Stories about Japan from February, 2007
Japan: addressing racism
Debito blogs the transcript of Press Conference with United Nations Special Rapporteur Doudou Diene and Debito Arudou (himself) at Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan. The press conference addressed racism issues in Japan
Japan: Hokkaido woman is violent?
Mari blogs some statistics about domestic violence in Hokkaido, 2.5% came from the husbands. The blogger comments that “because of their equality of the sexes idea, we might think Hokkaido men would use counseling more easily than men in other areas.“
Japan: Citizen report change public policy
Mayumi Shimotai from Ohmynews reports how a report on factory pollution pick up by Japan citizen journalist at Ohmynews changed the public policy on environment protection.
Korea and Japan: nationalism
James from Japan Probe collects a few youtube video on Japanese T.V programs (with English subtitles) about the tensions between South Korea and Japan. The video seems to suggest that anti-Japanese sentiment in South Korea is related with the nationalistic education.
China and Japan: Chinglish and Japlish
Zhaihua discusses about the differences between Chinglish and Japlish (zh). He argues that Chinglish is speaking to foreigners hoping that they can understand, but Japlish is speaking to Japanese but taking English term for their own use.
Japan: cute icon for defence force
International Herald has an article criticizing the use of cute icon for Japan's military aspiration. Lee from Tokyo Times blogs several pictures to show that Japan has been using cute icons for their police force as well.
China: Chinese People Misread The World, Especially Japan
ESWN translates an article written by Wang Jinsi, a director of the China War-of-Resistance-against-Japan Historical Society, which explains why Chinese people tend to misread the world, especially Japan. Some hostilities are self-generated, such as a BBS post in 2000.
Japan: Petition for visas for Vu Family
Debito starts to campaign for foreign minority's rights in Japan and posts the petition for visas for Vu Family, who have been living and working in Japan for six years.
Japan: Fugu
Ampotan blogs about the poisonous delicacy, Fugu, and the research and attempt in breeding non-poisonous fugu in Japan.
Japan and Korea: Takeshima/Dokdo dispute and cat's day
Feb 22 is is Takeshima Day , but also the cat's day in Japan; as James in Japan Prob said, cat's day is more excited than the Japan-Korea dispute over Takeshima and Dokdo. The blogger also post a cat's day video on his post.
Japan: smoke detecting robot
Edo from Pink tentacle blogs about a new model of robot that equipped with a set of olfactory sensors specifically tuned to detect the odors of smoke and ash.
Japan: portrait rights debate
Neomarxisms blogs about the rhetorics of the Japanese Association of Music Enterprises in defending the portrait rights of people they own: Scientifically speaking, we know that photography steals the subject's soul. Let's leave the soul stealing to the management companies, OK?
Japan: global warming and lice
JP from Japundit blogs about the sudden resurgence of lice in Japan: Experts are unsure of why body bugs are thriving here, but some believe it is due to global warming while others claim the lice were brought in from abroad somehow.
Japan: foreign crime book editor's comment
Debito posts GAIJIN HANZAI editor Saka's comment in his blog and reply to him point by point. In his conclusion, he said: Again, I thank Mr Saka for making his ideology so plain. He comes off as a crybaby who sees other people going about their business, gets angry because...
Japan: cross dressing
Ampontan blogs about the tradition of cross-dressing show business in japan.
Japan: powder RFID chips
Edo at Pink Tentacle reports that Hitachi had unveiled a tiny, new “powder” type RFID chip measuring 0.05 x 0.05 mm which they aimed to begin marketing in 2 to 3 years.
Japan: homeless
PingMag interviewed a German artist Anke Haarmann who did a documentary about Japan homeless landscape called Public Blue.
Japan: anti whaling
James from Japan Probe blogs about the anti-whaling action with a youtube video taken from the perspectives of Japanese whalers.
Japan: Study time vs. TV time
James from Japan Probe blogs about the pollling result on Japanese's student's study and T.V time.
Japan: what's wrong with Gaijin Hanzai Underground files
Gaijin Hanzai Underground Files is a comic book in Japan about “foreign crime”. Many foreigners complained that the book has full of racial discrimination and distortion. Debito explains the details of the distortion.
Japan: spring festival
David Weber from Japundit blogs a serie of photos on Japan's spring festival and the ritual in driving away demons.