Hydrogen sulfide is the new method these days for many Japanese wishing to end their own lives. A rash of deaths attributed to the gas has been reported over the past few weeks across Japan, and it seems like the problems have only just begun. For a more in-depth analysis of suicide in Japan, click here.
Hydrogen sulfide is normally a naturally occurring gas whose presence is commonly associated with the smell of rotten eggs. Exposure to the gas can cause minor health irritations when inhaled at low doses. Eye and throat irritation, and nausea are common symptoms. At higher levels of exposure humans lose their sense of smell and the strength of the odor disappears. It is believed that exposure to air with hydrogen sulfide concentrations above 800 ppm will be fatal for most people after five to ten minutes of breathing the gas. Anything above 1,000 ppm will cause a human being to lose respiratory functioning after only a single breath. (Read on …)

Hiroshi Nozaki had to have known that he would be the prime suspect. He needed to get out of the apartment fast. But even though it was already dark outside, his roommates wouldn’t get back from work for several hours, so he had time to tidy up a bit.

“Body parts are heavy when they are still half-filled with blood,” he thought.

Draining them would make things easier; he loaded up the laundry machine and let it do some of the dirty work for him. He was tired, after all. The last time he cut up a body was years ago, and he was out of practice.

“And what am I going to do with this blood-drenched futon?”

Somewhere in between the pulsing lights of the bridge, and the hard strikes on the windows from the wind coming off the bay, Nozaki found himself staring at one of his other roommates–the cousin of the woman crumpled in the laundry machine. She had made an early trip home from work to figure out why Honiefaith was late and not answering her phone.

The flesh Nozaki held in his hand confirmed the worst, and she raced out of the apartment to seek help. When the police arrived, Nozaki was gone. (Read on …)

The number of inmates on death row in Japan decreased by four yesterday as the Tokyo and Osaka detention centers hanged two inmates each.

The four men were Kunio Hatoyama’s 7th, 8th, 9th and 10th executions since he assumed the post of Justice Minister last year. Hatoyama entered the post with a statement of support for the practice of capital punishment, and apart from a brief sojourn to suggest that his signature was not necessary for the hanging of a felon, he has been busy authorizing at least a few state-sanctioned deaths every couple of months.

On Friday, (Read on …)

SATURDAY & MONDAY UPDATES BELOW

This story hit the presses after we put the latest edition of TPR News to bed.

At about 9:20 p.m. on Wednesday night, Shinagawa-based taxi driver Masaaki Takahashi was found just where he was supposed to be: in Yokosuka, in his cab, seatbelt buckled. Unfortunately, there was a knife in his back. (Read on …)

Tyrone Hadnott, the 38-year-old Marine that was arrested after allegedly raping a 14-year-old girl in Okinawa on the night of February 10th, has been released.

The girl has apparently withdrawn the accusations that she leveled against Hadnott, so he has not been indicted and will not be prosecuted in a Japanese court of law.

The girl reportedly said she didn’t want the problem to grow, that she wanted the ordeal to be over, and asked to be left alone.

The alleged rape has caused the entire military establishment in and across Japan to impose tight curfews on all soldiers and their dependents during the past two and a half weeks, with service members and their families being confined to base or their quarters 24 hours a day.

Hadnott reportedly admitted that he forcibly tried to kiss the girl but denied raping her.

US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, took time to discuss the scandal when she visited this week. The alleged assault had fueled nationwide condemnation of the lack of discipline within the ranks of the US military forces.

As the outrage over the alleged rape of a 14-year-old girl by a US Marine in Okinawa continues to swell, an incident comes to light that not only adds to the mistrust and anger felt toward the US military by many of the people who live near their bases in Japan, but also demonstrates the difficulty of gauging the scale of the problem.

The US military announced Thursday that four US Marines at Iwakuni Air Station are being charged by the US military with gang-raping and robbing a 20-year-old woman in Hiroshima last October and with disobeying orders. A hearing is being held to decide whether or not to try the four in courts martial. (Read on …)

Shame on us for not reporting this a bit sooner, but Japan’s Prime Minister, Yasuo Fukuda, has apparently taken up vlogging as a hobby (Or, more properly put, his party, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, has taken up vlogging as a PR campaign). Here is his most recent release, a New Year’s message recorded in English and released on January 1st:

Thus far, there have been 1,466 views of the English version and 2,837 views of the Japanese version of the Prime Minister’s video.

What’s more telling, however, is the presentation of the “LDP channel” on You Tube. In terms of public relations, this is a great move for the LDP. No, the videos really aren’t that exciting, and no - it doesn’t seem that many people are watching them yet. But, we hope that the LDP will be able to use the format to communicate better with the public. Unfortunately, LDP Secretary General Ibuki Bunmei doesn’t come across as too exciting in his most recent clip: (Read on …)

December 18th

On this day in 1947, the massive Zaibatsu, who ran the prewar and wartime economy of Japan (as well as, possibly, large parts of the government) were broken up by GHQ.
But also. . .

On this day in 1956, Japan’s membership in the United Nations was officially accepted. While Japan was already facing pressure from the US to renege on its Article 9 pledge to renounce war and its accoutrements, and there was no shortage of hostility against the country left over from World War II, Japan’s accession to the UN was apparently not hotly contested.

In order to join the UN, a country must be recommended by the Security Council, approved by the General Assembly, and agree to abide by the requirements of the United Nations Charter. Potential political obstacles to Japanese membership in the UN - mainly the objections of China or other victims of Japan’s wartime aggression - were rendered null by the San Francisco Treaty of 1952, which officially ended World War II. In it, its author, John Foster Dulles, included a clause requiring all signatories of the Treaty to not only not oppose Japan’s membership in the UN, but support and promote it. Chinese opposition was rendered moot by the facts that UN membership is decided by the General Assembly, not the UNSC, and that China’s seat, at the time, was held by the Republic of China, or Taiwan, not by the People’s Republic of China.

Japan’s membership in the UN was not only a part of the country’s postwar recovery and rise in international stature, but also in line with a turn towards greater independence in foreign policy (Read on …)

On December 13, 1937, the ancient walled city of Nanjing fell to the Japanese Imperial Army, an event followed by what only be described as a massacre.

Last year on this day, TPR brought you what we think is a fair and balanced assessment of what happened and how it is being dealt with today.

As always, discussion and dissention are welcomed, preemptive insult-tossing is not.

As an addendum to the soon-to-be released Seijigiri #36, the ball has started rolling. It’s now up to the DPJ-controlled House of Councillors to decide whether they want to reject the bill or not. If they do, it is likely that the LDP-New Komeito coalition will use its supermajority in House of Representatives to ram it through, which will then leave the DPJ deciding whether or not they want to pass a censure motion against Prime Minister Fukuda. The possible scenarios are discussed in depth in Seijigiri #36.

From Kyodo:
(Read on …)