Tag: Japan

 By the numbers

The health ministry announced that Japan’s population stands at 127.6 million.

The country’s fertility rate increased for the third consecutive year, and is now 1.37 children per woman.

However, there were 51,300 more deaths than births in Japan in 2008, which means that the overall population shrank.

It is estimated that a quarter of Japanese people will be over age 65 by 2015, and that the population will shrink by a third within 50 years, according to Reuters.

A Cabinet Office survey revealed that 45.4 percent of Japanese people give more priority to their careers than their private lives, even though just 1.6 percent want to do so.

The survey also found that 58.7 percent “want more rest.”

Despite this, 55.8 percent of respondents said they were “satisfied with their current family lives.”

The National Police Agency announced that the number of articles turning up at lost and found centers around the country increased a whopping 36.3 percent in 2008.

A total of 17.34 million items were turned in, of which 6.17 million were eventually retrieved by their owners.

The amount of cash turned in fell 2.2 percent, to ¥14.2 billion. Of this, ¥9.7 billion was returned and ¥3.8 billion given to the finders, according to Kyodo.

The NPA says the rise in turned-in articles is due, in part, to a new system where people can search for lost items on the internet.

TOUGH TIMES  

The average annual income in Japan slid ¥106,000 in 2007 from a year earlier, to ¥5.562 million, according to a survey by the labor ministry. An increasing number of workers taking retirement was supposedly the main culprit.

A poll conducted by Nippon Keidanren revealed that summer bonuses at Japan’s top companies will be down about 20 percent this year, to an average of ¥754,000-the biggest drop ever recorded.

A Nomura Securities survey revealed that 78 percent of investors would vote against executive pay bonuses at annual shareholders’ meetings this year.

The National Police Agency reported that the number of purse snatching cases declined from 52,919 in 2002 to 19,145 last year. However, there has been a 13.9 percent increase in such crimes in the first quarter of 2009, probably because of the recession.

Disgraced Livedoor founder Takafumi Horie and his cohorts have been ordered to repay ¥7.62 billion in damages to shareholders who lost money on manipulated share prices. “Just hang on a minute while I hit an ATM…”

Glad we cleared that up

A survey by a Tokyo-based research institute revealed that some 60 percent of TV commercials broadcast last year “left almost no impression on viewers.”

The School of Social Informatics at Tokyo’s Aoyama Gakuin University has handed out free iPhones to all 550 of its staff and students in order to “use the GPS function to determine whether they are in school or not.”

A governmental group called the High-Grade Worker Acceptance Promotion Committee recommended that Japan relax its immigration rules for foreigners in the IT, energy and biotechnology fields, as well as for those who are really good at Japanese.

One day after saying that he wouldn’t accept blame for appointing Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshitada Konoike, who resigned last month following revelations of an extramarital affair, Prime Minister Taro Aso said that he was, in fact, responsible for the move.

Headline of the Week: “New Song by Recently Deceased Rocker to Debut in June” (via the Mainichi Daily News)

It is reported that the cost of relocating 17,000 US Marines and their family members from Okinawa to Guam will be $10.27 billion, of which Japan will pay $2.8 billion.

Welcome back to the grind…

More than 350,000 commuters were delayed-and many were forced to walk down a stretch of tracks in the rain-when a brake malfunctioned on a JR Yokosuka line train on the first day after the Golden Week break.

Roughly 1,500 people joined a protest against pluthermal nuclear power in Saga Prefecture, forming a human banner that read “NO MOX.”

A group of earth-lovers protesting a dam project in Aichi Prefecture carried their canoes through the streets of Nagoya.

The Wall Street Journal announced plans to launch a Japanese website by the end of the year.

Time magazine named Japanese Nobel Prize-winning physicist Yoichiro Nambu one of the world’s 100 most influential people.

Writer Eriko Momose has crowned the term “mother harassment” to describe moms who get reamed out for putting their children in daycare; letting their kids get low grades; or allowing their children ride the train alone.

It was reported that a group of Japanese hikers have taken to going on nocturnal strolls through forests and urban areas. Seems they feel the darkness “sharpens the other senses, heightening… sounds and smells.” Watch out for that cliff…

Even with Swine Flu-itis sweeping the nation, the Mini Buta Derby went ahead as planned in Mie Prefecture. Participants chased 3-month-old piglets down a 100-meter track.

A deputy police chief in Aichi Prefecture who headed up a task force promoting traffic safety was busted for driving drunk.

As the debate about Health Care continues to heat up with the usual suspects from the Health Insurance industry begining their campaign to convince Americans that Universal Health insurance is against their best interests, would decrease quality of care, limit options, increase wait time (as if those under the current system don`t have similar issues)and all the other usual lies they spout hoping to scare a large enough portion of the electorate to dash the hopes of us who want Health Care reform.

I would like to share with you MY experience under a single payer system which we have here in Japan. It is called National Health Care Service or for those of you who can read Japanese: (grrrr..why cant I post Japanese characters? Every time I try here I get this error message:java.sql.SQLException: Incorrect string value: ‘xE5x9BxBDxE6xB0x91…’ for column ‘mainText’ at row 1)

Of course first I should tell you how it`s paid for before I go into the details of how it works.

Every month a certain percentage is deducted from my pay check which includes both my National Health Care and my National Pension. This amount is matched by my employer. While I don`t wish to discuss my finances in detail, I can tell you every month they deduct roughly 40,000 yen (around $385 dollars) by comparison my wife who is a stay at home mom pays roughly 7000 yen (around $65) for her coverage. All children under 15 are covered for free.  

Foreigners and other animals

A sea otter named Ku-chan who has been hanging out on a stretch of river in Kushiro, Hokkaido, was granted special residency status by the city. It’s said that Ku-chan attracts ¥50 million a month in tourism to the area.

A pair of political activists from Myanmar who had been living illegally in Japan for a decade were finally granted refugee status late last month. The men are reportedly ruing their decision to struggle for human rights and freedom, instead of becoming revenue-generating sea otters.

The foreign ministry announced that it would slash the housing allowance it provides refugees while their applications for asylum are being processed. The goal is to halve the number of asylum seekers as soon as possible.

Headline of the Week: “Paranoid Hospitals Turning away Those with Fever, or with a Foreign Friend” (via the Mainichi Daily News).

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN SMOKING?

A Gifu man who admitted to a judge that he stole 229 comic books “to pay off debts and buy marijuana” was told by the jurist that he was baka (basically, “an idiot”). Gotta agree with the judge in this case.

It was discovered that the DNA of a 62-year-old man serving a life sentence for killing a toddler in 1990 in Tochigi Prefecture does not match the DNA samples found on the victim.

An unmanned rail carriage in Mie traveled nearly 10 km after the driver got out at a station and forgot to apply the parking brake. The “ghost train” cruised past three stations and 23 crossings before finally coming to a halt.

A group of women in Yokohama who are separated from abusive husbands went to court in a bid to stop the men from receiving the government cash handouts intended for them.

A new bill is in the works that will allow children under the age of 15 to become organ donors.

A total of ¥70 million has been earmarked by the Justice Ministry for a job database that can be accessed by former jailbirds and juvenile delinquents.

A headline in The Japan Times claimed that “Dutch Kids are Happiest in Europe; Brits Rank Among Most Miserable.” Hmmm … one place has legal weed and hookers, and the other has bad food, bad weather and the British Royal Family… go figure.

Despite claims of huge emissions cuts during production, the Fair Trade Commission said that a new line of fridges put out by Hitachi were not quite as eco-friendly as they were being billed.

The Golden Years

It was reported that automaker Nissan has introduced new features to appeal to Japan’s aging consumers, including door handles that open no matter which way they are grabbed and “extra knobs” to hold on to for support.

The car company’s engineers have also taken to donning an “aging suit” to experience what it’s like for a 70-year-old to get around.

A 91-year-old Kagoshima woman is gaining notoriety as the proprietor of Grandma’s English Salon. Hatsune Honda charges just ¥500 for lessons that last one or two hours.

In 1966, Honda also served as Sean Connery’s interpreter when the actor was in Japan filming the James Bond film You Only Live Twice.

A government survey revealed that nearly 40 percent of condominium owners in Tokyo are 60 or older, the highest such figure ever.

TUFF STUFF

Forty-year-old Orix Buffaloes slugger Tuffy Rhodes hit his 444th home run in Japanese baseball, tying him for 12th place on the NPB career list with former Yomiuri Giants star Shigeo Nagashima.

Excommunicated Japanese sumo wrestler Wakakirin admitted during his drug trial that he was a regular pot smoker, even lighting up at his stable at times. “Yo dude, pass the chanko nabe!”

A junior high soccer coach in Niigata was given a year-long suspension by the Japan Football Association for ordering his team to throw a futsal match. His boys scored six own-goals in a 7-0 loss At a time when many Japanese are decrying the lack of solid local sumo wrestlers, Mongolian yokozuna Hakuho told reporters that he’d like to see even more foreign wrestlers in the raised ring.

Six people were hurt when a 27-meter-tall crane collapsed at a Tokyo worksite, cutting off traffic on a busy road in Kojimachi.

A survey taken during WWII to determine whether Korean students were “ideologically sound” was discovered by a teacher at an Osaka high school.

A junior high social studies textbook was deemed to have 516 “flaws” in it, the education ministry reported.

Give a little, take a little

Immediately after depositing the federal government’s cash handouts into the bank accounts of 50 local residents, officials in Tsushima, Nagasaki, then seized overdue taxes from them.

It was reported that police in Ichikawa, Chiba, busted a forgery ring specializing in fake alien registration cards. Over 1,300 documents were recovered, worth an estimated ¥12 million on the black market.

Twenty-eight Japanese World War II veterans were joined by 20 vets from the US for a softball game at an elementary school in Hiroshima where 400 children were killed in the 1945 atomic bombing.

Neighbors expressed shock that a three story building in a densely packed Osaka residential area was being used as a “marijuana factory.” Cops arrested two men and seized over 350 plants worth an estimated ¥500 million.

Whatever floats your boat

It is estimated that of the $20 billion spent on adult films each year in Japan, the “elderly porn” market, which features aged actors and actresses, accounts for a share of 20-30 percent.

It was reported that some universities whose attendance has been hit by Japan’s falling birthrate are seeking to increase revenue by developing offbeat foodstuffs like “ice cream made with pickles seasoned in sake lees” and “rice cooked using deep-sea water.”

Kanagawa became the first prefecture in Japan to ban smoking in private establishments like banks and restaurants. The law goes into effect next April after a “public-awareness period.”

The chairman of the committee handling Tokyo’s bid for the 2016 Olympics said that the city has about $4 billion of Games-related funds at its disposal.

This just in

It was announced that a 2-meter bronze statue of Mahatma Gandhi will be erected at a park in Ogikubo.

A thief in Setagaya-ku stole a beehive that was nearly ready for harvest and contained 30,000-50,000 bees. Sounds like a classic sting operation to us.

Most amazing part of the whole story: a stolen beehive actually makes the national news here.

A 35-year-old Nagasaki man was arrested for kidnapping a 12-year-old girl after a taxi company told police that one of its drivers “picked up a male customer… who was holding a girl to his chest and carrying an object that looked like a stun gun.”

The Asahi Shimbun reported that Tennoji Zoo in Osaka spends more than ¥92 million to feed its six koalas per year. That’s more than it costs to feed all the other animals in the zoo combined.

A robot that looks like a young Japanese gal made its debut as a model at Japan Fashion Week. HPR-4C may walk the walk like a real model, but this one actually has some intelligence, too.

The US Embassy issued an alert warning Americans about a rise in drugging incidents at Roppongi bars and clubs. So, you can probably expect longer lineups to get into bars and clubs in Roppongi this weekend.

Aki Hoshino, a 32-year-old big-boob model, threw her ample support behind Ichiro Suzuki and Japan’s boys of summer as they defended their World Baseball Classic title in the US. “I love Ichiro!” Hoshino squealed at a press event in Omotesando.

Speaking of baseball, home run king Sadaharu Oh received letters of congratulation from such luminaries as former US President George W. Bush and former Secretary of State Colin Powell on his appointment as Japan’s “Baseball Ambassador.”