Random Japan

by: mishima

Sat Feb 18, 2012 at 16:00:00 PM EST

 Brave new (digital) world
      "Silent camera" apps are being blamed for a rise in complaints from women about perverts snapping illegal upskirt photos. The National Police Agency says the number of such incidents increased from 1,068 in 2006 to 1,702 in 2010.

   An LDP lawmaker got a surprise when he discovered that someone hacked into his YouTube account and uploaded a Russian-language porn video.

   Meanwhile, a hacker disabled the website of the government committee investigating the disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.

   Two Japanese companies were fined a total of ¥17 million by the Intellectual Property High Court for broadcasting copyrighted TV programs over the internet.

   An Osaka man became the first person in Japan arrested for breaking a six-month-old law against creating computer viruses.

stats
      13 Number of Japanese cops who lost their jobs in 2011 because of DUIs, according to the National Police Agency

   >¥3 trillion Sales at 7-Eleven convenience stores in Japan so far in fiscal 2011, the first time a conbini operator has reached that milestone

   34 Percent of people in Tokyo who walked home following the March 11 quake, according to the Railway Technical Research Institute

   13.4 km Average distance of their walk

Fixer-uppers
       The owner of Tokyo Tower said repair work on the top portion of the structure, which was damaged in the March 11 quake, will begin in April.

   Honda announced that it will reopen an assembly plant in Thailand that was shut down after being inundated during last year's flooding.

   The labor ministry said it wants to start offering pension benefits to part-time staff who work just 20 hours a week. Currently, pensions are available only to employees working at least 30 hours a week.

   Sentence of the Week: "Seventy percent of middle school students think English ability would be useful for obtaining a job in the future, but only 11 percent want to get a job that requires English, according to an education ministry institute survey." (via The Daily Yomiuri)

 Rob One Taxi

Maybe He Wasn't  

Using A Mirror  

Reform means the world for Todai
Fall enrollment part of wider drive to lure foreign students, diversify
By MIZUHO AOKI
Staff writer Saturday, Feb. 18, 2012
When Japan's leading university announced in January that it intends to shift undergraduate enrollment from spring to autumn in line with colleges worldwide, the plan created waves far beyond the academic world.
The University of Tokyo's move would have a far broader and deeper effect on Japanese society and force authorities to amend long-established practices, notably the season when companies recruit graduates and the timing of various national examinations, such as those medical students take in February to qualify for a medical license