· May, 2007

Stories about Japan from May, 2007

Japan: “Thought Check” Screening for Citizen Judges

  30 May 2007

While news in Japan this week has been understandably fixated on the sensational suicide of Agriculture Minister Matsuoka Toshikatsu, another story revealed in a blog entry by Diet member Hosaka Nobuto slipped by with little fanfare last weekend. In the post, Hosaka outlines the latest step in moves by the government to implement a "citizen judge system" in Japan. This step, he claims, would allow the prosecution to effectively disqualify, through a "thought check" screening process, all citizens judge candidates who express doubt about the trustworthiness of police investigations.

Japan: Miss Universe

  29 May 2007

Marie Mockett from Japundit comments on Miss Japan, Riyo Mori, who has just taken the crown of Miss Universe pagent: As long as the Japanese were sticking to their version of “kawaii,” they were never going to win a thing.

Japan: More on the suicide of Matsuoka Toshikatsu

  29 May 2007

Blogger fukumimi at from the inside, looking in speculates about possible explanations for the suicide of the late minister of agriculture Matsuoka Toshikatsu. Responding to a report mentioning that a suicide letter was found, he writes: “If I were a betting man I’d bet that, being a typical ex-bureaucrat turned...

Japan: Agriculture Minister commits suicide

  28 May 2007

James at Japan Probe writes about news reports indicating that the head of Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Matsuoka Toshikatsu, committed suicide today, noting that the suicide could be in response to news from a few days ago that Minister Matsuoka had received 13 million yen in donations.

Japan: Love Hotels Find a Way

  28 May 2007

With great photos and a lot of background information, Ampontan explains how, despite many obstacles, love manages to “find a way” in Japan: “Love will find a way […] and in Japan that way is usually in a “love hotel”. Since the urge is eternal, the Japanese have no problem...

Lotto Fever strikes BIG in Japan

  26 May 2007

People across Japan turned out in large numbers last week to line up and get their hands on tickets for “BIG”, a variation on the soccer lottery “toto” operated by the National Agency for the Advancement of Sports and Health. The combined sales figure for all soccer lottery tickets was...

Japan: Listen to the voices of the Tokyo fire bombing victims

  25 May 2007

112 people, including the victims and their families of the 1945 Tokyo fire bombing, are suing the Japanese goverment for an official apology and 1.2 billion yen compensation. On March 24, a trial hearing was held at the Tokyo District Court and blogger tokyodo-2005 urges that more attention should be...

Japan: B-guy

  24 May 2007

Mari blogs about the changing preference of Japanese women's choice towards their boyfriends from IKEMEN (nice looking guy) to B-otoko (B class guy).

Japan: Japan Brand

  24 May 2007

Adamu from Mutantfrog blogs about a new logo “Japan Brand” for promoting exports, boost tourism, and take control of how Japan as a nation is perceived abroad.

Japan: The Hair Police

  23 May 2007

Debito writes about the experience of a Brazilian high-school student in Japan's Shizuoka prefecture, apparently “forced by her school to dye her hair weekly because it was not as dark as her peers’”. Debito went to the school itself to talk to one of the so-called “Hair Police”, and returned...

Japan: Marriage and “Casual Infidelity”

  22 May 2007

Shari at My So-Called Japanese Life has a thoughtful piece on the way in which Japanese people, as compared to Americans, view marriage. She writes: “It's always been my impression that the Japanese set the bar “lower” when it comes to the romance part of marriage and “higher” when it...

Japan: Bridging the Generation Gap

  22 May 2007

What with all the news last week of beheadings, shoot-outs and baby dumping — and subsequent soul-searching on the part of Japanese bloggers, at a loss for what to make of the nation's younger generation — I felt that it would be appropriate this week to highlight a slightly more...

Japan: Ice Aquarium

  22 May 2007

Edo from Pink Tentacle introduces an ice aquarium with 40 large ice blocks containing 450 specimens (80 varieties) of local marine life — including squid, crab, bonito and saury — which appear to be frozen in mid-swim.

Japan: Background to Constitutional Revision

  20 May 2007

Japan Observer has posted a long and very thoughtful entry outlining the history and politics of the constitutional revision debate in Japan. On the future of the debate, JO writes: “[W]ith the collapse of organized opposition to revision within the political system, the only potential source of opposition is from...

Japan: Mail from Henoko

  20 May 2007

dr.stonefly reprints an email sent by an activist in Henoko, urging the readers to take direct action in the protest against the marine survey. The email describes a fierce collision between the authorities and the peaceful demonstrators on boats and canoes. [Ja]

Which father is my real father?: Japan's 300-day rule

  20 May 2007

In early May, the Japanese government announced that it will take a special measure to recognise children born within 300 days of their mother's divorce, given that the mothers became pregnant after divorce. This announcement came after a group of divorced women with children raised the issue on the current...

Japan: Strange Confession Note

  20 May 2007

More on the story of the boy who sawed off his mother's head and brought it to the police, courtesy of Mutant Frog Travelogue: “After the crime, he went into an Internet cafe, watched a Beastie Boys DVD, and apparently wrote the following note…“