Gaijin Finding

Gaijin finding just got easier thanks to the May launch of a new computer-friendly version of Gaijinfinder's four-month-old keitai service, designed to help people find teachers, cultural exchange partners or just plain old friends. Bilingual and impressively well-designed, several features have been added for the launch, including seamless integration between your keitai or home computer, allowing you to meet people from wherever you are. Even better, since the fresh site is technically in Beta development phase, those who sign up soon can get free lifetime membership.

Aim your browser or keitai at www.gaijinfinder.com

samurai.fm

While Internet radio station samurai.fm says it wants to show people what they're missing in Japan's clubs by staying at home, its diverse playlist gives electronica fans more than enough reason to spend a night in.

Claiming to be Japan's first electronic music-based Internet music station, samurai fm says its mission is to promote the Japanese scene nationally and internationally as well as breaking international artists here.

Programming will be in three main formats, comprising pre-recorded shows hosted by the same artist or label each week, recordings of live performances from clubs in Tokyo and beyond, and live streaming of club events from June 20.

The locally based station went online May 30.
www.samurai.fm

Thirst Quencher

It may have been his first visit to the country as a headliner but DJ Paul Oakenfold, made up for lost time with admirable speed.

In the space of two gigs and the DJ competition Found @ Thirst, he went from "Paul Oakenwhat?" to the potential local audience (albeit not to foreigners, who attended his gigs in force) to sold-out hands-in-the-air madness, in the space of a few days.

He did of course have some heavyweight backing in the form of sponsor Heineken, but much of the credit for the final gig at Ageha @ Studio Coast (a mouthful of a club name, however worrysome the legalisms behind it) selling out goes to the word of mouth that explained to the kids how tracks by 'Oakie' or artists on his label Perfecto, are on 99.9% of their dance compilation CDs. Well, lots of them anyway. The rest of it is surely down to the fact that he's most famous for trance: nothing if not massive in Japan.

Not one to miss his market, he generally stuck to the gospel according to big buildups at both Tokyo's Studio Coast and Osaka's less busy Namba Hatch, though he did dip into a few tracks from his rather different recent album Bunkka, and spin at least one surprising big-beat number.

The mixing was supremely slick of course. He could probably beat most of the competition in that blindfolded. And as far as the records went, the crowd got what they wanted. The only realistic quibble would be the length of his set — just over two hours — though in fairness it's hard to see how Daniel Davoli, Yoda and the Found @ Thirst winners (Yuichiro Yamanashi in Kansai and Mieko Suzuki in Tokyo) could all have had time behind the 'tables if he had played much longer.

Whether it was everyone’s thing or not there's little doubting it was a big show in every sense.

Ten12 Record Label Launched

It must be all the rain because new musical ventures seem to be springing up like mushrooms at a trance party.

May 16th marked the launch of Tokyo-based independent label, Ten12 Records, who focus on producing and marketing self-mastered artists worldwide. Coinciding with the launch, the musical unit of the same name (aka Professor Caddis, Jaydub, DJ J4, MC Who and MC5) released their debut album Analog Roots — underground hip-hop with all the vinyl crackles and pops left in.

Available as a white label on their website and in select stores in July, Kansai Scene have two copies to give away to readers.

To enter, email giveaway@lansaiscene.com with your name, address and phone number.

Japan news

A 60-year-old zoo worker was mauled to death by about a dozen lions after he climbed out of his vehicle while patrolling a safari park in Ajimu, Oita Prefecture.

An army of 1,200 police officers, immigration officials and other law-enforcement agents swept into Shinjuku's Kabukicho red-light district in a massive crackdown on undocumented foreigners, sex shops that employ illegal foreign workers and yakuza organizations.

A blind man passed the national exam for doctors, becoming the first visually impaired person to do so, but the health ministry is still contemplating whether to issue him an official license.

A 43-year-old employee at an Osaka post office was fired for failing to deliver 10,776 letters and packages over an 18-month period because he couldn't be bothered.

"Mitsuko, or The World Through Slanted Eyes," a Hungarian TV show that features a presenter who wears a wig and dark glasses and speaks in a mock Asian accent while interviewing Hungarian celebrities, was pulled from the air after the Japanese Embassy in Budapest complained that the show negatively depicts Japanese people and their culture.

Police arrested a 24-year-old man in Nagoya who allegedly robbed a woman of 20,000 yen while dressed in a schoolgirl's uniform. Officers questioned him after he was spotted in a miniskirt and a navy blue cardigan near a local train station.

A 10-year-old boy on his way to school in Fukuoka suffered serious burns after an unidentified man doused him in fuel and set him on fire.

An education ministry-affiliated group has drawn up a list of 59 English words or terms similar to English that it wants the government to avoid using in its Japanese-language documents, including "informed consent," "delivery," "second opinion," "barrier-free" and "lifeline." "Normalization" was dropped from the list because no suitable Japanese equivalent could be found.

An antiques dealer was arrested for allegedly paying a thief to steal Buddha statues and hanging scrolls worth a total of 30 million yen from various temples around Aichi prefecture.

Kyoto's fire department was ordered by a court to pay 1million yen in damages to a 61-year-old man for ignoring the 20 calls he made over a period of two days seeking help after suffering a stroke because they thought he was a prank caller.

The latest attacks in an escalating dispute between the Sumiyoshi-kai and Yamaguchi-gumi yakuza groups left two gangsters dead and another injured in a shootout in Tochigi prefecture.

The number of Japanese children aged 15 or below has hit a post-World War II record low of 18.01 million, bringing the ration of children to the nation's total population to a historic low of just 14.1 percent -- believed to be the world's lowest, and way below the United States' 21.2 percent, China's 22.4 percent and the Philippines' 37 percent.

A Shizuoka prefecture couple indicted earlier this year for hiding the body of a baby in the trunk of their car were served fresh warrants for allegedly abandoning another baby in Kanagawa prefecture last year.

International news

A German company hopes to market a new condom that has a thin film of anesthetic on its inner lining meant to improve men's sexual performance by numbing the penis and preventing premature ejaculation.

One in four children in New York's Harlem area has asthma, double the rate researchers expected and one of the highest neighborhood rates in America.

An Oklahoma priest was charged with bank robbery after he allegedly held up several banks near his parish and used the church van to escape.

An Indian groom died after being accidentally shot in the head at his wedding by a celebratory shot fired by his friend.

News reports in India claimed that doctors were using bicycle pumps to sterilize women in Uttar Pradesh, the nation's most populous state.

After being run down by a car, a dog in California was shot in the head by a police officer to put it out of its misery, and spent two hours in a freezer before veterinarians noticed it was still alive -- suffering only from the gunshot wound and hypothermia.

A new study has found that the immune system blood cells of tea drinkers respond five times faster to germs than the same blood cells of coffee drinkers.

India exports human hair worth $33 million annually, with the biggest buyers being China, Hong Kong, Tunisia and the United States.

A customer at a Dunkin Donuts shop in Chicago allegedly shot and killed the clerk serving him because he thought the employee poured too much sugar in his coffee.

A court in India sentenced a priest to death for sacrificing a 9-year-old boy to appease a deity in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand.

A Vietnamese man singing karaoke in his home was killed instantly when his microphone short-circuited and electrocuted him.

"My wife's left me with two salmon sandwiches which was left over from last night, and I'm sat in the chair here and she's out there decorating. She won't put any food on or anything for anybody." An angry husband in Britain asking for police assistance after calling the emergency 999 number.

An 18-wheel truck apparently being driven by an 11-year-old girl while her father and 3-year-old brother took a nap in the rear cabin crashed into a highway overpass guardrail, burst into flames and fell onto the road below, killing all three.

Mexican authorities believe some of the unsolved murders of hundreds of women in northern Mexico in the past decade were committed by organ traffickers seeking body parts.

News section compiled by Jason Mills