The Japanese government is banking on the overwhelming power exerted by nicotine over spineless smokers in its search for new tax revenues.

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.

Akihabara maid cafe Hibaritei (where all of the maids are cross-dressing men) is always looking for new ways to push the envelope.

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. . .

Via Akibanana

Koichi Toyama, wild and wacky candidate for past Tokyo governor elections of years gone by, has found a new goal in live. . . Becoming President of the United States!

You know, some of the things he says make more sense than some of the “real” candidates. . .

That is the name of a this year’s campaign held by Japan’s Paradise TV to raise money for research aimed at the prevention and spread of the HIV virus and AIDS.

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.

All the juicy details are over at Captain Japan’s Tokyo Reporter.

More on this event in the JAPUNDIT Archives here.

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.

What say you Japundits?

Via Kotaku

Here’s a video of a guy who figure out how to get his Wii Balance Board to control the movements of his Roomba.

Of course, the next question is why anyone would want to, but. . .

Via The Raw Feed

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.

Via cairns.com.au

We reported on this story the other day over at Japan News Junkie, but here is a follow up by the good folks over at ROK Drop who actually went out to check on the report on their own.

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.

A restaurant located at the Naokata City, Fukuoka prefecture government office building has added a new Oppai Lunch (Breast Lunch) to their menu to mark the release of the movie Oppai Volley (Breast Volleyball), which was shot in the city.

The Oppai Lunch consists of two cups of breast-shaped chicken rice with strategically placed green peas, and includes vegetables, a bowl of soup, and flag for 500 yen (milk separate).

Via The Road to the Deep East

The temperature in my house was over 30 when I awoke, sweating and fully unrested at 7.30 this morning. We’re in for a warm one.

And if ice cream is too fattening, and solace can’t be found in only-good-for-one-glass Japanese beer, what respite is there?

One recommended way of dealing with the oppressive summer is apparently to eat unagi - eel. Eel has been marketed for centuries as a stamina food, a remedy to the sapping heat.

CScout Japan reports on a new ‘black beer’ from Miyashita Brewery, that purports to be the perfect companion to an eel supper. Not sure I’ll be trying it myself, as the brewery describes the beer as “sweet and fragrant”, but perhaps you might. (Though I particularly liked the exhortation that, translated, claims eel and black beer is “new common sense!”)

If you want to take it a step further (and if you’ve come this far, then why not?) you might actually like some eel in your drink. Check out CScout’s whole post for details.

Check out this post over at Occidentalism,which takes gaijin - turned - Japanese - national Debito Arudo (David Aldwinckle) to task and then some for “race hustling” and spreading misinformation about Japan that eventually has a negative effect on foreigners who live here.

It even contains a video by a young gaijin woman who apologizes (in Japanese) for an earlier video in which she accused Japanese of racism towards foreigners, based on what she read on Debito’s sight.

Debito has a lot of misinformation on his site, especially regarding the extent of racism and manifestations of racism in Japan. The girl in the youtube below is an American living in Japan, and is an English teacher studying Japanese in her spare time. She been posting video blogs on youtube for sometime, and thanks to the fact that she is a white girl that is trying to speak Japanese, she gathered a Japanese following.

At some point she came across Debito’s site and decided to give a speech on youtube about human rights and Japanese racism towards foreigners in Japan. In her summary of the video, she included a link from Debito.org. The selection of topics are all from Debito’s site so it is obvious that she got her “opinions” from there.

A must read. . .

Via Japan News Junkie

or yet another entry in my long series of crap that no one reads

in response to the horrible stabbing spree in akihabara, tokyo, japan a few weeks ago the japanese national police agency has once again shown why policy changes proposed during the height of public panic and tragedy have such a reputation for being well thought out, logically consistent, and effective in practice.

it has been decided that the most effective way to prevent such incidents from happening in the future is to help strengthen the familial and social bonds within japanese communities to reduce feelings of alienation and bitter isolation in the nation’s citizenry. to educate citizens on what to watch for in individuals that might indicate possible instability and what to do. to take steps to decrease the stigma associated with mental illness and the shame which prevents families and friends from reporting strange behavior to get counseling and medication for their loved ones. to increase the penalties for those who commit violent crime, and to revamp laws to favor self defense and empower people to stop criminals like this before hostile situations get further out of hand. all while recognizing that no matter what legislation is enacted, not all murders can be prevented or tragedies averted.

no, i’m just kidding, they want to ban double bladed knives and increase the restrictions on guns. to quote the article:

A panel of legal and other experts has submitted a report to the National Police Agency, saying daggers and other double-edged knives should be banned “to prevent their use in serious crimes. Such knives are “originally intended for stabbing and are highly dangerous…The panel…also recommends tightening laws on firearms

obviously all such incidents and stabbings could be prevented if only the authorities only took away every dagger, hunting, bowie, butterfly, switchblade, exacto and pocket knife, church key, and letter opener in the country. maybe they could melt them down into a healing image of hello kitty to commemorate the loss of lives in akihabara. i mean its not like people could find an alternative murder weapon. or that single edged knives could possibly hurt anybody. or that any of these blades have legitimate uses besides stabbing people. or that knives in japan are already regulated to help prevent crimes like this. or that those laws failed to prevent this massacre. or…

while they’re at it why not just outlaw the wedge? it is after all the most evil of the simple machines.

and i think we can all make the logical conclusion that a madman running down innocent people in a car, then getting out of the car and stabbing others with a knife until stopped by a heroic group of officers carrying firearms, is really an issue resulting from lax gun regulation and slap on the wrist gun crime laws. we all know that had hunting rifles been illegal the aum attack would never had happened. and if paintball guns didn’t exist, neither would takuma. seriously though, wtf?

i guess they’ll be coming after video games next. it would complete the trifecta of stupidity after all. if only children weren’t allowed to see violence they wouldn’t be violent, etc., etc.

but if japan wants to insist on banning items that can be used as weapons and strengthening laws on items already restricted then i’ll help them with my own non-comprehensive list of things to be banned.

i think this would be a good start, murder would probably vanish, and the ignored mentally ill would most likely join hands and sing songs under a rainbow.

Koreans will not be seeing any Japanese condoms as they slip into the tube each morning now that Seoul Metro has decided to pull prophylactic posters for Okamoto condoms from its subway carriages.

The ads, 54 by 39 centimeters, were placed next to the train doors - one of the most eye-catching spots. They did not have a picture related to a condom, but had phrases such as “No. 1 in Japan.”

The subway operator, however, removed all the ads Tuesday even though the contract had not run out, saying they may be against “public sentiment.”

“Apart from the inappropriateness of condom ads inside subway cars, we thought it could run counter to public sentiment following the eruption of a fresh dispute over Dokdo,” a Seoul Metro official said.

She said the breach of contract and possible indemnity is a matter between Okamoto and the subway operator’s subcontractor in charge of ad management.

according to an article in the new york times online,written by norimitsu onishi, the ashes in a japanese urn are an apt metaphor for the future of the system of funeral buddhism in the country.

where as in the past, the japanese reliably counted on buddhist priest’s and their rituals as a source of comfort during the time surrounding the death of a loved one, many now are choosing to go with services provided funeral homes or cremations with no services at all (preferring instead to dump their loved one’s remains in the nearest ashtray and keep their kaimyo in the toilet in case they need something to aim at when they’re drunk).

photo of a priest staring disinterestedly at a wall, hat tip to the old grey lady

while there are a myriad of reasons for this shift in attitudes towards death and the proper place of religion during this time, to numerous to be discussed in detail here, there are a few notable trends listed in the articles.

1) the accelerated drop in religious belief in the cities combined with their ever increasing populations has led to a large group of people who have no religious belief whatsoever and see no need to start on the day of their death.

2) the rural demographic, where until recently buddhism was still strong, is aging and dying off as the younger generations move to cities and the birthrates are not enough to make up for the exodus of population and businesses. this leaves country temples serving an ever dwindling number of less affluent elderly to serve, thus making many temples financially insecure.

3) the sense of japanese that buddhism doesn’t cater to the needs of the living, thus making them more indifferent to what it teaches about what happens after death; and the lack of change in that area the clerics seem to want to make in this regard.

4) a lack of moral authority apparent in the buddhist temples since the end of wwii when they began to sell prestigious posthumous names to people who paid them enough money, thus denigrating names once reserved for revered buddhist adherents with strong moral characters to an indulgence of sorts. as appropriate in situations like these payments are usually made in unmarked in envelopes on a no receipt-cash only basis.

5) the general expense of traditional funerals combined with new rent a priests employed by funeral homes to provide services for people they most likely have never met before and willing to provide honest listings of fraudulent extravagant titles that can be attained at rock bottom prices and you get a receipt.

all these factors are combining together to create an a daunting challenge to the continuing existence of temples across the country. with funeral expenses being analogous in importance to these temples as tithing is to churches and synagogues in the west in terms of revenue sources, many priests face being the last generation of clerics ministering their religion in japan.

as a consequence many temples are expected to close their doors over the coming decades, taking with them (they claim) a major source of local history and sense of community and continuity in their local precincts. of course some of the major private and state sponsored temples and unesco tourists sites will be unaffected, but many charming repositories of small town rural culture will be disappearing. so if you always wanted to visit that one out of the way zen garden that somehow escaped being listed in the travel guides and is free of tourists, now might be a good time.

soon places like this might be overgrown memories of a different age

few random closing thoughts…
a) what’s going to happen to all the libraries of coin lockers supposedly holding parishioners souls? talk about a crappy afterlife, you’re closed in a hole in the wall until the local priest can’t make ends meet and then bulldozed; lame.

b) i find it darkly humorous that the priests see many of the sources of their decline, recognize they are preventable, and then do nothing. this lethargy in response to their situation seems to come from a certain amount of apathy about their beliefs. they talk about how other religions provide sermons and community services outside of funerals to keep their faith relevant to their congregations as if it would be some theoretically nice thing to do, and then take no action to emulate. has buddhism in japan become this esoteric that it no longer has an application in people’s daily lives? i suspect that it’s just laziness on the part of the priests

c) perhaps this is just the logical conclusion to japan’s seeming cognitive dissonance on the issue of religion. after all if you don’t believe in it and didn’t live your life according to its precepts and went to your death this way, how would having an extravagant funeral change this? it you believe that human existence ends when the lungs stop breathing, the heart stops beating, and the neurons stop firing signals through their dendrites why waste your money to commemorate, dedicate, exalt, and provide a home for a soul you don’t even believe exists? and if you do believe in a deity or higher power of some sort exists, do you really think that a life spent living in sin and unbelief can be made up for by having a really cool name and a nice funeral? i guess these types of services are more for the living, but if that’s true why not remember the dead in your own way? it would be a lot more meaningful and cost effective than spending over ten thousand dollars for a piece of lacquered wood and empty platitudes from some guy who never even met the deceased.

d) think of the boon to the horror movie industry. decrepit buildings, abandoned alters, moss covered statues, rooms with soul lockers; this will be great!

The other day I ate soba noodles for lunch, and I was amused at a sign I saw above my head, which said narubeku kin’en, translatable as “No Smoking As Possible, Please.”

I found it quite amusing for the restaurant owners to ask customers not to smoke “if they can possibly avoid it.” Although smoking rates have been falling in recent years, the Japanese do smoke quite a lot, with 41% of males and 12% of females currently lighting up, which compares to 27% and 24% in the U.K. and 24% and 18% in the U.S., respectively.

Tobacco was introduced to Japan by the Portuguese during the 16th Century, and it took hold quickly, with a traditional pipe called a kiseru very popular throughout the Edo Period.

Today cigarettes enjoy a rather unique status, since the Japanese Ministry of Finance is the majority stockholder in the country’s largest tobacco company, and regional economies get 50% of the taxes collected on cigarettes by law.

One area where the industry here has shown vision has been preempting some of the negative feelings about cigarettes by promoting good smoking manners, as with the “Ah! Delight” and “Smokin’ Clean” campaigns that show smokers being considerate of others.

Japan often seems custom-built to confound Westerners, and it’s interesting that a country that smokes as much as it does still manages to enjoy long life spans, something that generally goes against expectations in the West.

Check out this video in which Oiwan Lam talks about how China pays people to go onto blogs and into chatrooms to tout the party line.

Via Danwei

More on this story here.

By some estimates, these commentary teams now comprise as many as 280,000 members nationwide, and they show just how serious China’s leaders are about the political challenges posed by the Web. More importantly, they offer tangible clues about China’s next generation of information controls—what President Hu Jintao last month called “a new pattern of public-opinion guidance.”

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

It’s official! Osaka prefecture has been declared the sexual assault capital of Japan according to statistics maintained by Japan’s National Police Agency.

According to the data, last year one in every 4,200 female residents of Osaka was raped or otherwise sexually assaulted. This compares to one in every 4,600 in Tokyo.

The Osaka rate is double that of Kanagawa Prefecture, which has a similar number of female residents, and nearly five times that of Yamagata Prefecture, which is the safest prefecture for women in Japan.

According to the police, many victims of rape or other sexual assault last year lived alone in apartments. Most of them were attacked from behind soon after opening the door of their apartment. Some offenders managed to enter buildings equipped with auto-lock systems by waiting for a resident to open the door, and then hid in stairwells until they found a target.

Many victims also were attacked on the street while talking on their cell phone, an activity police said can give people a false sense of security about their personal safety.

“People let their guard down when they are on their way home, or talking to people [who they feel close to]. It’s the most dangerous moment,” a police officer said.

So what steps has Osaka taken to deal with the situation? Well, the prefectural police force has assigned two full-time female police officers to a telephone consultation service called Woman Line.

Feel any safer?