General

Dec 02 2004 Leave a Comment

Fourteen-year-old forger

With a great deal of fanfare, the Bank of Japan recently released new and improved bills to reduce the growing number of forgeries in circulation. With their intricate designs, watermarks, and even holograms, the new notes are thought to be almost impossible to reproduce.

It’s a good job they did too, as on Wednesday Tokyo police arrested a 14-year-old-boy for copying old (but still in use) 1,000 yen bills on his home computer. Using nothing more advanced than a standard printer and scanner, the entrepreneurial youngster managed to produce notes that when compared with the genuine article were relatively easy to detect, but on their own would not have aroused suspicion.

And it seems that once again the evil internet played a telling part. The crafty counterfeiter learnt how to forge bills from an article in a magazine that he bought online.

Cut, paste, print, and you are all done

Dec 01 2004 1 Comment

Pimping parent

An unnamed 40-year-old mother, who was millions of yen in debt, opted for an unusual and cruel method of repayment. Rather than getting an extra job or selling off valuable possessions, she forced her daughter to work full-time at an adult-entertainment business. Knowing full well that her offspring would be doing considerably more than pouring drinks and cleaning up.

The mother owed money to a couple, and they kindly introduced her to the adult business in question. Resulting in the 17-year-old daughter being forced to drop out of school and begin her new career. The nature of the introduction, and the fact that practically all the girl’s earnings went to the couple, has lead investigators to suspect they played a decisive role in the events. Prompting the police to arrest them, plus the owner of the business where the girl was employed.

The whole sorry affair came to an end when the distressed teenager approached one of her ex-teachers and said, “I can’t stand the work.” She is now in custody at a local government facility, which whilst perhaps not the nicest place in the world, must be better than living with her callous mother.

Nov 26 2004 5 Comments

Concession to cuteness

Now call me miserable if you want to (and don’t worry, you won’t be the first) but I find the Japanese obsession with cuteness nauseating at best. The rule that cute equals good is a false one in my book.

But that said, this sign outside a school I came across today did manage to warm the cockles of my cynical heart.

Briefly.

Nov 16 2004 1 Comment

The bigger they are…

…The harder they (don’t necessarily) fall.

Or at least that’s what 34-year-old Takaho Ono found out last Sunday afternoon. As for undisclosed reasons, Ono-san was feeling frustrated, and in his own words “wanted to hit somebody.”

Now I’m no expert on fighting, but I do know that if you are going to pick on somebody for a bit of rough and tumble, better to choose an individual on the small side. And personally speaking, preferably a man wearing glasses, verging on the decrepit, and not a fast runner in case everything goes pear-shaped and I have to make a dash for it.

But none of this was a consideration for the brave (and foolish) Mr. Ono. Perhaps not realizing a sumo tournament was in town (but surely capable of seeing the size of his potential foe), the frustrated fighter chose to hit ex-wrestler and sumo stable master Katsunoura. A man who fought under the name Kitakachidoki, and whose records show he was 183 centimetres tall, and weighed in at an impressive 158 kilogrammes.

This mismatched battle resulted in Ono getting in one surprise punch before Katsunoura subdued him on the spot and promptly handed him over to the police.

Contest over.