How to speak dramatic death and destruction: yakuza lingo

Film buffs and Japanophiles delight: The Japan Times ran a great article by film reviewer Mark Schilling about lines in various yakuza flicks, using some solid classics like the Jingi series and Tokyo Drifter as fuel: Another immortal Takakura line was one he delivered just before he and Ryo Ikebe were about to 殴りこみ(nagurikomi, invade [...]

In Battle For King of the Bugs: Saw Beetle Kicks Miyama Beetle Butt New Research Reveals; SEGA Silent on Video Game Repercussions

Nobody expects realism in video games but someday they might. The popular King of Bugs (ムシキング） video games series is one in which players select their bug and fight off arthropod opponents to see who can knock the other out of the ring first. You can play against the computer or you can play against a [...]

Tale of the celebrity cannibal

The Korean custom of eating dogs is something that on occasion mistakenly gets loaded on to the Japanese. To the French and Dutch in the summer of 1981, mention of the Japanese likely brought to mind one individual who ate a completely different type of meat–human. Issei Sagawa had just completed a semester of study [...]

Yakuza Review The Sega Video Game "Yakuza 3"

The Yakuza video game series from Sega has been tremendously popular in the United States and in Japan but what do the yakuza themselves think of the game? I asked. It took forever to finally finish this piece but thanks to great patience amongst some underworld acquaintances and the magical editing ability of @tokyomango aka [...]

All eyes on Hatoyama–his fashion, at least

While Prime Minister Hatoyama’s approval ratings continue to sink, it seems attention paid to his sense of style is at an all-time high, as most recently pointed out by this article by CNN correspondent Kyung Lah. Hatoyama, whose wife garnered almost more attention than he did during the election last year with her “Venus” and [...]

The Otaku Sex Industry: sometimes, the real thing is better?

We may have sworn off dating, but that does not mean we don’t have sex,” says Hiroyuki Egami, 23, a prominent voice among himote, a catchall for otaku types unpopular with the ladies.

Now for something completely different: Visual Kei

A link via Mutantfrog Travelogue: And we thought Johnny’s Jimusho was dodgy; Tokyo Damage Report gives the lowdown on the grime in the Visual Kei industry, from lack of contracts and “band rules” to money laundering. It’s not only the political world that takes cues from the yakuza: In the beginning there was some – [...]

Jello shots hit Japan–finally!

Almost any American who went to a few parties during their university days will be slightly familiar with the ubiquitous Jello shot, and Wikipedia tells me they exist in a few Commonwealth nations too, albeit under a different name. During my school days, I remember preparing endless trays of these for Japanese exchange students, most [...]

From historic tales to the morning news: Manga for everyone

There’s likely very few students who haven’t at least paged through one of the manga versions of the classics, like Essays in Idleness or the great Genji Monogatari, to prepare for their university exams. Indeed, probably number of Japanese people have never even seen classic Japanese literature in any form except for a comic book. [...]

Police and government fighting back against junior idols?

An article posted a few weeks ago but recently brought to my attention through Japan Probe: Tokyo Metro Police create dedicated anti-child porn unit A special Tokyo police unit to combat the spread of child pornography on the Internet will begin work Thursday. The unit will also operate a 24-hour hotline, hoping that citizens’ reports [...]