今週の日本

Safety Agency Rebukes Toyota Over Floor-Mat Issue

New York Times

Matsui Goes Wild, and So Do His Fans in Japan

New York Times

Lindsay Hawker murder suspect reported to have had face surgery

Guardian

Japan, U.S. to avoid bases feud for Obama visit

Washington Post

Un delirante filme japonés cierra hoy la Semana de Terror

El Pais

The rise of Japan’s 'girlie man' generation

Times Online

Demography vs. demagoguery: when politics, science collide

Japan Times

On the Dawn of a New National Ainu Policy: The “‘Ainu’ as a Situation” Today

Japan Focus

Au Japon, "une étoile tombée du ciel"

Le Monde

Three hurt in rare Japan shooting

BBC

Japan tunes in to watch Hideki Matsui make World Series history

Yahoo Sports

Last week's Japan news


Japan Statistics

Summer bonus payments at companies with at least five employees were 9.7% lower than those in the summer of 2008.

According to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, the bonuses averaged 363,104 yen this summer.

Source: Kyodo News

New car sales in October rose 12.6% from the same month a year earlier. That is the highest amount of growth in twelve years.

Source: Daily Yomiuri

Infant Mortality Rates, by country, 2005 (per 1,000 live births).

1) Singapore: 2.1
2) Sweden: 2.4
2) Hong Kong: 2.4
4) Japan: 2.8

21) England & Wales: 4.9

30) USA: 6.9

Source: Center for Disease Control and Prevention


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市橋達也 リンゼイ・アン・ホーカー

On 24 March 2007, Tatsuya Ichihashi (now 30 years old), a physical fitness freak loner living in Chiba, supported by his rich parents, brutally murdered Lindsay Ann Hawker, a 22-year-old English teacher from Britain and put her body in a sand and compost-filled bathtub on his balcony. Ichihashi escaped from the group of nine Japanese police who had gathered outside his apartment to question him by running away barefoot, and since then, in spite of being on a nationwide wanted list with 10 million yen on his head (c. USD110,000, GBP65,000), the Japanese police have been unable to find him.

However, a breakthrough was announced this week. A doctor at a hospital in Nagoya brought it to police attention that a plastic surgery patient treated in late October was probably Ichihashi. While suspicion had not been raised at the time of surgery, the next day when processing the documentation, the doctor had noticed a scar from previous plastic surgery on the patient where a mole unusual in a male had been removed.

The police have just released before and after photos of Ichihashi. The sharp-eyed, reasonably good-looking slayer has transformed himself into what looks like a low-browed Neanderthal halfwit.

Rumors that he had escaped to the Philippines, a well known refuge of Japanese criminals, are obviously unfounded.

How is he managing to survive, and how is he paying (in cash) the hundreds of thousands of yen required for multiple instances of plastic surgery? Are the police monitoring possible communication between him and his rich parents? (Dad’s a doctor, mom’s a dentist.) Japan is a very difficult place to hide. The physical size of the place means you can’t travel far, there are police everywhere, no shortage of security cameras, whatever you do when it comes to anything remotely official requires ID, and Ichihashi’s photo is prominently displayed at almost every police box (or koban) in the country. (They even have an artist’s impression of Ichihashi in drag!) Perhaps this new mugshot will see overdue justice done soon.

Any sightings of Ichihashi should be reported to the police at 047 397 0110.


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黒井千次

Life in the Cul de Sac

by Senji Kuroi

Stone Bridge Press
ISBN: 1-8806-5657-4
216 pp

What began as a series of interlinking short stories, Kuroi has woven into an unsettling whole in this novel of Japanese suburban dis-ease. The various families in the titular cul-de-sac, whom we visit several times over the course of a few years, spend almost as much time speculating about their neighbours as they do preoccupied with their own problems.

Buy this book from Amazon USA I UK I Japan

A reader sent in this image of a men's clothing store in Cape Town - Just Japs.

Strange name for a chain of shops. There is also an "Australian importer of high performance Japanese motor vehicles, parts and accessories" of the same name.



Just Japs
Shop 6205
V&A Waterfront
Tel: 021 419 5373

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ディワリ祭り　西葛西



Last weekend I went to the Nishi-Kasai district of Tokyo, in Edogawa ward in the far east end of the city. Nishi-Kasai has the largest Indian community in Tokyo - and probably Japan - and the occasion on Saturday was the 10th celebration of the Hindu Diwali festival.

In spite of it being an Indian event, it was aimed at much at the local Japanese population as it was the Indian. The majority of the crowd was Japanese, and even the performances were largely Japanese-style and by Japanese people.

However, the Indian element was predominant in the stalls that lined the venue selling mainly Indian food, as well as clothing, incense, and jewelry. Several religious groups were proselytizing there, too, like Hare Krishnas, Sai Baba-ites, and even the Japanese, and decidedly oddball, "Happy Science" group.

But the festival was focused on performances: singing, dancing, and drama - the drama even including some manga-style futuristic gundam fighting.

Perhaps the most memorable performance was Beyonce-style stage dancing by half a dozen girls on stage, with the space below and along the stage lined with shirtless, body-painted boys drumming in vigorous unison while the girls worked their moves. Check out the YouTube video above of shirtless boys drumming and girls shaking it.

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ブレディスロー・カップ



I had the fortune of getting tickets - per kind favor of the Brastel telecommunications company and New Zealand Telecom - for the Nissui Tokyo 2009 Bledisloe Cup rugby match between the New Zealand All Blacks and the Australian Wallabies at the National Sports Stadium in Tokyo's Shinjuku ward.

The massive National Sports Stadium, or Kokuritsu Kyogijo, (built for the 1964 Olympics) was close to a full house, with a crowd of about 45,000. There was a large contingent of both New Zealanders and Australians, and the excitement was palpable from long before kick off.

Of course, the main part of the audience was made up of local Japanese, reflecting the enthusiasm for rugby in Japan.

The Wallabies scored first, but the All Blacks dominated, keeping the play largely on their side of the field, and going on to win 32-19.

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Nissuirugby Kokuritsu Kyogijo (National Sports Stadium)