This from the Nikkei this morning:

Govt Seeks To Locate Fault Lines Near Nuclear Plants

Why on earth would they want to do that, and just how would they propose to move these fault lines??

*The article actually refers to finding out whether there are any more nuclear plants located under fault lines.

Nikkei Net warns:

Press Holiday
Morning Edition will not be updated on Monday, March 12, because of a press holiday on Sunday.

That’s right. The concept of a 24-hour news cycle (or even a day-to-day news cycle for that matter) means nothing to Japan’s newspaper companies. On Sunday, none of the major newspapers will go to print, nor will they update their websites (though to be fair, most of them slack off on weekends anyway). This behavior is unheard of in the US, but I have to admit giving reporters a day off isn’t that bad of an idea. Given the sometimes volatile nature of breaking news, there might be a similar justification to forcing reporters to sit it out a while that there is for keeping capital markets closed on holidays and after hours. Still, it’s pretty ridiculous that newspapers took the day off on the day the postal privatization bills were initially rejected (Aug 8, 2005):

As news days go in Japan, it rarely gets bigger than it was Monday. In a narrow vote, the upper house of the Japanese Parliament voted down a pivotal piece of legislation intended to privatize Japan’s $2.9 trillion postal savings system, the world’s biggest bank. Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi had staked his reputation on postal reform, so in retaliation, he dissolved the lower house and scheduled a general election for Sept. 11. Pundits bloviated that the turn of events could even mean the end of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s half century of nearly unbroken control of government…

Yet if you relied on Japanese newspapers for your news, you wouldn’t have heard about those momentous events Monday. That’s because Monday was one of Japan’s monthly newspaper holidays.

The holiday coming up is less likely to make Japan’s newspapers look so obviously like archaic relics of the past, but it still bores me half to death. I mean, why are Japan’s newspapers even allowed to form a cartel and agree all at once when not to publish? More on that later.

Read more about newspaper holidays (kyukanbi / 休刊日) at the sadly defunct Japan Media Review.

Update: This citizen journalist claims that there were no newspaper holidays when he was young. I can’t seem to find when this practice started, but apparently it’s rather recent, though these days they are accepted as a part of everyday life. And as JMR notes, the wire services Jiji Press and Kyodo News as well as the sports newspapers don’t participate. I will get to the bottom of this.

From Bloomberg:

South Korea, Japan to Limit Liquids on All Overseas Flights

By Seonjin Cha

Feb. 27 (Bloomberg)—South Korea and Japan will expand restrictions on carrying liquids on board international flights from Thursday, to thwart terrorist attacks.

Passengers on all international flights from South Korea, including transit flights, will only be allowed to bring in liquids, gels and aerosol items in containers no larger than 100 milliliters (3.38 oz.), which must be placed in transparent plastic bags, the Ministry of Construction and Transportation said yesterday on its Web site.

The same restrictions will go into effect for all international flights from Japan, the country’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said on its Web site on Dec. 19.

The move is an expansion of current restrictions on flights to the U.S. and EU countries that began last year based on guidelines from the International Civil Aviation Organization, the Korean ministry said.

Food for infants and medicines will be exempt from the restrictions but must be reported to security staff in advance, the ministry said.

I thought the “liquid bomb” theory was already discredited! There needs to be some kind of multilateral negotiating body where cooler heads can veto very bad ideas like this liquid rule and infinite copyright term extension.

Joseph Conrad’s famous novel Heart of Darkness was based on the author’s experiences in the Belgian Congo. King Leopold II of Belgium had originally wanted to establish his colony in the Philippines, but Spain refused to sell the islands to him. When the film Apocalypse Now, set in Vietnam and based on the novel Heart of Darkness, was made they filmed it in the Philippines.

This report from the Nikkei scares the hell out of me:

Cyberdyne’s Wearable Robot Suit To Help Seniors

TSUKUBA, Ibaraki Pref. (Nikkei)—A wearable robot suit developed by university scientists that aids the user’s hand and leg movements may be Japan’s answer to a graying society in which a great number of people require lifestyle assistance, or so the developers hope.

The Hybrid Assistive Limb, or HAL, suit was developed by a team led by Tsukuba University professor Yoshiyuki Sankai. It is equipped with sensors that respond to the wearer’s brain signals telling muscles to move. With the legs and arms moving slightly before the user’s, the suit enables wearers to walk easily, without straining their arms or legs, and lift items weighing more than 20 kilograms. It is currently being used in trials at health care facilities specializing in the elderly.

Cyberdyne Inc., a venture set up by Tsukuba University, will team up with Daiwa House Industry Co. (1925) to produce 400 HAL suits a year. To this end, Daiwa House recently invested roughly 1 billion yen into the company through a private placement of new shares. The Tsukuba University spinoff will use the proceeds to establish a mass production infrastructure by next fall.

A “HAL” designed by “Cyberdyne.” There are two possible explanations here: 1) the developers are actually trying to help the elderly and just happen to be big fans of apocalyptic science fiction; or 2) They are diabolical madmen with a sense of irony and are raising an army of elderly cyborgs to rule the world.

A stamp released to commemorate a 1979 International Juche Seminar.

Picked up from the amazing blog of Japanese stamp scholar Yosuke Naito.

The axe may indeed fall on Hiroyuki, though 2ch itself is unlikely to actually change hands. ZAKZAK reports that the man who filed to seize Hiroyuki assets has decided to file to force Hiroyuki into bankruptcy. This is a move that was taken by shareholders of Kinmirai Tsushin Co. recently when cmopany officials tried to flee with their money, and it works:

Kinmirai Tsuushin is suspected of defrauding some 3,000 individual and corporate investors of 40 billion yen by promising to pay lucrative dividends on the basis of its nonexistent Internet telephony operations.

The Metropolitan Police Department began questioning former Kinmirai Tsuushin executives earlier this week over the alleged fraud, investigative sources said. Ishii is now abroad, they said.

On Dec. 7, a real estate company, one of the 3,000 investors, asked the court to declare Kinmirai Tsuushin bankrupt. The real estate company had invested 55 million yen in response to Kinmirai Tsuushin’s solicitation of investments.

The plaintiff noted that he only decided to go forward with this action because the initial reports on Jan 12 of his moves against Hiroyuki sparked further harassment from 2ch readers.

Depending on how things work out, Hiroyuki’s irresponsibility may cause a major disruption in the regular functioning of the Japanese Internet culture. Not that I feel that bad—though it’s a great site in many respects, 2ch is, as Joe just noted, the best example of what happens when the Internet Fuckwad effect goes unchecked for almost 10 years.

But it looks like he is helping pioneer new ways of making the court system effective against harassment campaigns. Meanwhile, there’s more activity on the 2ch site than ever before, and angry 2channelers have been swinging wildly at people who have sued Hiroyuki, such as American-born activist Arudo Debito.

UPDATE: 2ch might be safe after all.

ZAKZAK reports that a 35-year-old man who is suing 2 channel founder Hiroyuki Nishimura has filed to put a lien on all Nishimura’s assets, including the 2ch.net domain. The filing comes after months of Nishimura’s complete refusal to respond to any legal actions against him, including judgments ordering him to delete inflammatory posts and even pay compensation.

Nishimura can object to the motion, but if he does not respond 2ch could be shut down in as early as 2 weeks! He may decide to move the 2ch servers to a different domain, but such a move could take up to 2 weeks due to the decentralized nature of the server.

DOUBLE UPDATE: So far it looks like ZAKZAK has the exclusive scoop on the motion to seize Hiroyuki’s assets, and we at MF have the first reporting of the development in English. ZAKZAK’s close connection to the story could stem from their earlier coverage of Hiroyuki’s legal troubles.

UPDATE: A fitting goodbye as any (if it doesn’t show up look at post 34 in this thread):

34 ：名無しさん＠七周年：2007/01/12(金) 13:48:23 ID:LrUGxQZl0
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　∧ ∧　　　∧ ∧
　　 ／⌒~~~⌒＼ 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　(　 　,,) 　　(,,・Д・)
　／ （ ﾟ〟д〟ﾟ ）y─┛~~ 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　～（＿__ﾉ 　～（＿__ﾉ　,?＿
（_ ノ? Ｕ　　∩_∩）　　　THANK YOU　2ｃｈ　　　　　┌───────┐　　　＼
　　?＿＿＿Ｊ _Ｊ　　　　　　　　　and　　　 　 　　　 （｜ ●　　　 　 　 ●　| 　　　 　ヽ
　　／￣￣￣￣＼ 　GOOD-BYE ２ｃｈ WORLD！ ／.|　.┌▽▽▽▽┐　.|____|__||_| ））
　/　　　　 ●　　●､　　　　　　　　　　　　 　 　　 　（　┤ .｜　 　 　 　 ｜　.|□━□ ）
　|Y　　Y　　　　　　　＼　またどこかで会おうね　　＼.　 .└△△△△┘　.|　 J　　|）
　|.| 　 ｜　　　 　 　.▼ |　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　｜　＼あ＼　　　　　 |　∀　ﾉ
　| ＼／ 　　 　 　 ＿人|∧∧∩゛冫、　.∧＿∧　 　 　 |　 　 ＼り.＼ 　 　 . |　 – ′
　|　　　　　　 ＿/）/）／( ﾟДﾟ)/　`　 .　（´∀｀　）..ヽ(´ー｀)ノ　　＼が＼ . 　 |　 ）
　＼　　　　／ 〔／＼〕　U　　/　∩∩　（　　　　） （＿＿＿）　　　 ＼と.＼　.|／
　　｜ ｜　|　ｃ（*・_・）　 |　　|ヽ(´ー｀)ノ_|　 |　 |　｜　　　｜～ ／＼.＼う＼|　(-＿-)
　　（_＿）＿）　UUUU　/∪∪ （＿＿_）（＿（＿_） ◎￣￣◎─┘　.└──┘.（∩∩）