Seoul Calls On Japan To Compensate For Wartime Past
All Headline News - March 3, 2007
Seoul, South Korea — South Korean Roh Moo-hyun on Thursday said Seoul wants to be good friends with its neighbor Japan, but wants Tokyo to compensate for its wartime past and to stop glorifying its wrong doings….a protest outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul. The protesters stabbed knives into the jaws of five dog heads. The heads symbolize five key Korean traitors during the harsh Japanese rule from 1910 to 1945….more...

Korean dog heads protest against the Japanese who left Korea more than 50 years ago. Sheesh, talk about beating dead dog. And, this particular protest is against long-dead-and-gone Korean traitors.

Ok, ok, so this particular protest marked the anniversary of a peaceful mass uprising against Japan in 1919. Koreans feel that the Japanese occupation is their Holocaust, and they, “shall never forget.”

On the other hand, at times Koreans seem to support hate propaganda and dramatize their now long-past history to keep some kind of weird-ass self-esteem.

Kim Jong-il orders Japanese cars confiscated
SEOUL, Feb. 19 (Yonhap) “….after he paid tribute to the Kumsusan Memorial Palace on Jan. 1, he saw a Japanese car that wasn’t working blocking the road and gave a National Defense Committee edict to seize Japanese cars,” a source familiar with the North Korean situation said, asking to remain anonymous. North Korea’s founding leader Kim Il-sung’s embalmed body lies in the memorial in Pyongyang.

It is obvious that these evil Japanese cars to be confiscated and impounded to protect North Korea’s thriving auto industry. As our crack 3Yen reporter, Kurohigi Ichi, quipped: Rumour has it that the Japanese cars will be interned in special camps, and the car owners will be allowed only limited visiting rights through the barbed wire every two to three months. And no conjugal visits. They’ll probably separate them too - a Toyota camp here, a Nissan camp there, and a Mitsubishi camp next to the steelworks. “Work brings Freedom” will be written in Korean over the front gates.

HE’s BACK….and this time HE’s MAD!
Ishihara 2…. No more Mr. Nice Guy….this time he’s out to kick some butt on Hay Fever…*

Tokyo Gov Shintaro Ishihara appears on a subway station poster stating his determination to take steps to fight hay fever.

—JapanToday.com, Feb 15, 2007

*No it’s not a tacky movie poster. Ishihara 2 is the way the news3Yen.com’s guerrilla reporter, Mr. D_4, describes this wacky poster of Tokyo’s Governor, ‘Blinky’ Ishihara, and his continued campaign against the evils of hay fever.

Like the rantings of Weird Al Yankovic’s film “UHF,” with the commercial clip for the movie Ghandi 2, raving-racist Gov. Ishihara—better known to the world for his screed ‘The Japan That Can Say No’—is once again pushing to cut down all the cedar trees in the forests in the mountains upwind from Tokyo. Also refer to my previous 3Yen report, Tokyo Gov. Ishihara’s true calling, Lumberjack!

I’ll ram whaler: pirate captain
SMH.com.au, February 12, 2007 - 2:42PM—-
Hardline anti-whaling activists are threatening to sacrifice their ship in Antarctic waters by ramming a Japanese whaler. Captain Paul Watson, head of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, said today his vessel, the Farley Mowat, was almost out of fuel and he was considering giving the Japanese whaler, the Nisshin Maru, a “steel enema” by ramming its slipway ….more...

Hmmmm, a ‘ “steel enema” by ramming its slipway. ‘
Gee, I can think of plenty of Japanese black holes needing a bubbly douche. The Joker was right when said of Tokyo, “WHAT THIS TOWN NEEDS IS AN ENEMA.”(–Jack Nicholson, “Batman”)

Anyway, here’s a photo of a whaler slipway (top) that due for the steel enema by the SS Farley Mowat steel suppository (bottom).

The reaction in Japan to Saddam Hussein’s execution was ….
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…nothing.

Saddam Hussein on Yahoo! News Photos, AP - Sat Dec 30, 2:00 AM ET
Japanese passersby read copies of the extra edition issued by a Japan’s leading daily newspaper, Yomiuri Shimbun, with the headline reading ‘Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was executed’, in Tokyo, Saturday...more…

Japan Prepares to Send ‘Sushi Police’ on Worldwide Crusade to Improve Japanese Cuisine
Chosunilbo:
…Japan’s Agriculture Ministry, which is preparing to inspect and certify Japanese restaurants around the world….The notion of Japanese inspectors setting cooking standards for soba in Sao Paolo, or teriyaki in Tehran - or sushi rolls in New York - has met with a certain amount of skepticism among international journalists here who were told of the plan…the Agriculture Ministry, however, are undaunted by such criticism. They are forging ahead with their plan to police the world’s sushi platters…more…

Damn, many times I have poisoned by insane soba and garbage sushi overseas. I hate fake sushi that tastes like bleached dog doo-doo such as served on Northwest Airlines. However, to say California Roll [カリフォルニアロール ] cannot be certified as “real” Japanese sushi when it can be ordered at most sushi places in Tokyo (see below) is crazy and racist. Agriculture Minister Matsuoka can eat my big, fat, California Roll, sheesh.

California Roll, basic recipe: Crab and avocado often with a dab of mayo and enveloped in a thick blanket of rice which is then wrapped in nori (pressed seaweed sheet). More details from Wikipedia:
The origin of the California roll is somewhat murky, but usually food historians credit Ichiro Mashita, sushi chef at the Tokyo Kaikan in Los Angeles with inventing the roll in the early 1970s. Mashita realized the oily texture of avocado was a perfect substitute for toro. He also eventually made the roll “inside-out”, i.e. uramaki, because Americans did not like seeing and chewing the nori on the outside of the roll. After becoming popular in southern California it eventually became popular all across the United States by the 1980s, and is also known in Japan as the Kashu-maki. The roll contributed to sushi’s growing popularity in the United States by easing diners into more exotic sushi options.

UPDATE:

Japan gives up plan to police overseas restaurants for authenticity

March 18, 2007, SMH.com
Japan has called off plans to police Japanese restaurants overseas for authenticity after a flurry of criticism.
Tokyo appointed a panel of food experts in November to discuss a certification system that would crack down on restaurants abroad that bill themselves as authentic Japanese, but fall short of culinary standards at home.
But the Agriculture Ministry panel called off the plan on Friday after receiving complaints - some from overseas - that the system was discriminatory…..

Thousands in Japan claim same address
earthtimes.org: Fri, 08 Dec 2006 15:48:01 GMT , OSAKA, Japan–Japanese authorities are trying to figure out how 3,300 people could all claim a 500-square-foot lot in Osaka as their legal residence. The lot, located in a residential area of the city, has a five-story building on it that contains a day laborer support office …

Let’s do the math.
Ignoring the space needed for walls, elevators, etc…
Five floors of 500 square feet comes to a total 2,500 square feet to be shared by 3,300 people which equals 1.32 people per square foot or 14.2 people per square meter.

Yes, folks…Despite the false impression given to the outside world, Japan has plenty of homeless people. The-rest-of-the-story is that homeless people in Osaka just used this one address to get their residents’ card, which they need to applying for a job or to collect from the national pension system that they paid into for 40 years or their working life.

In Japan, homeless people and day laborers are constantly harassed for “you have no address” and “you have no residential card” which prevents them from applying for a real jobs or receiving any social benefits.

Factory denies Muslim basic human rights
The Yomiuri Shimbun Dec 5, 2006– A sewing factory in eastern Japan required an Indonesian Muslim trainee to sign a note promising to forgo praying five times a day and Ramadan fasting as a condition of her employment…The firm also prohibited her from owning a cell phone … exchanging letters domestically, sending money to her family or traveling in vehicles. In addition, she had a curfew of 9 p.m. at her dormitory and was not allowed to invite friends there…more…

These employment terms are on the extreme end of typical Japanese labor contracts. I have been surprised at work with such screwy written oaths (the translation of “note” in the above Yomiuri report is wrong) many times: I have had to sign at various times at work that I would not: drive a car, go skydiving, eat kimchi at work, engage in “severe” political action, and moonlight at another job on the weekends. For younger recruits, there are off-duty dress codes and long lists of “rules.”

However, these employment terms against the practice religion of the “trainee” (slave) is insane. Sadly, I bet the out of court settlement of the this case will amount to a trivial amount such a just one year’s wages –the length of her job contract– and a one-way ticket back to Indonesia, meh.

Viet Nam pimps Putin, Bush & Japanese PM Abe into wearing clown gowns! Check out these pictures of Japanese Prime Minister Abe, Putin of Russia and President Bush in these Zippy fashions.

Zippy the Pinhead did so well as the fashion coordinator last year that his stylings are back for the close of this year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. This year Viet Nam tricked President Bush and Russia’s Putin as well as Japanese Prime Minister Abe and the rest of the APEC leaders into wearing Zippy’s clown robes.

APEC leaders to shine as they dress up in Vietnamese ao dai
Vietnam News Agency.com, 18 Nov 2006, HA NOI —Wearing the Vietnamese traditional dress ao dai, leaders from 21 APEC member economies will line up for a group photo tomorrow at the National Convention Centre in Ha Noi… the dress for APEC leaders has been tailored to a more loose-fitting shape according to the original ao dai style of the olden days.…

Here are the photos and coverage from last year when the 3Yen last visited the APEC summit: Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi, Bush and Zippy the Pinhead standing firm.

The saddest looking places in Japan are its dead-zone playgrounds of concrete and rubble. Cramped and devoid of life, the schoolyards serve as a grim reminder of what the future will hold for students. This green program is amazing change of heart for the Land-of-Concrete(tm), Japan.

Tokyo schoolyards to go green
The Yomiuri Shimbun, Nov 18, 2006 —The Tokyo metropolitan government has decided to turf the schoolyards of all the capital’s primary and middle schools over the next 10 years… government hopes the move will moderate the so-called heat island phenomenon and provide children with an improved environment for outdoor activities.….more…