The rioters in China are demanding that Japan apologize for the atrocities the Japanese army committed in World War II. Three days ago the Japanese government demanded that the Chinese government apologize for the the size and ferocity of the riots. Today the Hong Kong government demanded an apology from Asahi TV because of their “biased” coverage of the riots.

My theory is that all of Asia is secretly governed by 12-year-olds.

Most Japanese junior and senior high schools have rules prohibiting girls from dying or perming their hair. That’s fine, except for the small number of people who have naturally brown or wavy hair.

Most of the time these students must prove that the natural state of their hair is not straight and black, and they are left alone. However, many particularly zealous teachers and principals perversely interpret the rule agist dyed hair to mean that all students must have straight, black hair.

A student from Miyagi is suing the public school system for 5.5 million yen because after she refused to dye her natually-brown hair black — which would have violated the school rules — a teacher sprayed black dye on her. After the incident the school pressured her to drop out. (Remember this is a public school!) She has now transferred to a private school outside the prefecture where she will have to repeat 10th grade.

The principal of the high-school claimed they did not force the girl to quit, and stated that although the teacher in question may have acted excessively, there is no need for disciplinary action.

http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20050408-00000213-yom-soci

Now this kind of thing happens fairly often in Japan. However, it only makes the news when a lawsuit is filed, which seems to be once every couple of years. What I find astounding, however, is that every time these stories are reported, they are treated in isolation. As if it was the day’s human-interest story with no connection to hundreds of other cases just like it.

For what it’s worth, the girls almost never win these cases. The judges and the population as a whole tend to feel sorry for them, but always tend to add. “But why didn’t she just dye her hair and solve the problem?” Likewise, the fact that the girl is now forced to attend a private school in another prefecture is considered the be unfortunate, but inevitable. It would be unthinkable to blame the principal or teacher in this situation.

Rules in Japan are not like rules in the west. Rules in Japan are not meant to be binding on the people who make them. Rules are simply one of several tools that can be used to control. They are invoked or ignored as appropriate for a given situation.

Somehow I ended up at a Goth party in the early hours of New Years day. The party was pretty cool, and although I was dressed in normal street clothes, no one really cared. Most of the bullshit attitude you find in San Francisco is thankfully absent in Japan. People are just people.

No matter how long I stay here, girls’ fashions still amuse me. A few Japanese goth girls with heavy back eye shadow and lipstick, dressed in black leather and fishnet stockings, and wearing jewelry with spiky bits pointing out every which way, were walking around cuddling white, push stuffed animals.

Ah, now that takes the edge off.

Japanese girls just never put aside the whole cute thing. The picture I took turned out lousy because my cell phone does not have a flash, Yeah, I know, I’m way behind the technology curve.

Yes, I know he has always been a star, but now he has one. Godzilla was honored with his own star on the Hollywood walk of fame. The requisite photo-op showed some guy in a rubber Godzilla suit lowering his star into place. Grown men and women interviewed at the ceremony were quoted as saying things like “Godzilla is my hero.”

OK, now I realize that I don’t live in the same reality as everyone else, but in my reality, this really makes no sense — even for Hollywood.

Who are they actually “honoring” here? The star did not go to the creator of Godzilla or the guy who wore the rubber suit. (Apparently the same guy did it for decades.) or the writers or directors. It went to a fictional character. In fact, it turns out there are actually six other fictional characters so honored.

It seems the concepts of “hero” and “honor” have pretty much vanished.

In fact, I think they really should give a star to Frankenstein’s Monster. Frankenstein’s Monster (Frankenstein, by the way, was the monster’s human creator) was a creation that took on far more importance and fame than its maker and ultimately brought about his downfall. And in much the same way the Frankenstein’s Monster overshadows Frankenstein, they both overshadow Marry Shelly, the actual human being who created them both.

Fantasy has become more honorable than reality.

It starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes, an aeroplane – Lenny Bruce is not afraid.

Etc, etc.

The upper floors of an office tower is not the the most stable place to ride out a 6.8 earthquake, but at least it’s reasonably safe. The buildings are designed to sway to absorb the tremors, so we were rolling from side to side long after the quake stopped. The sensation is quite like being in a large boat on stormy seas.

The damage was not too bad in Tokyo, but at least 19 people were killed in Nigata.

In the last five weeks I’ve been trough tornadoes, two typhoons and now a 6.8 earthquake.

…and I feel fine.

Well it’s the biggest typhoon to hit Tokyo since last mont’s biggest typhoon to hit Tokyo and they are shutting down the trains and rolling up the sidewalks once again.

Actually this one looks like it could be bad. Flooding, Trucks and light buildings have been overturned and 12 people are dead so far.

Rikkyo Elementary school has began using RFID chips to track the movements of the students. Whenever a student enters or leaves the school, the fact is logged into the school’s computer and email is automatically sent to the parents.

In any society, prisoners and children are two groups assumed to have very few fundamental rights, and particularly not the right to privacy, so this is not really an invasion of privacy issue. Administrators and parents both love the new system and feel that it will keep their children safer.

This is, however, yet another example of addressing a problem by doing something very visible and newsworthy, but which will have no effect on the problem itself. The RFID system was introduced after a number of high-profile child-murders. When asked how the system could protect students from such crimes the principal said quite frankly. “This won’t prevent crimes against children.”

Of course, actually making children safer is a secondary goal. The primary goal of such systems is making people feel safer.

I’m not doing too well weatherwise; tornadoes, earthquakes, typhoons.

I’ve just walked to the convenience store and the video rental shop through “the worst typhoon to hit Tokyo in over a decade,” and I have to say that Tokyoites are wimps. Don’t get me wrong. It’s nasty out there. The rain is coming down in sheets and the wind in blowing in all six directions — the four usual directions as well as straight down, and (inexplicably) straight up. The inside of my umbrella is dripping wet.

So if you go outside, you are going to get really wet. But that’s it. There are none of the huge waves that we saw further south and out on the islands. There is no flooding, and I even saw a police officer making the rounds on his bicycle. Granted, he was not particularly happy about it, but come on! You can’t ride a bicycle in a real typhoon.

However, the clerk at the video rental shop looked like he feared for his life, much of public transportation has been shut down, people are being asked to stay indoors, and all of the TV stations are yammering on about how terrible and dangerous this storm is. However, their damage shots are mostly trees blowing in the wind and traffic signs that have been knocked over.

Perhaps I am missing something here or perhaps this is just an offshoot of the “we’re all in it together” theme that runs through Japanese society, but I just don’t see what the big deal is.

Anyway, now that I have dried off, I have a video to watch

Interaction with the Japanese legal system is like interaction with a gun. You are either on the good end or the bad end. There is nothing in the middle. And just like a gun, there is almost nothing you can do to ensure you never end up on the bad end.

Mohamed Himu, a foreign businessman living in Japan, was arrested on suspicion of being an Al-Qaeda cell leader, and held incommunicado for seven weeks while the police interrogated him and the media speculated frequently and wildly about the evil he had done. His name and his company’s name became household words.

Full story
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fl20040831zg.htm

Unfortunately, the police got the wrong guy. This poor guy has nothing to do with Al-Qaeda or any other terrorist group. However, since his exoneration and release was barely mentioned by the press and not explained by the police, he is out of business. His suppliers and business partners wont even take his phone calls.

The war on terrorism has both Japan and America rather cavalierly ruining the lives of innocent people. I pray we are not sliding towards another Red Scare when accusation is considered proof and the only way to ensure you are not accused is to accuse the other guy first.

It’s a shame, but it seems innocent until proven guilty is a very hard concept for most people to support on any but the most superficial level.

OK. America’s Subservient Chicken is creepy, but Japanese advertiting can also get pretty stange — if not nearly as perverse.

Here’s a bit of Japanese adverting you’ll never see on prime time American TV. For those of you who don’t speak Japanese at the end of the commerical she says “Hey! Where do you think you’re looking!” The rest of the spot needs no translation.

I’m not sure what else I can add other than “Goo!! Goo!!”

Today the Japanese immigration authorities decided not to grant Bobby Fisher refugee status and to turn him over to US authorities.

TOKYO Justice Minister Daizo Nozawa on Tuesday rejected former chess champion Bobby Fischer’s demand for protection as a political refugee, issuing an order to deport him.

The Justice Ministry rejected Fischer’s demand for protection as a political refugee, saying that the charges outstanding against him in the United States are not political in nature.

Fischer, 61, is wanted in the United States for violating international sanctions against Yugoslavia in 1992 when he played his 1992 championship rematch against former world champion Boris Spassky in that country.

The full article can be found at

http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=1&id=309822

It’s sad, but I can’t say I’m surprised. Legally Fisher doesn’t have a leg to stand on. He broke the law, right? Well, actually, he didn’t. There was no law banning US citizens from engaging in “economic activity” with Yugoslavia. It was an executive order signed by President Bush.

It’s hard to see what is to be gained by all this. Perhaps it will salve a few bruised egos in Washington.

OK, Bobby Fisher has gotten a little, shall we say, “eccentric” in recent years, but once he was the best. His life was chess, and like the Olympic athletes we are watching now, they live to prove to themselves that they are the best. (I’ve got news for you, most of these guys couldn’t care less what you and I think of their abilities. They are well beyond that.) I’m sure at the time, being told he could not play chess because of some unrelated political dispute seemed the height of absurdity.

It’s interesting. Almost none of the news stories I’ve read about this mention how the match went. Fisher won. He really was the best. Even in his current situation, I doubt he regrets proving that to himself.