Friday, February 09, 2007

ファミリー・マートへ、ようこそ! / Howzit Hangin' There Family Mart?


English below...

奇蹟の復興を遂げなくて、まだ具合が悪いのに、今朝ちゃんと学校に行きました・・・

・・・が

すぐ「今日の授業は来週ができるから帰りなさい!」と言われちゃったから今日もまだ風邪、また休みました。仕方がないけど、楽しい3連休に「バイバイ!」と言った方がいいかな。

とにかく、30分前くらい、サイトメータのアカウントをチェックした時に面白いデータを見つけた:

Domain Name: Unknown
IP Address: ***.***.***.# (FamilyMart Co., Ltd)
Time of Visit: Feb 9, 2007 2:14PM
Referring URL: (長いリンクだからここをクリックしてください)

そしてその前、

Domain Name: Unkown
IP Address: ***.***.***.# (FamilyMart Co., Ltd)
Time of Visit: Feb 9, 2007 11:43AM
Referring URL: (長いリンクだからここをクリックしてください)

問題です: *チャージャッ*

第一問) 何でファミリー・マートは「外人犯罪」と「外人犯罪裏ファイル」を検索している?
第二問) 何で僕のブログを読んでいる?
第三問) 何でコメントを書いてくれなかった? ;)

でも冗談抜きには、ボイコットの脅威が分かったから、ファミリー・マートは自主的に「驚愕の外人犯罪裏ファイル2007」の販売を中止した。かれらは「このずうずうしい外人達は本当にボイコットをするかはったりを言っているか?」と思って、確認しているかな?さあね・・・さっぱり分からないけどファミリー・マートさん、今度少なくてもコメントを書いてください。

そうですね・・・忘れちゃった。このムックはamazon.jpで、まだ販売中だから昨夜「何でこういう風な人種差別的な本を売りたいですか?」のメールを送った。残念ながら僕の日本語能力は足りないし、ちゃんと敬語的な手紙が書けないから英語でメールしましたが今日はお返事が届いた。

「お客様の為にできるだけ幅広いセレクションと色々な観点を提供したい」と答えたから結局販売を続きます。お返事ありがとうございますが納得できない。人種差別は最低だ、そしてそういう風な本を販売している店を応援したくないから、しばらくamazon.jpから何も買わないと思う。

最後に、JapanProbeJapan Today毎日新聞(英語版)によると「外国人犯罪」は2005年度に比べて16.2%に減少したが毎日新聞日本語版の記事はかなり違う見出しがありました。

おーい!毎日新聞!「我々ずうずうし外人」も日本語が読めるよ。

コメントで説明してくれませんか?


Unfortunately I didn't have any kind of miraculous recovery upon waking up this morning and even though I still felt like absolute crap, I still dragged my ass into work...

...where I was promptly told "Um...we can re-schedule your classes for next week. Go home!" So I'm still sick and home once again. Guess I can kiss my funfilled 3-day weekend "bye-bye!"

Anyhoo, looking at my sitemeter account a while ago, I found the most peculiar entries:

Domain Name: Unknown
IP Address: ***.***.***.# (FamilyMart Co., Ltd)
Time of Visit: Feb 9, 2007 2:14PM
Referring URL: (the link is obnoxiously long, so click here)

and previous to that,

Domain Name: Unkown
IP Address: ***.***.***.# (FamilyMart Co., Ltd)
Time of Visit: Feb 9, 2007 11:43AM
Referring URL: (another obnoxiously long link, so click here)

Ok kids, question time.

1) Why is FamilyMart searching for the English equivalent of "foreign crime" and "hidden foreign crime files"?
2) Why is FamilyMart reading my pitiful little blog?
3) Why the hell did FamilyMart not have the common courtesy to at least leave me a comment?

All joking aside, when FamilyMart caught on to the fact that they might be subject to a boycott, they (eventually & supposedly) voluntarily pulled "Hidden Files of Unspeakable Foreign Crime 2007" from the shelves across Japan. Who knows...maybe they're thinking, "Were those uppity foreigners really gonna boycott us or just pulling our leg?" and decided to find out for themselves. Beats me, but FamilyMart, if you're reading this, leave a friggin' comment next time, huh?

Oh yeah...almost forgot. The magazine is still available on Amazon.jp, so last night I wrote their PR Dept to ask why they would wanna sell a racist publication like this. Unfortunately, my written Japanese isn't quite up to the level of writing such a formal letter, so I banged a mail out in English, pressed "send" and hoped for the best (although I didn't really have very high expectations).

To my astonishment, I actually gotta mail back today from Amazon.jp in exceedingly good English...but stating that:

"As a retailer, our goal is to provide customers with the broadest
selection possible so they can find, discover, and buy any item
they might be seeking. That selection includes some items which
many people may find objectionable. Therefore, the items offered
on our web site represent a wide spectrum of opinions on a
variety of topics." Blah, blah, blah...

Well, thanks for the mail, but sorry guys...that doesn't quite cut it. Racism & discrimination plain ol' suck, and I don't particularly care to support a business that sells stuff like that. Guess it'll be a while before I buy anything on Amazon for a while.

Last but not least, I ran across a story on Japan Probe, Japan Today and the Mainichi Daily News (the English version of the Mainichi Shinbun) about how "foreign crime has diminished slightly over 16% from FY2005). Interesting timing on this one, eh?

Oh, but wait a tic...

On the Japanese version of Mainichi Shinbun, the headline is a whole lot different, i.e. it reads, "Foreign Crime: Increase In Outlying Areas, Chubu Area Sees Rates 35 Times Higher Than They Were 15 Years Ago".

WTF!? Wonder why this little gem didn't get put in the English edition...

Hey Mainichi Shinbun! Some of us dirty, uppity foreigners can read Japanese too, ya know...

Care to leave a comment and explain?

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