And so we say farewell to yet another Minister of Agriculture. It’s often said there’s a revolving door at the Min of Ag., and it’s really been on a spin recently.

The Shinzo Abe administration saw 3 Ministers. You wouldn’t have thought there was time, but surely there was. Toshikatsu Matsuoka, who committed suicide in May of last year, was succeeded by Norihiko Akagi. He lasted all of 60 days but you’ll remember him as the chap who turned up at a press conference with an unshaven and bandaged face, looking like he’d taken the wrong route home.

Masatoshi Wakabayashi then warmed the Ministry seat for about three weeks before Takehiko Endo took over officially. Mr Endo then made Akagi look like a stayer by resigning after a mere 8 days in office. Mr Wakabayashi was called back for his second stint in a fortnight.

Seiichi Ota took over the reins at the beginning of August. And today he’s decided to take responsibility (as is the ministerly tradition) for the tainted rice scandal by buggering off and doing nothing at all to help clear up the mess. Very noble, I’m sure.

That’s 6 ministers in 16 months if you’ve lost count. At this rate, within a few years, we’ll all get a go at being the Agriculture Minister.

No need to look uncute as your home and the world as you know it is crashing down all around you with this fashionably pink Hello Kitty disaster kit, which includes:

• Disaster hood (covering Body)
• Flame retardant blanket
• Pouch
• Crime-prevention buzzer
• Bandanas

Price: 9,800 yen

The Mainichi Daily News has decided to discontinue its WaiWai column because “some readers pointed out” that the content of some of articles has been “inappropriate.”

Thanks to Mr. Pink

Japan has once again made world news; this time with a large earthquake which rocked northern Japan.  The 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck at 8:43 am on Saturday in Iwate Prefecture and killed at least 6 people and injured scores more.  On the Japanese scale, the quake measured 6 out of 7.  I felt the quake all the way down in Yokohama and figured it was a big one based on its long duration.

Coverage of the earthquake:

Google News

Mainichi Daily News

Associated Press

Japan Today

Daily Yomiuri

A Tokyo trucker, Masahiro Fujiwara, 47, has been arrested on charges of counterfeiting after using a colour photocopier to produce about 10 ¥10,000 notes.

His plan was to replace the bills in his wife’s purse with the fake ones, and go out drinking.

His wife, of course, had no notion that the money in her purse was fake, and spent two of the bills later. Which is when the fireworks started.

He reluctantly turned himself in to police after he was grilled by his wife, who suspected that the bills in her purse were fake, according to investigators.

Ah, the image that that sentence conjures up…

I’m not the only one to note the strange synchronicity of Ed’s post on recent Japanese earthquakes, and the very large tremor which rocked China this week. It feels a bit strange to blog about a part of Asia, and to not, at the very least, acknowledge the human tragedy, particularly since China has made the unusual gesture of asking other nations for help.

NPR has a rather harrowing, but gripping account of a family’s search for their two year old son. I can’t seem to embed the player, but you can hop over to the site, and click the “Listen Now” button to hear the narration, which will surely put a human face on this sprawling wreck of a story.

On Monday, Fu Guanyu dropped off her young son, Wang Zhilu, at his grandparents’ house so she could go to work. Minutes later, the earthquake hit.

She rushed back home and saw their apartment building in ruins. She says soldiers came right away to help, but they had no equipment.

It’s a situation that almost beggars belief, but a Nagoya man died on Sunday after having doused himself in kerosene and being given a lighter by police.

Police were called to a domestic disturbance on Saturday night in Atsuta.

Six officers were dispatched to the scene and the man walked out onto the road to greet them, carrying an 18-liter jerry can filled with kerosene. He walked about 200 meters along the road, pouring kerosene over his head as he did so on three separate occasions, using about 5 liters of the flammable liquid.

Incredibly, rather than arrange for the man to have a change of clothes, the police interrogated the man while he was still wearing the kerosene-soaked clothes. They then gave him cigarettes and a lighter when he asked them. The report then becomes a little unclear, but it appears he was then left alone in the interrogation room for 15 minutes during which time he smoked several cigarettes, without by some miracle setting himself alight. It was only later being interviewed by three more officers that the fateful spark occurred.

Deputy Chief Michiharu Kondo, in criticising the officers, added rather inappropriately that the man shouldn’t even have been given cigarettes because the police station has a no-smoking policy.

There’s a report in the Mainichi entitled Booming popularity doubles accident rate at Tokyo’s Mt. Takao, which tells that “there were 43 reported accidents on the mountain last year, almost double the average number from each year from 2004 to 2006.”

Those who go unprepared come in for a roasting from Kenichiro Maruyama, head of the Takao Police Station’s Alpine Rescue Taskforce who says, “OK, so it’s only a small mountain, but it’s a mountain nonetheless. Not thinking enough about what’s needed for mountain climbing is inviting trouble.”

Quite so.

Police are urging anybody visiting Mt. Takao to take appropriate preparations beforehand, including having a plan on how to get down the mountain, preparing sufficient equipment such as water, rain gear and flashlights, understand that mobile phones won’t always work in the area and make reports on planned hikes on Mt. Takao before setting off.

To further underline this point about lack of preparedness, the report states that “many accidents are reported among [...] women going to the mountain while wearing high-heeled shoes.”

A group of Japanese mountaineers setting out on an expedition, yesterday

The Washington Post is running an article from Reuters about the consequences of a big earthquake in Tokyo. It contends that the foot traffic from 12,000,000 people would create incredible crowd densities of more than 6 people per square meter! The article also states that:

The Tokyo metropolitan government said in 2006 that a magnitude 7.3 earthquake under Tokyo would probably kill more than 5,600 people and injure almost 160,000. Official estimates of economic damage have topped more than $1 trillion.

It’s easy to forget in normal day-to-day living just how vulnerable Japan is to huge catastrophes.

planning on visiting japan?
thinking you can get by on your bank of america card and local atms?
think you’ll be fine because you told boa’s fraud department you’d be in japan during the dates of the trip and will be making regular withdraws?

think again

The next time someone tells you that, in case of an earthquake, turn off the gas, get under a table, stand in a doorway, and do all of that other good stuff, remember this video which was taken by a camera that was rolling when the Great Hanshin (Kobe) Earthquake hit in 1995.

Ten people in Japan have become seriously ill after eating gyoza (dumplings) imported from China that were later found to contain high levels of an agricultural insecticide.

Five family members in Ichikawa, Chiba, were taken to hospital suffering from vomiting and diarrhea after they ate the dumplings, while another two women from Chiba and three family members from Takasago, Hyogo Prefecture, also reportedly ate the dumplings.

One of the family members from Ichikawa, a 5-year-old girl, was left unconscious in serious condition, while the other family members fell seriously ill after eating the dumplings, which were sold frozen through a consumer cooperative.

The gyoza were tested by Ichikawa health officials who found the insecticide methamidophos in amounts that far exceeded allowable levels in Japan

I saw a TV report on this story this evening during which a reporter called the company whose factory produced the dumplings. When the reporter asked the woman on the other end of the line for a comment, she became quite irate and said something like, “I don’t know what is being reported in the mass media in Japan so I don’t know what you are talking about.” The news show also said that a company representative told them it was impossible for such a thing to happen with their products.

Developing. . .

While surrogacy is not illegal in Japan, the Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology has banned its members from assisting in surrogate births.

Back in October last year, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare called on the Science Council of Japan to debate “the propriety of surrogacy”, and the council submitted a report last week.

The Ministry of Health’s position, as of 2003 was that “surrogate births should be completely banned with penalties“, while the Science Council’s draft report “suggests that only those who are involved in such practice for profit-making should be punished.”

Penalties should be applied to these cases, it says, “on grounds that surrogate births cannot necessarily be seen as crimes that cause harm to people.” It goes on to say -

Surrogate mothers face physical and psychological burdens and surrogate births impose serious mental effects on children, and that it is “questionable” that surrogate mothers accept the role through self-determination even if they are aware of the risks of surrogate births.

This claim to be looking out for the mental wellbeing of children and mothers angers me. Other Japundits may feel differently. To me, it smacks of deeply chauvinist patronising of ‘the little woman’ who hasn’t the capacity to know what’s best for her. There’s no mention of fathers that I noticed.

A Nagano doctor, Yahiro Netsu, who has famously flouted the ban since 2001, commented on the report -

Netsu said he felt “indignant” that the Science Council is trying to deny the spirit of self-sacrifice of surrogate mothers who help others in difficulties despite their own physical risk.

While Netsu said he supports punishing doctors who assist surrogate births for profit, the doctor charged that the council has failed to listen to people who have difficulty conceiving. The report “gives the impression that the council is trying to impose the opinions of scholars on patients,” he said.

One would have imagined that any boost to Japan’s declining birth rate would be welcomed. But the view from certain ivory towers appears to be completely different.

I came across this transcript of 9/11 hearings by the Japanese Parliament. I was hesitant to post it because I’m not one for conspiracy theories but it’s interesting to read. Yukihisa Fujita leads the questioning in to the events of that day and questions Japan’s role in the War on Terror.

The opposition DPJ has finally told the government what everyone else has been thinking for some time, namely, “Stop wasting time and public money going on about bloody UFOs and do some bloody work”. I’m paraphrasing, of course.

Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba piped up last week saying he was “troubled over potential legal issues if one arrives and it requires action by the Self-Defense Forces”.

The following day, chief government spokesman Nobutaka Machimura entered the grand UFO conversation, adding “Personally, I absolutely believe they exist.”

Then the Education and science Minister Kisaburo Tokai said he ‘hoped aliens existed so children would become more interested in space’ - “It would be fun if they existed,” he told reporters.

And with the whole question taking up more column inches than it needs to, the opposition DPJ’s Secretary General Yukio Hatoyama (brother of Minister of Justice Kunio Hatoyama), ‘told reporters on Friday that Cabinet members and lawmakers should not get too involved in the UFO discussions, dismissing aliens as an impossibility.’

“Since it’s all complete fantasy, it makes no sense to discuss how the Defense Ministry should respond,” the Yomiuri Shimbun quoted him as saying.

How has it even come up for debate? Any cinema-goer knows that if aliens come, they’ll land in the U.S., and the U.S. will deal with them. Or they’ll land all over the world. And the U.S. will deal with them.

Following up on Japundit’s post about the October 2007 introduction of the earthquake warning system, and a Tokyo cable TV company’s earthquake warning service, the cable provider has an instructional video on it’s site (scroll down to the second video).

Could you remember everything this woman does in 10 seconds, while this warning “siren” sounds?

A broadband and communications provider serving parts of the Tokyo area, will offer an earthquake advance warning sytem to subscribers beginning October 1, 2007. The “Urgent Earthquake News Flash”, issued from Japan’s Meteorological Agency, will be transmitted to specially installed terminals that use fixed-line phone lines.

The system forecasts the quake arrival time and the seismic intensity of the tremor, 10 seconds in advance, 24/7.

A voice will automatically announce, in Japanese, “The earthquake of four in the seismic intensity will come in ten seconds. 10-9-8 etc.”

The cordless units can be set up in each room of a residence.

Main unit: 23,000 yen. Cordless unit: 13,000 yen. No monthly fee.

itscom.net/safety

NHK just announced that officials are blaming the current heat wave in Japan for 56 deaths, with more than half of them occurring during the past two days.

According to an official, the bridge that collapsed recently in China in an accident that killed at least 41 people was made of rocks and concrete in order to achieve “harmony with the environment.”

“While the cause of the collapse is still unknown, a local official at the scene claimed that a ‘traditional and risky’ model of bridge, made of stone and concrete, had been chosen over a steel structure to ensure it remained ‘in harmony with the natural environment’,” the China Daily said.

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?