Kotaku has an incredible (in terms of the reportage and the video footage) post up about the launch of the Sony PS3 in Tokyo. One of the people in line, a foreigner in Japan, reported that the first 20 people in line were either Japanese homeless paid by the yakuza or Chinese nationals who were paid to stand in line as their PS3s were then taken away to be sold on the grey market overseas. The reporter, a Dirk Benedict, does not fault the people who received money to stand in line, he faults both the retailer, Bic Camera, for not properly preparing for the situation, and Sony for not producing enough units and thus creating this intense demand.

This is the true face of the PlayStation 3 debut in Japan. Hardcore gamers are not here waiting in line overnight, buying a first-run PS3, and running home to play some good old next-gen gaming. Rather, opportunistic Japanese businessmen have the largest presence, hiring poor Chinese men and women to wait in line for a PS3, one which will later be sold on web auctions to wealthy gamers around the world for exorbitant amounts of money.

While this kind of news may not make the mainstream media in Japan, it will get back to Sony as Sony executives certainly read Kotaku.

Foreigners And Fights, PS3 JPN Launch's Dark Side - Kotaku

Where the West sees a need for reform, Beijing sees nothing but resources and opportunity.

Asian Americans, though only 4 percent of the nation's population, account for nearly 20 percent of all medical students. Forty-five percent of Berkeley's freshman class, but only 12 percent of California's populace, consists of Asian-Americans. And at UT-Austin, 18 percent of the freshman class is Asian American, compared to 3 percent for the state.

Asian-American enrollment at Berkeley has increased since California voters banned affirmative action in college admissions. Berkeley accepted 4,122 Asian-American applicants for this fall's freshman class -- nearly 42% of the total admitted. That is up from 2,925 in 1997, or 34.6%, the last year before the ban took effect. Similarly, Asian-American undergraduate enrollment at the University of Washington rose to 25.4% in 2004 from 22.1% in 1998, when voters in that state prohibited affirmative action in college admissions.

...Don Joe, an attorney and activist who runs Asian-American Politics, an Internet site that tracks enrollment, puts the average proportion of Asian-Americans at 25 top colleges at 15.9% in 2005, up from 10% in 1992.

Two of the three researchers conducted another study on “disaffirmative action” in 2005, which found that Asian applicants to elite institutions would be the “biggest winners” if race were not a factor in admissions. In that scenario, the acceptance rate for Asian students would go up from 17.6 percent to 23.4 percent, the study found.