Stories about Japan from February, 2008
Japan: Tokyo’s Mobile Food Bars
Ryoko from pingmag has a feature story on Tokyo's mobile food bars.
Japan: Poisoned Dumpling Blame Game
James from Japan Probe has a poll about the poisoned dumpling scandal between Japan and China. Most believe that they were contaminated in China.
East Asia: Intangible Cultural Heritage
Ampontan has a very elaborated post on debate and discussion about the registration of intangible cultural heritage at UNESCO among China, Japan and South Korea.
Japan: the First English Teacher
Peter Payne from Japundit traces the history of the first English Teacher in Japan.
Japan: Evil Mickey Mouse Invasion
Edo from Pink Tentacle introduces an old propaganda animation (1934) about the future (1936) invasion of evil mickey mouse. The film is available in youtube.
Japan: Charisma Man
James from Japan Probe traces the origin of the term “Charisma Man” which is used for describing foreign man with many girlfriends.
Japan: Cat Day Round-up
Feb 22 is Japanese Cat Day and Mari has a round-up with links to cat photos and paintings.
Japan: Laughometer
Pink Tentacle introduces a new tool to measure laughter with “aH”.
Japan: More views on alleged rape in Okinawa
Blogger Niphonese translates views in Japanese newspapers and blogs on the recent alleged rape of a schoolgirl by a U.S. marine in Okinawa.
Japan: Gov't to admit Burmese refugees
At the Glocom blog, there is news that the Japanese government is planning to admit refugees from Burma now staying in Thailand.
Japan: Advertisers abandon print, move online
Japanese blogger and journalist Fujishiro Hiroyuki at Gatonews summarizes results [ja] from a report [ja] issued by Japan's largest on ad agency Dentsu on advertising sales in Japan over the year 2007. The figures indicate a shift away from newspapers and magazines and toward online media: compared to figures from...
Japan: Edo-period Monster Paintings
Edo from Pink Tentacle introduces Edo-period monster paintings by Sawaki Suushi.
Japan: Indoor Cultivation
Japundit has a short photo essay discussing the potentials of indoor cultivation.
Japan: Reactions to alleged Okinawa rape
The news last week that a U.S. Marine had allegedly raped a 14-year-old schoolgirl in Okinawa sparked various degrees of condemnation from local citizens, politicians, the government and bloggers, reigniting anger at the continued presence of American military bases in Japan's southernmost prefecture. In blogs and internet forums, however, many Japanese also criticized the alleged victim herself for being careless and "allowing" the rape to happen.
Japan: Sex and Marriage
Ping mag has an interview with Sumie Kawakami, who has spent two years interviewing Japanese women on issues related with sex and marriage.
Japan: Hand Towel Dolls
Lee from Tokyo Times posts a new manga figure called hand towel hero. Apart from this hero, there are some other cute hand towel doll pictures in his post.
Japan: Filtering going global
Blogger and social activist Sakiyama Nobuo [ja] (see earlier coverage) picks up a number of recent news stories and predicts that it may not be long before Chinese filtering policy is no longer thought of as “another country's problem” [ja]. He points to the launch of the Mobile Alliance against...
Japan: Bloggers study group
Blogger shinyai [ja] (Keiwa College Associate Professor Ichinohe Shinya) writes about an upcoming bloggers study group [ja] organized by the Agile Media Network (AMN), which will take place on February 22 from 7pm at the Pasonatech seminar room [ja] in Shibuya, Tokyo (Japan). For more details see the original announcement...
Japan and U.S: U.S. Military Crime Record
Edward Chmura from Japundit reposts a list of U.S Military sex crime record in Okinawa since 1955.
Japan: Okinawa Outrage
Japan Observer follows up the incident of the raping of 14 years old girl by U.S marine and explains its political implications on U.S presence in Japan.
Japan: Future words of the Web Era
Japanese web visionary Umeda Mochio (see earlier translated interview) announces the upcoming release on Feb. 27th of his new book, “Five propositions for a web era: These words will open the way to the future!” (ウェブ時代 5つの定理―この言葉が未来を切り開く！ [ja]), at his blog My Life between Silicon Valley and Japan [ja]. According to...
