Hybrids Rule In 2009

Chinese astrology may have dubbed the year 2009 as the Year of the Cow, but it was something else in Japan. People have been calling last year as the Year of the Hybrids in the country. This is due to the fact that, for the first time, a hybrid car has gotten the distinction of being the bestselling car in the whole country.

I am talking about the Toyota Prius, of course. This car was launched with a lot of promises and much potential. It seems that it has lived up to its reputation – based on sales figures released in the past week, 208,879 units of the Prius were sold by Toyota in 2009. The figure makes the Prius the number one car in Japan. More than that, though, it is the number one hybrid car in the entire world!

Is the Prius as great as it seems or is there another reason for its success? Experts and consumers alike extol this hybrid’s virtues but there is another factor that has to be taken into consideration. The truth is that packages and incentives provided has made the price of the Prius so low that consumers are more attracted to it. With all the incentives, one might be able to save as much as 4,200 USD!

Aside from the Prius, another hybrid car sold really well in Japan last year: the Honda Insight. Compared to Toyota’s sales figures, Honda only had 93,283 – not even half. Still, overall sales figures support the fact that hybrids are very much on their way to being the standard.

Japanese Man Says I Do…With Video Game Character

Just the other week, some colleagues and I were discussing a woman who supposedly married the Eiffel Tower. Naturally, we were all bewildered by the whole thing. We just couldn’t fathom how a person could marry an inanimate object!

So when I read about a Japanese man marrying a video game character, I was not all that puzzled. In a news report published by Reuters, I learned about SAL9000 – that’s the Japanese guy’s online moniker – marrying Nene Anegasaki, a character in the video game Love Plus. I am not familiar with the video game, but from what I have been reading (and based on the name as well!), it is a dating simulation game.

SAL9000 says he is an “otaku,” which is the Japanese term for young adults who have an extreme passion (or even obsession) with video games and fantasy. I think it is also being considered as a sub-culture, and in their own world, it is acceptable to call characters their “wives.” SAL9000 says that since he has been calling and thinking of Nene Anegasaki as his “wife,” the logical thing to do was to marry her!

The couple exchanged “I do’s” several weeks ago, and they spent their honeymoon abroad – in Guam. They have been traveling the famous city of Tokyo as a couple, with SAL9000 documenting their dates diligently. As for the new husband, he says his wife can rest assured that he will never cheat. Ahh, where have I heard that before?

President Obama Bows To Japanese Emperor

Barack Obama is no stranger to controversy – his whole presidential campaign revolved around that, if you remember. More so, this is not the first time that the President of the United States has showed deference to a leader of another country. Remember him bowing to the King of Saudi? Now THAT irked a lot of Americans.

If you haven’t heard yet, President Obama did a repeat of the bowing thing. This time, he bowed before Emperor Akihito, again generating a lot of buzz. Of all the articles, blog posts, and commentaries that I have been reading on this event, I found Jake Tapper’s most interesting. He writes:

“This picture shows two things,” my friend writes.
“1) The ‘right’ is wrong about Obama’s bow.
“2) The ‘left’ is wrong about Obama’s bow.
“His bow is neither (1) unprecedented nor (2) a sign of cultural understanding.

“At their 1971 meeting in Alaska, the first visit of a Japanese Emperor to America, President Nixon bowed and referred to Emperor Hirohito and his wife repeatedly as ‘Your Imperial Majesties.’”

So what’s the difference between Obama’s bow and Nixon’s bow? The latter got it right – angle and all. Apparently, Obama’s angle was all wrong, and the addition of the hand shake was just NOT right. The overall effect?

Kyodo News is running his appropriate and reciprocated nod and shake with the Empress, certainly to show the president as dignified, and not in the form of a first year English teacher trying to impress with Karate Kid-level knowledge of Japanese customs.

The bow as he performed did not just display weakness in Red State terms, but evoked weakness in Japanese terms….The last thing the Japanese want or need is a weak looking American president and, again, in all ways, he unintentionally played that part.

I wonder what Obama thinks about the buzz that he has once again generated? What do YOU think about it?

Tokyo Pedestrian Crossing Adopted By Britain

Yesterday, Londoners were treated to a taste of what it’s like to cross the streets of Tokyo. Oxford Circus, which is considered to be the “heart of London’s West End shopping and entertainment district,” opened the first ever Tokyo-style pedestrian crossing in their part of the world. The style of this pedestrian crossing – as you can see from the photo, courtesy of Mirror.co.uk – allows people to cross the intersection diagonally, on top of being able to cross in straight lines. Obviously, in order for this scheme to work, traffic in all directions must be halted all at once to give way to the pedestrians.

According to a report by AFP, London authorities got the idea from the crossing in Shibuya, a well-known area in Tokyo. The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, was quoted as saying:

“This project is a triumph for British engineering, Japanese innovation and good old-fashioned common sense. The head-scratching frustration caused by the previous design is over and we’ve brought one of the world’s greatest crossroads into the 21st century. Being able to cross in an oblique rather than a perpendicular fashion will make Oxford Circus incredibly more efficient for the millions of pedestrians and road users that use the crossing every year.”

Indeed, why haven’t others thought of this before? Trust the Japanese to come up with such a simple solution to a simple problem!

So how much did the scheme cost the government? A whopping five million pounds, no less! We’ll see in the next few weeks – or months – if the scheme is worth it. I have a feeling it will be.

Feel Like A Japanese Olympics Experience?

If the Japanese government has its way, then we just might be treated to such an experience in about 6 years’ time! The news is that Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, the new Prime Minister of Japan, is pushing for Japan’s bid to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is holding a meeting in Copenhagen this week, and the Prime Minister’s spokesman announced that Hatoyama will be actively pushing for their bid.

The current contenders for the position of host for the 2016 Summer Olympics are Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro, and Tokyo. The voting will be done on Friday by roundabouts 100 members of the IOC. As of now, not one of the cities has emerged as a clear favorite. As such, they are all doing their best to come up with the most attractive bid in an effort to get the votes from the IOC members.

So what’s Japan’s plan? The tagline is to host the “most compact, ecologically friendly, and athletes-focused” Olympics in history. It seems that the ecologically friendly aspect is the strongest point of Tokyo’s bid, with the Prime Minister promising to drastically cut back on the country’s carbon emissions by 25 percent from 1990 levels by 2020. It is a very bold move, but I think that if any nation can do it, it is Japan.

An interesting piece of news: royalty and presidents (or the wife, in President Obama’s case) are going to Copenhagen to further their countries’ cause, but it seems that Crown Prince Naruhito is not going.

Japan “Dolphin Town” To Set Dolphins Free?

Remember that article I posted on the movie “The Cove?” It is a documentary about a practice in Japanese town, wherein fishermen annually catch dolphins. They then either sell the dolphins to aquariums and other similar establishments or slaughter them for meat. The documentary stars Ric O’Barry, erstwhile trainer of the TV series Flipper, which aired in the 1960s. Activists were quick to join O’Barry’s bandwagon, pushing the movie into the international limelight. As a result, the international community has created an outcry that no one can ignore.

The town of Taiji is an otherwise quiet town. Following the release of The Cove, however, its residents have experienced such intense scrutiny that it seems that they have no choice but to accept their “fame.” The international pressure on their tradition has reached such a point that the Taiji fisheries association has succumbed – even if only temporarily.

An unknown official of the organization has announced (anonymously, of course) that they will NOT be killing any of the dolphins in their first haul of the year. Instead, they will be picking out the best 50 of the lot and sell them to aquariums. The rest they will set free. He says, though, that they are still unsure as to what to do in the long term. On the one hand, the town’s residents “do not want any trouble.” On the other hand, they do not want to let go of tradition because of the pressure.

O’Barry and the rest of the people involved in the film are, naturally, elated at the news –even if it is not set in stone.

New Film Features Japanese Dolphin Slaughter

There is a new film that is already stirring up a lot of controversy. When films are released for the whole world to see and they target the culture of a nation, controversy is sure to come with it. This new film is dubbed “The Cove,” and it focuses on some practices of Japanese fishermen.

Based on what the film portrays, Japanese fishermen allegedly lure wild dolphins into a hidden secret cove in Japan. According to activists, these dolphins are then captured for sale to amusement parks and for food as well. The Cove is actually a documentary which follows the pursuits of a group of activists led by Ric O’Barry. He is in fact an ex-dolphin trainer and he used to be in the TV series Flipper.

The film is due to be released in the United States on Friday but, unsurprisingly, no release date has been announced for Japan. The Japanese government maintains its stance that they are not doing anything wrong and that have not been doing anything wrong. More so, they have also cited cultural differences as the reason behind the misunderstanding.

In spite of this official stand, critics and audiences have already given the film a lot of praise. In fact, it won the audience award at the Sundance Film Festival. The goal of the activists is to shut down the cove for good and to save the dolphins.

I have not seen the movie myself, but I would like to. At least if I do, I can judge it for myself.

Japanese Appetite For Whale Meat Declining?

Japanese cuisine is known all over the world for being one of the best. While not everyone has a liking for their more exotic dishes, staples such as tempura and sushi are well loved most everywhere that I’ve been to. One particularly exotic meat that the Japanese really love is whale meat, and it is by far the most controversial as well.

Japanese fleets regularly foray into the deep waters to hunt whales for meat. It used to be that up to 5000 tonnes of meat were consumed in the country each year. Today, however, it is reported that there are still at least 3000 tonnes left in cold storage. It is but logical to say that the Japanese population is not consuming as much whale meat as it used to.

What could be the reason behind this? The Sunday Herald reports:

Despite falling market prices, and regular government efforts to “educate” the population by way of academic lectures, food festivals, and compulsory school lunches, whale meat remains a dish that few modern Japanese have eaten more than twice. Not because it is scarce, they just don’t like it.

Daiki Fukuda is owner of a traditional izakaya restaurant called Paddock, in the northern coastal prefecture of Ishikawa. His reasons for not serving whale meat are purely culinary. “It doesn’t taste good,” he says. 

“I think it’s very strange to go hunting for whales near the South Pole when we have other meat and fish that are much more delicious. I tried whale meat once at school when I was a kid, and I hated it. We all did.”

It is pretty clear at this point that hunting whales down for profit might not last long as a practice. If no one buys it, who will continue to spend money on harvesting whale meat?

What’s Wrong With Going Naked?

Nothing, I think. Well, if you are inside the four walls of your home, or in your bathroom, or your bedroom; heck, even in a hotel or anywhere that is yours to call your private space. Or maybe a nudist colony.

Now going naked in a public park and being arrested at 3 in the morning – that’s a totally different story. And it is even worse when you are a public figure like Tsuyoshi Kusanagi. If you are not Japanese or you do not follow the Japanese entertainment scene, this name probably does not ring a bell. To those who are in the know, however, Kusanagi is one of the hottest and most popular singers and actors in the country today.

I suppose I should have said that he WAS one of the hottest, for after he was arrested by the police when he was found naked AND screaming in a Tokyo park, his followers seem to have deserted him. To make things worse for the celebrity, he is quoted to have pitched a question to the officers arresting him: “What’s wrong with going naked?”

While this may sound funny – I really think it is hilarious – Kusanagi’s critics and supporters do not think so. As a matter of fact, he has been dropped by his sponsors. TV shows have dropped him from their line ups. Even a movie that he is supposed to be part of has been thrown away.

Lesson for celebrities: don’t go naked in a public park and don’t ask what’s wrong with it when arrested.

Teenager May Be Japan’s First Swine Flu Case

The uproar over swine flu, or the H1N1 virus, has been going on for days now. As current strain of flu virus originates from Mexico, people in Asia are not as exposed to risk as our western brothers. However, due to the ease of travel from any part of the world today, there really is no guarantee that the virus will not reach the farthest corners of the world.

Japan, in particular, might have its first case of swine flu. Bloomberg reports:

Japan’s Health Minister Yoichi Masuzoe said a 17-year-old boy may be the country’s first swine-flu case.

The teenager, a high-school student from Yokohama, near Tokyo, visited the western Canadian province of British Columbia from April 10 to 25, according to public broadcaster NHK, which televised the news conference by Masuzoe this morning.

The youth underwent a medical checkup yesterday after coming down with a fever and cough. Preliminary tests suggested he may have swine flu, NHK reported.

The National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Tokyo is conducting additional tests to confirm the diagnosis, the report said.

With everyone as alert as they are at the moment, people arriving at international airports are scrutinized closely for any possible signs of flu. As a matter of fact, another woman arriving from Los Angeles was suspected to have the flu as well. After further tests, however, it turned out that she had another strain of flu.

While you are probably safe if you have not traveled to high risk areas or have no plans of traveling in the near future, it is always wise to employ good hygiene practices.