Dying to be thin: Anorexia in Japan
News On Japan via biulimiafighting.info -- May 09
'In Japanese there are no words for "I'm suffering" or "I'm sad". I can't share my feelings with anyone. Needing help is seen as failure, something to be ashamed of.'
Hachiko is 25 years old, 5ft 2in and weighs just over five stone. She is one of a growing number of Japanese women suffering with anorexia nervosa.
Rates of anoxeria and bulimia in Japan are increasing more rapidly than anywhere else in the world, with one in 100 Japanese women dealing with an eating disorder.
In fact, women in Japan are consuming fewer calories than they did in the Second World War. A third of the population of Japan has a Body Mass Index of less than 18.5, considered in Japan to be the lowest healthy weight.
But it is not the statistics in the article that really resonate. It is the palpable sense of frustration and abandonment that comes from the article's central focus: Hachiko. Reporter Georgia Hanias meets the young woman in a cafe and is 'aware of people staring at her emaciated legs'.
Despite the side-long glances, this is an issue no one seems willing to face up to.
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May 18
| China cracks down on over-the-top anti-Japan dramas |
|  China's television regulator has ordered a crackdown on dramas about the country's battles with Japan during and before World War Two and demanded they be more serious, state media said on Friday, following viewer complaints about ludicrous storylines. (Reuters  ) |
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May 17
| Man kills 3 family members, then himself |
|  Police said Friday they have found four dead bodies in an apartment in Kashiwa, Chiba Prefecture, in what is believed to have been a family murder-suicide. (Japan Today ) |
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May 17
| Chinese tourists a bane for Japanese hookers |
|  Shukan Post (May 24) conveys the difficulties experienced by other parts of the adult-entertainment biz in servicing customers from the communist nation.
A deri heru (“delivery health”) call-girl tells the tabloid that she is often requested to arrive at major hotels in the Shinjuku and Ikebukuro entertainment areas of Tokyo by Chinese visitors. (Tokyo Reporter) |
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May 17
| 6 dead in freighter fire at Wakkanai |
|  Six sailors were found dead after a fire on a foreign freighter docked at a port in Hokkaido, northern Japan.
The sailors are presumed to be Russians. (NHK ) |
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May 17
| Employee of real estate company stabbed in Tokyo |
|  Police on Friday said that a real estate company employee was stabbed by an unknown assailant in the lobby of an office building near JR Akihabara station. The man is currently in a serious condition in hospital. (Japan Today ) |
A 5-year-old boy sustained an injury at a shopping mall in Nagoya on Friday after his hand became trapped in an escalator. (Japan Today 
A 24-year-old woman was in a serious condition Friday after being stabbed by a man whom she reported to police for stalking her in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture. (Japan Today 
A 70-year-old woman has been rescued from a toilet in which she had been waiting for help for three days, Hiroshima police said Friday. (Japan Today 
A traditional dance was performed on Friday at an ancient temple in Nikko City, northeast of Tokyo. (NHK 
A bear was shot dead after it wandered into a school in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, on Thursday. (Japan Today