My first entry in over a month should be a good one, and I don’t think this will disappoint.

As a financial journalist, I of course read the paper of record on a daily basis. In Japan, it’s the Nikkei, which is usually a pretty dry read. Well, imagine my surprise when I turn to the last page of the paper to see a big headline that said “Piranha Shock”.

Apparently a piranha was found in Lake Biwa in Japan, a popular tourist destination. Before I go any further, I just want to say that I’m not making this up. The article went on to talk about how locals are afraid of its impact on the tourism industry even though experts believe that piranhas would not be able to survive the cold winter waters in the lake. Apparently, pet piranhas can be purchased for as little as 300 yen thanks to piranha farms in China and parts of Japan. The article raised the serious issue of owners. who tire of their pets and release them in the wild. The “golden quote” as we say in the business was one by a windsurfer from Tokyo, who said something to the effect of, “I’m very worried, but hopefully my wetsuit will be thick enough to fend off any piranhas.”

Unfortunately, I can’t share the picture they showed becaue the article is not on their Web site (maybe they thought that a story like that would discredit their standing as paper of record?). But I can share the article on the Mainichi Daily, which actually gives us the original source of the report — Weekly Playboy (which I note is different from the more widely known Playboy).

I really can’t decide which is funnier — the story itself or the fact that the Nikkei picked up a Playboy story.