Random Japan

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TECHNOLOGY & ITS DISCONTENTS

   A Japanese man who claims he’s being defamed by Google’s autocomplete function filed suit against the US-based tech giant in Tokyo. The suit says that entering the man’s name into a search bar leads to a display of candidate words “evoking criminal acts.”

   A Tokyo man who’s upset at DoCoMo’s decision to end its mova 2G service was arrested for placing 964 phonecalls to one of the carrier’s shops in Chiyoda-ku between December and February. The man also visited the store, “yelling angrily and begging for continuation of the service.”

   A huge dock that was set loose by the March 11 tsunami washed up on the coast of Oregon-along with “hundreds of millions of individual organisms, including a tiny species of crab, a species of algae, and a little starfish, all native to Japan.” US scientists are describing the potentially invasive species as a “very clear threat.”

   Proving that a fondness for bureaucratic regulation runs deep in Japanese culture, archaeologists in Fukuoka unearthed strips of wood dating from the 7th century that are believed to be the earliest known evidence of a family registry system.

stats

   71.1 Percent of people aged 60 or older who are “willing to work until they reach 70,” according to a government survey

   36.3 Percent of people aged 65-69 who are employed

THICK AS THIEVES

   Thaksin Shinawatra, the fugitive ex-prime minister of Thailand, visited Tokyo to unveil the snappily named Japan-Thailand Economic Partnership Promotion Organization.

   This probably isn’t the kind of partnership promotion he had in mind: a member of the Sixth Yamaguchi-gumi crime group was arrested while on the lam in Bangkok after allegedly defrauding a Japanese company out of $1.6 million.

   Toyota’s hybrid Prius is popular not just with consumers-it’s been the bestselling car in Japan for three consecutive years-but with thieves as well. The National Police Agency recorded 514 thefts of the car last year, compared to just 27 in 2009.

   The government approved a spending package worth ¥1.6 billion to pay for 16 diesel generators to help Myanmar overcome chronic power shortages.

Those Islands  

Are Mine

Pen’s Of Death

 Are You Kidding Me?

Yes!

He Is Stupid

The eyes have it for disabled gamers



Jul. 14, 2012 – 07:16AM JST

Engineers said Friday they had built a device using mass-produced video gaming equipment that lets disabled people control a computer with just their eyes-with a price tag of under $30 (25 euros).

The gadget comprises two video game console cameras, costing less than $10 apiece, attached outside the line of vision to a pair of ordinary glasses, reported the team from Imperial College London.

The cameras relay the eye’s movements to an ordinary computer, wirelessly over Wi-Fi or via USB, and used one watt of power, they wrote in the Journal of Neural Engineering.