Vertical Inc has been doing some great work publishing English translations of popular Japanese literature and comic books. Back in February, Claytonian reviewed their release of a Takeshi Kitano book, and today I’ll be reviewing Shinjuku Shark, a mystery/thriller novel by Arimasa Osawa.

Here’s the official summary of the plot:

In the seedy Shinjuku district of Tokyo, Detective Samejima silently stalks his prey. To the yakuza gangsters he is the “shark” for his relentless pursuit of justice regardless of the cost. To his superiors, he is a thorn not to be pulled; his dismissal could unleash secrets capable of tearing down the force. None will be his partner, a risky proposition made more dangerous by their rough turf.

But now there’s a serial killer on the streets, and he’s hunting police officers. While the force will lose not only more men but its face if the spree continues, the use of a mysterious firearm stymies the investigation. Samejima is forced to choose between keeping to his maverick ways and working with HQ.

If it sounds cool, it’s probably because it is. Shinjuku Shark won a Japan Mystery Writers Association Award when it was published in 1990, and it has since spawned a series that is now up to its 9th book. Osawa’s Tokyo is a seedy place infested with yakuza, prostitutes, and corrupt law enforcement, and although he claims it is not based on reality, it is entertaining to read about. Inspector Samejima is not a particularly deep character, but one can’t help but cheer him on as he faces off against crooked cops and criminals in the streets of Shinjuku. If you’re into fast-paced crime novels, you should definitely check this one out.

Side note: Vertical will be releasing a translation of the second installment in the series, Shinjuku Shark 2: The Poison Ape, in August.

According to the New York Times, the number of young Japanese turning to careers in engineering and science is declining, making Japanese companies hire immigrants or move their entire research operations abroad:

Headhunters have begun poaching engineers midcareer with fat signing bonuses, a predatory practice once unheard-of in Japan’s less-cutthroat version of capitalism.

The problem is likely to worsen because Japan has one of the lowest birthrates in the world. “Japan is sitting on a demographic time bomb,” said Kazuhiro Asakawa, a professor of business at Keio University. “An explosion is going to take place. They see it coming, but no one is doing enough about it.”

The shortage is causing rising anxiety about Japan’s competitiveness. China turns out some 400,000 engineers every year, hoping to usurp Japan’s place one day as Asia’s greatest economic power.

Afraid of a hollowing-out of its vaunted technology industries, Japan has been scrambling to entice more of its younger citizens back into the sciences and engineering. But labor experts say the belated measures are limited and unlikely to fix the problem.

In the meantime, the country has slowly begun to accept more foreign engineers, but nowhere near the number that industry needs.

While ingrained xenophobia is partly to blame, companies say Japan’s language and closed corporate culture also create barriers so high that many foreign engineers simply refuse to come, even when they are recruited.

As a result, some companies are moving research jobs to India and Vietnam because they say it is easier than bringing non-Japanese employees here.

If you’re hoping to immigrate to Japan and get a job that doesn’t involve English teaching, you might want to consider becoming an engineer…

Greenpeace may have scored some PR points abroad by exposing a scheme in which crew members of Japanese whaling research vessels secretly sold large amounts of whale meat, but their methods have angered some Japanese bloggers:

The reputation of Greenpeace Japan appears to have dropped a few notches this week, with news that the organization, in order to expose the theft of whale meat by crew members of a whaling research ship, itself stole meat to use as evidence of the crime. In order to seize packages of whale meat, members of Greenpeace Japan admitted to having entered a delivery company’s distribution center in Tokyo on April 15th without permission. In total Greenpeace found 23.5 kilograms of whale meat, worth 100,000 to 300,000 yen (or roughly $1000-$3000 USD), smuggled by 12 crewmembers of Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha, Ltd.

The claim by a lawyer representing Greenpeace that: “The group’s acts [such as trespassing] weren’t illegal because they were attempting to uncover alleged theft” did not go over well with bloggers, however, who questioned the double-standard of committing a crime to expose another crime.

More details, including a translation of some Japanese blog posts, can be found at Global Voices Online. There is also an article on Mainichi about the delivery firm filing a complaint with police over the theft.

A lot of my coworkers know that I have done a lot of traveling around Japan and often I get asked where is my favorite place in Japan, to which I often respond: Kyoto. Usually the next question is what part of Kyoto and the answer to that is a little more difficult for me to answer but usually I say…

My favorite temple in Kyoto is Nanzenji. Nanzenji is quite massive and has a variety of interesting things to see. My two favorite are this garden and the green tea room. I can’t really explain why, but at these two places I just feel… comfortable. Head over to the Japan Photo Guide for more information and photos about Nanzenji.

This photograph was taken by Evan Pike.

Reuters reports on how Japan is aiming to fix a shortage in nurses and elderly care workers by issuing work visas to skilled Indonesians:

The upper house of parliament on Friday approved an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Indonesia which would allow 400 experienced nurses and 600 experienced care workers to work in Japan on special three and four-year visas, the paper said. The lower house approved the agreement last month.

The nurses and care workers would undergo six months of training and language education before heading to hospitals and homes for the elderly, the Nikkei said. If they fail to gain the appropriate Japanese qualification before their visas run out, they will have to return home, it said.

The Indonesian nurses and care workers will be paid similar salaries to their Japanese colleagues, the paper said.

A blow to one of North Korea’s major sources of income:

The Tokyo District Court sentenced two men to life in prison Wednesday for smuggling about 230 kilograms of amphetamines into Japan from North Korea in violation of the stimulants control law.

Gang leader Katsuhiko Miyata, 60, and South Korean resident of Japan U Si Yun, 61, played key roles in the smuggling operations, according to the indictment.

They involved a smuggling ring loading the drugs at a North Korean port, dropping the cargo in the Sea of Japan, and later collecting it in a fishing boat and bringing it into Japan in June and October 2002, the indictment said.

[via ROK Drop]

I recently received a copy of the book Sensei-tional! Confessions of English Teachers in Japan, which has the following description on its back cover:

“The vast majority of English teachers in Japan are horny and hedonistic travellers, desperate to delay their adulthood by drinking as much as is humanly possible and shagging anything with a pulse.”

Outrageous, grotesque, and frequently hilarious, “Sensei-tional” is a collection of true tales about the misadventures of language teachers in the Land of the Rising Sun.

Rex Chesney has been teaching in Tokyo for several years and here he compiles the most jaw-dropping anecdotes he has heard from his colleagues or experienced himself. Stories of drunkenness, debauchery and ineptitude, with a cast of gangsters, stalkers, transsexuals and hyperactive five-year-olds.

When you are an English teacher in Japan, anything can happen.

As the title of his book suggests, Rex Chesney’s book is a collection of wacky and sensational stories from the eikaiwa world, with special emphasis on Nova. The English teachers in his book regularly show up to work drunk, seduce their students, pass out drunk on the subway, and commit petty crimes. Chesney also tells tales of the terrible students, employees, and cops as well.

After reading the back cover the the book and the wild generalization it made about foreign English teachers in Japan, I really wanted to hate this book. However, it’s pretty clear that the focus of this book is ridiculous comedy, and few people who buy this book would be seeking a fair or accurate picture of what life is like in Japan for most English teachers. Several of the stories are actually amusing, especially when they’ve got illustrations such as the one below:

Near the end of the book, Chesney concedes that there are some decent individuals among the English teachers in Japan, which he calls “a few good apples floating in the barrel of scum.” It seems he doesn’t consider himself one of those apples.

Sensei-tional can be found at Amazon.com and Lulu.

A funny commercial showing why customers choose Gin no Sara delivery sushi over sushi from a high class restaurant:

[via Zaeega]

An elite team of Japanese search and rescue workers has arrived in China to help out. Here’s a video news report showing some scenes of the team at work:

The Yomiuri Shinbun explains why China allowed the Japanese team to take part in the rescue efforts:

The main reason behind China’s apparently belated acceptance of Japan’s offer to send emergency relief workers to an area hit by Monday’s powerful earthquake seems to be an acknowledgement by Beijing of this country’s accumulated experience in such matters.

Though the Japanese government presented the offer to Beijing soon after the earthquake occurred Monday, the Chinese government did not immediately take up the offer. On Thursday, however, Beijing unexpectedly chose Japan as the first country from which to accept foreign rescue teams.

Senior Vice Foreign Minister Itsunori Onodera said: “Japan has abundant experience in dealing with natural disasters. [A recent improvement in] Japan-China relations also is a factor.”