After the dreadful knife attack in Akihabara last week, it was discovered that the killer had announced his intent on an internet message board, but his threat was not taken seriously.

Well anything in that vein is being taken very seriously now. On Monday, police made two unconnected arrests of idiots posting online death threats.

Yo Suzuki, 29, of Hamamatsu, Shizuoka prefecture, was arrested after posting his intent to “to unleash an attack to ‘kill 100 people’ on the streets of Tokyo’s Ikebukuro district” on the 2-Channel bulletin board.

“I saw the TV coverage of the case in Akihabara and thought I’d create a bit of a stir,” Suzuki told the police, referring to the June 8 case where a random killer’s rampage on the Akihabara district of Tokyo claimed seven lives.

“I did it half as a joke,” he said.

Meanwhile in Fukuoka, a 17-year-old girl was arrested after using the same message board as Akihabara killer Tomohiro Kato, to threaten -

I intend to carry out a massacre at a station in Kyushu which will go down in history. I’m the same as Kato. I feel sympathy for him. I will be executed because I will kill more people than he did.

She too later claimed, “I was just joking. I didn’t imagine it would turn into such a big deal.” Well you got that wrong then didn’t you.

A longtime Japundit reader alerted me to an important beauty treatment now available at New York’s Shizuka salon, a place I went to once in search of a Japanese-style manicure.

a high-end Japanese spa in midtown, has just introduced a new “Geisha Facial,” which promises to cleanse, brighten, and exfoliate a patron’s face—thanks to a secret ingredient: bird poop. For centuries in Japan, both Kabuki actors and geishas used uguisu no fun, or nightingale droppings, to clean off their thick white makeup and soothe their faces; apparently, guanine, found in the droppings, helped their complexions.

Hopefully the bird droppings are not collected from the upper reaches of Hokkaido.

Vanity, after all, can make you sick.

Spam emailers have discovered that eating seaweed can miraculously rid women between the ages of 25 and 54 of the roll of fat around their middlesection.

Just take a couple of sea-weed tablets every day, and perhaps you too will see your weight plummet, so you too can join the ranks of women who enjoy the lowest rate of obesity in the world!

Personally, I’ll stick to weekly misoshiru and some nice sunomono with wakame.

Uguisu photo via.

Remember Benjamin Fulford?

He’s the guy we wrote about here who claims to be hooked up with an international team of ninja assasins who are just waiting for the word to start taking out heads of state and save the world by making Fulford the Minister of Finance of Japan so he can start handing out Japan’s monetary reserves and create heaven on Earth, and, and, and. . . Well, you get the picture.

Anyway, Fulford is reporting that assasinations currently are on hold, no doubt much to the relief of dastardly politicos the world over.

[Y]ou will notice that Asian countries have stopped buying US government bonds. The US secret government has retaliated by artificially raising food and oil prices.

We are in the middle of World War 3. The US and Israel have been taken over by Nazis and the rest of the world is trying to take them down.

The reason the society has not started assassinations yet is that the Nazis in the Bush/Clinton administration want any excuse to start all out world war. However, if starvation begins in earnest, there will be assassinations.

Benjamin Fulford

4 May 2008

Thanks to Danny Bloom

Many have used it. Some have got away with it. I remember kids at school busting out the “My grandmother died” excuse to explain absences. It never occurred to me they might be lying until it emerged that one lad experienced the loss of three grandmothers in quick succession.

An Osaka tax inspector has resigned after apparently claiming compassionate leave for deaths in his family on 11 occasions, the Mainichi reports.

Each time, he stayed home in order to cure his backache. “It was too much hassle to get a medical certificate for sick leave,” he was quoted as telling his bosses.

His bosses discovered the scam when he told them in September last year that his grandmother’s funeral was being held at a funeral hall, which was found not to exist.

On investigation, his bosses discovered 10 more false claims between 2004 and 2007, in addition to which, “the man also went home on 11 other occasions in 2006 and 2007 by faking business trips.”

CNN.com/Asia has a report claiming that business women in Japan are paying up to $50,000 a night to spend time with hosts that CNN referst to as “geisha guys.”

TOKYO, Japan (CNN) — At first glance, the man and woman at the nightclub look like any other couple on a date. He flirts and pours champagne. She looks at him and laughs.

Businesswomen in Japan pay up to $50,000 a night for male companionship from “hosts” like Yunosuke.

This isn’t a date, though. It’s business.

The woman, a successful executive, has joined a growing number of professional women in Japan in forking out from $1,000 to $50,000 a night for male companionship.

5 million yen per night for male companionship?

I guess it must be true. . . CNN wouldn’t post a report that is a load of BS, would it?

Thanks to John Serdy.

U.S. baseball card maker Topps has announced that it played an April Fools joke on baseball card collectors.

On February 6, Topps released a card for a Japanese high school pitcher named Kazuo “The Uzi” Uzuki, who boasted some pretty amazing stats.

Although listed at only 5-foot-11 and 165 pounds (1.8 meters and 75 kilograms), “The Uzi” was said to be known for his devastating 104 mph (167 kph) fastball and was on his way to becoming the first Japan-based high-schooler to jump straight to professional baseball in America.

The card of the fictitious Uzuki was included in every 72 packs of cards.

Thanks to Mr. Pink.

JAPUNDIT’s good friend Danny Bloom wrote in to alert us to a gaijin resident of a Japan named Benjamin Fulford.

The son of a Canadian diplomat, Benjamin Fulford rebelled against his upbringing and at the age of 17 made his way to the Amazon to live with a native tribe. Wanting to better understand Western society, he spent time in a community in Argentina before attending university in Japan.

Principled, brave, and still a diehard idealist, he resigned as Asia-Pacific Bureau Chief of Forbes Magazine after investigating a scandal the editor refused to report. As he researched global affairs further, he uncovered the complex web of global financial control at the hands of the Rockefellers and Rothschilds - and also the reality of racially targeted bioweapons such as SARS.

It was these plans for depopulation that upset some powerful factions in Japan, Taiwan and China. After being approached by a real-life Ninja, matters came to a head in 2007 when Fulford became the first Westerner for 500 years to be admitted into the Eastern Secret Societies, a group with 6 million members. As their spokesman, he delivered a simple message to the Illuminati:

Recognize that your time is over, step down without a fight, and allow the world to thrive - or face the consequences from 100,000 professional assassins.

Armed with an optimistic vision, Fulford is prepared to be the next Finance Minister of Japan. His plans to spend Japan’s $5 trillion of foreign reserves to end world poverty are inspiring as practical steps to repair generations of damage done by a ruthless ruling elite. This is a man with a deep understanding of both East and West, a global economic historian who thinks way outside of the box, a lover of peace unafraid to speak warrior words.

Now, if you think THAT was weird, check out the interviews that Fulford taped for Project Camelot.

Well, Japundits, what do you think?

A strange story from Jaipur, India, where a Japanese tourist “had registered a complaint with the police alleging she was raped by the employees of the hotel last night”.

In an intriguing turn of events, a Japanese on Monday complained to the police of her rape in a hotel by its staff but withdrew the charge within hours saying the term ‘rape’ was used for use of force for taking away her mobile phone and not for sexual assault.

The woman explained later “The word rape used by me in the complaint is meant as application of force for taking away my mobile phone.” I need to buy me a new dictionary, as it seems mine is hopelessly out of date.

After weeks of sensational news reports about people across Japan claiming to have been sickened by consuming poison gyoza dumplings that were made in China, Japan’s Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry now announces that only 10 individuals were confirmed to have been suffering from chemical poisoning due to consuming dubious dumplings.

“We took a particularly detailed look at cases in which patients were hospitalized and have concluded that no one else other than the 10 people suffered from organophosphate poisoning,” the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry announced.

Authorities have not been able to determine how the toxic organophosphate insecticide methamidophos made its way into the packages of dumplings consumed by the 10 people.

Chinese officials say they have been unable to find any evidence of tampering at the factory that produced the dumplings.

Tetsuya Shiroo, the gangster who gunned down Nagasaki mayor Iccho Ito last April with two shots in the back used the first day of his trial to. . . apologize to the dead mayor.

“I apologize to Mr. Iccho Ito and his family from the bottom of my heart,” he said as he read a statement on the first day of his trial at the Nagasaki District Court.

“Every day, I pray that Mr. Ito rests in peace,” he said in his first public remarks since the crime.

Though Shiroo has admitted to killing the mayor, his lawyers are expected to claim the crime was not premeditated. Lack of premeditation and a show of contrition can go a long way towards lightening the sentence once receives for murder in Japan.

His defense team plans to argue that he carried a hand gun to threaten the mayor, not to use it, but then impulsively shot him as Ito headed to his campaign office in front of the main train station.

Here’s hoping that no one falls for this blatant attempt to play the system. . . Based on past experience, however, I’ll bet everyone does.

Now you can have our pudding and large breasts, too.

Via C Scout Japan

The Daily Yomiuri is reporting that Japan has reached an ageement under which the Japanese government and domestic firms will purchase a part of China’s greenhouse gas emissions quotas in order to reach reduction levels dictated by the Kyoto Protocol

The envisaged scheme is part of the clean development Mechanism (CDM), under which industrialized countries are able to use their own technologies and funds for projects based in developing countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions and offset these reductions against their own output.

Under the agreement, Japan would receive the right in return for development projects that it bankrolls in China.

What a scam!

Air pollution is so bad in China that clear blue skies merit blog coverage, complete with a photo, so how is it they are able to “sell” some of their quotas?

Also, if the whole point of the Kyoto scheme is emissions reductions, what point does it make to simply shift around the rights to pollute?

Here are two views on the the gathering of nations in Bali, Indonesia, for the United Nations meeting on climate change, which we reported on here yesterday.

First up is Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations who says the science is in, we are the problem, and if we don’t act now it’s all over.

We have read the science. Global warming is real, and we are a prime cause.

We have heard the warnings. Unless we act, now, we face serious consequences. Polar ice may melt. Sea levels will rise. A third of our plant and animal species could vanish. There will be famine around the world, particularly in Africa and Central Asia.

Next is a report (via Mr. Pink) suggests that someone may be just blowing a lot of hot air.

Government officials and activists flying to Bali, Indonesia, for the United Nations meeting on climate change will cause as much pollution as 20,000 cars in a year.

The delegates each will produce an average 4.07 metric tons of carbon dioxide, or CO2, to reach the resort island 950 kilometers (600 miles) from Jakarta, according to estimates e- mailed to Bloomberg by the UN agency holding the conference.

Some of the 187 nations participating in the two-week forum promised to offset their so-called carbon footprint by planting trees or buying emission credits. The symbolic actions won’t help stop global warming, scientists say.

Environmental groups are up in arms over moves by Japan and Canada to eliminate binding emissions targets for rich nations at a gathering of 190 countries at a UN meeting in Bali. The purpose of the meeting is to negotiate new rules when the current phase of the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012.

Canada has suggested that if emission reductions are to be imposed, they should apply to all nations.

Both Japan and Canada were given “Fossil of the Day” awards on Tuesday, gongs given out by youth delegates from the Climate Action Network to highlight countries that have blocked progress at the talks.

“Emissions reduction targets are the heart of the Kyoto Protocol. Japan’s proposal would kill it,” the group said in a statement.

The art of Chinese counterfeits has risen to a whole new level with the revelation that someone has created a fake website posing as the country’s food and drug watchdog.

The site was apparently set up to promote a diabetes medication, according to a report on government-run Web site china.com.

While looking very similar to the State Food and Drug Administration’s real site (www.sda.gov.cn), it has a totally different address — and was still functioning Thursday.

The fake site apparently was set up to promote the efficacy of some new diabetes drug, and even though reports about the site are circulating on international new wires, it is still up. Click here to see it.

If the site does disappear, here is a screenshot.

Gullible gaijin seem to be ready to swallow just about anything weird they hear about Japan, and if the whopper is dressed up with terms like “unique Japanese sensibilities” and “ninja,” AND if it comes from the mouth of a living, breathing Japanese person, they gobble it up hook, line, sinker, rod, reel, wading boots, and picnic basket. Even if they work for The New York Times.

That’s precisely what seems to have happened to Martin Fackler in a news article where he suggests that Japanese people are so terrified of crime that they are ready to resort to ninja tactics in order to hide from the baddies prowling the streets of Tokyo in search of easy prey.

On a narrow Tokyo street, near a beef bowl restaurant and a pachinko parlor, Aya Tsukioka demonstrated new clothing designs that she hopes will ease Japan’s growing fears of crime.

Deftly, Ms. Tsukioka, a 29-year-old experimental fashion designer, lifted a flap on her skirt to reveal a large sheet of cloth printed in bright red with a soft drink logo partly visible. By holding the sheet open and stepping to the side of the road, she showed how a woman walking alone could elude pursuers — by disguising herself as a vending machine.

Another anti-crime Japanese “invention” that Mr. Fackler says reflects a “peculiarly Japanese sensibility” is something called a “manhole bag.”

[T]he “manhole bag” [is] a purse that can hide valuables by unfolding to look like a sewer cover. Lay it on the street with your wallet inside, and unwitting thieves are supposed to walk right by.

Right. . . Put your wallet and valuables inside a bag that you lay on the street.

What a peculiarly Japanese sensibility!

Anyway, if Mr. Fackler had taken the time to do a simple GOOGLE on the term “vending machine skirt,” he would have found that this “invention” is nothing more than the repackaging of a story that made the rounds on the Internet back in 2005.

Thanks to Dr. Professor and Len Cullum

Politics watchers all over Japan have been shocked by the first week of the new Fukuda administration, which has been completely unmarked by any form of controversy whatsoever.

Even the revolving door at the Ministry of Agriculture appears to have stopped spinning. When asked how the new Agriculture Minister had managed to hold on to the particularly slippery job for over a week, a ministry insider was quoted as saying “He must be lost somewhere in the building.”

“We’ve been watching the exits,” said an anonymous senior journalist, “but the silence is eerie.” After the fireworks of the Abe government, observers are growing suspicious after this week’s lack of resignations. “We can only hope that things settle back in their usual pattern next week, and that the ministerial exodus starts up again,” he added.

With no daily cabinet dismissals to report, the morning news programmes and daily newspapers have been caught on the hop and have had to content themselves with the last resort of reporting international affairs.

The X Factor can be a big deal in the UK, being the country that invented the format.

However, the Japanese community in the UK is apparently up in arms about one contestant, “Totoshko’s, claim to have come to audition all the way from Japan (”She’s so Chinese!” I was told), claiming she is in fact a fake.

What do you reckon?

You would think that with all of the publicity that the ore-ore (It’s me) scams have received over the past few years that con artists would have long ago been forced to move onto something new. Well, it seems as if there are still plenty of sheep to be fleeced and the fraudsters have decided to stay with the their old standby because it continues to work so well here.

The National Police Agency reports that during the first half of 2007, conmen relieved their victims of more than 6.25 billion yen in ore-ore cases nationwide, up more than 3 percent compared with the same period last year.

A typical case involves a woman in her 70s in southern Saitama Prefecture who believed she would be able to detect and handle fraudsters. She ended up losing 1.75 million yen.

Two years ago, she received a call from a “police officer” telling her that her second son was caught groping a woman on his way to work.

Fearing that her son’s name would appear in newspapers, the woman said she “panicked, feeling blood rising to my head.”

She was referred to a “lawyer,” who suggested the case could be settled with 2 million yen. She also heard the sobbing “son” uttering “Mom!” on the other side of the phone.

Desperate, she withdrew a time deposit to send the money. After the transfer was completed, she went to the station to pick up her son, only to find no trace of him. The “lawyer” could not be contacted.

Her story doesn’t end there.

The woman has since received two similar calls, but each time she asked the caller for the son’s birthday and then hung up.

As always whenever I read about cases such as this, I wonder why it is mothers and wives are so quick to accept that a male member of their family is capable of such gross misconduct.

Police have uncovered a new scam involving investments in pearl farms. According to authorities, a pearl sales firm named Cute defrauded some 2,500 people in out of 5 billion yen .

Cute attracted investors by telling them a ¥1 million investment in the pearl farming business could earn 20 percent interest in 18 months. It guaranteed both the principal and interest payments.

The company began its campaign around 2003. Dividend payments stopped around July 2005.