October 26, 2011

October 26, 2011

This week's required reading

By

Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on October 2011

NICE BOOBS ON THE DEAD GUY

  • Headline of the Week: “Autopsy shows man found dead in Nagano Prefecture had breast enlargement surgery” (via The Mainichi Daily News)
  • Close runner-up (via The Tokyo Reporter): “Deflation cutting hand-job prices to the bone” (on depression-induced discounts in shady massage joints… as low as ¥2,700 in some places, in case you were wondering)
  • A team of Japanese researchers who came up with a wasabi fire alarm, which wakes people up by releasing a cloud of wasabi mist in burning rooms, were honored with the Ig Nobel prize for chemistry by Harvard University.
  • The Japan Racing Association, the local overseers of horse racing here, revoked the license of a top trainer over his ties to the yakuza. Apparently the guy had been swindled out of some ¥10 million by the Yamaguchi-gumi.
  • The Japan Boxing Commission told the Kameda boys to avoid ties with gangsters after several top yakuza members were spotted ringside during Koki Kameda’s WBC title fight in August at the Budokan.
  • The owner of a bunch of sex clubs in Osaka staffed by married women was charged with evading some ¥46 million in taxes. He now faces a ¥62 million fine.
  • Say what? A rugby player was banned for 30 days by the union after saying to some players on a team from Iwate Prefecture, “The quake must have screwed up your minds.” The witty jab was delivered during a scrum.
  • New Zealand rugby legend John Kirwan stepped down as Japan’s national rugby team coach in the wake of the Brave Blossoms’ disappointing World Cup campaign, in which they failed to win a match.

GUINNESS BOOK OF BOGUS RECORDS

  • In yet another cheesy attempt to get into the Guinness Book of Records, J.League soccer club the Kashima Antlers have issued a “giant” fan book, complete with photos and stories of the club’s first 20 years of existence. The book is 90cm tall, 72cm thick, and weighs 20kg.
  • And one more… a team in Fukushima broke the world record for the longest futsal match ever played by playing for 37 hours straight.
  • Gymnast Kyoko Oshima, a wily veteran of the sport at age 25, took part in her eighth World Championships recently in Tokyo, a record for a female Japanese gymnast.
  • Vera Caslavska, a 69-year-old Czech who won a gold medal in women’s gymnastics at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, was finally able to locate the family of the late Ryuzo Otsuka, the man who gave her a ceremonial Japanese sword 47 years ago.
  • Samurai Japan, the nation’s two-time defending World Baseball Classic champion, is here to stay as it was decided to have a permanent, full-time national team in the sport.
  • On the same subject, it was still not decided whether Japan would participate in the next WBC tournament in 2013. MLB and NPB are involved in squabbles over—what else?—money.
  • The Japan Tourism Agency is handing out 10,000 free round-trip airline tickets to Japan to foreign travelers. The only requirement is that the visitors must “publicize their trips on blogs and social media sites.”
  • Promoters of tourism to Kyoto have decided to use the anime character Ikkyu-san to get word out, particularly to would-be Chinese tourists.
  • US electric carmaker Tesla has decided to use primarily Panasonic batteries to power its new line of vehicles.
  • Evoking memories of Tama-chan, a wild harbor seal spotted in Saitama’s Arakawa River has been drawing big crowds of curious onlookers.
  • It was revealed that Japan asked South Korea to maybe not bother bringing up the thorny issue of wartime sex slaves at the UN General Assembly… but they did anyway.
  • Famed kabuki actor Nakamura Shikan, “a living national treasure known for his classical and elegant female roles,” died in Tokyo of lung failure at the age of 83. Nakamura made his stage debut in 1933 at age five.
  • A local bus company employee made a grisly discovery when he found a handbag containing a man’s head in a vacant lot in Kanagawa Prefecture. We take it foul play was, indeed, suspected.

WELL, ALRIGHTY THEN…

  • Cops told organizers of a planned protest called “Occupy Tokyo” not to call the event “Occupy Tokyo” because the name left a radical impression… so they didn’t. One Tweeter suggested calling it “Smiley Happy Clap Clap Tokyo!”
  • The family of deceased pop star Michael Jackson announced plans for two charity concerts in Tokyo in December to benefit victims of the March 11 earthquake. The Michael Jackson Tribute Live concerts will feature The Jacksons performing on stage.
  • Park Sun-young of South Korea’s opposition Liberty Forward Party told reporters that a North Korean defector “made a videotaped testimony confirming that Ms. Yokota is still alive.”
  • Megumi Yokota was abducted from Japan by North Korea agents in 1977 and was alleged to have committed suicide 16 years ago.
  • Japanese toilet-maker Toto “has created a toilet-motorcycle hybrid vehicle that runs entirely on biogas.” The Toilet Bike Neo Project is part of the Toto Green Challenge initiative… or maybe the brown challenge, in this case.
  • Some 300km of coastline in Tohoku, currently encompassing six parks, will be “reorganized into a single national park … as a memorial to the devastation caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake.”

Compiled from reports by AP, Japan Today, Bloomberg, The Japan Times, The Tokyo Reporter, The Asahi Shimbun, The Mainichi Daily News, Daily Yomiuri, AFP, Reuters and Kyodo