For Japanese women, a competition to be thin As women in the United States and across the industrialized world get fatter, most Japanese women are getting skinnier.
Still, many view themselves as overweight. Social pressure - women looking critically at other women - is the most important reason female skinniness is ascendant in Japan, according to Hisako Watanabe, a child psychiatrist at the Keio University School of Medicine in Tokyo. (twincities.com) Prada denies it wanted 'fat' managers sacked in Japan  Italian fashion house Prada on Monday dismissed allegations by its former top retail manager in Japan that it had harassed her and asked her to fire "old, fat and ugly" managers.
"Following the many press reports published on Ms (Rina) Bovrisse's termination of employment, (her) accusations regarding an alleged misconduct of the company towards her have no ground," Prada said in a statement.
"The Japanese competent court has dismissed all of the employee's accusations and had ruled that the termination of her employment was perfectly legitimate," the statement said. (AFP)Hatoyama's brother quits LDP, aiming to form new party Former internal affairs minister Kunio Hatoyama, the younger brother of Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama, announced Monday that he has left the main opposition Liberal Democratic Party and will form a new party. "The current LDP alone cannot bring about a major change in Japanese politics," Kunio Hatoyama, 61, told reporters Monday evening after tendering his resignation letter to the LDP, indicating he hopes to create a new party before the Golden Week holidays starting at the end of April. (AP) 2.76 mil. Japanese estimated to have used illegal drugs An estimated 2.76 million people in Japan, or about 2.9 percent of the population, have used illegal drugs, according to a survey by a research team of the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry. The percentage is the highest since similar surveys started in 1995 and suggests the use of drugs is growing in this country. The previous highest percentage was 2.7 percent in 2001. (Yomiuri) Japan's famous Tsukiji fish market braces for tuna trade ban 'Therapeutic ringtones' for mobile phones create a buzz in Japan  "Well . . . I can definitely feel a bit of adrenalin," says Yukari Sendo, savouring the mobile phone ringtone like a fine wine, "but it really doesn't make me want to do any housework."
She flicks through a menu of alternative tunes and settles on one that offers to improve her skin tone through the power of alpha-waves.
Ms Sendo and her friend Ayaka Wakabayashi are among an army of young Japanese drawn to the allure of "therapeutic ringtones" - a genre of melodies that promises to ease a range of day-to-day gripes, from chronic insomnia to a rotten hangover.
Japan is no stranger to bizarre phone fads but the popularity of the ringtones is perhaps surprising given the flimsiness of the science behind them. (Times Online)Cartoonists oppose new regulation on sexual expressions in comics  A group of cartoonists including Tetsuya Chiba, illustrator of popular manga series "Ashita no Joe" (Tomorrow's Joe), voiced their opposition Monday in Tokyo to a proposed ordinance revision aimed at regulating sexual imagery in comics and animations.
Arriving at the Tokyo metropolitan government, the cartoonists voiced concerns over the proposal, to be put before a vote Friday, which calls for restricting comics and animations that contain sexualized depictions of "nonexistent minors" -- a controversial concept described in the draft regulation, referring to characters that people would assume to be minors. (AP)News Wizard |