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Inuyasha | Rhapsody in Eight Movements
Title: Rhapsody in Eight Movements
Fandom: Inuyasha
Universe: Alternate (Modern day Japan)
Genre: Mystery, Suspense
Rating: T
Warning(s): Mentions of death, the treatment of mental illnesses
Summary: When a mysterious man washes ashore on Halloween night, it becomes a race against time to uncover his identity – and the circumstances that left him there.
Links: DW | FF.net | AO3
And this is pretty much why I'll never write for a tabloid, LOL.
Heh - if you couldn't guess, this was *supposed* to be written in the vein of a frothing tabloid article, exactly the sort of thing I avoid IRL as much as I can. It's not as outlandish as it could've been, but it introduces another important element into the story: the media.
Why does it seem like the first people to break a news story are always the sleaziest? Probably because they don't care so much to check their facts ;) although quite a few reputed rags are very careful about what they print to skirt around libel laws and the like. It's actually a fairly interesting phenomenon to look into, and one of the easiest ways to separate the rags from those magazines that focus primarily on celebrities (and seem to make half of it up, at least - but when you're covering people looking for attention, you're less likely to be sued. Or, at least, so the theory goes, LOL).
Anyway. The newspaper mentioned here - Yukan Fuji - is reportedly a right-wing Japanese tabloid. It's not the only one, but looking around their website, it seemed like the best fit. (The others were even more about catering to the "weird Japan" thing, believe it or not :P) It's a nationally-circulated newspaper with a readership ~1M as of 2007, according to Wiki.
It was a little unnerving to research unusual medical cases in Japan - if only because it became so clear just how corrupt their system was (and potentially still is). When I started writing this piece, I mostly looked into what an inpatient psychiatric stay would be like (with this as the clearest source), but in the course of writing this article, I figured I needed to anchor it in outrage - and boy was there a lot of it back in the 80s/90s.
All three cases cited are, unfortunately, true.
*1980s = unlicensed doctors doing sham/unneeded surgeries to collect insurance payments = http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2206&dat=19801202&id=c5UlAAAAIBAJ&sjid=gvMFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1108,408263
*1990s = HIV-tainted blood scandal = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV-tainted_blood_scandal_%28Japan%29 ; http://articles.latimes.com/2000/feb/25/news/mn-2444 ; http://articles.latimes.com/1996-02-17/news/mn-36926_1_aids-in-japan
*1991 = Yokogawa scandal = http://articles.latimes.com/1991-03-18/business/fi-425_1_american-success-story
The HIV/AIDS one is especially awful - outright negligence, costing so many people their lives!! I remember similar stories cropping up back in the day over here in the US, such as Ryan White. In a weird way, it's kinda nice to see that the Japanese scandal is still reverberating through their society today, if only to remind everyone of the importance of the crimes.
In limiting this to scandals prior to 2005, I left out the biggest one currently garnering headlines - the Olympus scandal, in which the aforementioned company fired their CEO for uncovering massive fraud in their medical equipment division. Here's an interesting interview with the ousted whistle-blower.
Pretty scary stuff - not that American business hands are any cleaner, LOL.
I'm taking a little break from posting over the weekend, so enjoy! =)
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LOL, I've always known I'm susceptible, letting myself be herded in any direction... ;)
I'm going to miss the Saturday update as I'll be away. Let's hope that by the time I return on Sunday you won't have added chapter 6 already. Because I'm such an impatient person that I would read the 2 chapters in one go. ;)
(Though if you update around the same time as for chapter 4, we'll be fine ^^)
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Yesterday's update was early because I was able to leave work early - I don't think that's going to happen between now and Thursday, but I'll try to post as soon as I get home =)
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I'll try to keep my speculations as entertaining as before. ;)