Young golf star Ryo Ishikawa marked the New Year by turning professional last week, thereby becoming Japan’s youngest ever pro.

Still only 16, Ishikawa set off for Australia today to make his professional debut in a tournament that would see him qualify for this summer’s Open Championship (British Open) if he secured a top four finish next week in Sydney.

Ishikawa has barely been out of the headlines since winning the Munsingwear Open (and being presented with that penguin) last year as a 15-year-old amateur. Since then he’s developed quite a following. Middle-aged ladies, it seems, are particularly taken not only with his boyish good looks, but his manner and his style too.

The ‘hanikami oji’ (bashful prince), as he’s known to fans, revealed to reporters that if nothing else, the trip will give him a chance to practise a bit of eikaiwa…

“I’m happy that I’m going to an English-speaking country. It’s something that not many of my classmates can experience and hopefully I’ll get used to English as much as I can,” he said. “As for my pro debut, I’m feeling nothing special, really. I just want it to be a wonderful memory for me.”

Japundit will report on Ryo’s progress.

Robert Koehler over at The Marmot is reporting that the latest Japanese Wave import to Korea is none other than natto.

I hope this doesn’t lead to more anti-Japan demostrations in Korea. . .

Remora writes in to point us in the direction of The Official Online Shop of the Boston Red Sox, where they are selling a complation of Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka’s favorite inspirational tracks by both Japanese and American artists, from R&B and Hip Hop to Rock.

Music they claim will “get you pumped up for your next big start!”

Music from the Mound – Track List

1. Gyro Ball – Dice-K
2. The Second Coming – Juelz Santana & Just Blaze
3. Battle without Honor or Humanity – Tomoyasu Hotei
4. Zingy (Spanish version) - Ak’sent
5. Wild Boys – Duran Duran
6. Show Me What You Got – Jay-Z
7. I Can’t Live Without My Radio - LL Cool J
8. Let It Out – Ugly Duckling
9. My Way – Def Tech
10. Real Thing Shakes – B’z

Price:$14.99

The Fiji Times recently ran an editorial urging taxi drivers to stop ripping off visitors, immigration officials to stop chewing gum and being so grumpy, and shop assistants to stop their rude hassling of customers. But mostly it encouraged its citizens to refrain from urinating on tourists.

The paper reported that an incident in March last year, in which a drunk Fijian soldier exposed himself on an airplane and urinated on a Japanese woman, has done untold damage to Fiji.

"This unforgivable offence has caused untold damage in Japan a market which Fiji has strived for decades to cultivate," the newspaper said.

"All it takes is one moment of stupidity to paint a black picture of this nation and her people in a lucrative market. The incident has generated widespread, negative publicity at a time when we need it the least."

The editorial went on to point out that urinating on tourists brings on “global notoriety” and “unwanted exposure” for the country.

The Australian government on Monday sharply condemned a popular Internet video claiming its citizens oppose Japanese whaling because of racism, while brutally killing animals such as kangaroos and dingoes.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith criticized the video as he announced that Australia would this week deploy a ship to the Southern Ocean to gather evidence for possible legal action against Japan over its whaling program.

The 10-minute video, which has recorded more than 100,000 hits since being posted anonymously on the YouTube website, shows graphic images of Australians killing animals and of infamous racial riots at Cronulla beach in 2005.

Full story here. . .

Via

A woman belonging to Australian Animal Liberation Victoria protests outside the Japanese consulate against Japan’s “research” whaling expeditions.

Thanks to Mr. Pink

The claim of a 21-year-old Japanese woman in New Zealand that she was dragged into a van and gang raped has been proven to be a lie in an attempt to gain the attention of her ex-boyfriend.

Chie Ikee , 21, of Matamata, appeared in the Hamilton District Court yesterday afternoon and admitted one charge of making a false complaint.

Ikee said she was distraught at the end of her relationship and she was trying to get sympathy and attention from her ex-partner. Despite Ikee’s plan to return to Japan on Monday, Judge Barry Morris convicted her and imposed a one-year suspended sentence.

The woman is planning to return to Japan soon, no doubt much to the relief of her ex-boyfriend.

A field of sunflower plants was totally destroyed by people attending the annual Izumaoki no Hana Hana Festa flower festival in Tosa, Kochi Prefecture recently.

It seems that the people running the event invited visitors to take some flowers home at souvenirs, but were shocked when people walked off with all of the 800,000 of the plants blooming in the field.

Before

After

One person reportedly filled up an entire truck with sunflowers.

Sunflowers blooming in autumn instead of summer are one of the main attractions at the annual Izumaoki no Hana Hana Festa flower festival in Tosa.

This year’s festival attracted enormous attention from local media, with hundreds flocking to see the bright yellow flowers and accepting the offer to take them a little more freely than organizers had expected, bringing the show to an abrupt and unexpected end.

“We never dreamed the flowers would vanish so quickly,” one organizer said.

An American who was creative director of the U.S. branch of Japan’s Dentsu advertising agency has sued the company over being pressured to visit a brothel and partake in other sexual activities, and then being canned for complaining.

In a lawsuit seeking unspecified damages filed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Steve Biegel said he and other company employees were put in awkward, sexually charged situations by Toyo Shigeta, chief executive officer of Dentsu Holdings USA.

According to Biegel, Shigeta claimed that having sex with prostitutes was an accepted form of doing business and celebrating business deals.

Biegel also claimed that Shigeta was fond of going to beaches and photographing the crotches of scantily clad women there.

[On business trip to Brazil Biegel witnessed Shigeta repeatedly taking photographs emphasizing the crotches of scantily clad women on the beach until a male companion of one of the women on the beach threatened him, the lawsuit said.

Shigeta demonstrated a similar obsession during a photo shoot for an advertisement for Canon in Key Biscayne, Fla., when he took a picture of tennis star Maria Sharapova on the tennis court and proudly distributed the "crotch shot," the lawsuit said.

In Japan, Biegel would probably be the one in hot water for conduct unbecoming a salaryman.