Foreign travelers to Japan in 2009 declined for the first time in six years due in part to the global recession and the appreciation of the yen, the Japan National Tourism Organization announced.
Overseas tourists to Japan dropped by 1.56 million, or 18.7 percent, from the previous year to an estimated 6.79 million in 2009, the sharpest decline since records were first kept in 1964, according to the organization. This is mainly due to the worldwide economic slump triggered by the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the swine flu outbreak and the appreciation of the yen.
Kanae Doi, a 34-year-old lawyer, has always wanted to be on the side of the weak. As a director of the Tokyo bureau of Human Rights Watch, a position she has held since 2008, she is trying to change Japanese politics to protect human rights.
After the current WBC lightweight boxing champion Edwin Valero had been denied a work visa back in September, 2009, he finally fought away from the United States in Venezuela on Saturday, December 19.
Spanish-language magazine Boxeo Mundial recently reported that Valero believed his U.S. visa denial was related to his sympathy with President Hugo Chávez, a fierce critic of U.S. government. Valero has an image of Chávez tattooed on his chest along with a Venezuelan flag (see photo). Other reports dispute this, pointing to Valero’s driving-under-the-influence of alcohol (DUI) charge in the United States earlier this year.
The idea of immigration is not that static as it is considered to be. There are lots of variations persists as per the domain of culture and political influences. Read More
Robert Downey Jr.: “I probably should have seen there was a sign that said ‘No Felons Allowed’. That was in English and Japanese, and I haven’t had that expunged yet. You can actually get things expunged, but I’ve been pretty busy. I was detained, I was interrogated. God, it was a blast.” When Letterman asked, “Haven’t you kind of settled up, sort of ‘paid your debts’ to whatever that was, to whoever…” Downey Jr. cracked another joke: “Clearly I haven’t paid my debts to Japan.”
