A homeless man who racked up a ¥180,000 taxi fare from Tokyo to Osaka was arrested after revealing that he only had ¥6,000 to his name.
The National Police Agency sent a team of six judo instructors to teach martial arts to Afghan police officers at a training center in Turkey.
A 24-year-old Tochigi man was arrested for stealing 18 pairs of underwear from the home of a female high school student.
It was reported that mosquito nets made by Sumitomo Chemical Co. are partly responsible for the recent drastic decline in malaria deaths worldwide.
Stats
¥1 million
Bonus payment that beverage giant Kirin will award to all 21 members of Japan’s world championship women’s soccer team100,000
Households that were unprepared for the switch from analog to digital TV broadcasting on July 24, according to newspaper reports47/33
Percent of Japanese men and women in their early 30s, respectively, who are single, according to The Daily Yomiuri
NEWS THAT BYTES
An Osaka man who created a computer virus dubbed ika-tako—which replaced files in infected PCs with pictures of squid and octopuses—was sentenced to six months in prison, marking the first time a case involving a computer virus has been prosecuted for destruction of property in Japan.
Meanwhile, the MPD busted a Gifu man under a new law that makes it illegal to store a virus on a computer.
The president of a Saitama-based internet ad agency and one of his employees were arrested for selling “40 million email addresses per year to online dating site operators.”
It was reported that the National Police Agency thinks that the growing number of cybercrimes in Japan is “due possibly to a decline in ethics among internet users.” Gee, ya think?
Was Nothing But Trouble
Anyone Notices
Can't You Tell?
Tsunami survivors have heavy hearts on eve of obon
BY ATSUSHI MATSUKAWA STAFF WRITER
Buddhist priest Honen Tanno in Sendai's Wakabayashi Ward is reading a sutra in the stifling hot August air while standing in a pine forest on the beach.
His low voice mixes with the gentle sound of the waves. Although the clatter of heavy machinery sometimes interrupts, Tanno, 41, clad in a black clerical garment, retains his tranquility.
Tanno lost many of his acquaintances in the Great East Japan Earthquake. Even though he is a priest, he was perplexed in the same way as nonclerical people were after the March 11 event shattered so many lives.