Nipponica

“Obviously, you got to let the criminal justice process play out. But that doesn’t mean you don’t express on a human level your sense of regret.”

“We have to do better,” he said, adding that the US military’s high standards and protocols for education and training of its troops was “just not working”.

Emanuel said the US may be able to propose measures to improve training and transparency with the public at US-Japan foreign and defence ministers’ security talks expected later this month in Tokyo.

The former professional boxer, now aged 88 and battling physical and mental illness, will learn his fate in late September when the Shizuoka district court rules in his retrial, which started in March 2023. He has not appeared in court, having been declared mentally unfit to give credible evidence. His long incarceration has exposed what campaigners call inhumane treatment of death row inmates in Japan.

Regardless of his guilt or not, the death penalty is an echo of an uncivilized past and Japan could easily gain a few rungs on the human rights ladder by abolishing it.

On March 26 at around 2:30 p.m, the two suspects reportedly told their coworker, a 50-year-old man with an intellectual disability, "You stink! Get in the washing machine."

They allegedly proceeded to force him into the machine and turn it on, resulting in injuries that required two weeks to heal.

Besides the usual comments about harassment in Japanese working culture, I must also make note that this is also harassment of those with intellectual impairments. We all just need to love each other regardless of our differences and get along. This story is so sad.

Molestation cases that occurred in a railway-related setting accounted for 70.0% of the total, including 62.8% that happened on trains. Cases on the streets made up 13%.

Absolutely disgraceful.

Aleph, which has most of the roughly 1,650 worshippers of Aum Shinrikyo's three successor groups, continues to worship the teachings of cult leader Chizuo Matsumoto, who went by the name of Shoko Asahara and was executed in 2018, as dogma. Authorities still believe that Aleph may conduct mass murders.

It is kind of amazing that the Aum Shinrikyo successors are still allowed to operate in the post-Abe assassination world when organizations like the Unification Church are being squeezed. Perhaps this is a first step towards that.

The two biggest Japanese airline operators said the guidelines address customer behaviors such as badgering staff, irrational demands and physical violence, among other typical issues.

Obviously good for the employees of the two airlines and good for the passengers that have the decency to treat these employees like human beings. But, as a troublesome customer can be more than just a nuisance for an employee and be an actual safety hazard for a whole airplane full of passengers, should these guidelines come from the government level and have criminal penalties?

The hackers threatened that they have gained access to "very personal information regarding Japanese citizens" and "everything will go public" on Monday unless Kadokawa Corp., the parent company of niconico operator Dwango Co., pays a ransom.

Kadokawa, a major Japanese publisher, declined to comment on the latest development.

Cyber Security 第一

A string of death threats directed at the two leading candidates in the Tokyo gubernatorial race reflects the “latent anger” of the electorate and Japan could be on the brink of a return to the politically tumultuous 1930s era, analysts warn.

Even allegedly peaceful Japan is not immune from the worldwide dissatisfaction in the political status quo, which should have been obvious in the post-Abe world we inhabit. I think most people don’t realize that the peace that they think is normal in the order of the world is historically a mirage. Our species is a selfish one and is prone to conflict.

Alberto Felice De Toni, the mayor of Udine in northern Italy, proclaimed a day of mourning on Wednesday in honor of Shimpei Tominaga, saying his loss represents “a serious and painful wound” for the city.

Local media reported that Tominaga, a Japanese businessman who ran a furniture trading firm in Udine, got beaten up while trying to break up a fight last Friday. He fell into a coma and had been put under intensive care at a local hospital but died on Tuesday.

Japanese police on Wednesday stressed to the public that riders of electric motorized suitcases must have a driver's license after a Chinese woman became the first person to be referred to prosecutors for unlicensed riding.

I have never heard of this kind of luggage but I think I need to invest in a fleet now.