Random Japan

Official statements

   The commanding general of the Ground Self-Defense Force admitted that he thought Japan “was done for” in the early days of the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

   The Supreme Public Prosecutors Office has requested that officials in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and Yokohama allow social welfare experts to sit in on police interrogations of “possibly mentally disabled suspects.”

   Among the themes addressed by the Emperor in his traditional year-end waka poems were his wife’s 77th birthday and the evacuees of the March 11 disaster.

   During a visit to India, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said Japan would contribute ¥4.5 billion toward a large-scale development called the Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor.

stats

   10,000

Ethnic Koreans who attended a memorial service for late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il in Tokyo last month

   669

Victims of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami whose remains have not been identified

   4,611

Traffic fatalities in Japan last year, according to the National Police Agency

   11

Consecutive years that the number of road deaths has declined

From the vault

   A recently discovered New Year’s card written in 1855 by the Tokugawa-Era revolutionary Shoin Yoshida contains the line, “I’ve had my fill of rice-cake soup, and thunder is rumbling in my stomach.”

   The mayor of Osaka vowed to put an end to the “100-year war” between the city and surrounding Osaka Prefecture. His proposed unification plan would “sort out redundant projects and unify broad-based administrative work.”

   The last operating evacuation shelter for victims of the March 11 earthquake and tsunami was shut down in Fukushima Prefecture. In the days following the disaster, the prefecture’s 400-plus shelters housed 73,608 evacuees.

   Meanwhile, the British ambassador to Japan was knighted for his efforts in the aftermath of the quake, in particular for displaying “exceptional qualities of leadership and empathy.” Three Japanese staffers at the embassy were appointed MBEs.

  What’s That?

It’s An Albatross Coming To visit

Ham

Almost Becomes Sandwich    

Won’t You Stay  

Just A Little Bit Longer

AKB48 craze spawns questionable cash deals among minors



By SATOSHI KOBAYASHI / Staff Writer

The popularity of the girl singing group AKB48 has led to brisk trading among teenagers of collectible photographs of their idols, but has also spawned dubious transactions involving minors who will pay tens of thousands of yen for some of the harder-to-get photos.

The photos come as bonus promos with AKB48 CDs and DVDs. The photos are also available in sets of five for 1,000 yen ($13) at the group’s official shop in Tokyo’s Akihabara district. The photo sets are only available in various combinations of members, so collectors can often be found at fan events swapping with one another to get photos of their favorite AKB48 members.