Eri Yoshida

Opening Day for the baseball season is under a week away in the USA. In Japan, it has already begun, and the first big story covered over here is a female pitcher playing with the big boys:

"OSAKA, Japan (AP)—Japan’s first female professional baseball player made her debut Friday, striking out one batter in the ninth inning. Eri Yoshida, a 17-year-old who throws a sidearm knuckleball, took the mound during Kobe 9 Cruise’s 5-0 season-opening win over the Osaka Gold Villicanes in the newly formed Kansai Independent League. The 5-foot, 114-pounder walked the first batter leading off the inning on four pitches and allowed a stolen base before striking out the next batter swinging at Osaka Dome. She was then replaced after facing two batters.

“I wasn’t thinking about anything other than just going out there and giving it my all,” said Yoshida, who is hoping to stick with the Kobe team. “I think this was a bad result but the stadium is great and the fans were really cheering me on. I want to be able to pitch more innings and become a pitcher who can be relied upon.” Yoshida created a stir when she signed a contract in December. Some speculated the move was more of a publicity stunt to generate interest in the new league. There were 11,592 fans in the 45,000-seat stadium Friday.

Yoshida started playing baseball when she was in second grade and hopes to emulate Boston Red Sox knuckleballer Tim Wakefield. Until now, no woman had played against men in Japan. A women’s professional baseball federation was established in 1950 but it stopped after two seasons. The Cruise and the other three teams in the Kansai league are more like farm teams and are a far cry from Japan’s mainstream pro teams."

the ainu of northern japan

the last of my bear-related posts for the morning: after 140 years of repression, the ainu, original inhabitants of hokkaido island, are to be officially recognised by the japanese parliament as an indigineous people. the telegraph reports:

"The Ainu are one of Japan's most marginalised groups. Government estimates put the number of people with half or more Ainu ancestry at around 50,000. The century-long repression of the Ainu has all but rendered their dialect extinct. The cultural differences are also significantly at odds with mainland Japanese culture. Ainu men preferring full beards and long hair and women tattoo around their mouths for decoration. Traditional clothing is made from tree bark and the Ainu are animists – believing that everything in their rugged homeland contains a spirit. They worshipped natural landmarks and animals, especially bears."

the rest of the article is here.

good news for frogs

yahoo reports:

"by Miwa Suzuki Thu Sep 27, 2:54 PM ET
TOKYO (AFP) - Japanese researchers have succeeded in producing see-through frogs, letting them observe organs, blood vessels and eggs under the skin without performing dissections."You can see through the skin how organs grow, how cancer starts and develops," said the lead researcher Masayuki Sumida, professor at the Institute for Amphibian Biology of state-run Hiroshima University. "You can watch organs of the same frog over its entire life as you don't have to dissect it. The researcher can also observe how toxins affect bones, livers and other organs at lower costs," he told AFP. Dissections have become increasingly controversial in much of the world, particularly in schools where animal rights activists have pressed for humane alternatives such as using computer simulations."

the rest of it is here.

as far as i can recall, i never dissected anything at school. we were a bunch of wusses anyway in our early days at spgs. the day we were supposed to look at blood under the microscope, charlotte ward slipped with her scalpel and before she was taken to the nurse, we borrowed some of her blood rather than slice ourselves up. nu - well done you japanese researchers!

government-sanctioned courtesy

from the bbc online today:

"Baby badges for Japan commuters

Rail companies in Tokyo are handing out badges to pregnant women in the hope they prompt commuters to give up their seats on the capital's crowded trains. The badges come in pink and blue and have the words "There is a baby in my stomach" printed on them. Health officials said people sometimes could not tell if a woman was pregnant, especially in the early stages.

Japan is worried about a population decline and is seeking ways to make pregnancy and having children easier.

Rail officials have been handing out the badges at stations since 1 August.

One commuter welcomed the initiative.

"When I was three months pregnant and got on the train, no-one would really notice me and I couldn't really ask them to give me a seat," Yoshiko Kato told Reuters news agency.

Japan's fertility rate has continued to fall in recent years, hitting a new low in June.

Officials have predicted a serious effect on the economy and have introduced a variety of initiatives to persuade women to have more children.

These have included expanding child-care facilities, improving employment conditions for mothers and even government-sponsored speed-dating."

japan 1 - 0 canada

as the population of the world gets older and lonelier, japanese scientists have invented a cuddly seal companion to banish boredom and the blues. in canada, the hunting season has just begun, targeting the same baby harp seals upon which the japanese invention is modelled.