Making the Headlines

Recent News:

The good news is you are finally pregnant …
‘A woman in her 20s underwent in vitro fertility (IVF) treatment, got pregnant, but then decided to abort upon learning that the fertilized egg was likely from another couple.’  http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200902230046.html

I hate to say: “I said so…”
‘Alarmed at figures Monday showing the domestic economy contracted by the steepest margin since 1974, the government and ruling coalition are expected to rush through a supplementary budget.’   http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200902170067.html

Teachers, instructors, coaches … are the least qualified/competent in the ‘developed world’
‘In a tragic incident in September at the Maritime Self-Defense Force’s 1st Service School in Etajima, Hiroshima Prefecture, a sailor died after he was knocked unconscious during a kick boxing-style “training” event in which he had to fight 15 other sailors. ‘  http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200902230050.html

‘Fair Play’ is not something taught
An aide to Prime Minister Taro Aso sent a letter to a former education ministry bureaucrat last summer on behalf of a dentist whose son wanted to enter a private university’s medical school.

Finally…
“The global economic crisis has taken a heavy toll on Japan’s sporting world. Following the collapse of the bubble in the 1990s, corporate teams began to pull out one by one. Now ‘the second wave’ has arrived, with Nissan Motors suspending its [pretend] baseball, table tennis and athletics teams. As those businesses supporting top-level sportsmen and women struggle in the current economic crisis, the race to find alternative ways of promoting sports is on.” http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20090223p2a00m0na001000c.html

U.S. Navy Aegis destroyer collides with pleasure boat

U.S. Navy destroyer, Japanese pleasure boat collide off Yokosuka [Tokyo Bay]

Source: http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20090216p2a00m0na012000c.html

YOKOSUKA, Kanagawa — A U.S. Navy Aegis destroyer and a 14-ton pleasure boat collided off Yokosuka Port on Sunday, according to the Yokosuka Coast Guard Office.

Yokosuka, Japan (Jan. 09, 2007) – Arleigh Burke Class guided missile destroyer USS Lassen (DDG 82) at Yokosuka undergoing maintenance.

The 9,200-ton destroyer “Lassen” hit the pleasure boat “SUMOMO2″ around 12:25 p.m. Sunday, the 3rd Regional Coast Guard Headquarters learned from a report from the pleasure boat’s captain. The boat suffered damage to its bow but no one was injured in the collision.

“The ship suddenly hit us,” Seishi Hotoda, 43, the captain of the pleasure boat, was quoted as saying. Hotoda and three of his friends were fishing from the anchored boat about 1.7 kilometers northeast of Yokosuka Naval Base when the U.S. vessel approached the boat and hit it in its starboard bow area.

Hotoda’s boat made it back to port without assistance while the destroyer returned to base. U.S. Naval Forces in Japan released a statement saying that the destroyer returned to port after checking damage to the pleasure boat.

The coast guard is investigating the accident.

Related Links:

• A US sailor accused of rape, a Marine beaten to a coma
• USS George Washington NOT Welcome!
• The Other Victims of GW Bush’s War Racket
• Houston, We Have a Problem!
• U.S. Navy Fires Captain of Japan-Bound Nuclear Warship

A Haiku for Taro Aso: Yottsu

Japan Politics of Shame: Act 2, Incompetence

Support for Taro Aso down to ‘5.5 percent’ as Nakagawa claims ‘alcoholic immunity’

As support for Taro Aso tumbles to just 9.7 percent (if  the 4.2 percent margin of error works favorably, it sinks to only 5.5 percent), and his close sidekick, the alcoholic Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa who was seen plastered out of his tiny mind at a press conference following the G-7 finance ministers meeting in Rome last week, becomes a major liability, it seems the time has come for Aso to say good bye to the nation.

So here’s a parting haiku for Aso [and his protege, Nakagawa]

yottsu [the four-legged]

Despite age-old infamy,
yottsu harms no one!

Source of the image: NiteOwl

Japanese Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa is seen during a meeting of the fiscal and financial committee at the lower house of parliament in Tokyo February 16, 2009. Nakagawa denied on Monday that he was drunk at a news conference in Rome and said his political fate was up to the prime minister after the opposition called for him to be fired. Reuters photo. The image may be subject to copyright.

Related Links:

• Japan Politics of Shame: Corruption, Bribery and Sex

• Good riddance! NO one will ever miss a bad PM!
• A Haiku for Fukuda
• People Mean Nothing to Japanese Govt

Exotic drugs and ‘Lucky’ Fertilizers

Some people say a certain brand of beer makes them have unusual dreams. Others make similar claims about sake!

A former colleague once told me that a certain  brand of beer had an unusual effect on him. Whenever  he drank ‘XYZ’ beer [name changed,] he would end up fighting and “taming” prehistoric animals in a contemporary setting in his dreams. Astonishingly, someone else, completely unrelated to him, told me a similar story.

It’s not unheard of for manufacturers of beer, food and beverages to lace their product with certain chemicals to enhance their appeal. It has been said, for example, Coca-Cola had a secret formula which included an ingredient made up from processing coca leaves, from which cocaine is made.

The dutch courage effects of XYZ beer aside, what chemicals do they add to the brand to induce what you could term as “extreme exotic courage syndrome?”

That said, the following news caught my eyes:

5 arrested over sales of tainted rice

OSAKA–Police on Tuesday arrested five people on suspicion of reselling rice to sake breweries, while knowing the industrial-purpose grain was tainted with agricultural chemicals.

The suspects are: Mitsuo Fuyuki (pictured), 73, president of Osaka-based bankrupt rice wholesaler Mikasa Foods Co.; Kazuo Miyazaki, 77, former adviser to Mikasa Foods; his son Yuzo Miyazaki, former manager at Tatsunomi Co., a group company of Mikasa Foods; and two others.

They are accused of violating the Unfair Competition Prevention Law. All five have admitted to the allegations, police said.(IHT/Asahi: February 11,2009)
http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200902110048.html

What’s also interesting, is the Japanese law under which the poisoned rice reseellers are prosecuted [if they are caught.] Never mind attempted murder, or even endangering public health, the perpetrators are charged with violating the “Unfair Competition Prevention Law!”

The height of irresponsibility

What’s wrong with common sense?

Obama, commenting last week on a report that Wall Street banks paid $18.4 billion in bonuses to employees last year, called the payouts “the height of irresponsibility.”

The bonuses came at a time when Wall Street has dug a hole big enough to swallow the entire U.S. economy [and with it most of the rest of the world's.]

Wall Street’s survival, of course, depends on the massive bailout paid for by the taxpayers.

Japan, now in the midst of an unprecedented but entirely predictable recession, has a  birthrate of 1.34, below the level of 2.0 needed maintain its population.

Keidanren, Japan’s largest business group, which boasts about 1,300 major international corporations as members, has asked its members to let workers go home early to make babies. CNN reported.

But why must Japan’s population stay the same? Who exactly is going to feed those babies?

As I have previously mentioned, Japan’s food self-sufficiency rate, total calories supplied, for fiscal 2006 declined from 40 to 39 percent, one of the lowest rates in the “developed” world! And Japan’s energy self-sufficiency is less than 4 percent.

As the climate change takes its toll on food production making it much more expensive to feed a rising world population, and as the world’s economic woes directly translate into unemployment and tough times ahead, the suggestion by Keidanren to make more babies is the height of irresponsibility.

The suggestion by Keidanren to make more babies is the height of irresponsibility.

Hubris is the mortal culture of burying your head in the sand and pretending that all is well, while failing miserably to protect [all of ] your nation against the looming food and energy crisis.

Related Links:

• Japan Syndrome