Okinawa tops 2 league tables!
But you can probably put the champagne away. Unfortunately, they are for the lowest income in Japan, and the most drunk drivers.
**********************************
Personal income in Okinawa lowest in Japan
Date Posted: 2008-02-10
Okinawa is once again registering at the bottom of Japan’s 47 prefectures, this time in personal income earned.
A report by the Japan Cabinet Office, which tracks every prefecture’s economic statistics, shows Okinawans earned an average of Y2,021,000 in 2005, less than half that of the average Tokyo resident. Tokyo’s average personal income is Y4,778,000, an increase of 5.8%. Wakayama Prefecture reported an income surge of 6.4%, and Yamaguchi Prefecture reports earnings up 5.5%.
Seven prefectures recorded earning drops. They included Hokkaido, Kyoto and Osaka, with Okinawa at the bottom of the heap. Officials note, however, that Okinawa’s living expenses are lower than mainland Japan, and the same income is not required to match standards of living. Still, statisticians point out that Tokyoites’ income rose at a solid rate, while Okinawa, similarly, saw declines.
***********************************
Okinawa still worst in Japan for drunk drivers
Date Posted: 2008-02-10
The numbers look only marginally better than a year earlier, but Okinawans’ propensity for driving after drinking has once more given the Prefecture the dubious distinction of “worst in the nation”.
Every statistic released this week by the Okinawa Prefecture Police casts this island prefecture in a negative light for a 13th consecutive year. Forty people died in accidents involving drunk drivers last year, and Prefecture Police say “Japan-wide the numbers are down, but here in Okinawa we’re still about 2.2 times the national average.” A total of 3,661 drunk drivers had their licenses stripped for 90 days last year in Okinawa, 1,000 more than in Tokyo. Still, police say accidents involving drinking drivers did dip slightly last year, a good thing for Okinawa’s citizens.
Traffic accidents were higher in Okinawa than anywhere else in Japan, with 6,525 recorded. Prefecture Police say the only glimmer of good news is that after 11 years of increasing traffic accident casualties, the rate dropped 1.9% in 2007.
***********************************
So now we’ve got the poorest prefecture, most drunk drivers, worst performing students on average, highest domestic abuse rate, and I think we still hold the mantle for shortest school skirts in Japan. The only way is… up? (pun intended for the last one)
or Discuss this Article
