It’s a situation that almost beggars belief, but a Nagoya man died on Sunday after having doused himself in kerosene and being given a lighter by police.
Police were called to a domestic disturbance on Saturday night in Atsuta.
Six officers were dispatched to the scene and the man walked out onto the road to greet them, […]

Stories about misbehaving public officials are commonplace - they differ only in the details. But the details usually make interesting reading.
A Wakayama prefecture civil servant has made worldwide headlines with a feat of astonishing dedication.
Tax-payers in Kinokawa wish he could show similar dedication to his job. For it has been revealed […]

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 […]

The New York Times has a quartet of articles related to Japan.
One article deals with a lawsuit regarding WWII forced suicides. I have not heard much about this issue before and it is quite interesting. The topic of revisionist history is a universal one. In this particular case an author wrote about […]

A little off-topic, but interesting, I think. Let’s hear it for the stereotypes about repressed Asians.

A Chinese official’s wife uses a press conference intended to announce some aspect of the 2008 Olympic Games to instead tell everyone of her husband’s infidelity.

Silda Spitzer stands by her man.

In case you are not aware, there is a big scandal going on in Hong Kong right now due to the public release of sex pics that show movie actor Edison Chen and actress Gillian Chung doing the dirty for the digital.
Though this has been ongoing news for quite a while now, we have […]

Popular Japanese songstress Kumi Koda has gotten into hot water by commenting on a radio program that she would like to have a child before she turns 35, “when women turn 35, their amniotic fluid goes rotten.” Koda committed the gaffe on the popular late night radio show “All Night Nippon,” when the host […]

Ah, how I’ve missed him. But former Foreign Minister Taro Aso was back in the news yesterday.
Mr Aso has been away from the limelight for a while, after getting shunted aside during the Prime Ministerial changeover from Shinzo Abe to Yasuo Fukuda last autumn.
But you knew he couldn’t stay quiet for long. He usually has […]

With the government looking determined to push through a tax reform bill that JP reported on last week, it might come as something of a surprise to hear that it’s being reported tonight that they have agreed to drop the bill, or at least the clause concerning “road-designated tax revenues”, which has been facing stiff […]

Just when soaring energy costs are sending gasoline prices over the 150-yen-per-liter mark and the economy is beginning to sputter, the Japanese government is faced with a monumental decision about whether to extend “temporary” tax measures meant to finance road construction and maintenance that went into effect 40 years ago, and which have doubled since […]

I came across this transcript of 9/11 hearings by the Japanese Parliament. I was hesitant to post it because I’m not one for conspiracy theories but it’s interesting to read. Yukihisa Fujita leads the questioning in to the events of that day and questions Japan’s role in the War on Terror.

A recent incident in Osaka underscores a government-created medical emergency in Japan that most probably will only get worse.
Last week an 89-year-old woman whose family called an ambulance when she started experiencing vomiting and diarrhea died after she was rejected for admittance by thirty hospitals. The poor woman was finally admitted two hours after the […]

Click here to find out NOVA ex-president Nozomu Sahashi’s side of the story on the collapse of the English conversation giant over the past few months.
“I’m being set up as the bad guy,” he says. “I didn’t take a single day off from April as I went around busting my guts to try and […]

The L.A. Times has a very good report related to the recent murder of junior sumo wrestler Takeshi Saito at the hands of his sumo stable master and mates, and the subsequent attempted cover up by the stable and local authorities.
Photos of the teenager’s corpse show a deep cut on his right arm, horrific bruising […]

The mandatory fingerprinting of foreigners entering Japan begins in just 11 days. Are you worried about the authorities’ ability to keep sensitive data secure?
There have recently been innumerable leaks of classified information into the public domain, for example by the careless use of (banned) peer-to-peer software, by the police, the military and government workers.
A Nara […]

An American who was creative director of the U.S. branch of Japan’s Dentsu advertising agency has sued the company over being pressured to visit a brothel and partake in other sexual activities, and then being canned for complaining.
In a lawsuit seeking unspecified damages filed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Steve Biegel said he […]

“It’s serious to see such a reliable, time-honored maker be involved.”
Japan farm minister Masatoshi on hearing about how Arafuku, a Japanese sweets maker that has been in business since 1707, has been mislabling the production dates of its products for more than 30 years.

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 […]

What is it going to take for Japan to act and ensure that this is a thing of the past?
Sapporo hospitals refused four pregnant women last year, even though the women were taken to them in emergency conditions, the city said Tuesday.
None of the women suffered a miscarriage, but one in her teens was rejected […]

The revolving door at Japan’s farm ministry has just spun again with the resignation of Agriculture Minister Takehiko Endo over shady dealings of a farmer’s group he headed (originally reported on here by Overoften), a mere one week after the appointment of a new cabinet by Prime Minister Shinzo. This is seen by some as […]