“This nerdy bunch have come from America.” Don’t be an otaku.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaks to the media in
Seoul after reports that North Korea had
conducted a nuclear test on Monday. From The Daily Yomiuri, by Tadashi Toriyama Yomiuri Shimbun, Staff Writer - Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese leaders agreed Sunday the two countries would work together to stop North Korea from carrying out a nuclear weapons test announced by the reclusive country Tuesday.

Abe, in his first overseas trip since becoming prime minister last month, met separately with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

The meeting with Hu marks the first Japan-China summit talks in 18 months and the first visit to China by a Japanese prime minister in five years.

During the meeting, Abe urged the Chinese leaders to cooperate with Japan to stop Pyongyang from carrying out the nuclear test. The Chinese side responded that Beijing would pressure Pyongyang to refrain from the test.

As to Pyongyang’s nuclear test plan, Abe told Hu, “It is a serious threat to peace and security in the international community and Japan will never tolerate it.”

The leaders from the two countries also agreed to improve their relations, which were soured by former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi’s visits to the war-related Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo and to aim to build “strategic” relations in which the two countries would work together to resolve international issues.
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For those who don’t know, this is a fake commercial from the movie “Crazy People,” starring Dudley Moore, Darryl Hannah and Paul Reiser. It’s about a bunch of people in a mental hospital hired to do advertising because they tell the absolute truth as they see it.

A Japanese military official stands upon their arrival on the apron of Banda Aech
airport in Indonesia, Jan. 16, 2005. (CNN) From News.com.au - NORTH Korea’s announcement today that it had tested a nuclear bomb is set to push Japan to expand its own military and stir debate on what was once the ultimate taboo of developing atomic weapons itself.

The test comes with Japan in the midst of expanding its defence posture, 60 years after it was defeated in World War II and forced by the US to renounce the right to a military.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who took office just two weeks ago, is a sworn hawk on North Korea who has long supported a larger role for Japan’s military alongside its ally the US.

“North Korea’s nuclear weapons test can never be pardonable. But we should collect and analyze more intelligence on the matter in a cool-headed manner,” Mr Abe said today as he visited Seoul, according to a report.

In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki, the spokesman for Mr Abe’s spokesman, said a North Korean test would post a “grave threat to stability in Northeast Asia” and that Japan would lodge a strong protest if it is confirmed.

Analysts expect North Korea’s test to boost the hand of Mr Abe, who wants to rewrite the pacifist 1947 constitution and allow Japanese troops to engage in overseas operations alongside allies.

Despite its pacifism and US guarantees to protect Japan, the country now has around 240,000 troops on active duty and an annual military budget of 4.81 trillion yen (US$41.6 billion).
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From Wired News by Chris Kohler - TOKYO — Koji Igarashi, the producer of Konami’s Castlevania has a problem: Should the next installment of the storied franchise stick with Sony and its new PlayStation 3 console, or take a gamble on a hot new contender?

Fans are constantly asking him to bring the popular series and its whip-toting hero to Nintendo’s new Wii device, he said, but it’s not at all obvious to him how to build such a game.

Motion detection, the system’s coolest feature, has opened the door to a whole new kind of short-form entertainment mimicking real sports such as tennis. But that’s actually proving hard to work into narrative games like Castlevania, Igarashi said. If he were to create a version for Wii, he would be inclined to use the tilt controls only sparingly.

“With the Castlevania designs, I always want to have players sit and focus on gameplay for an hour or so,” he said. “But using the Wii controller as a whip for one hour wouldn’t work.”

The console wars have handed game designers a conundrum: Of the three major new platforms vying for dominance, which one is the right for them?

Microsoft is making grand overtures to Japan’s gamers, but has met with rejection thus far. And Sony’s dominant PlayStation brand faces its toughest competition ever in Nintendo’s inexpensive Wii console and its motion-tracking remote.
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Coat of Arms of North Korea From The Daily Yomiuri by Aya Igarashi / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent - Yuriko Koike, national security adviser to the prime minister, and U.S. national security adviser Stephen Hadley agreed Tuesday their two countries will strengthen their cooperation in handling North Korea’s vow to conduct a nuclear experiment.

During their meeting at the White House, Koike and Hadley decided that Japan and the United States should aim for the quick adoption of a statement by the U.N. Security Council president asking for Pyongyang to exercise restraint.

At the meeting, the two expressed concern about North Korea’s announcement that it will conduct a nuclear test, sharing the opinion they will not tolerate Pyongyang carrying out a nuclear test.

They confirmed that both countries will share information about movements in North Korea that indicate signs of a nuclear experiment.

After the meeting, Koike said the United Nations should prevent Pyongyang from conducting the experiment by issuing a Security Council presidential statement or taking other strong action.

Koike also met with U.S. Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns later in the day at the State Department. They agreed that China would play an important role in preventing a nuclear test by Pyongyang.

Regarding the North Korean statement, China has insisted the issue should be resolved through the six-nation talks rather than the United Nations.

Newcomer Tahara Kiichi, the former Jayasinghe Nishanta,
is originally from Sri Lanka (Newsweek)From Newsweek International - Immigrants are transforming a once insular society, and more of them are on their way.By Christian Caryl and Akiko Kashiwagi

A few years ago, when Milton Minoru Takahashi first set out to improve conditions for Brazilian guest workers living in Nagoya, he thought he’d be telling Japanese about soccer, samba and Brazilian beaches. They were the sales hooks the Brazilian-Japanese Takahashi—who works for a nonprofit foundation that aids the 60,000 foreigners in Nagoya—thought could open locals’ eyes to the beauties of Brazilian culture. But, he says, “the Japanese didn’t want to hear about those things. They wanted to talk about noise and garbage”—problems allegedly caused by the Brazilian immigrants in their neighborhoods.

Takahashi now spends most of his time on more mundane tasks, trying to help his fellow Brazilians overcome the bewildering array of barriers to integration into Japanese society. But he still wonders why the Japanese government is largely indifferent to the problems facing foreigners. What would he like to see from Tokyo? “Action,” says Takahashi. Something, anything, to acknowledge that there are immigrants in the country—and that they require recognition and support.

Takahashi’s frustration underscores a critical disconnect in Japan—a split between what the country is becoming and what most Japanese want it to be. For mostly economic reasons, Japan must open itself to other ethnicities. Japan’s population is not only aging rapidly, but starting to decline. By the year 2050, it is expected to fall from 128 million now to around 105 million. To keep the economy viable, experts say, the country must let in more immigrants—not just guest workers, but foreign-born naturalized citizens. A government panel acknowledged that in a report this summer, while at the same time recommending that the foreign percentage of the total population not exceed 3 percent, roughly double what it is now.

Consciously or not, ordinary citizens and government bureaucrats still cling to the notion that Japanese society is a unique, homogeneous culture. There is a conspicuous lack of public debate about how this insular country should adjust to the reality that more immigrants are coming—and that those already here are changing Japan. “The government has no [comprehensive] immigration policy,” says Marutei Tsurunen. Rather, the approach is piecemeal, with different agencies issuing often contradictory regulations. Tsurenen should know. He’s a former Finn turned Japanese citizen and the only naturalized member of the national Parliament, or Diet.
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Howdy everybody.

Just wanted everyone to know that I want to try and have an officers’ meeting this weekend. That’s not to say that only officers can attend. If you have any ideas, general suggestions, show suggestions, or just have any interest in how Japan League is run, please attend.

The tentative plan is to meet on Saturday at 2:00pm in Mendenhall in the TV room. However, I’m also up for having it at my apartment.
We need to decide what to show next week, as well as begin planning other events and getting shows to vote on.

Also, because we may need to file for a bigger room, I’m going to start taking attendance for this month. All you have to do is sign your name on a piece of paper. I know, I know. It sounds stupid. But if we want a bigger room, then we need to be able to show Student Activities how badly we’ll need to keep the same room and not be forced out.
For those of you interested in providing shows, make sure that you have as many of the episodes as possible (preferably, all of it). Movies are also another option. However, keep in mind that showing both movies and live-actions shows will be really difficult as far as planning goes.

Also, keep in mind that half of the programming shown needs to be Live-Action. Also, anime should (try to) reflect some aspect of Japanese culture. Given the unconfirmed status of SAGA for next semester, this “rule” is subject to exception and change.

Here are some websites for Live Action Shows:

SARS
Japan-TV
Mugen Drama
Studio Oto
Nya!

Thanks and we look forward to seeing you.

BEN

Exploding Hello Kitty, by SonyFrom engadget.com - Although a Hello Kitty toy might not seem quite as dangerous (read: life threatening) as the notebooks and cellphones we’re toting these days, the explosive tendencies have somehow veered from batteries to stuffed animals. In the latest episode of spontaneous combustion, Takara is being forced to recall specific Hello Kitty dolls which featured a heatable disc that could be warmed and stuffed within the lining to keep kids toasty while resting. Apparently the microwavable pad housed a chemical substance (manufactured by ADEKA) not quite stable enough to handle the heat, sparking a lengthy list of of cases where the liquid erupted from its container and provided an uncomfortable surprise to the poor soul embracing the creature’s volcanic warmth. It was noted that this has “nothing to do” with the scapegoat-of-the-year (Li-ion cells), but if you (or your offspring) just loves to cuddle with this volatile critter, you should probably ice the situation before it unleashes something a bit more serious than a cat’s meow.

Nasubi on his first dayFrom The Quirky Japan Homepage - Nippon Television’s (NTV) producers have obviously never heard of the Geneva Convention. If they had, they wouldn’t have treated poor Nasubi the way they did. They wouldn’t have stripped him naked and shut him in an apartment, alone with no food, furniture, household goods, or entertainment. They wouldn’t have kept him there for over a year until he had won $10 000 in prizes by sending in postcards to contests. They wouldn’t have cut him off from the world and they would have told him that he was on nation-wide TV.

It all started one snowy day in January, 1998 with an audition. The audition consisted of choosing lots because the only talent needed for this challenge was luck. A group of aspiring comedians showed up, and among them was a young man whose stage name is Nasubi, which means eggplant. Nasubi was ‘lucky’ that day, and was chosen over other aspiring young comedians for a mysterious “show-business related job”. He was immediately blindfolded and driven to a tiny one room apartment somewhere in Tokyo.
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From Offering Booze to a Deity in Kowloon - Japan about the dangers of protecting human rights. Japan is a little behind in legal recognition of basic human rights (including but not limited to racial discrimination etc.), and it seems the emergence of a bill to make protection of rights enforceable has a few people worried. The level of alarmism I think is particularly amusing, if that’s the right word. What’s also noteworthy is the constant demonising of trouble-making foreigners, and the pity the writer tries to inspire for the poor landlord who can no longer refuse to rent his house to Chinese etc. You can’t make this stuff up!”

At the above company, the boss had sufficient reason to fire the employee (disobeying instructions). It’s not unreasonable to assume that if Human Rights Committee heard about this, they would examine the circumstances very carefully. Where is the writer getting the idea that they will only listen to one side and will not check their facts? This is alarmism, plain and simple. See More