A saury festival drew around 35,000 people near JR Meguro Station in Tokyo on Sunday. The same event last year drew only about 2,000 people. The huge number this year took organizers by surprise.
The annual festival is based on a Japanese traditional "rakugo" (comic storytelling) about how tasty the fish is when cooked crudely rather than professionally. Meguro is featured in the story.
According to organizers, 7,000 fresh saury caught off Iwate Prefecture were distributed for free at the festival, being held for the 17th year. However, supplies quickly ran out due to the high attendance.
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 )
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 )
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 )
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)
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 )