Tragedy - 7 killed randomly in Akiba

Today, Sunday, A 25 year old man, Tomohiro Kato from Susono Shizuoka, was arrested by police after he drove a rental van into a group of pedestrians on Chou-dori in Akihabara. This area was closed for vehicle use. He then exited his car and began to stab bystanders. Totalling in 10 injured and 7 dead including 5 men aged 19, 20, 29, 33, 47, 74 and one 21 year old woman.

For more information on this tragic event look
here at Japan Today news or
here at Japan Probe

There are some graphic and disturbing images. This is truly awful news, and my heart goes out to those injured, killed, and their families. This man stated that it didn't matter who he killed. It's too bad Japanese people are not more caring of strangers, the mindset is that if they don't know the person then that person just doesn't matter.

Akihabara 2nd only to Kabukicho

And we all know what Kabukicho is known for (no not that) - crime! Akihabara has risen to the 2nd most dangerous place in Tokyo due to the recent surge in weapons related offensives. The most common crime is extortion at knife point, aimed at the geeks who call akiba home. This has given rise to the term "Otaku-hunting". Another popular varient of this is called "maid-hunting" in which the legions of young women dressed as maids to serve the geeks are threatened until they submit to sexual assualt.

Also the geeks themselves are to blame for this rise in crime, as they may lose their sense of right and wrong when they are dressed in cosplay. There have been an incidence of one anime character stabbing the other in a computer shop. All this violence has been good for the weapons dealers however, as the otaku feel they need to arm themselves for protection. It isn't addressed if any gaijin touring in Akiba have been targeted.
Read the article here.

Manner Police are on Patrol!

Well this recent article caught my attention on the Mainichi daily news because it had Yokohama written boldly in the headline, so I surfed right over. The basic gist of the article is Yokohama is now employing a senior aged crew of 11 manner police, which will soon be released to work on the subway's afternoon routes.

All the manner police will be escorted by subway attendants in case things get a bit hairy, and they have been trained in how to address strangers. The manner police are a mix of men and women over 60, with the oldest crew member at 81 years old. They are wary of the confrontations that will inevitably arise, but they are ready to get out there and start helping make the train riding experience more pleasant for everyone.

Some of the actions that the manner patrol will be policing include blocking the train doors, taking up more then one seat, and using a mobile phone. I'd say there are plenty of other "infringements" that they will be looking for, but as a past rider on Japanese railways I can tell you those three are the top offenders by occurrence levels.

Really the mobile use doesn't bother me when it's just emailing, but I have seen/heard people talking on their mobiles and yes, it's rather annoying. I think keeping people away from the train doors is going to be difficult. Many were the times Shouma shooed me towards the doors, explaining it was the most comfortable spot. And on a busy train, indeed it is. I think this is delightful idea and if they can pull it off I think it will have some benefit for the train riders and everyone involved with the train system.

Award for Tommy Lee Jones

Have you seen the Suntory Boss canned coffee commercial series featuring Tommy Lee Jones? Well if you haven't I would suggest surfing over to YouTube and searching for them, it's just a delightful little ad campaign!

In the commercials Jones plays a coffee loving space alien who comes to earth to investigate it. In each commercial Jones is doing or working some traditional Japanese activity including working at a karaoke bar, as a host and at a onsen. He suffers through some hardships, but is always able to find a little good about earth and enjoys a hardy drink of Boss coffee Rainbow Mountain blend. I wrote a paper about the commercials on my Mass Media class blog you can read it here!

Well these commercials have just recently won the Fujisankei Communications grand prix advertising award. And I think they couldn't have picked a better campaign. Theses commercials seem to be very popular with many people - I've yet to hear a bad word about them. Good work Suntory and Tommy Lee Jones

Kinda like chemical warfare

The most recent event in the Sea Shepard Conservation Society vs. the Japanese whalers has a bit of a terrorist like feeling. Today the SSCS harrassed the whalers by throwing bottles of rotten butter and slippery oil on the decks of their ships. The rotten butter, besides causing a terrible lingering stench, also releases the chemical Butyric acid which is an irretant to the skin and eyes.

A crew member of the whaling vessel and 2 coast guard officials complained of having stinging pain in their eyes. Japan's Fisheries Agency plan to file complaints with Australia and the Netherlands (SSCS fly a Dutch flag). Sea Shepherd leader Paul Watson says they didn't do anything harmful since the Butyric acid hit actually hit the crew member's bodies.

Read the article here.

Personally I feel this is a rather childish and nasty way of protesting. I don't think it does much more then cause some minor bodily harm to the crew members. I am in no way supporting whaling, and am I also in no way supporting the Sea Sheppards antics.

Also it seems that a lot of western people think that the Japanese are a whale hungry, blood thristy, ignorant bunch of thick-headed freaks. Most people do not consume whale meat, it's not a commonly available item. There are even Japanese who oppose whaling! Oh shock and awe! I think Shouma basically summed up Japanese feelings towards/reasons for whaling - they whale certain types of whale that are big eaters of fishes Japanese commonly eat. So less whale equals more fish. It's not kind to whales, but it does hint of some sort of logical thought patterns.

However, nothing is going to be solved by cheap chemical warfare, I'm afraid

Another Poisoned Product

I'm sure by now that everyone has heard of the 10 people in the Kanto region had been poisoned by gyoza manufactured in China.

Well today frozen food company Takamatsu recalled 19 products processed on June 5th at two Chinese factories in Shandong Province. Poisoned frozen mackerel was impetus of the recall. The mackerel had been tainted with a pesticide apparently called "dichlorvos" and were well over the limit of .01 parts per million. More about this can be read here.

It’s interesting a similar case of food poisoning would arise so quickly, one after the other. But it seems that almost every month there is a new case of something poisoned coming out of China. Some people have expressed their opinion as people are over-reacting to the 10 cases of gyoza poisoning.

But I think, how many people does it take before it becomes important? Its true people all over the world are food poisoned every day. But in reality the food industry should be doing its best to reduce food poisoning, and China is just not cutting it. Besides these recent cases in Japan, China has sent poisoned pet food, toothpaste and toys to the US. Another huge problem is all the counterfeit drugs being produced for export in China.

It seems a majority of Japanese are now either going to avoid Chinese produced food or limited their consumption of it. However this is going to be a very difficult task, as a great amount of the food in Japanese supermarkets is either blatantly Chinese or Chinese food that has been repackaged and labeled as "Made in Japan".