A report by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare says that the government can expect to earn an additional 9 trillion yen in tax revenue over the next 10 years by raising the price of cigarettes to 1,000 yen a pack.
“Many people won’t be able to give up, even if they want to, so raising the price will lead to an increase in tax income,” said a representative of the ministry’s research team.
The ministry carried out a survey of over 20,000 smokers on the Internet, with results showing that if prices were increased from 300 to 1,000 yen a pack, 96 percent would try and give up smoking. However, a previous survey by the Central Social Insurance and Medical Council revealed that even with the best medical treatment, the success rate of giving up smoking for a year is only 33 percent. So even accounting for those who can cut down, and demand dropping to 36 percent of the previous year, the research team still predicts a net tax revenue increase of 560 billion yen in the first year. In the next year, when many ex-smokers take up the habit again, demand would bounce back by 40-49 percent, with an extra 1.27 trillion yen a year going into government coffers.
The currently-planned price increase to 500 yen is predicted to make an extra 4 trillion yen in tax over the next 10 years.
Their latest “game” is snorting various food products (wasabi powder, hot sauce, etc.) and enjoying the reactions of the snorters as the effects of the stuff they inhale has an effect.
Previously, they had challenges of eating food with a certain extremely spicy “Death Sauce” but that was probably not challenging enough so they resorted to sniffing it into their noses. The first item was wasabi powder. There is no effect when you eat it but you’ll get a headache if you sniff it. At first, you don’t feel anything but it hits you hard after awhile. The shop owners, staff and even customers were involved in this strange challenge. Later on, two more customers came in and were dragged into the third round of the challenge.
After the warm up came the real thing – the Death Sauce. One tiny drop of Death Sauce can numb your tongue so you can imagine the deadly effect it may have to your nose. Suddenly, the whole maid cafe was filled with strange noises as the other customers watched on amused by our strange customs. The boys’ face were all as red as tomatoes and their eyes were bloodshot. If a new customer enters the shop he may be wondering why is everyone crying. Later on, they resorted to using ice to soothe their noses which was a funny sight to watch.
And if a verbal description doesn’t do it for you, here is a video. . .
Events includes five two-handed squeezes of the breasts or buttocks of adult video (AV) actresses for 1,000 yen, as well as servings of food reported flavored using the precious bodily fluids of an AV actress.
Last year a similar Paradise TV event (for which an AV actress demonstrated her handicraft for 3,000 yen) raised some 2 million yen.
As reported over on Japan News Junkie the video below has been causing quite an uproar on the Japanese Internet.
It features two female Nagasaki University students who perform a dance (and flash a little upskirt) to a tune from the erotic game TimeLeap in front of the Atomic Dome in Hiroshima
Some are saying it it is insulting to the souls of the people who died in the A-bombing of the city. Others are saying it is no big deal.
Check out this photo of a vehicle that belongs to a budget rental outfit in Cairns, Australia, named Wicked Campervans, a company that seems to get a real kick out of thumbing its nose at just about everyone.
Outraged cairns.com.au reader Mark sent a photograph of the van to us after his Japanese wife spotted it parked in their Bayview Heights street while driving their eight-year-old daughter to school.
“It’s terrible. If you walked around in a T-shirt with that written on it in English, you would be arrested,” he said.
His said he and his wife had tried to stop their daughter, who can read Japanese, from seeing the van, which was parked in the street for several days before leaving overnight.
It seems that Dunkin Donuts in Korea is running a publicity campaign in which they are offereing Dokdo t-shirts to customers.
The publicity campaign was right in front of the store and could not be missed. If the store is trying to reach a western audience with these Dokdo shirts they are going to fail miserably in my opinion because these shirts are just plain dumb.
I think Koreans agree with this assessment because I sat in the shop for about 30 minutes and did not see one person pick up one of these shirts. I have yet to see anyone in Korea even wearing one of the shirts. Has anyone else seen anyone wearing these shirts?
To me it seems like a pretty dumb move for an international chain like Dunkin Donut to take a position on such a sensitive issue.
What’s your favourite ice cream flavour? A quick poll I took of Japanese kids revealed banira (vanilla) to be the undisputed champion. Which surprised me. In English slang, after all, vanilla-flavoured has come to mean boring. Anyway, what do kids know. Chocolate is obviously the best flavour.
I didn’t find out about it until it was already over, so alas could not attend, but July and August saw the Ice Cream Expo in Yokohama.
And while all the ordinary fare was on offer, there wouldn’t be much point in an expo if all that was on offer was what you could find down at the supermarket.
But in terms of innovative (weird) flavours, it went far beyond the passé basashi (raw horse meat) and wasabi .
Otaku International has a report with a focus on the more outlandish – octopus, squid, caviar, chicken wings, the foul and dreadful natto, mamushi (the deadly pit viper) (I’ll just repeat that – the deadly pit viper), and the star of the show, ox tongue.
‘Chuwy’ visited the expo and tried a good number of the ice creams on offer, and wrote up his thoughts at the entertaining Chuwy Thoughts.
There are some more photos available in a Mainichi gallery.
But in terms of innovative (weird) flavours, it went far beyond the passé basashi (raw horse meat) and wasabi .
hi zakiah
FRCKN GAY