How To Get Characters to Japan in Fiction Films

10) The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift  (2006)
Undisciplined teenager in US is sent by mother to live with his ex-military father in Tokyo, and gets involved in automobile drift racing.

(9) Escapade in Japan (1957)
Plane to Japan ditches in sea off Japanese coast. Young American boy wanders away from the passengers, is picked up by a Japanese fisherman and taken to his town.  (Stars John Provost , the kid from the Lassie TV show)

(8) Wasabi (2001)
French cop spent some time in Japan 19 years earlier, goes back to Japan  to handle the official proving of a will of his wife who disappeared shortly after they married. 

(7) Into the Sun (2005)
Former CIA agent raised in Japan goes back to Japan to find killer of mayor of Tokyo.

(6) Lost In Translation (2003)
Cheerless American film actor goes to Tokyo to film Suntory liquor TV commercial. Befriends the young wife of a visiting photographer and together they explore Tokyo.

(5) The Yakuza (1974)
American man goes to Japan to rescue his friend’s child who has been kidnapped by a yakuza boss .

(4) Black Rain (1989)
Two New York cops sent to Japan to apprehend and bring to the US a Japanese mobster who escaped a first extradition attempt at an airport in New York. The cops join up with a Japanese detective in Osaka to find the yakuza.

(3) Mr. Baseball  (1992)
Headstrong New York Yankees baseball player gets traded to Chunichi Dragons, resists Japanese customs, takes bath  with Japanese woman.

(2) The Bad News Bears Go to Japan (1978)
American Little League baseball team goes to Japan for a match against the country’s best little league baseball team. (Yokota Air Force Base American kids in movie)

(1) You Only Live Twice (1967)
James Bond 007, Japanese agent Kissy Suzuki, and a lot of Ninja, attack SPECTRE headquarters inside  a volcano in Japan.

What’s your plot ploy? Submit a comment!

photos
Escapade; Mie Hama 1; Mie Hama 2; You Only Live twice x2; 007 many more: You Only Live Twice Pics & Clips.
Movies now showing in Japan

Tokyo’s favorite macaque monkey has eluded police for one month. The monkey first appeared August 20, 2008, during morning rush hour at Tokyo’s Shibuya train station. The monkey escaped capture and dashed out of the station. Since then, it has been spotted several times. On September 5, police said the monkey is likely surviving on rainwater, leaves and berries on trees.

Lets Japan obtained this exclusive photo. Moments after this picture was taken, the monkey climbed the pole in the foreground, and urinated on the passers-by.

Falsified Tainted or Aged?

Food safety and mislabeling scandals in Japan, in alphabetical order.

Beef
Meat Hope president gets 4 years for scam (2008-03-20)
SAPPORO (The Asahi Shimbun) - The district court here Wednesday handed a four-year prison term to the president of Meat Hope Co. for defrauding clients and consumers by mislabelling its products…The company, based in Tomakomai, southern Hokkaido, is now undergoing bankruptcy proceedings. According to the ruling, Minoru Tanaka, 69, ordered his factory to add minced pork, chicken and lamb to products that were supposedly only made of beef.

Police investigate beef mislabeling (2008-07-09)  
YORO, Gifu Prefecture (IHT/Asahi) - Police searched the offices of meat packer Maruaki here and elsewhere Tuesday in connection with an alleged false labeling racket. Police said the company passed off low-quality beef as high-end Hida-brand produce, in violation of the Unfair Competition Prevention Law. Maruaki President Akiichi Yoshida admitted last month that he had instructed false labeling of grades and processing dates, as well as making meat products using ground beef past its expiry date.related: Insult to meat consumers: Meat Hope

Boxed lunch on the train
15 mil. ‘expired’ food items sold on JR shinkansen bullet trains (2008-03-16)
TOKYO - A catering subsidiary of Central Japan Railway Co. said Tuesday that it sold an estimated 15 million food items with expired dates for safe consumption on shinkansen bullet and other trains. JR-Central Passenger Co. has received no complaints of health problems stemming from the ”expired” box lunches, sandwiches and other food items but company President Takeshi Tategami apologized for ”undermining public trust,” saying the false labeling ”became habitual due to familiarization of the process.”

JR Tokai’s caterer admits selling old ‘bento,’ sandwiches (2008-02-08)
(Japan Times) - A catering subsidiary of Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) said it recently sold about 15,900 expired "bento" (boxed lunches), sandwiches and other food items at train stations and on bullet trains after deliberately extending their expiry times by several hours.

Cakes, cream puffs
Head of Japan’s Fujiya resigns in food scandal (2007-01-15)
TOKYO (Reuters) - The president of Japanese cake maker and retailer Fujiya Co. Ltd.on Monday said he would resign to take responsibility after the company sold cream puffs and other pastries made from stale ingredients. … Fujiya has admitted to shipping products made with old eggs, cream and milk at least 18 times over the past seven years. It also said it supplied pastries last year that were later discovered to contain unacceptable levels of bacteria.

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