What's Happenin' In Japan

Manga Meets Math To Encourage Learning

2007-04-29

posted by Akemi

Manga fans take note: People who think manga and education are opposites will have to reconsider that opinion if one Osaka textbook company has anything to say about it. Story as reported in the Mainichi Newspaper (J) and TBS News (J).

The Japanese government advisory board that authorizes textbooks for school use just released its recommendations for the coming school year. Among the accepted texts for second-year high school students is one that looks like a comic book, but is actually a serious math textbook.

Interest in math and science among students in Japan has been in decline, so the Osaka-based Keirinkan decided to take a different approach to their textbooks: Combine math and manga to grab students' attention. Olé!, their first full-on manga textbook--the draft features at least some manga on most of its 183 pages--went before the board this year.

The story is as follows: A group of five classmates find a textbook, but accidentally tear it in half. As is apt to happen to kids who damage things they find in manga, the Greek mathematician Archimedes materializes and proceeds to send them time-slipping to the Pyramids, European palaces, and other exotic times and places.

The various residents--everyone from Native Americans to Samurai warriors--set about teaching the kids math and challenging them with various math problems. If the wayward pupils manage to learn the concepts and answer the questions properly, they can of course get back home.

Their site (J) has a few sample pages of the first-year high school version: page 1, page 2 (AAW translated the bit of dialogue for those who don't read Japanese).

Hey, it makes as much sense as the plot of most harem stories.

The board was a hard audience, apparently; they took issue with much of the material, and the final version will have about half of the manga content removed, and much of the dialogue changed. The council thought the "tough love" approach was too harsh, and they also indicated that they felt the line between lesson and story was too blurry. The textbook company made some changes, and their revised version may well make it into school curricula next year.

The manga text actually fared better than some others; a more traditional biology text which included such poorly-considered examples as marking wild dragonflies with toxic paint thinner was rejected completely.

The results of the public screening will be on display at the Textbook Research Center though July. A report from TBS news with some dramatization:

Labels: education, manga, video

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Video: Guillotine Closing Of Isayaha Bay

2007-04-28

posted by Akemi

As a follow-up to a previous story about the closing of Isahaya Bay, here is some dramatic video showing the gates closing, as well as clips of the created farmland and the fishermen during a memorial service and protest meeting.

Labels: construction, environment, video

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Heroes and Villains on the Trains of Osaka

2007-04-26

posted by Akemi

Two unrelated incidents on the trains of the Osaka area that are being reported this week show the worst and the best parts of humanity.

Accused Serial Rapist Allegedly Victimizes Woman While Bystanders Do Nothing

The Mainichi Newspaper (J) is reporting (as is NNN (J)) that on April 21st Takamitsu Uezono, a 36-year-old demolition worker, was charged with rape and re-arrested by the Yodogawa Police in Osaka.

Uezono was already arrested once this January by the Shiga Prefectural Police for an entirely different sexual assault, for which he is currently on trial. He is accused of sexually assaulting a 27-year-old woman in a train on the JR Kosai Line, as well as a second assault on a 20-year-old college student in a bathroom at the Otsu station when he got off the train. Both of these incidents occurred on December 21st, but police are now saying that this wasn't the first time he had preyed on unsuspecting commuters.

The second set of charges accuses Uezono of sexually assaulting a 21-year-old office worker last August on the "Thunderbird" express train on the lengthy Hokuriku Line running between Toyama and Osaka.

The attack allegedly occurred at around 9:20pm right after the train left Fukui station. According to reports, Uezono took a seat next to the woman and threatened her, saying "I'm going to kill you if you escape." and "I will stalk you as long as you live." After molesting her in her seat, he allegedly took her to the bathroom on the train about an hour later and raped her for 30 minutes. His victim was apparently too afraid to cry out for help, but was weeping.

If the Mainichi Newspaper's report of the incident (J) is to be believed, Uezono wasn't the only criminal on this train, however. According to the newspaper, there were about 40 passengers on the same car in which the attack occurred, at least some of whom noticed that something was amiss. None of them, however, did anything at all to help. Uezono is alleged to have threatened the passengers around him, but none of the silent enablers so much as alerted a conductor.

According to JR Western Japan, who runs the train, almost all of their cars have an emergency buzzer near the connection between cars that alerts the conductor, and the bathrooms also have a buzzer for ill passengers to request aid. Additionally, on routes with a long distance between stops, the conductors periodically patrol the trains.

Why none of these safety features were used to help the woman is unclear. For its part, the JR Western Japan press office said "We are going to enhance conductor's patrols, and try to provide passengers with safety and anticrime measures. If you see an incident, we would like you to use the emergency buzzer."

These criminally unhelpful passengers could learn a lesson from a group of six schoolboys in the same area.

Sextet of High School Heroes

The Sankei Newspaper is reporting (J) that on April 18th at Izumitottori Station on the JR Hanwa Line, six first-year students of Osaka Prefectural Izumitottori High School saved a 19-year-old man who fell off of the platform.

According to the man's mother, he was on his way home from work when he suffered a seizure, stumbled, and fell onto the tracks. The students, who were nearby, leapt into action when they saw the man fall. One boy ran to push the emergency stop switch, three of them leapt down onto the tracks, and the remaining two stayed on the platform to pull the man up. The group called 119 (the Japanese emergency number) after pulling him up to safety. He was taken to a hospital and escaped with only minor injuries.

More impressive still, the group of quick-thinking schoolboys wasted no time making plans or splitting up responsibility, although each filled his role marvelously.

JR Western Japan is considering presenting the boys with letters of commendation for their bravery, and the Osaka Prefecture Board of Education is also going to honor them sometime soon. The man's mother visited their school on the 19th to express her appreciation. She was quoted as saying "There are still young people like this in these savage times. I am eternally grateful."

Labels: chikan, crime, schoolboys

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Fishery Destroyed for "Environmentally Responsible" Farms

2007-04-15

posted by Akemi

On Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan's four major islands, there is a large body of water known as the Sea of Ariake. Within this sea, Isahaya bay was once a vast tideland famous for its bounty of wildlife--it was a haven for migrating birds and home to a variety of fish and shellfish that filled the Sea of Ariake. Although storms caused the bay to innundate the settlements and farms on its shores periodically, local fishermen called Ariake a treasure of the sea.

All this changed in 1986, however, when a government reclamation project aimed at disaster prevention and farmland development began. The massive 253 billion yen (US$212 million) project set out to construct a 7km long flood control dyke across the mouth of the bay to separate it from open sea, to prevent storm surges and allow a large part of it to be drained and used for farming. Because the wall is composed of a string of mammoth gates that were dropped into place in 1997, it is often compared to a guillotine.

The removal of the bay from the ecosystem has caused a dramatic decline of in the number of fish and shellfish in the Sea of Ariake. But it took a red tide of unprecedented scale in 2000 to bring these adverse effects to national attention--the color of nori seaweed widely used in sushi rolls lost its color causing one of the worst harvests on record.

April 14th marked the ten year anniversary of the closing of the gates, and the project will be completed this summer. Nagasaki prefecture will then begin leasing a 700 hectare (1730 acre) agricultural area for "environmentally responsible" agriculture.

Not surprisingly, the fishermen who oppose the project find the environmental label laughable. At 11:00am on the day the bay was closed, they held a memorial service for the sealife that died as a result of the project. The approximately 150 people who attended the service offered silent prayers to comfort the spirits of a variety of creatures, such as the Goggle-eyed Goby.

The impact on the wildlife and the fisheries that depend on it has been great, and not limited to the bay. Stocks of many fish and shellfish found in the Sea of Ariake have declined to the point that fishermen are no longer able to catch enough to make a living. Some species, such as Tairagi, a large mussel commonly used as a sushi ingredient, have disappeared entirely from the area.

During a protest meeting which included citizen groups, the fishermen made clear that they were going to seek restoration of the tidal land on which their livelihood depends. Attendants of the meeting agreed it was unforgivable that they devastated the treasure of the sea, while claiming to practice environmentally responsible agriculture.

One fisherman, speaking to JNN (in Japanese, but also with streaming video), said: "How can we survive now? That is every fisherman's question, including mine. Even though we go out fishing, we can catch nothing. I used to catch mainly Tairagi. What are people who live off the sea supposed to do for a living onshore now?"

Labels: construction, environment

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Tokyo Election Results Cost 11 Candidates 3 Million Yen Each

2007-04-12

posted by Akemi

The 54% of Tokyo's ten million registered voters who bothered to go to the polls have spoken: Shintarou Ishihara has been reelected as governor of Tokyo with 51% of the vote, about 2.8 million voters. Ishihara, an independent supported by Japan's powerful Liberal Democratic Party, beat his nearest rival by a comfortable 20% of the vote.

The "revolutionary" candidate Kouichi Toyama (video), who used his official speech to advocate overthrow of the Japanese government, ended up in 8th place out of the 14 on the ballot, with 0.27% of the vote (given the size of Tokyo, that works out to a respectable 15,059 votes). Unfortunately for him, that also means that the election cost him (as well as every candidate other than the top three) a hefty 3 million yen.

How does this work?

To be listed on the ballot, each candidate must pay a fee to the election commission. If they are elected or at least manage to get a respectable percentage of the vote, the fee is returned to them. If not, tough luck.

It's been said that England originated the idea for this sort of fee-based system as a way to control the proliferation of people using elections as a publicity stunt or other self-serving goals. The logic behind it is that if you're serious about entering politics, you should put some money where your mouth is. Fees that aren't returned end up in government coffers.

In Japan, getting on the ballot doesn't come cheap, either. The fee to run for governor is a whopping 3 million yen (about US$25K), which you get back if you manage to garner at least 10% of the vote. Want to try out for the house of representatives? That can go as high as 6 million yen (US$50K), depending on the district. Mayor of a city is somewhat more affordable, at 500,000 yen (US$4,000).

The system is not without critics, however. As illustrated by the herd of candidates in this year's race for Tokyo Governor, even these entry fees don't work that well to stop fame-seekers. Further, these fees may well go against the Japanese constitution, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, belief, gender, social standing, family origin, education, wealth, or income. Detractors of the fees argue that it is a form of discriminating on the basis of wealth.

Japan isn't the only country to try this system; France, for example, required a fee of about US$200 to run for national office, but the unpopular fees were repealed in 1995. Other examples are England, in which some elections require a deposit of around US$900, Canada at around US$700, and Korea about US$13,000.

As for Toyama,he couldn't come up with the 3 million yen himself, so he borrowed it from a friend. He never expected to get it back, so according to a ZakZak article (J) he figures that with his 2 million yen (US$17K) annual income as a street musician it'll take him about six years to pay back the loan.

He's apparently quite satisfied with the results, though--the publicity generated by his outrageous speech was easily worth the cost to him.

Labels: politics

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6-Year-Old Suzuka Finally Gets to Go To School

2007-04-07

posted by Akemi

The smile little Suzuka always wears was shining even more brightly than usual on April 6th, the day of her entrance ceremony into elementary school.

6-year-old Suzuka Aoki's perennial cheer, infectious smile, and gravelly voice have been a fixture on Japanese news for the past year as her parents battled for her right to attend a public school. She is now so well known that the Japanese media often refer to her as just "Suzuka-chan."

She finished Kindergarden in her hometown of Higashiyamato City, located in Tokyo, last week, but until last year it was unclear if she would be able to attend a normal elementary school at all.

Suzuka has a severe form of laryngomalacia, a congenital throat disorder that makes it difficult for her to breathe. A machine must be used to remove mucus from her throat through a hole in her trachea about once an hour. This process is considered a medical treatment, so in general is only supposed to be performed by someone medically certified or her family.

Because of this, Higashiyamato City had refused to let her attend Kindergarden there since there was no nurse on staff allowed to do the treatment she needed.

Suzuka's parents sued the city, and amid widespread media attention the Tokyo District Court ordered the city to accept her. She finally entered a public Kindergarden last February, and finished last week. The city will be placing a registered nurse at the school to provide for her medical needs.

Suzuka is very lucky, however--local governments in Japan have not been required to make special arrangements of this sort to accommodate students with medical problems. According to a national government investigation, there are more than 5800 children in Japan who need special medical care while at school, and it was only this April that education law reforms made allowances for handicapped children and those with special needs.

The national government has now adjusted the public education budget to put a "Special Needs Educational Assistant" in all public elementary and junior high schools in Japan. Their job is to help to children who have unusual medical needs or require other assistance, but are otherwise able to attend normal schools. The funds are supplied to local governments, who can decide whether to use it to hire a nurse or other kind of assistant that will provide the most benefit for the students.

As for Suzuka's part, while being interviewed by JNN, she said that she wants to make a hundred friends at school, and hopes to become a nurse some day.

You can see some video of Suzuka at TBS News for the next week.

Labels: education, heartwarming

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Video: Tokyo Gubenatorial Candidate Advocates Revolution

2007-04-05

posted by Akemi

Kouichi Toyama is one of fourteen men running for Governor of Tokyo in an election this coming Sunday. The election is shaping up to be a bit like the free-for-all race for California governor a few years back that pitted career politicians against actors, businessmen, and a variety of oddballs. Unlike your average political candidate, Toyama used his widely televised speech as an opportunity to advocate destroying the country and replacing it with something more functional.

His speech, depending on your perspective, is somewhere between extreme activism and largely unintentional comedy, but at least for him it's certainly not a joke--he was recently released from a two-year prison sentence for sedition. Toyama doesn't have illusions (or delusions) of having any chance at winning, but his PR stunt has certainly raised his profile--in addition to television broadcasts his speech is all over the Japanese-language internet and dozens of mix-ups are available on YouTube.

See for yourself; below is the entire speech (taken from one of the YouTube postings) with English subtitles added by us.

Toyama also (of course) has a Japanese-language blog. He posted several videos there (also available on YouTube) of him at his day job--a street musician. He's probably a better singer than he is a public speaker.

Uptade: According to a Yomiuri Online article (J), the board of elections is complaining that the massive response on YouTube and similar video clip sites violates election laws. There is a legal limit to the number of times an election speech can be broadcast, and they are claiming that the ability to re-watch a candidate's speech over and over violates the laws and is unfair to the other candidates.

Sounds an awful lot like sour grapes just because their speeches weren't as interesting.

Labels: crazy news, politics

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Parakeet Finds Way Home By Saying Own Address

2007-04-03

posted by Akemi

The Kochi Shimbun is reporting (J) about an unusually sharp and rather lost parakeet named P-chan (yes, the same as that P-chan, an ironic coincidence that will not be lost on Ranma 1/2 fans) that found its way home safely by telling the person who found it where it lived.

In February a Mr. Okabayashi found a cute little Budgie wandering around a parking lot apparently searching for food among the fallen leaves. He asked around the neighborhood, but wasn't able to find the bird's owner, so he took it home. It became attached to him over the next few days, but imagine his surprise when it began saying "Ochi-cho, Ikku, Nishikawa P-chan" -- apparently the parakeet's hometown, neighborhood, and full name.

A member of Okabayashi's family happened to work at the Ochi post office, so they turned to the postmaster, Mr. Inoue, for help. Ochi is a small town, so while several households in the Ikku neighborhood have the family name Nishikawa, the postmaster used his considerable mail delivery experience to guess which of them seemed the most likely to have a parakeet.

The postmaster's first guess turned out to be correct: An 81-year-old man and his 75-year-old wife.

The Nishikawas had bought a budgie last year, and had been teaching her a variety of words, among them her full name and address. The smart little bird is also able to say "1 + 1 is 2, 2 + 2 is I don't know," and "Suki, suki, daisuki" ("I love you, I love you, I really love you!"). They said that P-chan was part of their family.

However, on February 11th, when they were cleaning P-chan's cage the bird escaped through a gap and disappeared. The cold weather had them worrying that their beloved parakeet would freeze to death, and whenever they heard the sound of birds they would go looking for little P-chan.

But, thanks to a combination of bird-smarts and good luck Mr. and Mrs. Nishikawa have their P-chan back now. They told the Kochi Shimbun that they are very thankful that the conscientious bird-finder paid attention to P-chan and the kind postmaster used his position in the small town to help locate them.

P-chan is again entertaining the Nishikawas, now by saying "P-chan orikou! P-chan orikou!" ("P-chan is smart!")

Labels: animals

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Ninja Government

posted by Akemi

Located on the southern end of Japan's main island in Mie Prefecture, Iga City was long ago the home of the Iga Ninja Clan who, along with the Kouga Clan of Shiga Prefecture to the north, were one of the two prominent ninja groups in the land.

TBS News is running a video report (click the buttons under the image for streaming Real or WMV) about a most unusual revival. On February 24th, the mayors of Iga and Kouga revived the ancient rivalry often depicted in action movies when they donned "official" ninja garb and competed against each other in a shuriken throwing contest. The mayor of Kouga emerged victorious in the less-than-serious contest of skill (or lack thereof).

This isn't the only way that Iga has celebrated the area's claim to international fame: Yesterday, April 2nd, the Iga City Council held a Ninja Council Meeting.

All of the 70 people in attendance, from the mayor and council members to the audience, came dressed in ninja costumes. Those who could brought costumes from home, while others took the rental ninja-wear route, and some went to far as to bring decorative swords, shuriken, or headbands.

The meeting was, of course, bloodless, although the mayor, Imaoka, proposed a bill by reading from a scroll. At least one council member made sure to open a question with the very ninja-like phrase "Mono moushimasu," meaning something vaguely to the effect of "If I may, m'lord."

This isn't the first Ninja Council Meeting, either. In April 2001 and March 2002 similar meetings were held in Ueno City (which is now part of Iga City) to promote the "Iga Ueno Ninja Fest."

Toward the end of this March the festival's planning committee requested a revival of the Ninja Council Meeting, and while some people who apparently lack a good sense of humor objected on the basis that city council meetings are serious business, in the end everyone agreed to support the event.

Imagine how much fun C-SPAN would be if there were throwing stars and ninjas involved.

Labels: humor, ninjas, politics

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