Jappanica – Page 3 – Mutantfrog Travelogue

Man Convicted of Indecency Promises not to do it Again, Approaches the Same Victims the Very Next Day

Yukan Fuji learned on July 6 that a judge at the Sendai High Court ordered a man (66) of Kesennuma City, Miyagi Prefecture, to stop following 6 young girls and their parents and pay damages in a lawsuit against him brought by the parents of girl victims alleging that the man followed 3 girls the next day after receiving a guilty verdict for touching the same girls.

According to the July 4 appeal decision, the man was arrested in April 2005 for forced indecency for touching the bodies of 3 elementary school-aged girls, and in June the Sendai Regional Court sentenced the man to 2 years 6 months suspended for 5 years.

The man was released after promising in court that he would “no talk to them or anything anymore”, but he talked to 2 of the 3 girls the next day after the verdict and repeatedly followed the girls for 2.5 months.

The parents sued the man, demanding he cease following the girls and pay 6.6 million yen on allegations that “mental scars remain in our daughters that will last a lifetime.” In March 2006 the Sendai regional court fully accepted the accusations, ordering the man not to take any action that would cause grief to the girls or their parents, and the Sendai high court followed suit, ordering him to pay 5.1 million yen.

The man appealed, denying that he followed the girls.

ZAKZAK 2006/07/06

Vietnam Man Awakes only to Find His PENIS IS MISSING!!! OUCH!!

Every man’s nightmare:

Man’s Genitals Removed As he Slept
JST, 6/19/2006

In Vietnam’s Dong Nai Province, a 49-year-old alcoholic named “K” awoke from a drunken stupor only to find his genitals had been removed! The culprits left no proof behind, and police investigations have met with difficulty. The man was immediately hospitalized and has since been released, but unfortunately his “stuff” could not be made the way it used to be.

B-grade News from Nikkan Gendai: Man in Women’s Clothing Whips Out Penis in Train

This type of thing (men in women’s clothing doing weird things) seems to keep happening all the time recently:

B-grade News from Nikkan Gendai: Man in Women’s Clothing Whips Out Penis in Train
56-year-old Amagasaki City Section Chief Arrested

On June 5, the Yodoyagawa Precinct of the Osaka Prefectural Police arrested Hiroshi Ikeuchi (56), Section Chief of the Amagasaki City (Hyogo Pref) Health and Welfare Section on suspicion of red-handed public indecency for exposing his lower body in a train. The man has reportedly admitted to the crime, explaining, “It was a thoughtless act. I will properly make amends for the crime I have committed.”

According to investigations, Ikeuchi boarded a Hankyu train, bound for Hibarigaoka Hanayashiki on the Takarazuka line, at Umeda station. Dressed as a woman, he sat on the bench and exposed his lower body to a female technical school student and others sitting across from him by spreading his legs and so forth.

He ran from the train after the women approached him, but a male rider stopped him at Mikuni station and brought him to the nearby precinct.

Ikeuchi lives with his wife and no children. He has testified that since approximately 13 years ago he cross-dressed by wearing wigs and miniskirts and “felt freedom by wearing women’s clothing.” He reportedly had consumed alcohol at an Osaka transvestite club and was on his way to an apartment he had rented in Toyonaka City in order to drop off his women’s clothes.

According to the city of Amagasaki, Ikeuchi was hired in 1973, and started his current job in April after previously serving as section chief of the Industry and Labor and City Planning Sections. He was, they said, a man who proactively engaged issues.

This is precisely the area where I stayed as a high school exchange student. Always amazing to see what sort of stuff is going on behind closed doors.

Dietman Taizo Sugimura an Idiot After All? (At least he is an admitted plagiarizer)

Speaking of book news:

Young LDP Diet member Taizo Sugimura (PR, South Kanto) has admitted that a post on his personal blog was plagiarized from the autobiography You Aren’t an Idiot After All. ZAKZAK has the story:

This Time Taizo is Suspected of Plagiarism…Just before his marriage
Blog Post Closely Resembles Popular Yoyogi Seminar Teacher’s Autobiography

A post on Lower House member Taizo Sugimura (age 26)’s blog was found to closely resemble the autobiography of popular teacher at the famous exam preparation school Yoyogi Seminar (Keisuke Yoshino, age 39). (Sugimura has since admitted to the plagiarism).

The blog post, uploaded at 11:32pm on May 10, starts out “It was my last night as a single man.” Sugimura describes that when he was 19, he “seriously hated myself,” went to a snowy mountain to kill himself, and “lay down on the snow, quietly waiting for death.” However, he returned to his car after being unable to withstand the cold. He tried going outside again, but ended up going home after thinking “At this rate I’ll catch a cold!”

Yoshino’s memoirs, You Aren’t an Idiot After All, were published in 1991 and were reprinted in paperback. A passage in the book, in which the 19-year-old author attempts suicide by going to the Shigakogen plateau, and after going in and out of his car a few times returns home after realizing he’d catch a cold – the resemblance is consistent even in the story’s punchline.

Yoshino, a former biker gang member, participated in a discussion group for NEETs (people Not in Employment, Education, or Training) held by Sugimura. During the discussion, Yoshino reportedly told that story.

The eery resemblance became a topic of discussion on the Internet, and by May 23 the offending passages were deleted.

(liberally abstracted from ZAKZAK 2006/05/23)

Thank god for the Internet. If you watch the video in which he admits to the plagiarism, you’ll notice just how little he seems to care that he’s a freaking dumbass for ripping off a popular book.

It sounds like he thinks it’s all over since he just deleted the passages in question. Doesn’t he realize it’s too late?

Takebe Telling Bad Jokes on the Campaign Trail in Chiba by-election

I don’t know about you guys, but this neck-and-neck by-election in Chiba prefecture has me riveted! (Click link for background though it’s pretty obviously biased against the DPJ). Somehow new DPJ President Ichiro Ozawa has made the press almost completely forget about that sloppy screw-up Tony Blair wanna-be predecessor of his Maehara.

ZAKZAK, as usual, has some interesting coverage (good parts summarized — best digested by reading link above for background first):

Takebe Telling Meaningless Bad Jokes in Chiba by-election
Limp LDP Showing Leaves Takebe’s Leadership Spinning its Wheels

Ozawa’s DPJ is strengthening its offenses for the Apr 23 by election in Chiba’s 7th district. The new opposition president (63yo) has reportedly ordered members of his party to skip meetings in favor of supporting candidate Kazumi Oda (26yo) who has upstaged LDP contender Ken Saito (46) in the polls.

In response to Ozawa’s full court press, the LDP’s very own “honorable yes-man” Tsutomu Takebe has taken the reins to try and turn things around.

Along with the popular figures like Prime Minister Koizumi and Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe offering words of support, “Koizumi children” including Taizo Sugimura have joined the fray by passing out leaflets in front of train stations.

But a certain lack of vitality can’t be denied.

An LDP prefectural office official admitted, “Conflict over candidate selection between the prefectural chapter and the central party has had an effect [on the atmosphere]. The lackadaisical prefectural assembly members are also an issue. The fact that Takebe keeps telling bad jokes like ‘rock paper scissors KEN SAITO!’ (『最初はグー、斎藤ケン』 in Japanese) is killing the mood for some activists.”

Continue reading Takebe Telling Bad Jokes on the Campaign Trail in Chiba by-election

Quick lesson in METI ineptitude: The PSE Law explained

Yes, the PSE Law (which would have banned the sale of some used video game consoles and almost all vintage musical instruments) has been thoroughly declawed. Thank god. But weren’t you the least bit curious about how this all got started? I was, so it was especially interesting for me to come across this article in the 3/25/2006 issue of Japanese business weekly, Shukan Toyo Keizai (Weekly Oriental Economy, link opens PDF file). Some highlights (translated where it was easy, abstracted where it was a pain):

Something’s Wrong Here, METI! (Part 2): Used Goods Sold No More?! Analysis of METI’s teeter-tottering over the PSE Law

A scandal began when a used goods dealer asked a question to the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI).

It was October 2005 when a letter arrived at the headquarters of major used goods chain Hard Off Corporation. It said: “Pursuant to the Product Safety Electrical Appliance and Material Law (PSE Law), electric appliances without the “PSE label” can no longer be sold as of April 1. Please take note.”

The sender was Victor JVC. It was addressed to vendors stores selling the company’s products. Hard Off, though mainly dealing in used goods, sells some new items, so it was as if by chance that the letter made it there.

President Ken Nagahashi of Hard Off was worried: Does “can no longer be sold” include used goods? What are the stipulations for used goods? He looked on METI’s website, but no matter where he looked he could not find anything about used goods.

He then directly asked METI, but the person at the Product Safety Division who received his question could not give an immediate answer as to whether used goods were included. Hard Off was at a loss.
Continue reading Quick lesson in METI ineptitude: The PSE Law explained

Bomb Threats for fun and Profit: Japanese Terrorist Wants his Welfare, and an April Fools “joke” gone Wrong

ZAKZAK!

Man Dials Emergency Hotline With City Hall Bomb Threat after “Being Denied Public Assistance”

The Tokai Precinct of the Aichi Prefectural Police arrested an unemployed male (55) on suspicion offorcible obstruction of business for calling in a bomb threat to the Obu City Hall on April 9.

According to the police’s investigation, the man is suspected of calling 110 [emergency hotline similar the 911 in the US] from a public phone from 12:12 until 12:23 on April 9 and reported that “the Obu City Hall building will be bombed at noon on April 12,” obstructing business. He was arrested by police from the Tokai precinct, who rushed to the scene while he was on the line.

The man has explained, “I applied for public assistance, but I was denied.”

ZAKZAK 2006/04/10

Meanwhile, unnamed foreign students in Burma apparently don’t get that it’s supposed to be an April Fool’s joke:

Myanmar junta says bomb was April Fools joke

Published: Monday, 10 April, 2006, 11:56 AM Doha Time

YANGON: Myanmar’s military junta said yesterday that a time bomb found at an upscale international school last week was likely planted by foreign students as part of an April Fools joke.

The bomb, similar in design to explosives that killed 19 people in the capital almost a year ago, had been found and defused at the International School of Yangon on Thursday, security personnel said.

Brigadier-General Kyaw Hsan, information minister of the ruling State Peace and Development Council, told a press conference that investigators had to consider other factors since the students of diplomats from the United States and other foreigners working in Myanmar attend the school.

Good one!

Eikaiwa Teacher Nabbed for Marijuana Possession, Yukan Fuji Makes fun of His Japanese

ZAKZAK!

“I had marijuana”… Middle School Asst English Teacher Arrested

The Gunma Prefectural Police, Shibukawa Precinct, arrested a male American citizen (34) working as an assistant English teacher at a middle school in Shinto Village [a real town, not some Japanese-style Santaland, unfortunately – Adamu], Gunma, for possession of marijuana.

According to police investigations, the man had several grams of marijuana in his home. The man was the only asst. English teacher in the village and has been employed on a contract basis since August. He has admitted the crime and the precinct intends to pursue questioning on the route by which he obtained the drugs.

ZAKZAK 2006/04/06

Now, take a look at this headline:

マリフアナヲモッテマシタ…中学校の英語助手を逮捕

(The words before the ellipse mean “I had marijuana” written in letters to mockingly indicate a foreign accent)

For you gaijin in Japan who get hot under the collar when Japanese people praise your Japanese, maybe you should try getting arrested! I can guarantee no one will tell you how smart you are for learning such a hard language, certainly not the press.

(Picture plucked from Google Images and probably does not depict the actual suspect)

Sugimura Just Can’t Get it Right

ZAKZAK!

Taizo’s One-sided Date in Chinatown – 26-year-old Hot Secretary Tells All
“This is the last time, so let’s get together just the two of us,” No touching

Yukan Fuji has learned on March 16 that just before announcing his engagement, the “100% Koizumi Child” and self-described representative of the unemployed LDP Diet member Taizo Sugimura (PR, S. Kanto block, 26yo) was on a date with the ravishing private secretary (26) of former prime minister Tsutomu Hata. Sugimura (or “Taizo” as he is often called by his given name) had just announced his engagement the previous day. The act may be misinterpreted as “cheating,” but the woman, in an interview with Yukan Fuji, denied such allegations forcefully, remarking, “I am like his female friend (who doesn’t see him as a [dateable] man).”

According to the woman, she picked him up in a white Mercedes-Benz at his official residence in Sanda, Minato District, Tokyo, on the morning of March 12, whereupon he got in the passenger’s seat. After driving a few hundred meters, Taizo took the wheel and headed down the Metropolitan Expressway, finally arriving at a parking lot in Yokohama’s Chinatown. They ate lunch approximately 1.5 hours later and then returned to the official residence.

The woman denied a special relationship with Sugimura: “We went out to eat, but Representative Sugimura is a friend who I hang out with other friends my age. Even then, we didn’t make anything more than small talk.”

She is a private secretary working in the office of former prime minister Hata, and possesses good looks such that she appeared in a photo magazine’s “Beautiful Dietmembers’ Secretaries Special Feature.” Her style is in a class all its own, and she resembles actresses Akiko Yada and Uno Kanda. She is rumored to be dating a male corporate worker.
Continue reading Sugimura Just Can’t Get it Right

Goro Miyazaki’s Blog 2-24-06: The Only Way for Me to Know My Father was Through His Works

UPDATE: The official site has posted an interview with producer Toshio Suzuki that once and for all lays out why Goro Miyazaki was chosen to direct AND why his father Hayao Miyazaki was against it. In short, Hayao Miyazaki is one of those guys who has to be in control at all times. He was OK with Goro working on the film but was dead set against letting him direct until he saw that Goro could draw just as well as his father… stay tuned for a translation!

In celebration of the best comment I have yet received on this site, I bring you another exciting installment of Goro Miyazaki’s blog!

I don’t know what things were like before, but ever since I can remember my father was often not around. That said, just as I loved my mother, I loved my father, and when I was small I wanted him to pay attention to me and play with me. However, there were almost no chances for that.
Continue reading Goro Miyazaki’s Blog 2-24-06: The Only Way for Me to Know My Father was Through His Works