Category Archive
The following is a list of all entries from the News story category. Noteworthy entries are filed topmost.
News confirmed: Yomiuri Giants player gets let off scot free
You may have read my article earlier this week about Mona Yamamoto being caught at a love hotel with Yomiuri Giants player Tomohiro Nioka. I commented in that story that a lot of the emphasis seems to have been placed on Yamamoto and very little seems to have been said about Nioka. But it seems that Nioka was the instigator in what went on when they met and what they did afterwards, as this report in Japan Today shows:
Mona takes the fall, while Nioka gets off
Hardly a day has gone by over the last week that the tabloid media hasn’t put the boot into Mona Yamamoto, 32, after she was forced to quit her job as a news program anchor due to a scandal surrounding her visit to a love hotel with a married Yomiuri Giants baseball player. Since Yamamoto had to leave another news program in October, 2006 in similar circumstances, the media have been calling her all sorts of names.
But those who were at the party on the night of the latest scandal say that baseball player Tomohiro Nioka, 32, was hitting on Yamamoto much more eagerly than she was hitting on him. Yet he barely received a slap on the wrist.
“As Nioka got drunk, he started to approach a group of girls who were drinking together. But these girls ignored him, so he started to hit on Yamamoto,” said one of Nioka’s friends who was at the party. “He talked to her, and was whispering in her ear. The distance between them got closer.”
After the party, Nioka left with Yamamoto and looked as if he was pushing her into a taxi around 4:30 a.m. “While he was drunk, he tried to kiss me,” Yamamoto said in an official statement to media. “Mr Nioka asked me to go to another bar on the street, but I refused that offer. Because I didn’t want to make it a big deal in public, I reluctantly went to a love hotel nearby to talk with him until he could sober up. We just had a drink there but didn’t do anything more.”
Nioka married a freelance announcer in 2005, and has a son who was born in June, 2007. He is currently president of the Players Union. Nioka’s wife told Shukan Post: “I heard everything from my husband and I am sorry that he has caused so much trouble for many people.”
One Yomiuri Giants fans says, “He hasnft been in good form these days. If Mona is forced to suspend all activities, Nioka should do the same.”
However, a spokesperson for the Yomiuri Giants says, “His behavior was very senseless. We apologize to our fans. He is sorry for his own actions now. Since he is one of our key players, we decided to let him off with just a verbal warning this time.” (Translated by Taro Fujimoto)
Japanese newscaster involved in another scandal
Well, I say “another” but in the sense that this woman has form with this particular thing! Various news feeds are reporting that Norwegian/Japanese newscaster and tarento, Mona Yamamoto (see below), has been caught at a love hotel with Yomiuri Giants baseball player Tomohiro Nioka over this past weekend. The problem is that Mr Nioka is married and with a 1-year old son. Back in 2006, Miss Yamamoto was dropped by TBS (Tokyo Broadcasting System) back in 2006 when she was found to be having an affair with DPJ politician, Goshi Hosono. She managed to salvage her career but it will be interesting to see what comes of her after this setback. Amusingly, one of the employees of the love hotel has told Asahi News that Miss Yamamoto is apparently a regular customer there! Well, when you find one good love hotel I guess you just keep going back…
Akihabara murders: Kato was unhappy with life
Bits of news are still coming out of the Japanese news feeds about Tomohiro Kato, the man who murdered 7 people and injured 10 others in the centre of Akihabara on Sunday. He is reported as having told police he was unhappy with working conditions and the fact there had been personnel cuts at the car factory in Shizuoka where he was working. Apparently the decision to downsize the firm from 200 to 50 workers is sufficient to make a temporary worker go over the edge and decide to try and kill anyone within reach. It has also been revealed that Kato changed job a number of times after leaving college.
I’m sorry, but the sooner people realise the economic bubble in Japan burst about 15 years ago, the better. We no longer live in an age where you have job security for life, great conditions and working hours for workers, a salary that allows you to go to a hostess bar every night and a wife who is doesn’t do anything about the fact that you do. Well, maybe the latter is still here in Japan, but that’s a subject for another topic altogether. You have to put in hours of work these days, and lots of people don’t really like their jobs. Many Japanese companies still believe that the way back to success is to make workers to “voluntary” overtime until 9 or 10pm each night, but the fact of the matter is that productivity is going down like a lead balloon. And any temporary worker knows that they will be the first to leave a company when cutbacks are made. The word “temporary” can act as a slight giveaway to some. But it seems in Japan some people are still not realising the reality of it all.
And it was a sad sight yesterday to see Kato’s parents apologising and bowing deeply on the news, 
apologising for their son’s actions. I’m sure Tomohiro has made mummy and daddy very proud of him now. But as the cameras flashed, it is hard not to feel sympathy for the parents. It’s not as if Kato junior was 10 years old and the parents had bought the knives for him. There is only so much responsibility that parents can take over a child before it goes over to them to act like an adult.
Kato said he bought 6 knives the day before the attack, which was confirmed by shopping receipts. But he also said he gave one knife to a colleague, and police only recovered 5 knives from the scene of the attack. Now that could mean a couple of things. Did Kato have an accomplice, who was supposed to join him in the killing frenzied attack, but who then backed out? Did the colleague know about the attack beforehand, and if so why didn’t he contact the authorities? If not, why did he accept a knife given to him; did he not think to question why he was being given a blade?
I’m just laughing at my desk here…
..as news of another knife attack (this time attempted) has made the top story here in Japan. Yup, the copycat people are out now, and we know how Japanese people like to follow the trends. Once again, Kyodo News with the story.
16-year-old boy arrested for barging into ex-girlfriend’s high school with knife in Kitakyushu
Tuesday 10th June, 10:35 AM JST
KITAKYUSHU - A 16-year-old boy was arrested Tuesday for trespassing in his ex-girlfriendfs high school and threatening staff with a knife in Kitakyushu City, Fukuoka Prefecture, on Monday afternoon. Police said 20 officers were mobilized but nobody was injured.
According to police, the boy, who cannot be named because he is a minor, entered the high school, brandishing a knife around 4 p.m. He told staff that he wanted to see his ex-girlfriend who is a student at the school. The boy became agitated and started waving the knife, a teacher said. Staff called police who took the boy into custody.
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Get the boy named says I. Get him named & shamed and put away rather than concealing his identity as he’s a child and doesn’t know any better. Anyway, just thought I’d throw that one in. No doubt there will be a further attack in the net hour or 2. If not, i might have to get a fruit peeler from the kitchen area at work and go crazy!!! (For those of you lacking a sense of humour, that was a joke).
OK, this is getting tedious
Another day, another knife attack here in beautiful Japan. This time the victim was a schoolgirl and the attacker wasn’t known. This, from Kyodo News:
Man slashes schoolgirl with knife in Nagoya
Monday 09th June, 04:28 PM JST
NAGOYA - A man on Sunday night assaulted a schoolgirl on a street in Kita-Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, police said Monday. According to police, the girl, 13, was walking home after finishing softball around 8 p.m. when the suspect came up behind her. The girl told police the man grabbed a softball she was carrying and threw it at her.
The girl said that as she turned to run away, the man came at her with a knife and slashed her pants. Police said she wasnft injured because her wallet in the left back pocket of her jeans protected her from the blade.
The suspect fled on a bicycle, mumbling to himself, the girl was quoted as saying. According to the girlfs description, he was in his 40s and was wearing a white cap and black clothes.
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OK, as much as this is providing fodder for my blog, I could really do without all these knife attacks to report. The situation is getting crazy here. What the hell would provoke a man to throw a softball (for those of you who don’t know what they are like, they are bigger than baseballs and their name is deceiving) at a 13 year old school girl and then try to slash the girl, before escaping on a bicycle? And then 2 of the other headlines here in Japan read “64-year old man arrested for strangling lover’s husband in Saitama” (yup, it’s in Saitama once again!) and “55-year old woman arrested for strangling 80-year old mother in Tokyo”. According to the woman, the excuse for the latter case was that “It is impossible for me to take care of her forever because she will never get better. I thought it would be bad for my husband, too”. Taking care of your old mother would be bad because she is going to die anyway, so why waste good time and money when we could kill her instead, it should read.
Oh, and if anyone has lost their left leg then please let police in Kumamoto know, as they have found a left leg severed below the thigh floating in a river in that area!