Latest posts by Hanako Tokita
Japan: The Whistle of the Middle East
The sport of handball is receiving the kind of attention from the media and general public it never has before in Japan, as well as in Korea. The dispute came...
Japan: Turn off the lights
Since their introduction in the 1970s, convenience stores, popularly called konbini, have developed into a prominent feature of the Japanese landscape. Now the number has grown to about 45,000 stores,...
Japan: Changing New Year Celebrations
New Year's Day is the most important holiday for many people in Japan, where anything "first of the year" bears a special value: first day of the year, first sunrise,...
Japan: The battle of HCV victims
Stories about tainted blood products are nothing new in Japan. In the 1980s, patients with hemophilia contracted HIV from tainted blood products, the result negligence on the part of the...
Japan: Alpha Blogger Awards 2007
Three years after its establishment in 2004, organizers of the Alpha Blogger Awards, established to showcase influential bloggers in the Japanese blogosphere, have changed their approach. In contrast to previous...
Japan: Michelin Guide Hits Tokyo
On November 22, the much-talked-about Michelin Guide Tokyo went on sale. With a combination of French connections and something of gastronomical interest, you can never go wrong in Japan. Sure...
Japan: Has Beaujolais Nouveau gone sour?
As the date changes at midnight on the third Thursday of November, corks come out of bottles of Beaujolais Nouveau and the celebration begins — in Japan. This has been...
Japan: Fingerprints, mugshot, welcome to Japan
Despite protests from human rights organizations and the foreign community, new immigration procedures, which require all non-Japanese citizens over 16 years of age to be fingerprinted and photographed when entering...
Japan: Kameda hits below the belt
(In)famous for their big mouths and bad behaviour, coupled with showy performances such as singing karaoke after their victories in the ring, the Kamedas have become the media's favourite boxing...
Japan: Bloggers respond to kidnapping in Iran
Earlier last week, the first report was made that a Japanese male was kidnapped and in captivity in Iran. Later it was revealed that the abductee is a Japanese university...
Japan: Impatient patients
In recent years, harsh criticisms have been focused at hospitals and healthcare workers about the quality of medical care. An example of the target of criticisms was a doctor conducting...
Japan: Protecting the Kyoto Cityscape
While many countries around the world are struggling to tackle Kyoto at home, the city the environmental accord was named after is caught up in its own struggle. The capital...
Japan: The Penalty of Death
On August 23, three inmates, in Tokyo and Nagoya, all convicted of murder, were put to death by hanging. The executions brought the number of hangings administered under then-justice minister...
