Random Japan

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GETTING THE LARD OUT

   A government survey revealed that 25 percent of people who receive medical consultations for “metabolic syndrome” are able to overcome the condition.

Metabolic syndrome is better-known in the West as “being a fat-ass.”

   A 500kg bull in Kagoshima gored a 56-year-old farmer as he tried to shield his three grandkids from the rampaging animal. The man is in serious condition.

   Pasmo halted an online service that provided details about the train-riding history of its cardholders to anyone who entered basic information about the user. Apparently, wives and husbands were using the site to check if their partners were cheating on them.

   The health ministry says Nagano has the lowest death rate of any prefecture in Japan, while Aomori is the spot most frequently visited by the Grim Reaper.

stats

   21 Weather observation points across Japan that recorded record-high snow accumulation this winter, according to the meteorological agency

   45 “Shooting incidents” in Japan in 2011, according to the National Police Agency

   35 Number of such incidents in 2010

   52.5 Percent of Tokyoites who “strongly worry” about a large-scale disaster hitting the capital, according to the Metropolitan Police Department

FLYING THE COOP

          Officials at Tama Zoo in west Tokyo were horrified to discover that one of their 26 northern bald ibises had escaped. The species is considered to be “critically endangered.”

   Meanwhile, residents in Edogawa-ku were told to be on the lookout for a Humboldt penguin that had escaped from a local zoo.

   An aquarium in Akita is displaying an anglerfish-one of those freaky, big-toothed monstrosities living in the murky deep sea-that is colored gold instead of the usual light brown.

   Sentence of the Week: “A film crew from a major Japanese movie studio was caught March 1 using firecrackers to scare swans into the air to get a shot of them in flight.” (via The Mainichi Daily News)

She’s A He And  

He’s Slicing And Dicing  

Grazed By A  Bullet

Police Escort To The Airport  

With Parents Like These  

Better Parents Wanted

Passage hinges on Ozawa, opposition



By NATSUKO FUKUE

Staff writer  


Despite the Cabinet’s approval Friday of a sales tax hike bill that sparked months of dissent and resistance from the ruling party’s ranks, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda may find that in the deadlocked Diet, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Noda’s plan to raise the levy is still fiercely opposed by many Democratic Party of Japan members loyal to ex-leader Ichiro Ozawa, while the opposition camp will use every means necessary to grind Diet deliberations to a standstill and force a snap poll.