Shoganai Japan

A pension association has filed a criminal complaint against relatives of a Tokyo man found dead at his home last month on suspicion of fraudulently receiving payments he would have been entitled to as a widower, investigative sources said Tuesday.

Authorities said Tuesday that 23 people have been injured since Sunday by monkeys, believed to be Japanese macaques, appeared in residential areas on the outskirts of Mishima in Shizuoka Prefecture.

The education ministry plans to boost the number of teachers at public elementary and junior high schools by 20,000 on a net basis over eight years from next April to reduce the maximum size of a class to 30-35 students from the current 40, ministry sources said Tuesday. According to the plan, the number of students in each class at elementary and middle schools is to be gradually reduced to 35 over the first six years. The class size for first and second graders at elementary schools is to be cut to 30 during the remaining two years.

A total of 41,020 people were taken to hospitals due to heatstroke from May 31 to Aug 22, of whom 145 were confirmed dead right after being hospitalized, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said Tuesday in a preliminary report.

As children in inner tubes bob on the calm waters of this small ocean cove, a 250-kilogram dolphin zips through the crowd in pursuit of raw squid tossed out by a trainer.
Niru, a Risso’s dolphin caught locally, seems unbothered by all the people and the squeals of surprise and delight. The cove is packed — it is a bright summer Sunday, and hundreds of families have come. But in two weeks, the waters of the cove will turn blood red, as it becomes a holding pen for annual hunts that capture and kill hundreds of dolphins each year.

A bus hit a trailer truck on the Tomei Expressway in Shizuoka Prefecture early Monday morning, injuring 26 passengers and the driver of the bus, police said. The 51-year old driver of the trailer truck was not injured in the 3:05 a.m. accident, they said.

No one likes to say goodbye, but did you know there are different ways to say goodbye in Japanese depending on when you’re planning on seeing a person again and who the person is?

Here are a few proper ways to say farewell in Japanese without sounding like a newbie or needlessly offending anyone.

If you’re coming to Japan, you will probably hear someone lamenting about the inability to find any “real” deodorant here. When I heard this before coming, I promptly bought a 4-pack of my favorite kind (which I still haven’t used up, two years later). Yet, for those trying to save luggage space, unless you are REALLY attached to your deodorant, let me reassure you, it IS possible to get deodorant in Japan. And no, I’m not even talking about typical Japanese stuff – I haven’t tried any of it (as everyone often says it doesn’t work as well).

Apple Inc.’s iPad tablet computer went on sale in Japan on Friday morning, to the delight of throngs of customers who had formed long lines at stores starting the previous evening.
Many of the customers who rushed to Apple and Softbank shops had ordered their iPads in advance, but some customers without orders also snapped up the devices.
A ceremony marking the launch of sales was held at Softbank’s Omotesando Store in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward from 7:50 a.m. on Friday, with Softbank President Masayoshi Son in attendance, as well as some 250 people waiting for sales to begin.

A total of 15 babies were newly entrusted in fiscal 2009 to the “baby hatch” facility set up in 2007 by a Kumamoto hospital for unwanted newborns, down from 25 in fiscal 2008, the Kumamoto city office that permitted the service said Tuesday.

The latest figure brings the total number of babies and infants left at Jikei Hospital to 57 since it started operating the facility in May 2007 to enable parents who cannot raise children because of economic or other reasons to leave their babies anonymously.