Episode 020 of the Japundit Podcast is now available on the Japundit Podcast website and at FeedBurner.

* Japundit joejobbed again
* Japundit hits 1,000,000 visitors!
* Miyoko Kawahara
* Crapman
* Coffee shop for female otaku
* Police ordered to pay for failure to help man
* Phishing catches big one in Japan
* Ginza honeybees
* Luxury items making a comeback in Japan
* Loan company trouble spells trouble for Chihuahua sales
* Musician loses and finds valuable flutes

Japundit Contributors:
Danny Bloom in Taiwan, David Weber in Tokyo, Marie Mockett in New York, Sylvain Bouchard in Sendai, Mike Plugh in Akita, Tubbypaws in the U.K., Tokyoid in London, Bill (Ampontan) Sakovich in Kyushu, JP in Tokyo

Music
Podsafe Music Network
* There’s So Many Ways I Can Kill You by Madsumo
* Blackheart Blues by Melissa Forbes
* Wandering by Plastic Soul Band
Garageband
* Nice Neighborhood by Chad Steward

Inspiration:
Phil Hendrie

Brought to you by J-LIST

Japan is locked in a debate over revision of the nation’s Fundamental Law of Education, which has been in place and unchanged since it was enacted during the U.S. postwar Occupation.

Some in Japan say that the revisions are necessary in order to eliminate Occupation rules that were designed to destroy Japanese nationalism, while critics in China and South Korea say that a rise in Japanese nationalism has the potential of setting off a new round of Japanese militarism.

The revision would make it a goal of education policy to cultivate “an attitude that respects tradition and culture, loves the nation and the homeland that have fostered them, respects other nations, and contributes to peace and development of international society.”

The phrase is the result of a compromise between the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which sought stronger wording on patriotism, and its junior coalition partner, the New Komeito.

Japan Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi is claiming his reforms have accounted for Japan’s improving economy.

“When I came to office, the economy was in a slump and I was blamed for that,” said the maverick 64-year-old leader with his silvery mane of hair and passion for rock-and-roll.

“However, now we see the real growth rate of 2.7 percent in the last fiscal year, compared to a minus growth when I first assumed the post.

“The unemployment rate has also improved to 4.1 percent from over five percent in the beginning of my term,” he told a parliamentary committee on administrative reform.

When Koizumi came to office five years ago, he pledged to institute revolutionary reforms, even if it led to the destruction of his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).
Despite Japan’s improving economic conditions, there are critics who are claiming that Koizumi’s policies are also causing inequalities in Japanese society, which had long prided itself it providing a comfortable living for all of its citizens. In fact, this topic has been getting quite a bit of face time on TV shows and in newspaper editorials.

Asked about the disparity between the rich and the poor, Koizumi suggested that a wealth gap was not always a bad thing.

“There used to be false egalitarianism, where there is no difference between those who work hard and those who don’t. Many would agree with me that hard-working, competent people should be rewarded,” he said.

I’ve always been one to leave the Rough Guide/Lonely Planet in the hotel room (especially in South America) as you might as well wear a t-shirt with ‘Mug me’ written on it… but the MSM has got in on the whole reader generated content thing with the UK Guardian’s ‘Been there’ section.

As far as Japan goes, Tokyo has a whopping 128 tips for a nicer stay while Kyoto manages only four (‘Avoid English bars’ speaks the voice of bitter experience), though these range from family-orientated to boozy (why not have sections for different classes of reader?). If this is to work then Japundit readers ought to get in on the act or leave gaijin perceptions moulded by this kind of site.

Speaking of the MSM treatment of Japan (‘Not just ritual suicide and manga porn’, apparently), this Beeb story about government funding of speed dating has a veritable checklist of cliché, though if I was a Japanese male I’d seriously think of heading to China and avoiding the awkward embarrassment. There’d be no need for such ‘novel’ measures if the system actually let employees have the time outside of work to meet members of the opposite sex. But that wouldn’t make for amusing journalism.

Have you ever wondered, as I often do, whether anyone really falls for all those hokey phishing schemes that often are said to originate out of Nigeria?

Apparently a sucker is indeed born every minute, and so the phishers know that if they spread theirs nets wide enough chances are they will be able to catch enough to make their efforts worthwhile.

This morning’s Daily Yomiuri had a story of a how the former president of the Japan Skating Federation got into trouble when he embezzled 9 million yen of organization funds in order to cover personal losses he suffered “in a fraudulent asset management proposal that originated in Nigeria and which was widely circulated on the Internet.”

Frank Gibney, a former reporter and editor at Newsweek magazine, reported for many years from and about Japan. He recently passed away at age 81, with Newsweek carrying this brief note:

Gibney dedicated his life to bridging the gap between East Asia and the United States.

He was one of the few military officers trained to speak Japanese in WWII, and later wrote and edited several books on Japan and Asia. Gibney also worked as a speechwriter for US President Lyndon Johnson. He was once described in [Newsweek] as a “man almost constantly in motion.”

Rest in peace, Frank Gibney.

The Yokohama District Court has ordered the government of Kanegawa to pay 5.5 million yen to the survivors of man who claim that police incompetence may have contributed to his death.

Back in July 1997, police received a call that a car was stopped in the middle of an intersection in Yokohama. Officers who arrived on the scene found the man unconscious in the vehicle, but left him there after they deduced that he was probably drunk. Eleven hours later, the man was taken to a hospital where he died.

“The man might have survived if the officers in charge had rescued him,” Presiding Judge Fumiaki Tsuchiya said as he handed down the ruling.

The family had also demanded further compensation from a doctor who apparently falsely claimed to have performed an autopsy on the dead man and forged a medical certificate. During the trial, DNA tests showed that tissue samples that the doctor had claimed were from the dead man actually belonged to someone else.