KOCHI -- A 74-year-old man has been arrested over the weekend for killing his son in a bizarre hit-and-run accident in Kochi Prefecture, police said. The elderly driver, Yoshinori Niiya, was doubly distraught by his actions. "I fled in panic after hitting a person. I soon found out that he was my son but I did not have courage to admit it because of the fear of being arrested."
Police said Niiya was driving back to his home in Mihara in Saturday afternoon when he knocked down 44-year-old Tokio in a tunnel in the village. The 74-year-old man returned to the scene some 15 minutes later and found out it was his son. He accompanied his unconscious son in an arriving ambulance to hospital. Police summoned Niiya about five hours after the accident to determine his son's movements up until the accident. Niiya drove to the police station and officers spotted bloodstains on his vehicle's dented license plate.
The elderly man owned up to the hit-and-run accident after some questioning.
SENDAI -- A private high school teacher has been issued a reprimand after he kneed a student in the head after he had been sending e-mail during class, Sendai Board of Education officials said.
The 15-year-old boy sustained head injuries following the teacher's attack. Board officials said another teacher confiscated the boy's mobile phone after he was caught using it to send e-mail during a class on April 30 despite school rules banning the use of phones during class time. Following the end of classes that day, the boy visited his school staff room to ask his homeroom teacher to return the phone.
When the boy showed no remorse for having used the phone in class, the 40-year-old homeroom teacher grabbed the student's head in both hands and slammed his knee into the child's head.
Beached whales should be made available for processing, a report produced by a Fisheries Ministry panel has recommended. The interim report compiled Monday by the panel, which is headed by Kinki University Professor Seiichiro Ono, suggested that the best way to deal with beached baleen whales is to process them into meat and use the remaining parts as raw material for other products. Under the current rules, beached whales must be returned to the sea while they are still alive. When they die, their carcasses must be incinerated or buried. The panel argued that these operations are "too costly and dangerous," citing that the vain attempt to rescue over a dozen sperm whales beached in Oura, Kagoshima Prefecture, in January last year cost 62 million yen. Only one of the 14 beached whales was rescued. At the time, there were strong arguments in favor of processing the dead whales to cover rescue costs.
The report said that if a rescue attempt on beached whales was deemed impossible, they should be put down, which is essential to processing their flesh before the meat perishes. Profits from selling the carcasses must be used by local governments to cover the cost of dealing with beached whales, according to the panel's blueprint. DNA samples from beached whales that could not be returned to the sea should be studied and registered to prevent poachers from hunting whales and trying to sell them by disguising them as ones that accidentally came ashore. The Fisheries Ministry panel will draw up detailed plans within this year to establish a specialist committee that determines whether beached animals can be rescued, as well as a new body to examine whether the meat taken from them is safe for consumption. The move is certain to draw heavy criticism from anti-whaling countries and organizations, specially because beached whales need to be put down at an early stage to keep their meat edible.
The International Whaling Commission has banned the commercial hunting of baleen whales although Japan continues to hunt them for "scientific research." In July 2001, the Fisheries Ministry allowed the "utilization" of baleen whales that were accidentally caught in fishing nets, but the commercial use of beached whales was prohibited. Last year, 273 whales were washed ashore and 41 of them were baleen whales.
Uh, KFSS, I appreciate your singleminded drive, lack of spare time, and interest in the rather gruesome, but what does this have to do with martial arts? For that matter, what does it have to do about the Japanese, specifically? If we wanna read about gruesome, we can open an American newspaper.
Kungfoolss
6/25/2003 2:39am,
Bus driver terrorizes passengers with expressway e-mail
Mainichi Shimbun
June 25, 2003
FUKUI -- A bus driver is in hot water after he terrorized passengers by reading and sending e-mail from his mobile phone while at the wheel of the moving vehicle, his employer admitted Wednesday. The Keifuku Bus company has suspended the 34-year-old bus driver from duties and plans further punishment. The driver, whose name is being withheld, was at the wheel of a regular-route bus between Komatsu airport in Ishikawa Prefecture and JR Fukui Station on the afternoon of June 18. He repeatedly read and sent e-mail for some 30 minutes when he was driving on the Hokuriku Expressway during the trip.
That evening, at least one of the 14 passengers in the bus made a complaint to the company and a local government office for transportation. "I saw the driver sending e-mail. It was terribly dangerous," the passenger told the company. "I don't want to use your buses anymore." "We must strive to deliver passengers to their destinations as safely as possible," said Akihiro Okanaga, a Keifuku Bus executive. "We will try to avoid this kind of wrongdoing in future."
National government's transport officials warned the company over the issue. The Road Traffic Law bans use of mobile phones during driving because of the risk of causing accidents.
Well, Bush was elected. Until we admit this we can't go about fixing our incredibly fucked up electoral system...Oh wait! That can't happen because the Constitution is sacrosanct. But wait! It's been changed before! Wait again! That was different....aaah!
**The most miraculous power that can verifiably be attributed to "chi" is its ability to be all things to virtually all people, depending on what version of the superstition they are attempting to defend at any given moment.**
Wait a minute, was he, or was there a recount or second round of votes because those fucking Floridians didn't know how to count votes?
Kungfoolss
6/27/2003 2:21pm,
Teacher caught filming up skirts with shoe camera
(Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, June 27, 2003)
KUMAMOTO -- A primary school teacher faces dismissal after filming inside a woman's skirt with a micro camera set in his shoe, education officials said Friday. The 48-year-old teacher, whose name is being withheld, had been making a series of secret videos of women which police discovered in his home in Kumamoto Prefecture.m"I was planning to sell those films on the Internet, but didn't get around to it," officers quoted him as saying. The teacher set a micro lens in his shoe with a cord running up his trousers connecting it to a camera hidden in his waist pouch. As he approached a 20-year-old woman from behind in a busy street in Kumamoto shortly after 12 noon on June 22, a passerby saw him acting suspiciously and noticed he was trying to film up the woman's skirt.
The passerby alerted police who moved in and detained him on the spot. The teacher also had a video camera set inside a shoulder bag and filmed the woman's face. The Kumamoto Prefectural Board of Education plans to fire him, and police have sent documents on the case to prosecutors for discussion on whether to indict him.
SASEBO, Nagasaki -- A police officer who flashed his private parts at two schoolgirls passing by has been arrested, officials said.
Hideaki Kinoshita, a 43-year-old officer of the Takeo Police Station in Nagasaki Prefecture denied the obscenity charges when his colleagues arrested him on Friday. Kinoshita allegedly exposed his private parts to the two high school students on a street in Sasebo at about 1 p.m. A teacher of the students' school who was informed of the obscene act immediately alerted police, prompting officers to rush to the scene and arrest Kinoshita.
Man blows self up in botched attack on old high school bully
Compiled from Mainichi and wire reports, Japan,
July 13, 2003
FUKUI -- A 33-year-old man mistakenly blew himself up Sunday on a Fukui street trying to launch a fire bomb attack on the house of a man who bullied him during their high school days, police said.
http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/image/200307/13/20030713p2a00m000023000c.jpg
Investigators surround the bomber's explosive-packed vehicle in Miyuki.
The unemployed Fukui man, who had more handmade bombs inside his vehicle parked on the street, is described to be in a serious condition after suffering burns all over his body, but is expected to survive. "I was trying to get even with a bully from my high school days. I learnt how to make bombs on the Internet," the 33-year-old man reportedly said while he was being transported to hospital. Police later confirmed that the bomber's former schoolmate lives near the scene of the explosion. The early morning incident prompted police to evacuate some 500 residents of the city's Miyuki district for nearly 10 hours until bomb disposal experts from Fukui police and the Ground Self-Defense Force defused the devices in the vehicle.
Police said the explosion rocked the district at about 5:30 a.m. Yukio Fukuyama, head of a local residents association, heard a large bang and rushed out of his home. He saw the unemployed Fukui man staggering in the street with his arms on fire. The man's clothing on his upper body had already burnt away. Fukuyama and another person put out the fire before raising the alarm. The man reportedly apologized to Fukuyama while mumbling, "I botched it up." Debris was scattered around a 20-meter radius from the spot the man accidentally detonated one of his bombs.
Investigators found two more handmade bombs in the vehicle that the 33-year-old man had hired for his mission. The bombs were assembled from fire extinguishers, plastic bottles containing flammable liquid and what appeared to be timer devices. Police raided the bomber's family home in Fukui and reportedly found more explosive devices. They will be defused by experts on Monday. Police plan to interview the man on suspicion of breaking the Explosives Control Law when he recovers sufficiently.
CHIBA -- An unemployed man who choked an 8-year-old boy at a park was arrested on the spot after the boy's mother witnessed the scene and a passerby alerted police, officers said. Gen Amatsu, 22, has been charged with attempted murder for his violent attack in Narashino, Chiba Prefecture, at about 7:40 p.m., Saturday.
When questioned by officers, Amatsu said that a group of primary school students made fun of him, calling him a "fool," when he was sitting atop a slide. He was watching a festival that was taking place at a shrine next to the park.
He became angry and choked the boy, who, although not part of the group that taunted the man, happened to be at the foot of the slide.
The boy from Funabashi was not seriously hurt in the attack, said officers who arrested Amatsu.
Jobless animal lover steals 88 turtles from pet shop
Compiled from wire reports, Japan
July 22, 2003
KAWASAKI -- A jobless animal lover has been arrested for stealing 88 turtles from a local pet shop, police said. Shogo Kato, a confessed turtle freak, has admitted to the allegation. "I really wanted these turtles," the 46-year-old unemployed man was quoted by police as saying.
Police said Kato broke into a pet shop in Kawasaki's Takatsu-ku in the predawn hours of Monday and stole 88 turtles worth a total of 157,600 yen. He swiped 13 varieties of turtles but none of them were of a rare species. Some of them were worth just 700 yen each. Kato, who already has about 30 turtles at his apartment, brought back the booty and put them into breeding cases.
Members of his family realized the number of turtles more than tripled overnight and reported the matter to police.
ASAHIKAWA, Hokkaido -- A Buddhist monk has been arrested for molesting a teenage girl and then attacking guards who tried to restrain him, police said. The holy man, Yasunobu Ono, is accused of breaking a Hokkaido ordinance banning people from creating a public nuisance, assault and causing injuries. Police said 29-year-old Ono groped the bottom of a 19-year-old part-time worker at a videogame arcade in Asahikawa at about 10:20 p.m. Sunday.
The monk, who was reportedly drunk at the time, then walked out into the arcade's car park and tried to speak to another 19-year-old woman there. However, the woman, apparently scared by Ono's drunken demeanor, tried to call police on her mobile phone. In an attempt to stop her from doing so, Ono grabbed her yukata and ripped a sleeve. When three guards of the arcade rushed to the scene and tried to restrain Ono, the rampaging monk bit their arms and punched them in the face.
Police officers arrived soon afterward and arrested the 29-year-old monk.
KOCHI -- A Kochi Prefecture resident suffered head injuries here early Tuesday after a hunter mistook him for a monkey and shot him, police said.
The resident, Hiroshi Tokorotani, 59, was hit with shotgun pellets in the left side of his head and his left check in the incident that occurred in the Kochi Prefecture district of Sukumo at about 8:25 a.m. Tuesday, police said. His injuries are not life-threatening. Police said they were questioning Takao Akitsuki, 64, the hunter who accidentally shot Tokorotani, on suspicion of professional negligence resulting in injury.
Investigators said Akitsuki had been out killing monkeys and wild boar in the area that morning after being requested to do so by Sukumo officials. When he caught a glimpse of Tokorotani putting up a net to keep out harmful animals near his residence, he reportedly mistook him for a monkey and fired a shotgun blast.
"I saw a black object moving in the thicket, and it moved toward the mountains, so I thought it was a monkey," Akitsuki was quoted as telling police.
