Random Japan

Good luck with that

At a summit meeting in Seoul, Prime Minister Taro Aso and South Korean president Lee Myung Bak vowed to “set aside their historical and territorial rows.”

Irish prime minister Brian Cowen and representatives of 70 Irish companies visited Tokyo on a trade mission, no doubt in response to the 18 percent drop in Japanese imports of goods from Ireland in 2008.

Local residents massed in protest after the Inagawa-kai crime syndicate set up its new headquarters in a building in Akasaka-about 250 meters from the HQ of a rival gang.

Japan’s Fair Trade Commission ordered ANA, JR East and three other companies to stop marketing a leather wallet as “Made in Japan” when in fact it was manufactured in China.

STATS

1,500

Tons of buried “mines, rockets and other explosives” that have been removed from the Okinawan islands since the end of World War II

2,500

Tons of materiel believed to still be buried on the islands

700

Number of banned items confiscated daily from passengers boarding aircraft at Haneda Airport

108 million

Letters sent out by the Social Insurance Agency in October to alert people about possible errors in their pension records

2.78 million

Number of these letters returned as undeliverable

Police blotter

A 55-year-old homeless man wearing a dress was busted for shoplifting at the Parco department store in Ikebukuro.

Cops around the country reported a “drastic rise” in the number of illegally resold cellphones last year.

It was reported that six Japanese nationals were arrested for attempting to smuggle drugs via South Korea between October 26 and December 22. Authorities are bothered because they usually handle just one or two such cases per year.

A police officer in Inazawa, Aichi Prefecture, shot and killed a fighting dog that had escaped from its owner’s home and began terrorizing the neighborhood.

The Sky Pilot And The Pictures

Look mom no hands or brains either

Return Of The Samurai?

Or a moron with a sword?

Knives There On Sunday Leave Store On Monday

No one notices until Wednesday

How Police Officers Does It Take To Make A Criminal?

Click and Find out

Iso’s incredible journey takes her back to Super Bowl

TAMPA, Fla. – The NFL powerhouse Pittsburgh Steelers have been there and done that.

So has Ariko Iso.

The 38-year-old Tokyo native, who works for the five-time NFL champions as an athletic trainer, is in the midst of her second Super Bowl experience in her seventh season with the team.

But like some of the players that went through the Steelers’ last title during the 2005 season, including quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, the team’s second Super Bowl week in four years is a different one for Iso.

Kabukicho street child subject of new photo book

From the current buzz around Hollywood, the movie “Slumdog Millionaire,” about a destitute boy from the Mumbai slums who becomes a phenomenally successful quiz show contestant on Indian TV’s version of “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire,” seems a sure thing to win numerous Academy Awards.

Perhaps this need to empathize with the underprivileged may help boost sales of the recently released photo collection “Kabukicho no Kokoro-chan” (Kodansha, 1,500 yen).

According to Shukan Gendai (Feb 7), Kwon Chol, a 42-year-old Korean photojournalist, has chronicled the mean streets of Kabukicho for the past 12 years. Kwon’s newest work introduces touching scenes of a homeless 4-year-old girl he first encountered there in September, 2007.

“What’s your name?” he asked her. “Kokoro!” she replied, holding up four small fingers to indicate her age and grinning to reveal badly stained teeth.