137
votes
Did Obama apologize for the USA using nuclear weapons on Japan?
No.
He laid a wreath, mourned the dead, spoke about a moral duty to prevent the horrors of war, but didn't apologise, didn't separate the nuclear attacks from the other horrors of war, and didn't ...
- 8,942
89
votes
Accepted
Did WWII Japanese soldiers engage in cannibalism of their enemies?
I'd like to note that this answer contains mentions of particular instances of cannibalism, and while no unnecessary details have been included, it may still be upsetting to some people.
Yes, ...
- 11.1k
56
votes
Accepted
Did the residents of Aneyoshi survive the 2011 tsunami thanks to the warnings of a stone marker?
It's kind of right.
According to other sources the Aneyoshi monument is not a common "tsunami hazard" sign. Instead, it prohibits building homes below the marked point, and, apparently, ...
- 1,483
33
votes
Is the Japanese government encouraging the young to consume more alcohol?
Yes, here is a decent article about it:
Why Japan is asking its young people to drink more
The country’s National Tax Agency (NTA) has introduced content named ‘Sake Viva’ where it has invited ideas ...
- 44.4k
29
votes
Accepted
Do Japanese police roll drunks and criminals into giant futons?
Yes, they do in fact do this! It is called a "protection sheet" 保護シート and it is a thin sheet made from plastic, not a futon.
Here is a video of a violent drunk being rolled up, and another of a ...
- 44.4k
26
votes
Accepted
Did a department store in Tokyo crucify Santa Claus?
Snopes calls this legend false, and I will add to their judgment that Santa and Christmas were already well-known in Japan due to foreign literature like Dickens, and the persistent and futile efforts ...
- 44.4k
25
votes
Accepted
Is this a photo of the result of a kamikaze attack on a ship in WWII?
According to Pacific Wrecks, a non-profit organization devoted to sharing information about the Pacific Theater of World War II and the Korean War, it does. The image description reads as:
HMS ...
- 30.2k
19
votes
Accepted
Did a man from a non-existent country, Taured, appear in a Japanese airport in 1954, and then disappear?
This mystery was resolved by a Brazilian YouTuber, Natanael Antonioli, in July 2019. Further missing pieces were added by a Fortean researcher in March 2020 (article forthcoming, in Fortean Times ...
- 44.4k
18
votes
Accepted
Do Japanese crows use traffic to crack nutshells?
This behavior has been well documented in Japanese crows, but Cristol et al (the contradicting paper in the question) did not observe it in American crows.
This Ph.D. dissertation discusses the ...
- 12k
16
votes
Accepted
Have two out of only 27 Muslim refugees in Japan been arrested for sexual assault?
From the Tokyo reporter article, the two arrested have not been granted refugee status, but are in the process of applying for it:
TOKYO (TR) – Tokyo Metropolitan Police have arrested two Turkish ...
- 38.9k
15
votes
Accepted
Are more than 40% of millenials in Japan virgins?
No.
CNN is misreporting.
The statistics are for the fraction of NEVER MARRIED people who are virgins.
Specifically, the study is The Fifteenth Japanese National Fertility Survey.
The ...
- 104k
14
votes
Did just 18 people die from prostate cancer in Japan in 1958?
No!
Other sources such as Vegan Bite By Bite (page 210) make clear that the number "18" is the number of autopsy proven deaths from prostate cancer, not the total number.
The source of the "18" ...
- 104k
14
votes
Accepted
Did a Yu-Gi-Oh tournament prize card sell for $2 million USD?
No Japanese source for this
This is a one-of-a-kind card and there is no information in Japanese about its sale or current ownership. At one point a Yahoo Auctions listing was created with a $10 ...
- 44.4k
13
votes
Did Obama apologize for the USA using nuclear weapons on Japan?
If not, did he do something that might be reasonably interpreted as apologizing?
From Obama’s origami cranes he left behind touches many hearts, the brother of Sadako Sasaki, who died of leukemia ...
- 38.9k
13
votes
Did a man from a non-existent country, Taured, appear in a Japanese airport in 1954, and then disappear?
So far, it seems to just be an internet story that's been passed along by word of mouth. There are no newspaper articles referencing it (outside of "Weird News" articles who are just passing on the ...
- 6,518
13
votes
Are there only 1,200-1,900 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in India and Japan, as of March 30, 2020?
Yes but be careful
You're looking at 'confirmed cases' - this isn't a good comparitive measure of actual cases as each country has their own approach to testing. Japan and India have been noted for ...
- 2,047
12
votes
Do Japan's teachers need to bow to the Emperor?
Essentially the opposite of the claim is true.
According to Japan: Between Myth and Reality by Khoon Choy Lee, Singapore ambassador to Japan, writing of his experience as a teacher in Japanese ...
- 104k
11
votes
Accepted
Do Macaque monkeys steal money from wallets and use it to buy food from vending machines?
The claim is plausible. Let's break it down into several components:
Q: Are monkeys capable of stealing wallets or learning to use vending machines?
A: Certainly. There is ample video evidence of ...
- 10.8k
11
votes
Do ~25% of Japanese people believe that USSR dropped nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
Firstly, the article cited in the OP itself clearly says that the 25% is not true:
Not 25 per cent
For true information, quoting Culture Shock and Japanese-American Relations: Historical Essays by ...
- 104k
10
votes
Has first cancer case been directly confirmed to Fukushima cleanup?
No, at least according to the information presented in the source they reference, which just doesn't actually attempt to establish any correlation.
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/english/news/...
- 814
10
votes
Accepted
Is a giant wolffish the result of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident?
Wolffish normally grow up to around 110 cm and the largest ever recorded wolfish was approximately 150 cm. Mutagenic studies of endpoints including body weight and length of fish suggest that chronic ...
- 22.7k
8
votes
Accepted
Did the United States' internment involve Japanese foreign nationals?
From National archives:
Roosevelt's order affected 117,000 people of Japanese descent,
two-thirds of whom were native-born citizens of the United States. The
Issei were the first generation of ...
- 1,082
7
votes
Did US forces use tens of thousands of Japanese women as sex slaves after the WWII?
Did the US forces use tens of thousands of Japanese women? Yes. The New York Times article Fearing G.I. Occupiers, Japan Urgesd Women Into Brothels indicates the number of Japanese women involved were ...
- 38.9k
7
votes
Did a lack of Muslims in Japan help prevent a 2002 AQ terrorist attack?
This is indeed based on a report provided by the US government to Japanese press and published in Japan on 14 February 2004. According to that day's Sankei Shinbun (no longer publicly available online)...
- 44.4k
7
votes
Accepted
Did Hiroshima change the layout of its streets subsequent to the war?
Hiroshima City- Burning Ash to Metropolis is a speech by Tadatoshi Akiba who was mayor of Hiroshima from 1999 to 2011. He may or may not be the mayor described in the anecdote.
In the speech, he ...
- 38.9k
6
votes
Did Japanese people misspell "We pray for MacArthur's election"?
My uncle Bernard Frew joined MacArthur in Australia; he served as his secretary, landed holding the arm of the Philippian President, stood in the group behind the General on the Missouri, then changed ...
- 61
6
votes
Accepted
Were modern Japan customs for Valentine's Day and White Day instigated by retailers?
Isabel Anderson, wife of US ambassador to Japan (December 1912-March 1913) Larz Anderson, wrote in her book The Spell of Japan:
On St. Valentine's day I took some presents out to Watanabe's house, ...
- 104k
6
votes
Is Islam banned in Japan?
No, Islam is not banned in Japan. The wikipedia entry about Islam in Japan says:
The history of Islam in Japan is relatively brief in relation to the
religion's longstanding presence in other nearby ...
- 15.7k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible