by Jen Ruhl
How much do you know about Japanese news? Take this quiz and find out, then scroll down for the answers!
1. What do these five people have in common: Kaoru Hasuike, Yukiko Okudo, Hitomi Soga, and Yasushi and Fukie Chimura?
a. They are members of a popular Japanese singing group.
b. They are members of Japan's Olympic soccer team.
c. They were abducted to North Korea, and then returned to Japan in 2002.
d. They are members of the Prime Minister's Cabinet.
2. What is the name of the Iraqi city where Japan's Self-Defense Forces are deployed?
a. Samawah b. Fallujah c. Mosul
d. The SDF was not deployed because of Article 9 of the Constitution.
3. The proposed merger of the Orix BlueWave and Kintetsu Buffaloes set off a storm of controversy in which industry?
a. Japanese banking
b. Japanese baseball
c. Japanese sumo wrestling
d. Japanese highway construction
4. Who is the Prime Minister of Japan?
a. Mori
b. Akihito
c. Abe
d. Koizumi
5. Who is Tama-chan?
a. An Arctic seal that appeared in the rivers of Tokyo and Kanagawa last year.
b. A cartoon character, like Pooh-san.
c. The Japanese child princess.
d. A famous shamisen player from Okinawa.
6. Why are the Prime Minister's visits to Yasukuni Shrine controversial?
a. It is dedicated to the memory of Japanese war dead, including war criminals.
b. Shinto is a minority religion in Japan.
c. It is related to a dangerous Japanese cult.
d. The shrine was built with slave labor.
7. What natural disaster occurred in Niigata during July, killing 15 people?
a. Flash floods b. Landslides c. Earthquake d. Typhoon
8. The Tokyo High Court recently upheld the death penalty sentence for Toru Toyoda and Kenichi Hirose, for what crime?
a. Murder of a family in Fukuoka.
b. Poisoning curry during a town festival.
c. Participating in the sarin nerve-gas attack on Tokyo's subway.
d. Sending letter bombs to the Diet.
Answers:
1. c. These 5 people were abducted by North Korea in the 1970s to teach Japanese language and customs to North Korean spies. North Korea returned them to Japan in 2002, claiming that 8 other abductees had already died. Japan has a list of hundreds of possible abductees. These 5 returnees were recently reunited with their families. Hitomi Soga's case is a controversial one as her husband (Charles Jenkins) is an accused US military deserter. He was recently brought to Japan for medical treatment. You can read about the controversy here.
2. a. After much debate, the SDF was deployed overseas for the first time since World War II. They are stationed in Samawah, which is reported to be a relatively peaceful corner of Iraq. The SDF are performing humanitarian work there, but provide little of their own security as they are heavily guarded by Dutch troops.
3. b. The proposed merger has inspired talks between baseball team owners to change to a one-league system. This proposal is opposed by the baseball players (100 of whom would lose their jobs) and many fans.
4. d. Junichiro Koizumi became Prime Minister of Japan in 2001.
5. a. Tama-chan is an Arctic seal who lost his bearings and found himself swimming in the polluted rivers of Tokyo and Kanagawa. This brought on massive environmental clean-up efforts on the part of many Japanese. Tama-chan also became the object of obsession for a cult called Panawave, who tried to capture the seal. As a slap in the face to foreign residents of Japan, Yokohama city issued Tama-chan a residency certificate - something that even third generation residents of foreign descent often cannot obtain.
6. a. Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo enshrines Japan's war dead, including several Class A war criminals (like General Tojo). Koizumi's visit is protested every year by peace activists within Japan, as well as China and Korea, who see the visits as an indication that Japan is not repentant for its militaristic past.
7. a. Flash floods submerged about 25,000 homes and killed 15 people, mostly elderly, in Niigata last month. The local emergency response services are being blamed for not properly warning the people of the danger.
8. c. Toyoda and Hirose were members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult (now called Aleph), which used nerve-gas to attack a subway station in Tokyo in 1995.