Genocide Mascot

I just had to show you this.

Fire!

There's a fire in an apartment across the street.



This is the whole scene



One of the many fire trucks parked outside the hairdressers.



Our brave Fire Fighter doing what he does best. Though while watching this I thought that the apartment and shop below are screwed, because the volume of water going in is going to damage anything that the smoke didn't destroy.

I wonder what caused it, but more importantly I hope no one has been hurt.

Nova Chief Arrested

Nozomu Sahashi, former president of bankrupt Nova Corp., was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of misusing some ¥320 million of the company's funds held in reserve for employee welfare programs.

Read: Former Nova chief arrested

It's about time! It's interesting how someone who steals ￥300 of fish from the supermarket can be arrested immediately, while someone who steals ￥320,000,000 can roam free for the best part of eight months. It was eight months ago that I wrote my post about the possibility of Nozomu Sahashi going to jail, why has it taken so long for the Japanese Keystone Cops to do anything about it?

Anyone who was half awake would have seen that Nova was going to go down in a tower of flames. The beginning of the end for Nova was back in April 2007 when they were punished for their illegal cancellation policy. In July 2007 things were looking shaky and they were looking for partners to bail them out. In early October Nova was in really deep trouble and by the end of the month it was all over for Nova.

Six months to go from court case to collapse and Eight months to go from collapse to arrest. Can anyone explain to me why it took the police investigating this matter SO FRIGGING LONG to bring Sahashi in?

Japan Is Safe

The recent knife attacks in Akihabara do not worry me at all.

Japan is a safe country with a statistically low crime rate. When I was living in Sydney I would often see bashings or the results of crime. I miss driving through Cabramatta and seeing 4-5 burned out cars in the morning.

Walking around, drunk, in most of Tokyo is quite a safe proposition. Sure I've been offered "massages" and I've seen Yakuza standing on street corners smoking next to a no-smoking sign. But that's the worst of it.

I've never seen a used needle on the street like I would in Sydney. I've never seen smashed glass on a shop window as I would in Sydney. It's difficult to find graffiti which would be easy to find in Sydney.

Lastly why my faith in Japan's safety isn't shaken.



While I have never lived with gun violence I am aware of what goes on in major American cities. Japan is a quiet country town by comparison for crime and violence. Life in Japan is great, working in Japan is somewhat difficult.

Prices are going up

The nation's major oil wholesalers increased their product prices Sunday, blaming higher crude oil prices and prompting gasoline stations across the nation to hike their prices to as high as the upper ¥170 level per liter.
Read: Gas prices start to jump

Yes, we are really feeling the pain of increasing petrol prices here in Japan. In the last few months I have seen many products that have been price stable for many years suddenly jump up in price.

Van Houten Cocoa was ￥105 now ￥116
Mt Ranier Coffee was ￥145 now ￥155
Steak lunch was ￥750 now ￥850
Flag fall on a taxi was ￥660 now ￥710

And that's what Ive seen in the last two months. Luxury items like Starbucks coffee has remained stable but I know that lessons at my school have gone up but our wages haven't.

Things are starting to feel a little expensive here in Japan.

Cost of MP3 players to rise

The Japanese government will propose this week a plan to charge copyright royalties on sales of iPods and other portable digital music players, as well as on digital hard disk recorders, a major daily newspaper reported Tuesday.

Read: Japan to propose copyright fees on iPods, digital recorders

Great! I am 100% in favor of this. 100￥ per player? No problem. That's about 100￥ every 2-3 years to remove the last spot of guilt I felt about downloading & sharing music. I certainly wasn't feeling guilty about ripping off mega corporations who sue individual users.

I think this proposal is an admission of failure to stop computer piracy and they are simply adopting the approach of Tax Everyone, even those who do the right thing. So I suggest we support this law, help it go through and then give up buying media once and forever! (though I will always buy originals of Hayao Miyazaki DVD's)

Though if you truly want to support your favorite artist, go to a concert instead. They make more from each performance than they do from the CD.

This is a joke, right?

Schools will not move to stop using words like mum and dad, or girlfriend and boyfriend, the NSW Education Department says, despite reports that public schools are under pressure to provide gay-friendly environments.

Read: Mum's the word as gay lobbyists denied

This is a joke, right? This can't be serious?

Because someone makes a lifestyle choice and then chooses to un-naturally bring children into it, they want to stop calling me Dad? Are they out of their minds.

I don't mind equal rights for gays & lesbians but when you expect to drag my natural name of Dad down to that of Partner, you go too far friend. Don't expect to be treated the same when you are not.

The natural way to be a parent is two people who love each other, are married and financially stable decide to bring a child into the world that they know they can love, care for and support.

Not those who leave it too late and have to resort to IVF, there's a lime limit on fertility for a reason.

Not those who decide to put the connector in the wrong hole, that's biologically impossible.

Not those who cannot support the child properly, if you can't look after it properly, don't have one.

For the record, I'm an Atheist. I firmly accept evolution as proven scientific fact. I also accept that homosexuality has a proven place in evolution too. But not for the purposes of producing children but supporting others who choose to do so.

So don't you dare challenge what my children can and can't call me, don't you dare bring me to your level. I'm not a cowboy, so don't call me partner.

Dolphin Hunting

The story of how this film of the barbaric killing and subsequent butchering of dolphins was made — together with the resulting sale of their meat that massively exceeds Japanese and international limits for mercury content — is told here
Read: Secret film will show slaughter to the world

This isn't the first time that I had heard about the slaughter of Dolphins in Japan.

My anger about this subject is based on the cruelty of the slaughter and how unnecessary it is. Considering that the meat is also considered to be unhealthy (Wiki Page , News report Taiji officials: Dolphin meat 'toxic waste' ) it boggles my mind as to why this happens.

It's a crying shame that these things continue to happen in this modern day and age. With so many other, safer, food alternatives why do some people feel the need to continue with such barbaric practices?

Questioning Foreign Crime

Jason at www.j2fi.net wrote a very interesting post about Foreign Crime in Japan.

It's interesting to see how light can be shed upon the detritus that is the Japanese News. However it's a pity that the average Japanese person can't see anything beyond the latest craze, scare or fad.

I get tired of speaking about the news report of Japan being a popular destination for Australian Skiers.

Speaking of scares in the news...

Almost 76 percent of respondents say they "will not use Chinese food from now on" due to the recent contamination of Chinese-made frozen "gyoza" dumplings.
Read: 76% plan to avoid Chinese food

Good. It's better for the environment to eat food that's locally produced and it keeps jobs / money in Japan. Plus I have been dubious about Chinese made products for a long time now.

Contaminated Gyoza Dumplings from China

A least 10 people in Hyogo and Chiba Prefectures have suffered food poisoning after consuming frozen "gyoza" meat and vegetable dumplings from China that contained pesticide, corporate and government officials said Wednesday.
Read: 10 sick after eating tainted 'gyoza' from China

This story broke a couple of days ago but I hadn't had time to cover it. It turns out that vegetables used for the dumplings had been contaminated with some agricultural chemicals which made people sick. It wasn't caught on export as the company had received special export clearance from the Chinese government. It wasn't caught on import as JT only tested for look & taste.

With so many cases of toxic products coming from China I am very surprised that more stringent testing procedures haven't already been introduced.

A Chinese grocery in Kobe's Chinatown has been flooded with phone calls about the safety of its products since the government and police announced Wednesday that 10 people had gotten sick after eating frozen Chinese-made dumplings containing a banned pesticide.
Read: Chinatowns hit by 'gyoza' scare

This is typical of the effect that these things happen in Japan. When a variety show said that Nattou was good for loosing weight, supermarkets were rushed with thousands of housewives buying up their entire stock of the stinky product.

It's going to hurt business for a while but eventually the majority of Japanese will go back to doing the things they usually do. Like rushing to buy toilet paper because a news report said that prices would go up because of oil costs.

Aso, who is no stranger to stirring controversy, fired the latest broadside during a speech in Kumamoto. "I've been saying that Japanese agricultural products are expensive but taste good and are clean and safe," Aso said. "To be blunt, the agricultural cooperatives should thank China. Great value has been added (to Japanese products)."
Read: Aso 'thanks' China for food scare

And we have the loonies. I was grateful that the troglodytes at the LDP didn't elect Aso as he is a right wing nutcase. But at the core of this, there is a point. People should buy food grown locally, to support the local economy and to reduce energy wastage in transport.

Promoting Tourism in Japan

The Cabinet adopted a bill Tuesday to create a new tourist agency under the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry to help increase the growing number of foreign tourists to Japan, particularly those from Asia.
Read: New agency will try to increase foreign tourists

Hey, LDP I have an idea on how you can promote tourism for free.

Drop the mandatory fingerprinting of foreigners!

Financial support for Ex Nova Students

The Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry has decided to provide tuition subsidies of up to ¥200,000 each to some 4,000 former students of bankrupt language school Nova Corp. who enrolled to take advantage of a government training program, sources said Saturday.
Read: 4,000 Nova victims to get tuition deal of ¥200,000

Okay, this is nice as it will spread funds through the rest of the teaching industry and those who took jobs at other schools. But I still haven't seen anything to directly support teachers who are out of a job due to this corporate collapse.

A Sad Ending

The mother of a newborn baby reportedly slain during a robbery last week at their home in Moriguchi, Osaka Prefecture, apparently took her own life Wednesday by throwing herself from a pedestrian overpass, police said.
Read: Mother of baby slain by intruder takes own life

A sad ending to a very sad story.

I couldn't imagine what it would be like to live without my son, especially taken away in such tragic circumstances.

I am at a loss for words.

Japan will not stop protecting farmers

Free-trade agreements are actively being sought as countries worldwide try to boost trade and stimulate their economies, but Japan balks when it comes to liberalizing its agricultural market.
Read: Canada to Japan: Drop farm guard, join FTA

Oh don't make me laugh. Japanese farmers have a disproportionate influence over policy makers in this country that will never see anything happen that's against their interests.

There were fights for years over the expansion of Narita airport, violent protests and many injuries on both sides. And that was for something that was in the national interest.

Foreign rice has been stockpiled for years. Bought under bilateral trade agreements but influence groups restrict it's introduction to the marketplace. I wonder who supports those groups? Hmm.

Also the Japanese farm bank JA, has quite a lot of money on it's books and they are about the only institution that wasn't swayed in the recent Sub Prime Mortgage crisis.

Joseph Caron, dream on mate.

Lina's Coming To Japan

And now for some happy news. W00T!

I got an email from Lina @ Urutora No Hi. She confirmed her dates for arrival in Japan.

I'm looking forward to meeting her in the flesh, though I'll have to buy a mask for the eventual "photo to prove we met" shot. I'm very camera shy about the internet.

My photo will clog the tubes!

Baby Boy Killed

OSAKA (Kyodo) A 2-week-old boy in Moriguchi, Osaka Prefecture, was killed Wednesday night by a suspected burglar who sealed the baby's lips and nose with adhesive tape to stop him from crying, police said.
Read: Osaka burglar smothers newborn, ties up mother

WHAT THE! This just makes me want to cry.

It's times like these that reaffirm my support for hanging in Japan. How could anyone who read this story not cry out for vengeance? I won't lie and say justice, as vengeance is the correct word here.

I hope this monster gets what he deserves, but I have very little faith in the ability of the police force in this country.

Panasonic to Consolidate it's Brands

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. announced Thursday it will rename itself Panasonic Corp. and end the National brand so that its products will be exclusively referred to as Panasonic.
Read: Matsushita, and its products, to only go by Panasonic name

This one is more of the territory of the MarketingDeviant than I. But as it's Japan related, and very important to me, I had to write about it.

At first when living in Australia I had only ever heard of Panasonic and as their products were consistently better than Sony, I chose to buy them. However it always confused me when I saw things like "Made by Matsushita" on the bottom of products. This always made me suspect outsourcing of manufacturing.

Now however after almost two years of living in Japan, I am familiar with all three brands but it is very confusing. When I am on the look out for "Made in Japan" products it's difficult because some times a Japanese brand will be made overseas and a no name brand will be made here. Usually I can rely on Panasonic to be made in this country. For any Australians who say I should be buying something "Made in Australia" I ask what can I buy? Apart from Australian Beef, not very much!

So I think it's a good thing to consolidate the brands. I'm sure that some people out there will get a little misty eyed at the idea of the Matsushita and National brands being taken out behind the barn and being put down, but that's business. If your customers are confused they are going to buy less of your products.

What do you think? Is it good for a company to fragment it's market or should it consolidate? Leave a comment!

Solar New Hope

The government will aim for 30 percent of all households to have solar panels installed by 2030 as part of its efforts to fight global warming, officials said.
Under the target, the number of solar-powered households would increase to 14 million from the current 400,000, and the capacity of such generation would expand 30-fold from the current 1.3 million kilowatts, the officials said.
Read: Solar panels to go in 30% of houses by 2030

Welcome to 2008! And what a nice way to begin the year, with the hope of reducing our environmental footprint.

It's a good start with financial support of the development of low cost solar panels, which would be used in Japan but also exported world wide. Woot! So it means jobs and exports for Japan along with improved environmental sustainability without having to compromise lifestyles.

I'm cynical, you aren't going to get people to give up their AC, heaters and computers - this is a neat way of making people feel less guilty about it. Lets hope the project takes off.

Sensitive Data Leak, Again

Software for installing the Winny file-sharing program was found on a hard-disk drive seized from the home of a Maritime Self-Defense Force sailor who was found in unauthorized possession of sensitive data on the advanced Aegis defense system
Read: MSDF sailor in Aegis leak had Winny link

Duh! How many times does the Japanese government or SDF have to leak sensitive data through a system as simple as Winny? Trusting the integrity of your employees doesn't work. I don't know a single person who doesn't use their work computer for personal use as well. Playing games, surfing the web or downloading pr0n is so unsurprising.

So why can't the system engineers who set up such computers that are going to hold such sensitive data be prevented from accepting unauthorized software? I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to do.

What's more important for these people? National security or the ability to download uncensored AV files? BAH!

Historical facts VS Bureaucrats

The Textbook Authorization Council approved requests Wednesday by textbook publishers to reinstate references to the military's role in forcing civilians to commit mass suicide during the 1945 Battle of Okinawa.
Read: Texts reinstate army's role in mass suicides

I have been following this debate about textbook in Japan for a while, but only with a passing interest. To me it's very curious how bureaucrats can dictate what goes into textbooks despite that information being at odds with recorded historical fact.

It leaves me scratching my head and reminds me a little about the "Intelligent Design" debate in America. Small minded people are everywhere!