Daily Prophet Flash: DanRad gets Press Pass for Tokyo Vice; The Last Yakuza to be published in 2014
Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter On The Police Beat In Japan…a movie starring Daniel Radcliffe!? Radcliffe-san has been preparing to play the role of a newspaper journalist for over 10 years–more or less. To write for a newspaper, you have to read the newspaper. The Daily Prophet is one of the most respected in the industry; almost always first with the scoop and only occasionally very wrong. text courtesy of William Clark May 1st, 2013 Mike... Read More
The Phantoms of Narita Airport: The Forgotten Warriors In Fading Green Fields
“It is much more than stress. Can you see the working conditions of these farmers? Can you see the iron fences surrounding their land? Is this human? Our combat is about the protection of our basic human rights to live and work and so much more.”–Koji Kitahara, 91, Secretary General and Leader of the League Against the Construction of Narita Airport. Koji Kitahara, one of Japan’s national heros, poses during an interview with JSRC.... Read More
Yakuza Comix 3: The complicated world of Japanese suicide, which is sometimes homicide
According to the National Police Agency (NPA), Japan’s annual total of suicides dipped below 30,000 people for the first time in 15 years in 2012 — to 27,766. While the fall is great news, part of me wonders: Has there really been a drop in suicides or should we look at it as a drop in homicides? According to the government’s 2012 “White Paper on Suicide,” in 2011 there were 30,651 cases recorded of people taking their own lives. The... Read More
Sometimes death is a matter of inches; a meditation on tsunami, guns & loss
REPUBLISHED: Tsunamis, Gunshots and Black Swans* by Paige Ferrari I feel funny writing about personal things, but the anniversary of the tsunami in Japan had me thinking a lot about loss, and the unexpected events that change our lives forever. 3/11 was such an emotional event, and remembering it now touches upon an unexpected event in my own life that is a bit raw and unpacked. I hope you won’t mind. Two years ago I was working as a reporter... Read More
“Saving 10,000:Winning A War On Suicide” Screened at the National Diet, Publicly Released
”Saving 10,000 – Winning a War on Suicide in Japan” the ground-breaking documentary on suicide in Japan is now available for free-viewing on Youtube. Saving 10,000: Winning A War On Suicide in Japan examines the cultural/ financial incentives to commit suicide in Nippon. Rene Duignan, director of the documentary Saving 10,000: Winning a War on Suicide in Japan which was released in Tokyo for the first time on September... Read More
Japan, Mother of the World’s First Novel Hosts Its First International Literary Festival
South African Nobel price winner for Literature, J.M. Coetzee reading a chapter of his upcoming novel The Childhood of Jesus in front of a literary audience in Tokyo Some famous writers refer to Japan as the “reading society.” With a higher literacy rate than most of the Western countries in the 18th century, Japan’s educational system allowed children from all backgrounds, from peasants to aristocrats, to learn reading and writing. The Genji... Read More
Goodbye Friendly “Mild Seven” Cigarettes; Hello “Mevius”!
Mild Seven cigarettes are no more to be found in the smoker’s paradise. Japan Tobacco Inc. changed the name of its flagship cigarette brand from “Mild Seven” to “Mevius” in a bid to expand its global market share and stopped selling Mild Seven cigarettes this week. In their heyday, they were the 5th best-selling cigarette in the world. As of today, there may still be a few Mom and Pop stores carrying this iconic... Read More
Whaling is not a sustainable industry in Japan anymore, says study
Patrick Ramage, Director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare Global Whale Programme gave a press conference in Tokyo yesterday Yesterday, February 5th, the International Fund for Animal Welfare released their report The Economics Of Japanese Whaling: A Collapsing Industry Burdens Taxpayers and held a press conference at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club of Japan. The report was based on research conducted during the course of a year and... Read More
Why Japan Has A Rising Military & Defense Budget: a photo essay
Mr. Shu Watanabe, Senior Vice Minister of Defense visited the August 2012 drill in Shizuoka Newly appointed Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced his plan to raise spending on Japan’s defense earlier in January amid an increasingly aggressive territorial dispute with China and Korea over the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands and the Takeshima/Dokdo islands. The right-wing Abe is known, controversially, as the second Japanese PM after Jun’ichiro Koizumi for... Read More
You Don’t Know, Creap! 3 Odd Facts About Japan’s Awkwardly Named Coffee Creamer
Never judge a dairy product by its cover. Moringa Milk’s awkwardly named coffee creamer, Creap (クリープ), has long been the source of adoration and ridicule for the devoted Japanophile. This delightful dairy based product gets its name from “Creaming Powder for Coffee” (コーヒー用クリーミングパウダー）which was shortened to Creap. Obviously, the other meaning for the word as “to sneak up on slowly”... Read More
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