The high seas
Talk about a bad day: two men from Kanagawa were cruising up the coast to Aomori on a yakatabune when the vessel began taking on water. So they did the smart thing and headed for the nearest spot of land… which turned out to be in the no-entry zone around the Fukushima Daichi nuclear plant.
The US Coast Guard sank a “ghost ship” that was set adrift from its mooring in Hokkaido following the March 11 earthquake. The 50-meter Ryou-Un Maru had approached within 150 miles of the coast of Alaska.
Officials in Kochi are considering setting up underground evacuation shelters for local residents in the event of a tsunami. The structures would employ “submarine technology” and be large enough to house 200 people each.
Police in Kanagawa were forced to issue a public apology after a drunk 73-year-old man hopped into an idling patrol car and took it for a spin.
stats
50 Number of people in Tokyo hospitalized with alcohol poisoning following hanami parties during the first week of April, according to the fire department¥91,300 Average monthly allowance given to Tokyo-area college students by their parents, according to an industry survey
82 Age of Shigemasa Igawa, Japan’s oldest mayor, who was elected to a fourth term in Kudamatsu, Yamaguchi Prefecture, earlier this month
40,000 Tons of debris from the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami expected to reach the west coast of North America by February 2013, according to the environment ministry
The fairer sex
Renowned journalist Yoshiko Sakurai told a government panel studying the Imperial household system that only people with penises should be allowed to succeed to the throne.
Police say a 75-year-old woman in Kushiro, Hokkaido, murdered an acquaintance by hitting her “several dozen times in the face and head with a pickax and other objects.” Yup, that’ll get the job done.
A woman from Niigata is suspected of using forged credit cards to rack up more than ¥5 million dollars in duty-free purchases on airplane flights. Officials say the fraudstress took advantage of the fact that “credit card information cannot be confirmed once a plane is in the air.”
Officials in Koganei have absolved themselves of blame in the case of an elderly resident whose death was concealed for two years by the man’s daughters.
Up
But Isn’t A Jail Bird
Hello, Is Anyone Home?
Parties rushing to field candidates at next poll
Preparations in high gear amid possibility of snap election
Jiji
The ruling Democratic Party of Japan and its arch rival, the Liberal Democratic Party, have already selected candidates for nearly 90 percent of the Lower House’s 300 single-seat constituencies for the next general election, according to a recent Jiji Press survey.
But Osaka Ishin no Kai (One Osaka), a regional political group led by popular Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto, has been increasingly drawing attention as it tries to make the transition to the national stage.The term of office for the current 480 Lower House members expires in August 2013, but the major political parties are accelerating their preparations in case Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda decides to dissolve the chamber and call a snap election before the current Diet session ends in June.
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