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
Second doctor in Matthew Perry overdose case sentenced to home confinement
- Dr. Mark Chavez, 55, a onetime San Diego-based physician, pleaded guilty in federal court in October
- Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett also sentenced Chavez to 300 hours of community service
LOS ANGELES: A second California doctor was sentenced on Tuesday to eight months of home confinement for illegally supplying “Friends” star Matthew Perry with ketamine, the powerful sedative that caused the actor’s fatal drug overdose in a hot tub in 2023.
Dr. Mark Chavez, 55, a onetime San Diego-based physician, pleaded guilty in federal court in October to a single felony count of conspiracy to distribute the prescription anesthetic and surrendered his medical license in November.
Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett also sentenced Chavez to 300 hours of community service. As part of his plea agreement, Chavez admitted to selling ketamine to another physician Dr. Salvador Plasencia, 44, who in turn supplied the drug to Perry, though not the dose that ultimately killed the performer. Plasencia, who pleaded guilty to four counts of unlawful drug distribution, was sentenced earlier this month to 2 1/2 years behind bars.
He and Chavez were the first two of five people convicted in connection with Perry’s ketamine-induced death to be sent off to prison.
The three others scheduled to be sentenced in the coming weeks — Jasveen Sangha, 42, a drug dealer known as the “Ketamine Queen;” a go-between dealer Erik Fleming, 56; and Perry’s former personal assistant, Iwamasa, 60.
Sangha admitted to supplying the ketamine dose that killed Perry, and Iwamasa acknowledged injecting Perry with it. It was Iwamasa who later found Perry, aged 54, face down and lifeless, in the jacuzzi of his Los Angeles home on October 28, 2023.
An autopsy report concluded the actor died from the acute effects of ketamine,” which combined with other factors in causing him to lose consciousness and drown.
Perry had publicly acknowledged decades of substance abuse, including the years he starred as Chandler Bing on the hit 1990s NBC television series “Friends.”
According to federal law enforcement officials, Perry had been receiving ketamine infusions for treatment of depression and anxiety at a clinic where he became addicted to the drug.
When doctors there refused to increase his dosage, he turned to unscrupulous providers elsewhere willing to exploit Perry’s drug dependency as a way to make quick money, authorities said. Ketamine is a short-acting anesthetic with hallucinogenic properties that is sometimes prescribed to treat depression and other psychiatric disorders. It also has seen widespread abuse as an illicit party drug.
