The difference between Tesco and Walmart in Japan is advertising (Walmart own Seiyu, Sunny and Livin) The difference is scale. Japan is a major market but not a growth market. New entrants need to have a new concept in existing segments, find a new niche, or stake out a chunk of existing territory....

http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/images/vbimghost/9794e5f8766dda62.jpg http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/images/vbimghost/9794e5f8766d3e24.jpg Foreign media outlets are often criticized for misnaming and misidentifying Japanese politicians. It appears to show up their lack of familiarity with th...

Another weekly is reporting the end of "Tokudane!" now but also says Ogura has got the chop.

[YThq]XRp1rW8imKs[/YThq] You'll need to understand German or read Japanese to follow the clip above from "Frontal 21" on the ZDF network. It has caused a minor stir on the web because, shortly after it appeared, the clip was taken down on account of a copyright claim by Fukushima Central T...

Someone might have posted this one earlier but I've only just seen it. It really brought back memories of how the quake felt that day, particularly the waves of intensity.

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"Hey, Bob. This is Crazy"

The Yomiuri says Shimano was arrested 6 years ago for hitting a 4 year old boy with a hammer in a public park. He was arrested and sent to reform school.

It will be interesting to see of more clubs do decide to introduce smoking bans. Many new venues have introduced them so there is already a trend that way. You might think some nutter flinging petrol around would be a fairly flimsy basis for a sea change but it doesn't take much to start the ball ro...

http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/images/vbimghost/9794e5e95bca3bc5.jpg 23 year old Satoshi Shimano has been arrested following an incident at the Chelsea Hotel in Shibuya, across the road from Tokyu Hands. The club is in a basement and is mainly a venue for live music performances. It appears Shi...

The Telegraph turns to an FG for insights : The news that Tesco is to sell off its 129-store operation in Japan comes as little surprise to Anton Lloyd-Williams, who has watched the world's third largest retailer enter and now exit the East Asian island nation...Lloyd-Williams, manager of an IT depa...

[floatl] http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/images/vbimghost/979462ff300c7dd2.jpg [/floatl] Bloomberg: Tesco Plans to Sell 129-Store Japanese Unit on Lack of Scale Tesco Plc, Britain's largest retailer, plans to sell its 129-store Japanese unit because it cannot build a "sufficiently scalable busine...

A joint in Akihabara has dome away with the goldfish. You fish for panties instead using a small hook:

In the aftermath of Shimada's resignation, tonsorially-tested TV regular Tomoaki Ogura made some comments on Fuji's "Tokudane!" which appeared to defend mob links. [YThq]OQq-J2od_cY[/YThq] The fuss was such that Ogura had to apologize in a later programme: [YThq]xC57mty1U70[/YThq] Now, Tokyo Sports ...

http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/images/vbimghost/9794e5e5bee26d32.jpg Orleans Bar in Roppongi just opened a few days ago. It serves booze and a selection of food, much as you might expect, but also has a gimmick. There's a small footbath which you can sit at while drinking and watching the world...

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I've just noticed Monocle covered this place last year.

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http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/images/vbimghost/9794e5d734b7adbc.jpg Domino's Pizza Japan asked Maeda Construction's Fantasy Marketing Department to estimate how much it would cost to build a branch on the moon. Maeda says it would be around Y1.67 trillion. A spokesman for Domino's said the com...

Akira Takahashi, a 75 year old man from Nagoya, has been arrested by police after he turned in some lost property to the police. The lost item was a purse, and it turned out to belong to a 16 year old girl who had left it behind in Takahashi's car. Police questioned the girl who confessed she had me...

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The man has been arrested and will be prosecuted. More details on Marmot's Hole.

Mame Yamada being dressed as an alien. http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/images/vbimghost/9794e5c21fe52721.jpg The finished result. http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/images/vbimghost/9794e5c20ae56b18.jpg Enter the gaijin: Marilyn Manson. http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/images/vbimghost/9794e5c2...

These are two of the styles Maeda demonstrated in their press release:

The Telegraph is guilty of a bit of exaggeration here. Maeda hasn't ordered anyone to do anything. Some of the company's younger employees apparently complained that construction site helmets squash their hairstyles. In response, Maeda asked a fashionable Aoyama hairdresser to propose shorter styles...

The English translation by Jay Rubin is due out shortly. The New Yorker has an excerpt here.

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2.4m x 2.4m x 2.4m apparently.

Odd behaviour by one of the workers at Fukushima in front of the live camera. Starts at the 25s mark. He makes a second appearance shortly after his first.

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[floatr] http://www.fuckedgaijin.com/forums/images/vbimghost/9794e5a489b7a09d.jpg [/floatr]The Japan Society of Ningen Dock has looked at the results of 3,080,000 health checks in 2010. 8.4% received a completely clean bill of health which is the lowest percentage recorded. The society started analy...