Japan the year in review
un conteo regresivo de las historias mas japanoramas de año.
No.10: Japanese sex jaunt sparks Chinese fury
Claims that over 400 men from an Osaka-based construction company hired hundreds of Chinese prostitutes to carry out a three-day orgy timed to coincide with the September anniversary of Japan's 1931 invasion of China highlighted continued public flogging of Japan this year.
Japan's Top Stories of 2003 -- No. 9: Panawave sparks paranoia
Paranoia gripped Japanese residents in April when the bizarre Panawave Laboratory group appeared and took over a stretch of road in Gifu Prefecture, covering up crash barriers and roadside trees with huge white cloths.
Members of the mysterious organization, who dressed themselves entirely in white, and wore surgical masks, claimed that electromagnetic waves were causing catastrophic environmental destruction that would destroy the earth on May 15.
They claimed that they had to wear white clothes and cover their fleet of vehicles with white sheets to protect themselves and their ailing leader, Yuko Chino, from the waves.
Japan's Top Stories of 2003 -- No. 8: SARS scares unmask nation's health fears
When deadly severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) began claiming lives overseas, Japanese consumers who were worried about an outbreak in Japan scrambled to buy facemasks to protect themselves.
Japan's Top Stories of 2003 -- No. 7: Chinese students slay Fukuoka family of four
After initially hinting that he and his friends Wang and Yang had been coerced into helping dispose of the Matsumotos' bodies, Wei told his trial at the Fukuoka District Court that they had acted alone and the killing resulted because they had botched their planned robbery of the apparently wealthy family.
Wei has also told investigators that he and his co-accused deliberately tried to make it appear as though the Matsumoto family had been caught up in a gangland slaying.
Involvement of the three overseas students has, for many Japanese, come to symbolize what they see as a Chinese-inspired crime wave in Japan.
No. 6: 'It's me, send money' frauds plague residents
Telephone scammers who impersonated people's relatives then asked them for money for fictitious expenses raked in millions of yen in 2003.
Targeting mostly elderly people who were estranged from their offspring, the malicious fraudsters typically used a ruse that went something like as follows:
Scammer: "Hi, Mom, it's me."
Victim: "Who's this?"
Scammer: "It's me, Mom, me."
Victim: "...Taro?"
Scammer: "Yeah, that's right. Mom, I've been in a car accident and I don't have any money. I need you to deposit 2 million yen into my bank account ..."
No. 5: Best and brightest on rape rampage
Shinichiro Wada was a minor celebrity among students at Tokyo's top universities for being something of an entrepreneur extraordinaire who ran slick parties, dabbled in publishing and reaped a small fortune while still on the books as a full-time student at posh Waseda University.
It was something of a shock, then, when Wada was arrested for rape on June 19 together with four of his buddies from Super Free, the student group they had turned into a lucrative business.
They were accused of plying a 19-year-old girl who attended a Super Free-run party with so much alcohol she was virtually senseless, taking her out to a dark building stairwell where they each alternated between keeping lookout and debauching her.
In the wake of the arrests, dozens of women who'd been terrified at what had happened to them after attending Super Free events came forward and also claimed to have to have raped.
No. 4: Tigers win first title in 18 years
At the start of the season, most baseball fans were skeptical when Hanshin Tigers manager Senichi Hoshino pledged to help the hapless Kansai club win the Central League championship.
In 2003, however, Tiger fans saw their dream come true when the club clinched the league title.
No. 3: Hideki Matsui stars in MLB rookie season
Baseball fans across Japan were expecting Hideki Matsui to spend this year slugging it out with the likes of Barry Bonds during his first year playing in the Major League.
No. 2: Nagasaki's 12-year-old killer
"Your mum and dad have already left. They have some urgent business to deal with. Let's catch up with them."
Four-year-old Shun Tanemoto, who was playing a videogame alone at a large retail shop in Nagasaki where he was visiting with his family on the night of July 1, did not doubt the word of an earnest-looking "young man" and hurriedly followed him out of the store.
Shun's naked body was found the following morning beside a multistory car park in the city, four kilometers away from the shop where he had last been seen.
Shun had been beaten, sexually assaulted and pushed over the top of the building with fatal results. Moreover, the nursery schoolboy's genitals were branded with a v-shape wound, apparently made by scissors.
Police initially suspected that an adult pedophile had kidnapped Shun and drove him to the car park, until they found security camera footage from a nearby shopping arcade showing a young-looking man walking with the 4-year-old.
The nation gasped in horror when police announced on July 9 that they had identified a 12-year-old junior high school boy as a prime suspect and took him into custody.
No. 1: SDF deployment to Iraq sparks controversy at home
Japan came to a turning point in its post-war defense policy when it decided in mid-December to dispatch Self-Defense Force (SDF) troops to help rebuild war-torn Iraq.
Apart from apprehension that the move breaches the Constitution, the hostile environment in Iraq has raised concern for the safety of the soldiers.
Critics have pointed out that the deployment runs counter to the spirit of the war-renouncing Constitution. They say Article 9 of the fundamental law that renounces war as a means to settle international disputes was enacted out of reflection of not only Japan's wartime aggression in Asia but also the wartime military government's practice of sacrificing a large number of Japanese soldiers under its militaristic policies.
No.10: Japanese sex jaunt sparks Chinese fury
Claims that over 400 men from an Osaka-based construction company hired hundreds of Chinese prostitutes to carry out a three-day orgy timed to coincide with the September anniversary of Japan's 1931 invasion of China highlighted continued public flogging of Japan this year.
Japan's Top Stories of 2003 -- No. 9: Panawave sparks paranoia
Paranoia gripped Japanese residents in April when the bizarre Panawave Laboratory group appeared and took over a stretch of road in Gifu Prefecture, covering up crash barriers and roadside trees with huge white cloths.
Members of the mysterious organization, who dressed themselves entirely in white, and wore surgical masks, claimed that electromagnetic waves were causing catastrophic environmental destruction that would destroy the earth on May 15.
They claimed that they had to wear white clothes and cover their fleet of vehicles with white sheets to protect themselves and their ailing leader, Yuko Chino, from the waves.
Japan's Top Stories of 2003 -- No. 8: SARS scares unmask nation's health fears
When deadly severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) began claiming lives overseas, Japanese consumers who were worried about an outbreak in Japan scrambled to buy facemasks to protect themselves.
Japan's Top Stories of 2003 -- No. 7: Chinese students slay Fukuoka family of four
After initially hinting that he and his friends Wang and Yang had been coerced into helping dispose of the Matsumotos' bodies, Wei told his trial at the Fukuoka District Court that they had acted alone and the killing resulted because they had botched their planned robbery of the apparently wealthy family.
Wei has also told investigators that he and his co-accused deliberately tried to make it appear as though the Matsumoto family had been caught up in a gangland slaying.
Involvement of the three overseas students has, for many Japanese, come to symbolize what they see as a Chinese-inspired crime wave in Japan.
No. 6: 'It's me, send money' frauds plague residents
Telephone scammers who impersonated people's relatives then asked them for money for fictitious expenses raked in millions of yen in 2003.
Targeting mostly elderly people who were estranged from their offspring, the malicious fraudsters typically used a ruse that went something like as follows:
Scammer: "Hi, Mom, it's me."
Victim: "Who's this?"
Scammer: "It's me, Mom, me."
Victim: "...Taro?"
Scammer: "Yeah, that's right. Mom, I've been in a car accident and I don't have any money. I need you to deposit 2 million yen into my bank account ..."
No. 5: Best and brightest on rape rampage
Shinichiro Wada was a minor celebrity among students at Tokyo's top universities for being something of an entrepreneur extraordinaire who ran slick parties, dabbled in publishing and reaped a small fortune while still on the books as a full-time student at posh Waseda University.
It was something of a shock, then, when Wada was arrested for rape on June 19 together with four of his buddies from Super Free, the student group they had turned into a lucrative business.
They were accused of plying a 19-year-old girl who attended a Super Free-run party with so much alcohol she was virtually senseless, taking her out to a dark building stairwell where they each alternated between keeping lookout and debauching her.
In the wake of the arrests, dozens of women who'd been terrified at what had happened to them after attending Super Free events came forward and also claimed to have to have raped.
No. 4: Tigers win first title in 18 years
At the start of the season, most baseball fans were skeptical when Hanshin Tigers manager Senichi Hoshino pledged to help the hapless Kansai club win the Central League championship.
In 2003, however, Tiger fans saw their dream come true when the club clinched the league title.
No. 3: Hideki Matsui stars in MLB rookie season
Baseball fans across Japan were expecting Hideki Matsui to spend this year slugging it out with the likes of Barry Bonds during his first year playing in the Major League.
No. 2: Nagasaki's 12-year-old killer
"Your mum and dad have already left. They have some urgent business to deal with. Let's catch up with them."
Four-year-old Shun Tanemoto, who was playing a videogame alone at a large retail shop in Nagasaki where he was visiting with his family on the night of July 1, did not doubt the word of an earnest-looking "young man" and hurriedly followed him out of the store.
Shun's naked body was found the following morning beside a multistory car park in the city, four kilometers away from the shop where he had last been seen.
Shun had been beaten, sexually assaulted and pushed over the top of the building with fatal results. Moreover, the nursery schoolboy's genitals were branded with a v-shape wound, apparently made by scissors.
Police initially suspected that an adult pedophile had kidnapped Shun and drove him to the car park, until they found security camera footage from a nearby shopping arcade showing a young-looking man walking with the 4-year-old.
The nation gasped in horror when police announced on July 9 that they had identified a 12-year-old junior high school boy as a prime suspect and took him into custody.
No. 1: SDF deployment to Iraq sparks controversy at home
Japan came to a turning point in its post-war defense policy when it decided in mid-December to dispatch Self-Defense Force (SDF) troops to help rebuild war-torn Iraq.
Apart from apprehension that the move breaches the Constitution, the hostile environment in Iraq has raised concern for the safety of the soldiers.
Critics have pointed out that the deployment runs counter to the spirit of the war-renouncing Constitution. They say Article 9 of the fundamental law that renounces war as a means to settle international disputes was enacted out of reflection of not only Japan's wartime aggression in Asia but also the wartime military government's practice of sacrificing a large number of Japanese soldiers under its militaristic policies.
posted by Poncho at 1/02/2004 09:56:00 AM
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