A short news report about the growing popularity of a new coupon sharing site in Japan:
In the first part, they check out a site called Q:Pod. It offers coupons to a limited number of people within a limited time frame. However, a certain number of people must claim the coupon within that time frame, otherwise the coupon will not be valid. Q:Pod is owned by Groupon, an American coupon sharing site that has been quite successful.
They watch as a restaurant manager puts a coupon up on Q:Pod. Within a few minutes, a couple people have claimed their coupons. As people use twitter to spread the news about the coupons they claim, the coupon becomes more popular. The manager is very impressed with the results. He had offered coupons through the internet before, but with this service it is much easier to see how coupons can really attract new customers.
The Korean pop group Girls Generation came to Tokyo last week to give their first Japan concert. Thousands of fans attended their performances and they got a lot of media coverage:
A few interesting things about them:
Fans seem to really like their legs and their dancing.
They have translated their group name into Japanese and use the kanji “少女時代” instead of something written in katakana.
They have one song in Japanese (“Genie“), and it looks like some of them can speak a little bit of Japanese.
Most of their fans are young women, but they do find one older guy who has turned his daughter into a fan. “Death Note” Director Shusuke Kaneko is also a fan.
Oh, and here is a screen capture of some American fangirls who were featured in the report. They said they met each other on the internet, so maybe there’s a chance they might stumble across this post. Here you go:
Japanese police have raided a Chinese massage parlor in Yokosuka and arrested 24 people:
The parlor, which was located near an American naval base, had actually been a brothel offering illegal sex services to members of the American military. It managers and the women who worked there were Chinese.
The Yomiuri Shimbun has reported the raid as part of Japan’s preparations for the APEC summit that will be held in Yokohama in November. I’m not really sure how the arrests of prostitutes in Yokosuka changes the security situation in Yokohama, but I guess the police want to show off some statistics that demonstrate how they have cut down on “international” crime.
Related Reading: Despite ban, Yokosuka sex trade flourishes – ‘Massagy girls’ finding no shortage of clients near base (2006)
A group of 3 Nigerians, 2 Japanese and one Ghanaian have been arrested for international money-laundering:
The six are suspected of having received funds that were the proceeds of a crime, wired to them from a New York Citibank account in the name of the National Bank of Ethiopia, Japan’s Metropolitan Police Department said.
Police said they had arrested a Nigerian citizen, Nyeche Obeneme, 36, living in Saitama, north of Tokyo, and two other Nigerian men as well as a Ghanaian man, and a Japanese man and woman.
Police suspect the six between them received up to 200 million yen (2.4 million dollars) in October 2008, allowing the money to be wired into their bank accounts in return for commissions.
The money is believed to be part of roughly 33 million dollars that were wired to accounts in seven countries, also including China, South Korea and Australia, Kyodo News reported.
A Japanese company called Omron recently developed something it calls “Smile Measurement Software.” The software analyzes an image of a human face and determines whether that face is smiling. An ideal smile would receive a score of 100, while no smile at all would get a score of zero. They have been using the software to visit companies across Japan that want to improve customer service. It’s been especially popular at fast food chains, which always want their employees to provide service with a smile.
Do Japanese people need to improve their smiles? The “Mezamashi TV” morning show recently ran a test of the smile software to see how Japanese smiles measured up against other countries’ smiles:
Here are the results for Japan, Russia, the United States, France, and Thailand:
As you can see, Japan came in last. Thailand, which many people in Japan know as “the land of smiles,” came in first place. The result seemed to confirm the claim that Japanese people need to get some special smile training.
Don’t read too much into the results of this test, folks. It was just for fun. A proper test would have obviously required much larger sample sizes and a balance between the two genders. Also, I think that one French dude must have been paid off by team Thailand, because he totally drove down France’s average with his lame smile…
A couple weeks back, a wild monkey was caught in Tokyo and returned to the mountains. However, a couple days ago, a resident of Tokyo’s Itabashi ward called the police to report that a monkey was climbing around on a nearby house:
The eyewitness was a foreign guy who spoke in English to Japanese reporters. As you can see from the video, he was quite certain that it was a monkey. His sketch does look a lot like a monkey, and hand-like markings left behind on a house seem to support his claim.
A Japanese news program interviews foreign tourists on the streets of Asakusa to see how they’re coping with the Yen’s rise in value:
One guy claims that he’s saving money by not eating dinner. A woman whose business relies on foreign tourists says that there has been a definite decline in the number of European and Asian customers.
There’s a very neat article in the Hokkaido Shimbun (Japanese) about a group called Project U-e-peker. The members of the Project have been working hard to translate books so that Ainu culture accessible to an international audience.
Their latest release is “The Ainu and the Bear,” and English translation of a children’s picture book about Iomante. As part of the effort to increase international awareness of the Ainu, 150 copies of the book have been donated to libraries in the United States and Canada.
[Note: At the time of this posting, Amazon.co.jp claimed to only have 2 remaining copies available for order. If you visit the link and it's sold out, try ordering it directly from the publisher.]
A gunman has been shot and killed by police after taking hostages at the American headquarters of the Discovery Channel:
A website registered to Lee criticized Discovery and announced plans for the protest in January 2008: “These guys have been very sneaky and deceptive as to their contribution to the planetary problems. Just look at their ‘new’ show about saving the planet, ‘Planet Green,’ to me, it’s just another show about more PRODUCTS to make MONEY, not about actual solutions. We can’t let them get away with doing it anymore.”
Lee is believed to have distributed a manifesto outside the Discovery building several weeks ago that called on the network to “broadcast to the world their commitment to save the planet.”
“All programs on Discovery Health-TLC must stop encouraging the birth of any more parasitic human infants and the false heroics behind those actions,” the list of demands read.
“In those programs’ places, programs encouraging human sterilization and infertility must be pushed. All former pro-birth programs must now push in the direction of stopping human birth, not encouraging it.”
Discovery owns the Animal Planet network, and most major media outlets feel the need to mention the “Whale Wars” series in their articles, noting that the company had received threats related to the show. One article contained this line:
Sources are saying the suspect is allegedly upset about the documentary called “Whale Wars.”
So far, I haven’t seen any reliable information about the gunman’s views about that TV show [WTOP later edited their article to remove the above-quoted line]. However, his views about the human race being “pollution” and the need to eliminate millions of humans are actually quite similar to those of Sea Shepherd leader Paul Watson. Maybe the gunman thought the Sea Shepherd people on “Whale Wars” were not militant enough, or maybe he thought that Discovery was simply not putting enough focus on other issues? I’ll update this post as information becomes available….
Update: Mother Earth Network and AOL News now have articles up that discuss how Lee’s actions can be seen as “eco-terrorism” akin to the actions of Sea Shepherd and the ELF. I have found a fewonline postings by Lee that hint at his thoughts about whaling:
It’s really not about me. It’s about the pandas, lions, giraffes, dung beetles, worms, cockroaches, mice, eagles, sharks, whales, and don’t forget about the gorillas not to mention the squirrels. Yes, even the numerous squirrels.
The Discovery Channel produces a lot of shows about saving the planet that all have one thing in common: They don’t work. Why don’t they have REAL shows about SAVING THE PLANET? Have you ever noticed the crap they have on their network about just about everything else but that? They glorify fishermen who are overfishing the planet, they glorify Weapons of Mass Destruction. They highlight shows about people who build pollution machines and other environmentally harmful practices. What’s next? Whaling the Planet with Modern Whalers???
Both posts were made in early 2008. “Whale Wars” did not air until later that year.
A TV Tokyo police special that aired last weekend contained this brief segment about Gunma police arresting a foreigner:
The cops stop the man because he is riding around without a bicycle light. When they ask to see his alien registration card (they say “Alien card” in English), the man says he doesn’t have one. A search of his wallet reveals that he does have such a card, but it expired back in 2006. He admits that he is overstaying his visa. They ask for his passport, but he claims it was stolen.
He tells them he has children, hoping that they will show mercy and ignore his crime. However, the cops cannot ignore the fact that he has already admitted to being an illegal immigrant. The man is taken back to the station for further questioning, and it is discovered that he had entered Japan 18 years ago on a 90-day visa. Oddly enough, the TV show doesn’t mention the man’s nationality. [Judging from the mention of the Oizumi police department, this arrest probably took place in an area that has a very large South American population.]
The TV show uses ridiculously dramatic music and graphics to make it seem like the police have arrested a mass-murderer. The man speaks broken Japanese and may not fully understand all the questions the officers ask him, but the narrator is quick to declare him a liar. It was pretty lame, but to be fair, the show over-sensationalized all of its segments, not just the one about the illegal immigrant.
A report about two blob-like lifeforms that are threatening the peace of this nation:
The first part is about jellyfish, where seem to have increased in number compared to this time last summer. Their stings can be quite painful.
The second part is about Bryozoans. In one part of Fukushima prefecture, the heat and lack of rain has caused them to multiply. They don’t cause any direct harm to humans, but they can clog-up farm irrigation systems.
Asahi TV news reports on an interesting new development: drinking establishments that are holding daytime drinking parties.
Their reporter visits an izakaya in Kabuki-cho at 1:00PM on a weekday. They find that it is full of female customers, many of whom have brought along their children. It is somewhat odd to hold a drinking party during the day, but these women say that they can’t drink in the evenings because they have got to do things like make dinner for their husbands and make sure their kids are in bed.
Drinking establishments are offering daytime food courses at a fraction of what they would cost at night. The course shown includes 10 different foods and all-you-can-drink alcohol for 2,480 yen. That’s apparently a pretty good deal. Until recently, such deals did not exist, but the economic downturn has caused a significant drop in the number of evening drinking parties. To make up for those losses, they are now also targeting housewives, retired people, and anyone else who is able to drink during the day.
The izakaya featured in the report also has a special play room for little kids. While the housewives get drunk, restaurant staff watch over the children.
A Japanese commercial for a body/facial hair removal product for men:
The product is promoted by a trio of dancing white guys, all of whom have hair-free faces and chests. Those that choose not to use this product are doomed to end up looking like hairy gorillas! [It brags about having lots of worldwide sales, but in other countries it has mostly been marketed towards women.]
Somewhere out there, the spirits of Japan’s bad-ass bearded samurai are shedding a tear for the future of Japanese manhood….
“Nanikore” visits a playground at an elementary school in Tochigi prefecture to check out a really weird object:
The weird thing is a monument created 35 years ago by a graduating class, and I’m guessing the creepy faces are meant to represent the kids of the class. Although kids freely play on it, there are some rumors going around that it is haunted.
The Japanese government has apparently decided that they will use taxpayers’ money to fund private schools that teach students loyalty to Kim Jong-il’s North Korean regime:
The ministry has ruled that foreign schools, such as international schools outside the national school system, are eligible in principle for free education. However, the pro-Pyongyang schools do not comply with the policy’s criteria, which stipulate the schools must be equivalent to Japanese high schools through checks with the home countries concerned, or that their curricula are accredited by an international organization.
However, a majority of the expert panel thought it reasonable to consider the pro-North Korean schools as having similar courses as Japanese high schools because many Japanese universities have granted admission to graduates of the pro-Pyongyang schools, whose course of study somewhat follows their Japanese counterpart.
If the ministry decides in favor of the pro-North Korean schools, it will provide annual education grants of about 120,000 yen per student, backdated to April.
This is a truly unfortunate development. If the schools do not comply with the policy’s criteria, there is no need to go out of one’s way to rationalize their inclusion in the program. It is very sad that the Japanese government lacks the courage to deny public funding to schools with ties to a hostile totalitarian regime.
Japanese police use a robot arm to take care of some suspicious luggage during an anti-terror drill in Roppongi:
The drill was part of the preparation for November’s APEC summit in Yokohama. It was meant to show how Japanese police are ready for terrorist threats against foreign dignitaries who may be staying on hotels in Tokyo/Yokohama.
A reader in the States who saw Friday’s episode of “Blood Dolphins” has sent some screen captures of dolphin rights activist Ric O’Barry reading Japan Probe to find out the latest news about the Taiji dolphin hunt:
And here is the video:
The segment was filmed last year, right after it appeared that Taiji would not go forward with its annual dolphin hunt. At the time there were several optimistic reports in the international press claiming that foreign pressure had forced Taiji’s fishermen to give up on dolphin hunting. I made a post pointing out that the Japanese media was reporting that the hunt was taking place and dolphins had been captured, and it looks like O’Barry read that post. [Animal Planet's cameraman is kind enough to zoom in on the site name, so that all the people watching at home can know the name of the site.]
He even scrolled down and read some of the comments. He takes note of nakamura25’s comment that asked, “Where is Ric O’Barry?” When O’Barry finds Kitty’s “My Grandma makes an awesome dolphin burger!” comment, he has to turn away from the computer in disgust. If Kitty is still reading this site, he/she must be grinning with delight right now.
Wild monkeys in Japan usually avoid human beings, but it looks like a group of them in Shizuoka Prefecture have started attacking people:
Wild monkeys inflicted biting and scratching injuries on 43 people from Aug. 22 to Aug. 25 in the neighboring Shizuoka Prefecture cities of Mishima and Susono, it has been learned.
Reports of monkey sightings in areas of Mishima including residential communities in the hills near the Hakone mountain range began coming to authorities in June. From Aug. 22 to Aug. 24, 26 people were reported to have sustained injuries from monkey attacks. On Aug. 24, the city set up a task force and began trying to capture the monkeys.
According to a more recent news article, the number of attack victims has reached 55.
Three Siberian tiger cubs at the Tama Zoo now have names:
The tigers have been given athletic names: Keisuke (after soccer player Keisuke Honda ), Mao (after figure skater Mao Asada), and Ai (after golfer Ai Miyazato)
Ichiro Ozawa, the shady “Shadow Shogun” who controls a significant part of Japan’s ruling party, has said some not-so-kind things about Japan’s ally:
“I like Americans, but they tend to be simple-minded,” he said during a speech in the capital, using a Japanese idiom that literally means ‘monocellular’. He also offered some back-handed praise for U.S. democracy: ”I don’t think (Americans) are very wise,” he said, “but I highly rate their ability to put their choices into practice.”
Mr. Ozawa, who may stand for the DPJ presidency (and hence the job of prime minister) in elections next month, also said the election of Barack Obama as the first black U.S. president was something he previously thought “impossible” as he thought a black president “would have been assassinated”.
The U.S. Embassy in Tokyo declined to comment on the remarks.
This isn’t the first time the party heavyweight has put his foot in it. In November last year, he called Christianity “exclusive and self-righteous” and said that U.S. and European societies were at a “dead end”.
He also said he doesn’t like British People:
Mr Ozawa, the former secretary-general of Japan’s ruling Democratic party said the way prisoners of war marched in orderly ranks in “The Bridge on the River Kwai” demonstrated the best qualities of the British.
But he added that he had an aversion to the British. He said: “I don’t like British people”
Joshua Keating wrote the following response over at Foreign Policy Passport:
“Bridge on the River Kwai,” if you’re not familiar with it, is the story of a group of British POWs trying to maintain their dignity while subjected to forced labor and occasional torture by their Japanese captors. Not quite sure Ozawa got the message of that film.
It might also be fair to say that Ozawa has a low opinion of the Japanese people. Polls consistently show that Japanese voters do not want Ozawa to become Prime Minister, yet the man appears to be going ahead with plans to challenge Naoto Kan in the DPJ’s September 14th presidential election. If he wins, he would become Japan’s third Prime Minister in a 1-year period. [Winning would also apparently protect Ozawa from prosecutors who are trying to indict him for corruption.]
Haneda Airport is going to open its new international terminal in October, so Japanese police put on a show for the press to let everyone know that there’s no need to worry about their readiness to deal with terrorists:
“Mezamashi TV” visits Shinagawa Station to observe how people are using the new smart vending machine that can recommend drinks based on the appearance of customers:
A few interesting points from the video:
High school girls think it’s cool.
Some customers have trouble figuring out what part of the screen needs to be touched in order to buy a drink.
When it detects a young man, it recommends a sports drink or bottled water.
When it detects a woman, it recommends tea or bottled water.
It has trouble detecting faces when eyes are blocked by dark sunglasses.
At the end of the clip, the reporter says that the manufacturer of the vending machine plans to produce 500 more touch panel machines within the next two years.
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