English language press censorship in Japan

Announcement

Mainichi Daily News Begins Self-Censorship

In a long anticipated move, Japan’s Mainichi Daily News in English has imposed self-censorship joining the likes of Japan Times and Japantoday, the establishment controlled outlets. Regular visitors to Japanifik may have noticed that the links posted here to stories published by Mainichi are no longer active. This is because Mainichi have deleted any story that might be deemed even remotely embarrassing to the “empire” including news of child rape by government employees, murder and suicide.

In the interest of integrity and fair play

Update # 2: Paying the price . . .

The local bike shop owner who saw Gacuette’s bike this morning said the tire had not been slashed, but the inner tube had burst because it wasn’t placed properly when the tire was replaced.

See original post: Paying the price for free speech in Japan!

and the follow up: The Samurai Swords and the Bike Tire

Convinced?

Most certainly NOT! Why?

1. The bike tire was replaced about two months ago at a reputable bike shop known to the author’s family.
2. This was the second incident in which the bike was vandalized since December 2007. See:

More Criminal Damage

Will wait and see!

Speaking of the U.S. Missionaries in Japan

What’s so divine about breeding 9 children like rabbits, and placing Colin Powell’s book on your Church[sic] altar?

We all commit follies and the author is by no means immune to lapses in good judgment. A while ago, while searching for English-speaking kids to befriend his then 3-year-old son, the author and his family inadvertently ended up in a missionary church on an otherwise uneventful Sunday, completely innocently.

It wasn’t a pleasant experience. Witnessing about 50 or so grown ups and their kids chanting biblical propaganda in Japanese, or in any other language, while pretending to do it out of “divine love,” never is!

But the worst was yet to come. First, Gacuette discovered in total horror that the resident missionary, an ex-military personnel, had 9 children. Nine children?

Nine Children!

How does a missionary manage to bring up nine children on what must surely be a puny salary? What extra-curricular activities must he undertake to earn enough money to support such unsustainable, un-ecological and “unholy” lifestyle?

Is the Pentagon Paying the Missionaries in Japan?

With the church selling the family silver to pay the victims of child rape, and settle all other abuse claims against their brothers and fathers, where do the missionaries get their money from? About 99 percent of the missionaries come from military backgrounds. Could it be that the US taxpayer is inadvertently footing the bill [missionaries' salaries, expenses ...] through the US Defense budget? Who is looking anyway?

Colin Powell on the Altar

Then, with another surge of horror, the author discovered a book by Colin Powell, which was prominently displayed on the bookshelf in the congregation area. Gacuette can’t quite recall the title: “How my little lie helped the military commit genocide in Iraq,” “How to kill a million plus ‘ragheads’ in three easy steps,” “How to decimate defenseless people with minimum canon fodder?” Or something along those lines.

Imagine having a Church of Genghis Khan, Adolf Hitler, Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin or Ariel Sharon. Church of George Bush, anyone? What will the Japanese think of next!

Related Links:

• Japan Quake and The Duplicity of Baptist Church
• War Crimes, USA
• Missionaries: Top 10 Reasons Why Japanese Loathe Gaijin (Foreigners )

The Samurai Swords and the Bike Tire

Update #1: Paying the price . . .

See Main Entry: http://japanifik.wordpress.com/2008/06/23/you-do-this-to-the-japanese/
Follow up: http://japanifik.wordpress.com/2008/06/26/words-mightier-than-myth-of-samurai-swords/

When the author’s and his spouse’s bikes were vandalized in December 2007, the police said they wanted to see the damage before the bikes were fixed. They asked us to contact them before we repaired the bikes the next time (!) This time being the next time, we obliged.

After some huffing and puffing, coming and going, they said the type of damage was “unusual!!” [The rear tire was slashed. See Photo.] Now, they want to see a professional “damage report.” They want to know why the bike tire was slashed, if the author understood the message correctly, with the knurled ring that holds the inner tube valve core in place still tightly screwed. Let’s hope the bike shop mechanics are more up-to-date on forensic science than the police is. More on this story later.

Related Links:

• The words are mightier than even the myth of Samurai swords
• Paying the price for free speech in Japan!

• More Criminal Damage
• Foreigners Can Drive in Japan?
• Do Not Speak English in Japan!
  

• War Crimes, USA
• A Culture of Bullying, Sex, Suicide, Murder
• Fruits of a Repressed Culture

• A Culture of Bullying

The words are mightier than even the myth of Samurai swords

An Early Reflection: Paying the price . . . 

See Main Entry: http://japanifik.wordpress.com/2008/06/23/you-do-this-to-the-japanese/

Who did it?

The lowlife thugs who slashed the author’s bike tire were probably the local variety; however, they are too dumb to understand what is written here in English.

Conclusion:

• The event was organized.
• There was more than one thug involved.
• A thug in a position of authority who can read English sanctioned the vandalism.

Consolation:

• The words are mightier than even the myth of Samurai swords.
• The thugs have never won a war [let alone a war of aggression!]
• They let their mask of fear slip revealing to the world their deeply entrenched vulnerabilities characterized by a total lack of self-esteem.  

Paying the price for free speech in Japan!

Would You Do This to the Japanese Living in Your Country?

More Criminal Damage [Again]: Author’s bike tire was slashed.

Civilized people do NOT behave this way; savages do!

Related Links:

• More Criminal Damage
• Foreigners Can Drive in Japan?
• Do Not Speak English in Japan!
  

• War Crimes, USA
• A Culture of Bullying, Sex, Suicide, Murder
• Fruits of a Repressed Culture

• A Culture of Bullying

Japan Quake and The Duplicity of Baptist Church

Has the Southern Baptist mob apologized for the blanket bombing of Japan cities and the mass murder of the Japanese by a prominent church member?

The Duplicity of Baptist Church

“International Mission Board missionaries serving in Japan are asking Southern Baptist churches to pray for the victims of a 7.2-magnitude earthquake that shook northern Japan on June 14.” (Source)

This is the same church whose prominent member, President Harry S. Truman, ordered the nuclear-bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the fire-bombing of Tokyo and numerous other population centers across Japan.

Related Links:

• War Crimes, USA
• Missionaries: Top 10 Reasons Why Japanese Loathe Gaijin (Foreigners )

The Myth of Japanese Ingenuity

Who Said Japan Could Make Quakeproof Buildings or Bridges?

Iwate Quake: Shooting Another Big Hole Through the Myth of Japanese Technological Savvy

A highway bridge lies in ruins in Ichinoseki city, Iwate Prefecture, June 14, 2008. A powerful earthquake rocked rural northern Japan on Saturday, killing 10 people, with another 12 still missing, and injuring about 250 and sparking huge landslides that blocked roads and isolated residents. The 7.2 magnitude [JMA scale] quake struck at 8:43 a.m. (23:43 GMT Friday) in Iwate, a sparsely populated, scenic area around 300 km (190 miles) north of Tokyo, where buildings also shook. REUTERS/KYODO (JAPAN). JAPAN OUT. NO COMMERCIAL OR EDITORIAL SALES IN JAPAN. FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS. See Japanifik Fair Use Notice!

Japans Techno Savvy

Another earthquake, and more lives are lost! The death toll in the Mw6.8 earthquake (7.2 on JMA scale) that hit Iwate (northern Japan) Saturday morning rose to 10 Monday. Another 12 people are still missing (presumed dead), and about 250 injured.

This earthquake like the last major earthquakes in Kobe in 1995, which killed 6,434 and made 500,000 people homeless, and the 2004 quake that struck Niigata prefecture, killing 65 and injuring 3,500 people, Shot a massive hole in the myth of the Japanese technological ability to build quakeproof buildings, bridges … and flowerpots.

Our hearts go to the friends and families of the victims.

The main steam isolation valves, one of a unit of an emergency shutdown system, are seen inside the reactor containment vessel at No. 3 reactor of Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s (TEPCO) Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear power plant in Kashiwazaki July 28, 2007. The TEPCO’s quake-hit nuclear power plant—the world’s largest nuclear power plant—could take longer than a year to resume operations if defects are found in key safety devices, media quoted an expert set to head an investigation team as saying. REUTERS/Issei Kato (JAPAN). Photo may be subject to copyright. See Japanifik Fair Use Notice!

Tomohiro Kato: An exception, or the rule?

Needle found in bread sold at Wakayama supermarket

WAKAYAMA — A needle has been found stuck in bread sold at a supermarket here, police said.

A 69-year-old woman who bought the bread was not injured as she found the needle before eating it. Police are treating the case as forcible obstruction of business.

The woman bought a bag containing five pieces of bread at the Okuwa Supermarket’s Wakayama-Nakanoshima outlet in Wakayama on May 28, and put the bread in her freezer at home, local police said.

After thawing out two of the pieces, she was about eat them on Sunday when she found a needle stuck in one of them, and alerted the store.

The incident has prompted the store to use a metal detector to check if any metal objects are in the bread it sells.

(Mainichi Japan) June 10, 2008

Would you like to baste your bread before eating, or after?

Wakayama Prefecture and the Poisoned Curry

Wakayama is the same backwater prefecture (state) were four people were killed and 63 others injured after eating curry laced with arsenic at a community festival. Masumi Hayashi, the chief suspect, was sentenced to death but she is currently appealing the sentence.

The pot of curry which was served to the residents of Sonobe district, Wakayama, was poisoned with at least 1kg grams of arsenic—enough poison to kill about 100 people on July 25, 1998.

Related Links:

• Woman excretes needle-like metal after eating store-bought bread
• Pin found in sliced ham sold at supermarket in Niigata Prefecture
• Needle found in negligee sold at store

A Culture of Bullying, Sex, Suicide, Murder

Japan: A repressed Culture

The SOB said he was tired of life, but instead of doing the usual “honorable thing” he drove a rental truck into a crowd of pedestrians at the crowded Tokyo shopping street in Akihabara, before walking down the street stabbing people.

“I came to Akihabara to kill people,” the attacker as told police. “I am tired of the world. Anyone was OK. I came alone.”

Police and ambulance officers conduct an investigation along a street in Tokyo’s Akihabara shopping and amusement district June 8, 2008. REUTERS/Issei Kato [Image may be subject to copyright. See Fair use Notice!]

“The man jumped on top of a man he had hit with his vehicle and stabbed him with a knife many times,” Kyodo quoted a 19-year-old witness as saying. “Walking toward Akihabara Station, he slashed nearby people at random.”

A Tokyo police spokesman said at least seven people had been killed and 12 wounded.

Witnesses said the rampage ended when an armed policeman confronted the man, who was yelling as he slashed the passers by.

“The rampage came on the seventh anniversary of a massacre at a Japanese primary school, when a knife-wielding janitor and former mental patient killed eight schoolchildren. He was later executed for the killings.” Reuters reported.

Victims of a Dysfunctional Society?

Related Links:

• Fruits of a Repressed Culture
• A Culture of Bullying

• Time to OBLITERATE the Prefectural Boards of Education?

• The Deliberate Dumbing Down of Japan!
• Prefectural Boards of Education - Part 3
• Japan’s Boards of Education - Part 2

• Learning Japanese: Vasectomy of the Fertile Mind
• Do Not Speak English in Japan!

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