Through the power of RSS, I was able to pick up four completely unrelated Japan stories from the last couple of days which are worth a mention:
Businessman Criminal Takafumi Horie was sentenced today to thirty months for fraud after the investigations into his old company, Livedoor. He maintains his innocence (unusual here) and plans an appeal. Should be interesting. Is he really being set up by jealous old men, or is his brash, trendy style the perfect cover for dodgy dealings, and then claiming jealousy when he’s caught? Let the conspiracy theories begin!
Cryptozoology site Cryptomundo is running a story on when the Honshu wolf died out in Japan. Though certainly no longer around, there is a question over when it died out. It doesn’t look like a European wolf to me, but does look like a very big fox, which Japan does have quite a few of. I’m not a zoologist, crypto~ or otherwise, so please don’t flame me for my ignorance, I’m just saying it looked like one, OK?
Despite fears that this would be the first year for Tokyo without any snow, this morning some did fall. Some. I’m reliably informed by friends who saw this frozen onslaught, that ‘some’ may be overstating things, and that it was really ‘a few flakes’. However, this will keep the panicking masses satisfied. No global warming, please move along.
In keeping with Japan’s dire domestic nuclear power record, it was announced today that a major power generator ‘failed to report’ some pretty serious foul ups, including a case in the late nineties of a reactor going critical when control rods ‘fell out’ (whatever that really means). You’d think this, and the ensuing cover up, would be a cause for some pretty heavy, televised days in court. Not so. Japan has a three year statute of limitations for getting into trouble when reporting these things.