The fact that such ideas were greeted with straight faces, or even appeared at all, underscores Japanese society’s fondness for oddball ideas and inventions.
Photo: Torin Boyd/Polaris, for The New York Times
maryt
Archive for the ‘Japan’ Category
Japanese physical fitness
August 16, 2007Won’t be back online posting to my blogs until Sunday…Until then enjoy the pic:
Children from a private day-care center play in the snow-covered grounds of Koyasan temple in western Japan, Jan. 22, 2005, to improve their physical fitness. (AP Photo/Kyodo News)
maryt
Wordless Wednesday
July 18, 2007
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Photos: Kyodo News, via Reuters
maryt
Comfort Women
April 27, 2007
WWII sex slave survivor demands Japan apology
4/27/2007 8:33:13 AM
She’s 78 years old, but for Lee Young-soo, life as she knew it ended at age 15 — when the Japanese government forced her to become a sex slave for its military members during World War II.
• Korean, 78, speaks out against Japan’s enforced slavery of women in World War II.
• Lee Young-soo and others protest as Japanese leader Shinzo Abe visits U.S.
• They are demanding Japan issue an official apology
• An estimated 200,000 were forced into sex slavery more than 60 years ago.
Who were “comfort women”?
As Japan expanded its empire during the 1930s and 1940s, it enslaved women from many countries, including Korea, China and Japan, to service its army, according to the human rights organization Amnesty International. Several reasons were used to justify this, but the name “comfort woman” reflects the idea that sex would improve morale and relieve stress among soldiers.
Amnesty International estimates there were up to 200,000 “comfort women” — many of them between the ages of 12 and 20.
Former comfort women protest
maryt
Yellowed faced Japanese better at diplomacy than blond, blue-eyed Westerners… according to Japanese diplomat
March 22, 2007From CNN.com:
The headline reads “Japanese diplomat says “blonds” are no good in Mideast talks.”
WHAT?
Yup, Japanese Foreign minister Taro Aso says, “Blond, blue-eyed Westerners probably can’t be as successful at Middle East diplomacy as Japanese with their ‘yellow faces’. Japan is doing what Americans can’t do,” Aso went on, “Japanese are trusted. If (you have) blue eyes and blond hair, it’s probably no good. Luckily, we Japanese have yellow faces.”
Aso went on to elaborate by saying that the Japanese have never exploited the Middle East, started a war there or fired a shot.
Apparently foreign minister Aso has a history of such un-diplomatic statements. In the past he has insulted South Korea and said that he hoped Japan would become a place where “rich Jews” would want to live. Yikes!
maryt 
