40% of Japanese cops are pigs
Via the NBR newsgroup(The National Bureau of Asian Research)

--->"Dr. Earl Kinmonth in the NBR" said:
...Although a 2002 OECD survey claimed that obesity in Japan (and Korea) was at one-tenth the US level, Japan may be rapidly catching up to the US "global standard" (is there a pun here?). This evening's edition of the Nihon keizai shinbun claims that 40 percent of Japanese cops are obese.
"Keisatsukan no 4 wari 'himan'" Nihon keizai shinbun (2004 June 28)

Is Japan's Self-Defense Force AWOL in Iraq. hee, hee?
Iraqis say GSDF OK, but where are they?
The Asahi Shimbun / June 29
BAGHDAD News- A poll of residents of the southern Iraq province of Muthanna shows that 85 percent support the presence of Ground Self-Defense Force members although about 68 percent said they had never or rarely seen the troops do anything.

"In Japan we have 4 seasons..." (Sheesh.)
Topic: Japanese life
STANDAND JAPANESE QUESTION: "In Japan we have 4 seasons; how many seasons do you have?"

"In Japan we have 4 seasons..." reveals a far darker aspect of the Japanese. That is, Borg TV worships the Regularity-Sameness of Life. The "flower news," "start of the official swimming season," and the like on NHK shows the Japanese ingrained love of Sameness and Predictability. Sheesh.

AUSLANDER RAUS! Gaijin go home!
Topic: Japanese life
A banner hanging in Shinagawa Station announces a "Measures Targeting Illegal Foreign Workers Month," sponsored by the Tokyo Immigration Bureau, for June.

VISA VILLIANS

The Japan Times, June 29
.... On May 27, Japan's Diet amended the "Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act," enacting stricter punishments. The maximum fine for visa expiry increases tenfold from 300,000 yen to 3 million yen. Banishment from Japan doubles from five to 10 years. Those who come clean at Immigration before being caught will merely be deported faster.
This is on top of already-tough detention conditions: Several days confined to a room with other criminals (sometimes at a daily charge of 60,000 yen). Access denied to family, a consulate, or even a lawyer.
What's going on? The National Police Agency claims that hordes of illegal aliens (estimated somehow at 250,000) are ratcheting up Japan's crime rate...
... But do the new punishments fit the crime? After all, equating overstayers with hardened criminal activity (like burglary or murder) overstates the seriousness of the matter.
"Overstaying" in itself is a bureaucratic procedure, not necessarily a willful act to deprive others of life, liberty, or property. ...
... So let's get this straight. People thrive by bringing foreigners here, give them lousy conditions and few civil protections, and then blame them for rising crime numbers? A full third of which are not "hard crimes," but rather visa violations -- often instigated by Japanese?
Any hope for some improvements? Not ...

iSight upgrade!
Topic: Japanese Tech

Apple Computer has announced a new version of OS X (v. 10.4) called "Tiger" today at the WWDC Apple Developer's Conference. This will have over 200 new features. The coolest of which is video conferencing with iChat AV. You can now have up to 30 streams of audio and 4 streams of video. iChat AV is now powered by the h.264 codec. Now you too can give NTT the middle finger when you "phone home".
h.264 codec - AKA MPEG 4 v.10 is a scalable video technology that produces higher quality and lower data rates for use in anything from 3GPP to HD.

SHAMELESS LIE:
Topic: Concrete Japan
Ancient cedar trees suffer at hands of tourists
(Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, June 28, 2004)
NARA -- Cedar trees in a mountainous area expected to be named part of the World Heritage are suffering bark damage as tourists flock to the area to walk among the ancient giants... more than 1,000 years old, the trees are located in Tamaki Shrine in Totsukawa, Nara Prefecture, which is known as a "holy place in the Kii Mountains," a candidate for the UNESCO World Heritage list.....cedar trees have suffered damage to their bark and careless tourists have trampled on their roots....
---See the full-size pix of the tree "lovers" here.

Japanese
The world's hardest word to translate
By: Agencies / June 25, 2004
London: The world?s most difficult word to translate has been identified as ?ilunga? from the Tshiluba language spoken in south-eastern DR Congo...
Ilunga means ?a person who is ready to forgive any abuse for the first time, to tolerate it a second time, but never a third time?....
In second place was shlimazl which is Yiddish for ?a chronically unlucky person?.
Third was Naa, used in the Kansai area of Japan to emphasise statements or agree with someone.
ナー!

Posted by trek/taro at 3:01 PM KDT
Updated: Monday, June 28, 2004 4:42 PM KDT
Post Comment | View Comments (1) | Permalink | Share This Post

Japan, the perfect place to get away with murder
Dateline TOKYO 24/Jun/2004 ...

Forensic medicine not yet administered nationwide

Daily Yomiuri / June 24, 2004
...the Tokyo Medical Examiner's Office is the leader in forensic medicine in Japan. Osaka, Kobe, Yokohama and Nagoya also have a medical examiner system, but only the Tokyo and Hyogo prefectural governments employ medical examiners on a full-time basis.
... Corpse Autopsy and Preservation Law, was introduced in the country by GHQ [[ MacArthur's General Head Quarters]].
"This system was introduced in seven cities, as GHQ thought it would cover about 30 percent of total population in the country," Fukunaga said. "They also hoped that the system would eventually spread to the rest of the country."
Unfortunately, the system continues to shrink, with Kyoto and Fukuoka having abolished it in 1985..In local governments without medical examiner's offices, doctors tend to designate as "heart failure" or "intracerebral bleeding" those cases in which they are uncertain about the cause of a victim's death....The number of forensic medicine experts in the country is seriously short, standing at only 155....
_________________
モ?ベッタ

"Flamola!" Dubbing & mugging Fuji TV's "Iron Chief"
Topic: Media
Wokin' and Rollin': Dubbing Iron Chef
June 24 by Captain Japan!
.....Though Bickard is developing amusing phrases like "Flamola!" and "Bang a gong, let's get it on!" - some of the show's trademarks - this is indeed work. With a VCR, red pen, and script of dialogue, he matches the pictures of the culinary action on the screen with these irreverent, over-the-top sportscaster-like phrases, a recipe that has been a major reason for the show's cult status amongst both finicky gourmets and Sunday afternoon barbecue cooks in search of a few laughs.....

Newsflash! Japan's military notices the Soviets are gone

GSDF's tank forces may be scaled down
SAPPORO, June 24, Kyodo - The Japanese Ground Self-Defense Force's tank forces, which were strengthened chiefly in northern Hokkaido during the Cold War as a deterrent against the Far East forces of the former Soviet Union, are expected to be halved from the peak of about 1,200 vehicles to less than 600 in the near future because the main threats now are seen as ballistic missiles and terrorism.

2-headed hardcore & humping
Dateline TOKYO 24/June/2004 ...

Two-headed Pipa pipa! aka Pipa americana, Surinam toad

Here's a two-headed Surinam toad for sale at a Tokyo pet shop for only 498,750 yen ($4600 approx.).

And see hardcore humping pipapipa action here!

EXPLODING HEARSE in Japan
From some guy in Tokyo's "japan madness" blog, here's the world's slowest-loading video of EXPLODING HEARSE.
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~howa0159/japan!.wmv

_________________
モ?ベッタ

Japanese mom gives Korean judge the finger, literally
Mother of Molested Daughter Severs Finger, Sends to Korean in Protest
June 22, 2004 DIGITAL CHOSUN ---Following a decision by a judge to let a man charged with sexually abusing his stepdaughter walk on bail, the mother of the child cut off her own finger and sent it to the judge in protest. Ms. Kim, an ethnic Korean from Japan, learned of the decision to free her husband Mr. Noh on June 17.... In protest, Kim severed the index finger on her right hand and sent it by mail to the 4th Seoul Criminal Court on Monday. Sent with the finger was a letter written in blood calling for Noh to be heavily punished, picture of Kim's hand (minus a digit) and proof of treatment. Judge Lee Ho-won said Tuesday that he accepted it as a statement calling for strong punishment of the defendant, but the court is keeping the finger in a refrigerator in order to return to Kim.

How much pay for my sister?

TOKYO, JAPAN: A traditional dancer (2nd R) tries to lead European Commission President Romano Prodi (2nd L) during a photo session with the dancers after their performance at Meiji-Jingu shrine in Tokyo, 21 June 2004.

Hiroshima:
Topic: Concrete Japan

In Japan, incinerator becomes a work of art
Boston Globe | June 20, 2004
HIROSHIMA, Japan -- ''What a dump," as Bette Davis put it.
Visitors to the Hiroshima City Naka Incineration Plant are likely to utter the famous line from ''Beyond the Forest" with an entirely different intonation, however...to deal with trash in a country with little space to spare, and city authorities made the bold decision to build a monument to waste and put it on a site where people would have to take notice: over the city's main street....
.... This building is meant for quiet contemplation, either of the elegantly tamed nature outside or the treasures locked in the interior structure, their mystery protected by thick stone walls. No natural light penetrates this space. A single entrance beckons, and in this case, the approach is dramatic. Here are magical objects in dark surroundings that protect them from the damaging effects of sun. Your eyes adjust; you notice the splendor of an eighth-century ''Kanjoban." A bronze canopy and banners once used in religious rituals, it looks like a shower of golden lace falling in the stairwell. Beyond is a room with gold-colored walls that emphasize the preciousness of the contents: 48 small, ancient, gilt bronze Buddhist statues, each housed in its own glass case....
.... The building's message is that garbage is not only part of life, but an interesting part that deserves our attention. So the trash transformation is completely visible. Visitors watch it through huge glass walls. A touch-screen system in both Japanese and English explains every bit of the process; a timeline chronicles the history of garbage in the city. In the ''Refuse Pit," giant claw-like machines lift and aerate the trash, so it will burn better. The process is mesmerizing, something out of science fiction...

My comment

It always is a marvel of Japan to me that zillions are spent on the world's worst space program or history?s greatest science initiative failure, the 5th Generation Computer Project, but Japan has yet to make any viable effort in better garbage disposal. ASIMO and kick butt, but Japan doesn?t come near German tech. Even though millions of Japanese are dioxin poisoned by their low-tech, low-temp, incinerators, nobody here thinks of exotic tech like plasma burning of trash. Oh I forget, T.I.J.

Mighty Zeppelin bombs London
21/06/2004 / Telegraph.co.uk
Zeppelin flying in Europe to attract more tourists to Japan
Japan Today, Japan - Jun 17, 2004
PARIS -- A 75-meter-long zeppelin, scheduled to travel from Europe to Japan, flew Thursday over Versailles near Paris, taking part in Japan's campaign to lure ...

Japanese firm buys first new-look Zeppelin
Saturday, Jun 12, 2004
Friedrichshafen --- Makers of the revived Zeppelin airship delivered their first helium-filled craft to a commercial user Saturday, a Japanese company that plans to use the 12-seat craft for sightseeing trips and advertising.
The granddaughter of the original airship's inventor, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, was on hand as Japan's Nippon Airship Corporation took delivery of the 75-metre ship...

English engrish

Ya can't beat the original masters ...

Mr Brain's Pork Faggots(tm)

Get's Guru!
Topic: Me

Japan quietly gives up most of its space program
Topic: Japanese life
Japan Scales Down Troubled Space Program
Scotland on Sunday
Japan is planning a major scale-back of its troubled space program by focusing on smaller satellites and relying more on other countries for launches....the current satellite program is too complex – and have linked its numerous failures to a combination of the long time needed to develop a satellite and an overly ambitious launch schedule...

Virtual beautiful Tokyo
Topic: Concrete Japan
JPS Tokyo Photoreal Scenery Screenshots
Virtual-SIM fly over beautiful Tokyo such as this screenshot of the movie of Shibuya....