Random Japan

GOOD LOVIN’ GONE BAD

A 42-year-old man in Italy was charged with killing his 24-year-old girlfriend after binding her to her friend with rope after a night of clubbing. The trio was apparently “performing a Japanese sado-masochist technique known as shibari” when things went wrong and one of the girls suffocated.

A jeweler in Otsu put 14 small 0.01-carat diamonds on sale for ¥100 each to try to bring people into his store. It worked-over 20 people lined up in front of the shop before it opened.

A soccer game in the Belgian League was stopped when Japanese goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima took exception to opposing fans chanting “Kawashima, Fukushima.” An enraged Kawashima left the field in tears and later called the chants “unforgiveable.”

The lone surviving pine tree out of thousands on tsunami-hit Takata Matsubara beach in Iwate Prefecture is in failing health with dead buds, discolored pine cones, and brown leaves. Damaged roots are thought to be the cause and a hotter-than-hell summer didn’t help.

A small wooden boat with nine people on board was stopped by the Coast Guard in the Sea of Japan near the Noto Peninsula. One passenger told officers that the boat was from North Korea and they were trying to get to South Korea.

A capsule house designed in the 1960s by famed “Metabolist” architect Kisho Kurokawa was put on display in Roppongi.

Japanese teen actors Shota Sometani and Fumi Nikaido won the Marcello Mastroianni Award for best young actor and actress at the Venice International Film Festival for their work in a movie called Himizu.

Another Japanese film, Kotoko, took home the festival’s Orizzonti award for “full-length feature films that reflect new trends in international film.”

The 13-year-old son of a Japanese banker killed in the World Trade Center attacks in 2001 gave an emotional speech at the Ground Zero ceremony in New York honoring the victims on the 10th anniversary of 9/11.

Two Russian bombers buzzed Japanese airspace, prompting Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura to send a protest to Moscow through diplomatic channels.

A 24-year-old Chiba man was arrested for stealing money from the bank account of a female university student and killing her by suffocating her with a plastic bag.

Stats

66

Percentage of the revenue generated by the World Baseball Classic that is split between MLB and the MLB Players’ Association

13 percent

Share of WBC revenue that two-time champion Japan gets, according to The Asahi Shimbun

50 percent plus

Total revenue of the WBC generated by Japanese sponsors, TV rights sold in Japan

9

Days new Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Yoshio Hachiro lasted in the job before being forced to step down after a couple of verbal gaffes related to Fukushima

23

Companies from China on that list

KEEP YOUR SHORTS ON, FREDDIE

Swedish midfielder and former underwear model Freddie Ljungberg joined the J. League’s Shimizu S-Pulse. A news report said his new teammates were “gushing about the kicking motion” of the 34-year-old ex-Arsenal star.

Three pirates attacked a Japanese-operated chemical tanker in the Strait of Malacca in a midnight raid that only netted them a life ring after someone raised the alarm.

The president of JR Hokkaido went missing after leaving behind apparent suicide notes. Reports said he was “stressed out” from dealing with a train derailment in May.

There are expected to be a record 45,756 people in Japan this year aged 100 or older, a health ministry survey revealed, including Jirouemon Kimura who, at 114, is deemed the world’s oldest man by the Guinness Book of Records.

A Portuguese man was caught smuggling nearly 3kg of methamphetamines through Osaka’s airport from South Africa. He had the drugs, worth about ¥270 million, stuffed in a bag and backpack.

History  

Just Pretend It Never Happened

The Firework Bandit?

It Could Be………..

He Filmed Up  

We He should Have Filmed Down

Tokyo, Okinawa usher in antigang laws



By ERIC JOHNSTON and TAKAHIRO FUKADA

Staff writers

Local ordinances prohibiting companies from trading with organized crime syndicates will be put into force Saturday in Tokyo and Okinawa with the expectation of stopping their cash flow funds and eventually putting the mob out of business.

Some legal experts welcome the moves by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the Okinawa Prefectural Government, but they also urge local police to properly disclose to the general public detailed information about gangs so they can avoid trading with them and provide concrete examples of the cases being banned by the new ordinances.