If you want to cut down your hourly rate at the manga kissaten, consider staying overnight and using the "Night Pack". Depending on the place, this is between 1000 and 1500 yen and usually gets you 11pm-6am or even longer. Details are usually written at the counter or else ask the staff. S...

I don't think this is it but you reminded me of it.
Hinomaru Driving School in Meguro

I didn't think the LDP was part of Hosokawa's coalition in 1993

Tom Plate Writing in The Japan Times Japan can't compete with a burning Iraq Consider, for example, the huge story unfolding this week in Japan; hardly anyone in America is aware of it. On Sunday, triennial Upper House elections are to be held, and late polls show the party of Prime Minister Junich...

Japan's rock festival calendar reaching breaking point TOKYO — Amid Japan's post-bubble economic hangover and the battering the music business has taken from file sharing, the explosion of music festivals over the last decade has come as a silver lining to the clouds of gloom hovering over the coun...

http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forum/album_mod/upload/c370c3f118655b9868284de1edc403bc.jpg Johnny Wilkinson Press Conference in Tokyo ...The 25-year-old Wilkinson, who is in Japan as part of a three-leg promotional tour of the far east with his kit sponsor... ..."One of my goals is to become flue...

I've been keeping a look out for a few months now for the start of a new type of genre in Japan news reporting. I think we are going to get a slew of End of the "End of the Bubble Era" Era stories. "Bubble Era" stories are about wild times, booming assets, crazy spending etc etc....

http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forum/album_mod/upload/2a1d856f94754fb5c5611d9a68740dca.jpg http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forum/album_mod/upload/1736ef5fdbb8f5343c08072fa1980713.gif http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forum/album_mod/upload/4b981d26d1e598cfe2d08e2f93347774.jpg http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forum/a...

Wherever the link came from, I enjoyed reading that.

All the big global finance companies have been quiet shameless over the last few years in entering "high-margin lending". GE, Citigroup and HSBC in particular.
I think that's what pushed the Japanese to overcome their reluctance to be in the sector.

I use a prepaid when I'm in Japan. Since I'm not resident, I had to get a Japanese friend to buy it for me - my passport wasn't sufficient. I don't know if I just got a difficult store clerk or if that is still the. Calls are expensive but you can make 3000 yen last if you beg people to call you bac...

Looks like HSBC isn't satisfied with just US moneylenders anymore... HSBC Bids for Takefuji, Aplus to Boost Japan Business HSBC, which opened its first Japan branch in 1866, may buy a stake in Takefuji Corp. of Tokyo, the nation's most profitable consumer lender, said people familiar with the matter...

Taro's numbers could imply a Nikkei anywhere.

Stronger yen = weak exporters = lower Nikkei
Strong gold = strong china = strong exporters = strong Nikkei

That would be my betting direction on the yen dollar too if I ever got rid of this yellow streak on my back. Never have a clue about gold - everyone I meet loves it which always rings a few alarm bells. Am I really lucky enough to know all the smart people? But refer back to my "never have a cl...

I think Guy Jean just got a pretty damn good reply from Taro and Jumpsuit. Now if you can both just tell us where the yen/dollar rate is going in the next tweve months, we are in business.

Glad you mentioned that because I was wondering about this:

In Korea, manufacturers are being forced to design camera phones that beep when pictures are taken.

I think there are a few Korea hands lurking who might know whether that is true...

Weird experience reading this story from the UK's Independent newspaper. It feels like another newbie reporter on Japan and then you realize that Japan doesn't get mentioned once in the entire piece. Peeping Tom's secret weapon The rapid growth of camera phones has had a sinister side effect - men t...

If their financial problems are that acute, then turning down that proposal looks like cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Baseball merger crisis deepens Japanese baseball's contraction crisis deepened Wednesday when it was revealed at an owners' meeting that more Pacific League teams are considering a merger. Local media reported after Wednesday's meeting that the Seibu Lions are also considering a merger. Seibu owner...

Japan could ease policy on foreign care workers Japan is for the first time considering allowing nurses and carers from the Philippines and Thailand to work in the country, in what would be a significant shift in its notoriously stringent immigration policy. Government officials are trying to reach...

Promise chooses banks Just to add a coda - the Yomiuri has this: Promise reportedly will soon propose its tie-up cancellation plan to UFJ, under which it would acquire UFJ's consumer loan subsidiary Mobit Co., which Promise and UFJ jointly established. Following Promise's decision in June to affili...

Just got this in my mailbox Dear FCCers It's hard to find an industry that attracts more attention these days than the movie industry. Both here in Japan and abroad, Japanese films or films influenced by Japan are winning both at the box office and in film reviews. On July 20, join the FCC for a beh...

This Article from the FT shows how that debt/GDP ratio can swing a whole argument around. Nowhere, as new research by Bank of America documents, is leverage higher than in Japan. Gross government debt, according to Ministry of Finance projections, will reach 161 per cent of gross domestic product t...

http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forum/album_mod/upload/ffc0678456077f5b03b71d7bcc2caa8e.jpg Barry Eisler (a Fellow FG who used to work as a lawyer in Japan) has a new John Rain book coming out in a few weeks. "Rain Fall" and "Hard Rain" were pretty decent reads. He's not shy on his ...

http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forum/album_mod/upload/6fd2e471006b1250174f809c0f0e09fc.gif Trailer Here Coming to screens in about four months or so. This guy pumps out films at a rate of knots - with varied results. Since 1991, IMDB.com lists 60 titles (about half are TV or direct-to-video titles). T...

Bong Bar Sheesha in Roppongi.
Web Site under construction but you get the idea. Their annoying habit of playing J-pop on occasion undermines the middle-eastern feel somewhat.