chinpira comments

"worth 150 million yen"

Current market price of gold, 4100yen per gram Weight of tree, 12Kgs or 12000grams,

Intrinsic value of tree if melted down into gold 49.2 million yen.

Must have been VERY hard to make....

Why wait TWO FULL DAYS to release the girls photo and a description of what she was wearing to the public? Is it police pride? Did the parents object? I don't get it..

Its obvious that the most critical time to be able to catch and follow leads are very early in the investigation and this can only be done by appealing to the public who may have seen her in the early stages of her disappearance....Every second counts and while having the police walk around in long grass searching the area using long sticks is all well and good it has its limits, especially seeing as she may have been taken by vehicle and on the road immediately after her abduction.

The key word is "caught" not killed. You see folks, these whales will be transferred to large holding facility and eventually be put on large water bed treadmills, be fitted with electrodes to monitor their condition during the research. I'm quite sure they will be released back into the wild once the research has completed. I am anxiously awaiting the results of the research to learn about what makes these creatures tick.

I think the pranksters forgot the part in the variety shows which shows about 50cm worth of foam and cushioning at the bottom of the pit to absorb the fall..... and more importantly the crew were on standby to pull them out...

@smith

I find it more disturbing than baffling. What it suggests to me is that the paramedics - if you can call them that here, don't even have the right to pronounce it if the victim has expired. So if a paramedic is technically not authorized to determine if a victim is deceased, what is their level of expertise in being able to actively revive or stabilize a patient? I think in Japan the only "first" aid you're going to get is once you arrive at the hospital. Sad but true, so stay safe everyone.

I also find disturbing that that I have often overtaken ambulances (with sirens blazing) whilst on my bicycle.

OK, I'll take a guess too... Similar to Iijima Ai when she quit show biz he will not be seen or heard of much until his body is discovered by his wife or close friend in either an obvious suicide or suspicious death, say - within two years.

Oh man, bring on the thumbs down barrage, seriously how stupid can you be? 30 times to different accounts? When you make a transfer you usually need both the name of the account and the account number... All 30 accounts had her sons name on them? Even if the name was correct she didn't find it strange that on each occasion the account number was different? Absolutely no sympathy for the likes of this woman, the 29 million was a waste in her account. At least with her funds out on the street the money is circulating and helping the economy be it circulating in and around the underworld.

Shame Softbank's network is so slow though. Nice that they are pushing Apple's rival Android OS. Glad I stayed on the Docomo network, got the Galaxy S2 last month, awesome phone and much better than the iPhone... best of all is the speed of the docomo network, (4 - 5 times faster). Even if the iPhone5 turns out to be a brilliant device it will still be crippled by Softbanks poor data network.

Saw the report this morning. The "life Jackets" were basically square cushions with two loops that you supposedly put your arms into and use by placing it on your chest allowing you to float facing up... it would be impossible for a child to use let alone a 2 year old as there is was no way to actually fasten it on. They reported that most people actually used them as a cushions, which makes sense as you could not even wear them.

The operators are definitely to blame here.

In general, I'm ok with capital punishment but in this case it seems as though this man has been convicted on circumstantial evidence and assumptions on his state of mind based on his divorce and loss of work.

I recall that this was an Adult Video viewing establishment. I don't see how "reliable" any witness accounts could have been, seeing as most patrons would have been in their own closed rooms, engrossed in their entertainment and probably in a tripodded state.

The very reason the causalities were so high points out that design of the building was not one that promoted openness and mingling with other patrons. One would also have to question how "reliable" could the witness accounts be, coming from the caliber of people visiting this kind of establishment.

They should have never stopped the vehicle free "pedestrian paradise" in the first place. The actions of mad man Kato could have taken place at ANY busy intersection around Tokyo. Ginza also has a "pedestrian paradise" where the street is closed to vehicles on Sundays yet it continued as normal.

Just because one lunatic chose Akihabara it made Akihabara a danger zone?

During the trial reopening of the Akihabara street in January it was so heavily policed by volunteers, officials, unformed/plain clothed police that it seemed more like the North/South Korean demilitarized zone than a place to enjoy some Sunday shopping. You could not even ride your bicycle in the street which was never an issue in the past. You could not even stop in the street whilst walking and take a photo... if you do stop you are quickly urged to keep moving.

Simply an amazing response to an event by one mentally disturbed person almost 3 years ago now... unbelievable.

Tahoochi at 9:53 AM JST - 10th February

"Why is this country sad for trying to find her after she's done something illegal? Isn't that normal? And to compound the situation, if she is in fact innocent, then why hide? She's obviously hiding something."

I can think of 3 reasons...

1) This country labels drug USERS in at almost the same catagory as hard criminals and are stigmitized and generally shunned by society. Instead she should be treated for her addiction not simply caught and locked up.

2) They are after her with more zeal than a regular person simply because she is known as a "talent" which is wrong, ie the police are putting on a nice show for the media.

3) They are wasting our tax money on an international manhunt for a person who is only hurting herself by using drugs... ie she is not a dealer.

Sad to see its number one in the best seller list at Amazon Japan.

Its a sad reflection on this society that in spite of now being "graduates" and about to enter the work force to become 'shakai jin' they have to entertain the un written law of strictly black suits, white shirts no dyed hair and pony tail for the females... yes thats right folks, leave all individuality at home, resistance is futile.

Sounds like a cut down version of "no-pan shabushabu"... which was banned a few years ago.

Perhaps it has a ball-less mouse too!

I wonder what marketing hype they'd come up with for my 2560x1600 monitor... SUPER SUPER HD?

Must be that new "3000 Strikes and you're out" law which was passed a few years back.

Actually it appears that any damage caused by the monkey will covered, in addition to the 200,000円.... Crazy plan none the less.

No surprises here - apparently no shame either, freely admitting guilt. Typical. Unfortunately the culture is constantly glorifying the fantasy of the teacher/student relationship. How many TV dramas/movies out there base their storyline on a young, uniform clad schoolgirl and an older man? You don't see this in many other "developed" cultures. Why was he back on the job? Society here is very forgiving on "public nuisance" cases. I'm sure he'll get off with another slap on the wrist. Grow up Japan.

@Gurukun I'm not so sure....To me, it looks like the dolphin is smiling and enjoying itself.

Ever seen a sad, angry dolphin???

The doliphins curse... the shape of their mouth appears to be a smile... ALL THE TIME... I'm pretty sure the "smile" would be there while drowning in a fishing net/ speared by a harpoon gun and even in death.

Well, now that he has a broken face he can sit in the priority seat without fear of reprisal. Perhaps this was her way of giving the guy a free pass to priority seats for while to come. Nice to see there is some spark left in some old folks.

It not used by Japanese as a derogatory word at all. It may sound derogatory since non Japanese simply take the literal English meaning of "half" and perceive it and directly translate it the way "half" is used in the English language. Its just another butchered English based word compacted and used by Japanese to describe a person of mixed heritage. If anything, it seems to be used in complimentary form.

Its actually 5 megapixel... anyway with small sensors and lenses more megapixels = more noise.

SMS? Who uses that anymore? People here stopped using that 10 years ago once mobiles started supporting email...

Q) Permission from Distributor Lionsgate and Director Louie Psihoyos to copy and distribute 200 DVDs of their movie "The Cove"?:

A) A few emails, links to this JT discussion and related news.

Q) 200 blank DVDS?:

A) 1559YEN

Q) Time to burn 200 DVD disks?:

A) About 24 hours on a single burner.

Q)The reaction of the right wingers as the movie is distributed free of charge to any passerby in their vicinity?:

A) PRICELESS

Its fantastic. If you have the hardware (Large 1080p TV/projector,AV AMP, 7.1 channel system etc) there is no going back to DVD. I buy and rent Blurays exclusivly. DVD is history.

if it was a foreign language how did einstein know it was a demand for money ?

Good point... so even though he was holding a knife in a threatening manner you think he might have been saying "HEY! IT SURE IS COLD OUTSIDE, YEAH?!?"..... or maybe he was shouting "HEY, SOMEONE SUPERGLUED THIS KNIFE TO MY HAND, CAN YOU HELP ME?!?".... Would be interesting to see how you would have coped in this situation...

The man arrested for the massacre, Tomohiro Kato, 27, will make his first court appearance on Thursday.

Only 1.5 years after the event. Nice.

This guy may or may not have some valid points but he really needs to get someone to help him with his attire. Maybe I've been here too long but its difficult to take someone seriosly when dressed like a bum, especially in this country.

Moderator: At the time of this press conference, his luggage had been lost by the airline.

@Altria

I would have given them $3.3m in fake Zimababwe dollars and airbombed their getaway boat.

While I love your air-bombing plan, why fake dollars? It would be cheaper to use the real currency. An egg is worth about $50Billion (Zimbabwe Dollars) in that currency.

Anyone actually saw the video footage of this event? You know, if you stare at this photo for a while you could almost swear that Obama is taking his time in this position and seems to really be bowing for a long period of time... because....its..... a.... P-H-O-T-O.

If you saw the TV broadcast you would have seen that he shock hands and gave a split second bow to go with it. Nothing as dramatic as this image may portray.