Random Japan

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PUBLIC ENEMIES

The Consumer Affairs Agency upbraided Coca-Cola Japan for using the word tokuhou (“news flash”) in ads for a new fiber drink. The agency said consumers might confuse the term with tokuho, a word used to describe healthy food.

The MPD received 14,104 entries in a contest to name a new type of bank scam where fraudsters pretend to be the victim’s son over the phone. The official name is now “Kaasan, tasukete sagi,” or “Mom, help me scam.”

The newest hire at the justice ministry’s clerical department is… a juvenile delinquent on probation. Officials hope to foster understanding about criminal rehabilitation.

The MPD has asked NTT Docomo to be more careful with cellphone-rental companies, some of which are apparently fronts for crime groups.

stats

190,000

Estimated number of abandoned homes in Tokyo, according to the internal affairs ministry

441

Pregnant women who have taken a prenatal test for genetic disorders since the exam was introduced in April, according to the Japan Society of Obstetrics and Gynecology

68,321

People with disabilities who found work through public job-placement offices in fiscal 2012-a record-according to the labor ministry

Showa Era newspaper’s drawings of future Tokyo scarily accurate, hilariously off base

 by Mike

These photos, which surfaced recently on a Vipper forum, show a Showa Era newspaper’s predictions of what Tokyo would look like in their future. If Mark Twain can foresee the Internet nearly a hundred years in advance, surely a Showa Era newspaper can get a few predictions right? Let’s take a look:  

 Yet Another Moron

Speaks

He Didn’t Notice

His Missing Gun

Fool Threatens

 Gets Arrested

Interrogation footage broadcast poses ‘no problem’: NHK president



 

The president of NHK has justified the public broadcaster’s use of footage showing interrogation in a fatal injury case during a TV program, ruling out any legal violations.

NHK President Masayuki Matsumoto presented the view at a regular news conference on June 6. The move comes after the Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office demanded that the Osaka Bar Association discipline a lawyer for providing a DVD containing the footage to NHK, saying his actions violated the Code of Criminal Procedure that prohibits the use of evidence for purposes other than its original intent. The footage, which matched footage submitted to the court as evidence, was aired on April 5.