
• ANA said that it failed to announce an incident in which five people were hurt by turbulence last month because “it initially thought all five had suffered only minor injuries.” In fact, a flight attendant is in serious condition.

AND FINALLY…

• A piano teacher in Shiga Prefecture said she will attempt to break the Guinness World Record for “most types of instruments played in a single musical performance.” The current record, set in Britain in 2002, is 147.
• It was reported that the number of letters and parcels sent by snail mail in Japan in fiscal 2010 may have fallen below 20 billion for the first time since 1987.
• The internal affairs ministry said that the number of children under the age of 15 has dropped for the 30th consecutive year. According to the ministry, there are just 16.93 million children in Japan, the lowest figure in 60 years.
• Bottom Story of the Week: “Flag Dyer Determined to Keep Traditional Fukushima Horseback Event Alive” (via The Mainichi Daily News)

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