Japan is calling the resolution regrettable.
The U.S. House of Representative has passed its resolution demanding that Japan issue a formal apology for forcing women into service as comfort women during World War II.
Though largely symbolic, the nonbinding resolution has caused unease in Japan and added tension to an otherwise strong alliance. Officials in Tokyo say their country’s leaders, including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, have apologized repeatedly for the Imperial Japanese Army’s forcing of women to work in military brothels in the 1930s and 1940s.
The resolution’s supporters, however, say Japan has never assumed responsibility fully for the treatment of the women.
Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., labeled as “nauseating” what he said were efforts by some in Japan “to distort and deny history and play a game of blame the victim.”
“Inhumane deeds should be fully acknowledged,” said Lantos, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “The world awaits a full reckoning of history from the Japanese government.”
The resolation demands that Japan “formally acknowledge, apologize and accept historical responsibility in a clear and unequivocal manner.”
After decades of denial, the Japanese government acknowledged its role in wartime prostitution after a historian discovered documents showing government involvement. In 1993, the government issued a carefully worded official apology, but it was never approved by parliament. Japan has rejected most compensation claims, saying they were settled by postwar treaties.
According to Wired magazine, exercising is a big problem for Tokyo gals. Manga club meetings and cram school fill up their free time, and there’s no money for a gym membership after paying for cell phone bills and Pocky snacks.
Enter a spate of new “conbini fitness” outlets. No pain no gain–and at a mere 500 yen a shot!
That’s the exact equivalent of five McPork burgers at McDonald’s. Which do you think would be healthier? Hard to say, but it’s clear that for 1000 yen you could have five McPork burgers and then work them off too–perfect!
These health outlets offer coin-op workout stations for impulse exercising. The contraptions’ foot pads churn up and down and back and forth at up to 1,560 times per minute. (One 500 yen coin — about $4.10 — buys 10 minutes.) Maintaining your balance while you shake supposedly has an aerobic effect, though users never break a sweat. “I love that I don’t even have to change clothes,” says 17-year-old Midori Nishioka as she bounces on a conbini machine in Osaka.
Wired adds that, in case gals are worried about pervs ogling their jiggle, many of the clubs are ladies-only or feature privacy partitions.
The Philippine government has ordered the discontinuance of strip searches of suspected Japanese yakuza by immigration officers to look for tattoos. Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan took the action because of complaints about the strip search policy.
Libanan said, “Henceforth, the conduct of monitoring, examination and inspection of departing and arriving passengers shall be limited only to their travel papers and documents.”
At the same time, the immigration chief orders immigration officers to stop inspecting hand-carried luggage of passengers, as this is the function of customs authorities and security officials at the airports.
Libanan adds tattoos alone cannot be the sole basis to bar any foreigner from entering the country. He said immigration officers must only send back anyone to their port of origin if they receive derogatory information about them.
According to Libanan, “Unless a tattoo is morally offensive, indecent and vulgar or [of a] politically and racially insidious depiction, it should be treated as an art.”
The Philippines still, however, will maintain its ban on yakuza entering the country.
Via Mulboyne at FG
Do you think the ruling coalition members learned anything from their election defeat this past weekend?
According to Kazuo Kitagawa, secretary-general of Komeito, which is the coalition partner of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), there wasn’t anything worth learning.
“I think that voters aren’t necessarily rejecting the reform policies of Abe and (former Prime Minister Junichiro) Koizumi,” Kitagawa said.
Kitagawa talked with reporters late Sunday night after voting for the Upper House election finished.
Meanwhile, a survey of voters assign traits like “arrogance” and “untrusworthiness” to the LDP, and “immaturity” and “expectation raising” to the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ).
Only 14 percent of respondents said the LDP “raises expectations,” a drop of 8 percentage points on an identical survey carried out last year, while other positive images of the party also declined.
Meet the gPod, a device produced by a Japanese sex products company that magically outputs the audio signals of a music player, TV, mobile phone, or other device to a specially shaped vibrator.
According to the manufacturer, everything from your boyfriend’s voice to Barry White performances “sounds” better on a gPod.
Via Steve Levenstein at InventorSpot.com
Click here for a pretty good rundown on the LDP’s election loss over the weekend and what it means for the future.
The Japan Times has published a story about Shun Akida, a reporter who is investigating the tunnels that lie beneath Tokyo and the possibility that there is are hidden tunnels that are being deliberately concealed from the public.
The bulk of Shun’s book covers the development of the subway system and questions the many inconsistencies between maps of the past and present — even those that were contemporaneous. “Even allowing for errors, there are too many oddities.”
Shun claims to have uncovered a secret code that links a complex network of tunnels unknown to the general public. “Every city with a historic subterranean transport system has secrets,” he says. “In London, for example, some lines are near the surface and others very deep, for no obvious reason.”
Sitting on the Ginza subway from Suehirocho to Kanda, he says, you can see many mysterious tunnels leading off from the main track. “No such routes are shown on maps.” Traveling from Kasumigaseki to Kokkai-gijidomae, there is a line off to the left that is not shown on any map. Nor is it indicated in subway construction records.
The full article can be found here.
Air China recently reported a 2000 percent rise in net profit over the first six months of 2007. Though it sounds like business must be booming, China blog Danwei, claims that there may be other reasons for the rise: “Air China does not spend any money on edible food, enjoyable inflight entertainment, or computer systems that make their planes depart on time.”
Is there any other kind? A classic example of Chingrish spotted in Xi Dawang Lu, Beijing. The photographer does state: “I mean, I’m all for food porn, but what you do with your vegetables in the privacy of your home is your own business.”
Uploaded to Flickr 02/13/06 by xiaming, Some Rights Reserved.
The Japanese government is claiming the problems that occurred at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station in Niigata Prefecture following a powerful earthquake there were less serious than has been reported, and blames “foreign media organizations” (those that don’t come under the thumb of the kisha clubs) for blowing the whole thing out of proportion.
The Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry blamed foreign media organizations Friday for what the ministries say were inappropriate or inaccurate reports on a nuclear power station in Niigata Prefecture damaged by a powerful earthquake that as a result caused misunderstanding and a drop in tourism.
Niigata Prefecture is meanwhile trying to dispel concern among vacationers by conducting radiation checks at beaches and on marine products that it says have so far tested negative for radiation following troubles, including radioactive water and other radiation leaks, at Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s shoreline Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power station.
Kind of sounds like a scene out of Jaws, doesn’t it?
Karaoke is the famous Japanese tradition of getting up and singing in front of others. The word literally means “empty orchestra” (the “kara” is the same from from karate, in case you were wondering — that word means “empty hand”). Karaoke was invented by Daisuke Inoue, a musician who was asked by his fans to make instrumental-only recordings of his music, which gave him the idea of a “music box” that would pass a microphone signal through speakers (too bad he didn’t think to patent the concept).
I’ve used karaoke as a useful tool for learning Japanese, since memorizing the lyrics of Japanese songs I want to sing is a darned good way of internalizing vocabulary, plus I can sing the song to myself if I forget the word.
In the U.S. I believe most karaoke is done at “karaoke night” at bars or restaurants (although I have to assume this, I will probably be wrong, and you will tell me in the comments), with people choosing a song to sing while everyone watches on, but in Japan the most common way to go singing is a “karaoke box,” a small room that you and your group can rent for an hour or two of private singing. Inside this room, your group can sing as loudly or as badly as they want to, and people who would never sing in front of strangers can find the courage to pick up a mic when it’s just their friends around them.
It’s interesting to observe the kinds of manners that come into play when a group is singing, especially the Japanese concept of enryo, a word which means “to refraining from [doing something].” Everyone sings and has fun, but it’s important not to stuff too many of your own songs into the karaoke machine without constantly checking with everyone else to see if they want to put a song in next. It’s pretty funny to watch when a group of six girls are each saying “no, you first!” to everyone else in the room.
Here is the perfect product for those days when the family pooch comes home dog tired after a hard day romping in the yard – a doggie foot Jacuzzi!
Ashi Kirei Kirei includes the Jacuzzi itself, along with a towel and mat in either pink or blue.
Get it Amazon Japan.
Price: 5,800 yen
Fido will love you for it.
Via Plastic Bamboo
Tokyomango reported that the movie Sukeban Deka: Kôdo nêmu = Asamiya Saki or Yo Yo Delinquent Girl Cop has now premiered in the United States. Maybe a TV series will follow? But maybe that wouldn’t be as good–the remakes and TV series usually aren’t. However, the movie at least still has everything going for it, including Aya Matsuura–how can it miss?
If you came of age in Japan in the 80s, you’ll remember a popular manga series called Sukeban Deka. What’s not to remember about a hot delinquent bad-ass teenager who infiltrates high schools to solve crime? Boys loved her short skirts and girls loved that she was stronger and smarter than anyone around. The protagonist, Saki Asamiya, doesn’t carry a gun or a samurai sword or anything, just a yo-yo and a whole lot of attitude … Yo-Yo Girl Cop features hot girls in school uniforms and leather beating each other up, otakus with bomb, mysterious Web sites, bombs, bullies, and deadly yo-yos. If you love campy fights scenes and Japanese girls, you’ll love it.
Sorry to announce that personal business and the time spend implementing the new design has left me with a lack of time. Because of this, there will be no podcast this week.
Hotels in Japan seem to be agreeing with Benjamin Franklin that “Fish and visitor’s stink after three days” as they install air purifiers in order to rid their rooms of foreign smells and the smells of foreigner guests.
According to a recent report in The Mainichi, hotels in Osaka are working hard to eliminate the smell of cigarette smoke from their rooms for the sake of the foreign visitors that are expected during the World Athletics Championships in August.
It also reports that hotels in Kyushu also are using air purifiers in order to cope with a different smell – that of the kimchi brought by guests from Korea.
An official at a hotel in Nagasaki said, “Japanese people don’t like the strong, lingering smell of kimchi. They often ask to change rooms if the smell of kimchi lingers. But we don’t want to lose Korean guests by banning kimchi in rooms.” So the hotel has decided to buy 140 air purifiers.
Meanwhile, air purifier manufacturers are saying everything is coming up roses as far as sales are concerned.
