TOKYO: A Japanese city has been left fighting off wannabe ninjas after a news report on local labor shortages that suggested it wanted to hire the traditional assassins went viral.
The western city of Iga was featured in a report by American radio station NPR this month about Japan’s depopulation and labor shortage problems.
The report said Iga was trying to capitalize on its history as home to ninjas by building a new museum focused on the warriors, but was struggling to hire staff, including ninja performers.
In its reporting, NPR said ninja performers in Japan can earn anywhere between $23-85,000 a year. But a number of copycat reports by other media or viral sites went with less nuanced headlines such as: “This town in Japan will pay you an $85,000 salary to train as a ninja.”
By Wednesday, at least 115 aspiring assassins had contacted the city and its local tourism association, puzzled Iga officials said.
Would-be warriors from at least 14 countries had been in touch, they added.
“Iga didn’t put out information about ‘a lack of ninjas in Iga’ or the ‘annual income of ninjas’, that is currently reported by some news sites on the Internet,” the city said on its website.
In a statement issued in Japanese, English and three other languages, the city tried to squelch the hopes of applicants, adding: “Please be careful about fake news.”
“We are just puzzled,” Motoyoshi Shimai, a city official, said.
“So far, neither the city nor ninja performing groups here have any plans to recruit ninja performers.”
The official said the city’s mayor had expressed “surprise at how big the impact of the word ninja is.”
But the viral mix-up could end up being a boon for Iga, which might not be hiring ninjas, but is hoping its association with the feudal fighters will draw more tourists.
It already hosts one ninja museum, boasting a house rigged with hidden ladders, false doors and an underfloor sword box.
Visitors can watch a ninja performance or rent ninja costumes.
And they can even join a one-day ninja training program — just don’t ask about job openings.
Wannabe ninjas plague Japan town after viral mix-up
Wannabe ninjas plague Japan town after viral mix-up
- At least 115 aspiring assassins had contacted the city and its local tourism association
- The viral mix-up could end up being a boon for Iga, which might not be hiring ninjas
ABC signs Jimmy Kimmel to a one-year contract extension, months after temporary suspension
President Donald Trump won’t be getting his wish. ABC said Monday it has signed late-night comic Jimmy Kimmel to a one-year contract extension.
Kimmel’s previous, multiyear contract had been set to expire next May, so the extension will keep him on the air until at least May 2027.
Kimmel’s future looked questionable in September, when ABC suspended “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” for remarks made following the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. Following a public outcry, ABC lifted the suspension, and Kimmel returned to the air with much stronger ratings than he had before.
He continued his relentless joking at the president’s expense, leading Trump to urge the network to “get the bum off the air” in a social media post last month. The post followed Kimmel’s nearly 10-minute monologue on Trump and the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Kimmel was even on Trump’s mind Sunday as the president hosted the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington.
“I’ve watched some of the people that host,” Trump said. “I’ve watched some of the people that host. Jimmy Kimmel was horrible, and some of these people, if I can’t beat out Jimmy Kimmel in terms of talent, then I don’t think I should be president.”
Kimmel has hosted the Oscars four times, but he’s never hosted the Kennedy Center show.
Just last week, Kimmel was needling Trump on the president’s approval ratings. “There are gas stations on Yelp with higher approval ratings than Trump right now,” he said.
Kimmel will be staying longer than late-night colleague Stephen Colbert at CBS. The network announced this summer it was ending Colbert’s show next May for economic reasons, even though it is the top-rated network show in late-night television.
ABC has aired Kimmel’s late-night show since 2003, during a time of upheaval in the industry. Like much of broadcast television, late-night ratings are down. Viewers increasingly turn to watching monologues online the day after they appear.
Most of Kimmel’s recent renewals have been multiyear extensions. There was no immediate word on whose choice it was to extend his current contract by one year.
Following Kirk’s killing, Kimmel was criticized for saying that “the MAGA gang” was “desperately trying to characterize this kid who murdered Charlie Kirk as anything other than one of them and doing everything they can to score political points from it.” The Nexstar and Sinclair television ownership groups said it would take Kimmel off the air, leading to ABC’s suspension.
When he returned to the air, Kimmel did not apologize for his remarks, but he said he did not intend to blame any specific group for Kirk’s assassination. He said “it was never my intention to make the light of the murder of a young man.”
